No abstract

No abstract

The following theoretical challenges concerning organizational learning are examined in the study. Firstly, organizational learning is not only formation of collective routines, it is also tool-creation and implementation. Secondly, tools evolve as they are implemented. Thirdly, tools become powerful when they become interconnected instrumentality and constellations. Tool-creation and implementation are examined when a new set of tools is being appropriated for collaboration between primary and secondary health care. Boundary crossings in the interaction of the multiple providers are focused as an essential context of use during implementation. Findings of the study concern the productivity of the resistance, the importance of turning points, the formation of the new instrumentality, discovery of the gaps, and the necessity of stabilization in organizational learning. OLK5-3-OLK5 tentatively formulated in an earlier project undertaken at children's health care (see Engeström, Engeström, Vähäaho, 1999; see also Engeström, Engeström, Kerosuo, 2003). The need for developing the new practice for local health-care provision derives from the challenge to increase collaboration between different levels of the health care organization, as well as between the general practice and various specialties. The care of the patients suffering from multiple illnesses is presently dispersed over different parts of the health care system, and the current system for provision appears fragmented, causing overlaps, gaps, and disturbances in the overall care processes of these patients. At first the theory of expansive learning will be presented as a framework for the study, and the theoretical challenges of the present study will be set. Then the research setting, data, and the method will be described leading to the subsequent findings concerning the implementation process. Finally, the conclusions of the learning in the creation of work practice will be proposed.

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to show how activity theory transcends the boundary between workplace learning and organizational learning.Design/methodology/approachActivity‐theoretical analyses examine collectives and organizations as learners. On the other hand, activity theory is committed to pedagogical and interventionist actions to change and learning characteristic of workplace learning.FindingsActivity‐theoretical studies put an emphasis on the object, i.e. on what is done and learned together in inter‐organizational networks, instead of studying only connections and collaboration of networks. The theory of expansive learning enables a longitudinal and rich analysis of inter‐organizational learning and makes a specific contribution in outlining the historical transformation of work and organizations by using observational as well as interventionist designs in studies of work and organization.Originality/valueThe paper shows that activity theory and the theory of expansive learning provide useful analytical tools for the enrichment of studies in workplace learning, as reported in the articles included in this special issue.

No abstract