Knowing in Organizations: A Practice-Based Approach: A Practice-Based Approach

This book explores the relationship among knowing, learning, and practice in the development of organizational knowledge. Scholars and practitioners from the US and abroad focus on organizational learning as a collective, social, and not entirely cognitive activity. These experts represent a wide range of disciplinary backgrounds (including management, IT/collaborative technology, sociology, psychology, and political science) and research traditions (symbolic interaction, activity theory, and actor network theory). They explore the implications for research and intervention growing out of the notion that organizational knowledge cannot be conceived as a mental process residing in members' heads, but rather as a form of social expertise, in which learning is situated in the historical, social, and cultural contexts in which it takes place. Thier work provides a fresh, authoritative, and challenging look at the changing field of organizational learning that will be equally useful in any advanced level course in which knowledge management is a central concern.