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Boundary objects, power, and learning: The matter of developing sustainable practice in organizations

Hawkins, Beverley; Pye, Annie; Correia, Fernando

Authors

Beverley Hawkins

Annie Pye

Fernando Correia



Abstract

This article develops an understanding of the agential role of boundary objects in generating and politicizing learning in organizations, as it emerges from the entangled actions of humans and non-humans. We offer two empirical vignettes in which middle managers seek to develop more sustainable ways of working. Informed by Foucault’s writing on power, our work highlights how power relations enable and foreclose the affordances, or possibilities for action, associated with boundary objects. Our data demonstrate how this impacts the learning that emerges as boundary objects are configured and unraveled over time. In so doing, we illustrate how boundary objects are not fixed entities, but are mutable, relational, and politicized in nature. Connecting boundary objects to affordances within a Foucauldian perspective on power offers a more nuanced understanding of how ‘the material’ plays an agential role in consolidating and disrupting understandings in the accomplishment of learning.

Citation

Hawkins, B., Pye, A., & Correia, F. (2017). Boundary objects, power, and learning: The matter of developing sustainable practice in organizations. Management Learning, 48(3), 292-310. https://doi.org/10.1177/1350507616677199

Journal Article Type Article
Acceptance Date Oct 11, 2015
Online Publication Date Nov 22, 2016
Publication Date Jul 1, 2017
Deposit Date Nov 21, 2016
Publicly Available Date Mar 29, 2024
Journal Management learning
Print ISSN 1350-5076
Electronic ISSN 1461-7307
Publisher SAGE Publications
Peer Reviewed Peer Reviewed
Volume 48
Issue 3
Pages 292-310
DOI https://doi.org/10.1177/1350507616677199
Keywords Action learning; Affordances; Boundary objects; Learning; Materiality; Power
Public URL https://hull-repository.worktribe.com/output/445428
Publisher URL http://mlq.sagepub.com/content/early/2016/11/19/1350507616677199
Additional Information Authors' accepted manuscript of article published in: Management learning, 2016, v.48, issue 3

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