Beverley Hawkins
Boundary objects, power, and learning: The matter of developing sustainable practice in organizations
Hawkins, Beverley; Pye, Annie; Correia, Fernando
Authors
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 | Nov 22, 2016 |
Journal | Management learning |
Print ISSN | 1350-5076 |
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 |
Contract Date | Nov 21, 2016 |
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Copyright Statement
©2016 The authors
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