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This book gives an alternative observational scheme to better understand knowledge creation and learning in project-based companies. It builds upon emergent new ways of looking at projects which is important - as any discipline stays alive by reflection and re-framing ideas as they are challenged, argued and clarified.
List of Figures and Tables x
Foreword Derek H. T. Walker xii
About the Author xv
Acknowledgements xvi
1 Autopoietic Knowledge Systems: An Alternative View of Project-Based Companies 1
Keywords of the book 4
Structure of the book 4
2 Project Business 6
Project-based companies 7
Project team 9
Project team members 11
Summary 12
3 Systemic View and Systems Thinking 13
Systems theory and systems 15
Complexity in systems 18
Open and closed systems 21
Boundaries of systems 24
Cybernetics and feedback loops 25
System dynamics and causality 27
Company as a system 29
Summary 31
4 Autopoiesis 34
Autopoietic systems 35
Structural coupling and self-referential systems 39
Autonomy 41
Simultaneously open and closed systems 42
Observing 46
Organizational autopoiesis 48
Summary 50
5 Epistemological Assumptions 54
Cognitivist epistemology 55
Connectionist epistemology 55
Autopoietic epistemology 56
Summary 57
6 Knowledge Dividend 59
Meaning 60
Knowledge 61
Individual knowledge 66
Organizational knowledge 67
Project knowledge 70
Resource, capability, and competence 72
Emotional intelligence and emotional competence 77
Organizational memory 78
Intellectual capital 82
Summary 83
7 Evolution and Learning 86
Intuition 87
Interpreting and mental models 88
Learning 90
Learning organization 92
Organizational learning 95
Expansive learning seen through activity theory 97
Organizational ecology 98
Socio-cognitive engineering 101
Summary 104
8 Components of the Project-Based Company When it is Regarded as an Autopoietic Knowledge System 106
Identity 107
Perception of the environment 110
The mechanical project work environment 111
Organic project work environments 112
Semi-mechanical and semi-organic project work environments 113
Strategy and strategic management 114
Knowledge management 117
Knowledge sharing 119
Storytelling 122
Writing 128
Boundary elements and perturbations 129
Interactivity 131
Consciousness 132
Communication 133
Absorptive capacity 134
Media 135
Language and languaging 138
Metaphors 140
Boundary objects 141
Commitment and motivation 145
Creative tension 149
Resistance to change and immunity reactions 150
Information and communication systems 152
Internet 154
Intranet 154
Text-based conferencing 155
Groupware tools 156
Organizational climate and organizational/project culture 157
Values 161
Norms 164
Beliefs, attitudes and assumptions 165
Trust 167
Deterrence-based trust (i.e. calculus-based trust) 170
Role-based trust 170
Knowledge-based trust 171
Identification-based trust 171
Summary 174
9 Two Major Knowledge Flows 175
Sensing 176
Memory 177
Recursivity 178
Summary 180
10 The Project-Based Company as an Autopoietic Knowledge System 182
Evolution and learning in the project-based company 183
Improving a project-based company's potential to be an autopoietic knowledge system 186
Summary 188
Epilogue 190
Bibliography 192
Index 219
Overview
This book gives an alternative observational scheme to better understand knowledge creation and learning in project-based companies. It builds upon emergent new ways of looking at projects which is important - as any discipline stays alive by reflection and re-framing ideas as they are challenged, argued and clarified.