Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to investigate the role of instruments defined as artefacts, rules, models or norms, in the articulation between knowing-in-practice and knowledge, in learning processes. Design/methodology/approach: The paper focuses on a distributed, knowledge-intensive and instrumented activity at the core of any collective…

Purpose: Ethnographic studies of, for instance, laboratory work show that practices never reach a full closure but are always open to contingencies and ambiguities, making it possible to accommodate new empirical findings. The aim of the paper is to demonstrate that this is true also for less "high-brow" work in, for example, the construction…

Purpose: The paper aims to gain a better understanding of how different disciplines work together to develop new technologies. Design/methodology/approach: The study employs qualitative methods in the form of semi-structured interviews and observations. A socio-cultural approach is taken and the concept of the activity system is used to examine…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to provide a perspective on the emergence of social media and their adoption as a critical element in knowledge management strategy. Social media are defined as the collection of software tools and web-based applications that are personalized, that is, that communications identify individuals by name and…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to provide examples of evaluating value-creating networks and to address the organizational issues and challenges of a network orientation. Design/methodology/approach: Value network analysis was first developed in 1993 and was adapted in 1997 for intangible asset management. It has been applied from shopfloor…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to show the role of social networks in mobilizing how actors both impact and are impacted on by their colleagues. It seeks to compare the human resource management (HRM) academic community with two other comparable communities, and to identify those groups that are seen to work closely together.…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to investigate the theoretical foundations of the solidarity network concept and its perceived utility as an enabling force for social organizations to influence change. The theoretical framework presented is intended to stimulate dialogue, interest and investigation on the subject of solidarity networks.…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to focus on Confucius Institutes and assess the applicability of theories of leadership and knowledge sharing to multinational organizations and worldwide networks. Growth of multinational trade and decrease in international tension have facilitated the globalization of both profit-seeking and non-profit…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to explore the concept of complex adaptive systems (CAS) from the perspective of managing organizations, to describe and explore the management principles in a case study of an organization with unconventional ways of management and to present a tentative model for managing organizations as CAS--system…

Purpose: How people learn and create knowledge together through interactions in communities of practice (CoPs) is not fully understood. The purpose of this paper is to create and apply a model that could increase participants' consciousness about knowledge creation processes. Design/methodology/approach: This four-month qualitative research was…

Purpose: Although proposed from theory, the assumption that career-related continuous learning (CRCL) has a positive impact on subsequent job performance has not been tested empirically. The present study aims to close this gap in the literature. A model is derived from theory that predicts a positive impact of CRCL, learning climate, and initial…

Purpose: This paper attempts to examine the issue concerning human resource (HR) structures and the transfer of HR knowledge to discover whether and how HR structure facilitates the transfer of HR knowledge between subsidiaries of an MNC in China. Design/methodology/approach: The investigation, being of an exploratory nature, follows the tradition…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to assess the performance of a sample of Lebanese organizations vis-a-vis some of the core learning organization dimensions identified in the literature, focusing specifically on those dimensions that are considered most salient and relevant in the Lebanese context. Design/methodology/approach: The paper…

Purpose: This paper seeks to present organizational learning processes of knowledge accumulation, articulation, codification and subsequent routine development in a marketing services organization where judgment and rules of thumb were more the norm than codified knowledge and explicit routines. The case illustrates how organizational learning…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to measure the effectiveness and practical utility of an organizational learning intervention for an organization that was not progressive, was not specifically chartered as a learning organization, and was situated in an urban, culturally diverse, and under-privileged community. Design/methodology/approach:…