Drawing on new research this book offers an entirely fresh perspective on how to cultivate learning within a project environment. It provides a framework to facilitate project practitioners' systematic reflection on their learning activities and to assist them in building a project learning practice. It also identifies new points of interest for researchers to further investigate the learning phenomenon in projects. This book weaves together diverse theories and empirical data in a way that should appeal to a wide academic and practitioner audience, and challenges all readers to consider intra-project learning as primarily a social activity which requires their deliberate commitment, understanding and attention.
Author(s): Andrew Sense
Edition: First Edition
Year: 2007
Language: English
Pages: 288
Cover......Page 1
Contents......Page 8
Foreword......Page 11
Preface......Page 14
Acknowledgements......Page 16
List of Figures......Page 17
Glossary of Abbreviations......Page 18
1 Introduction......Page 20
1.1 Why it is important to learn and understand learning within projects......Page 21
1.2 Developing a project learning libido......Page 26
1.3 Important methodological and contextual information concerning the contents of this book......Page 27
1.4 The structure of this book......Page 34
2.1 Organizational perspectives on learning......Page 36
The cognitive perspective of OL......Page 39
The sociological perspective of OL......Page 40
2.2 The relationship of OL to individual learning......Page 42
2.3 The cognitive dimension of learning......Page 44
Situated learning theory......Page 49
Communities of practice......Page 54
2.5 Why focus on the situated dimension of learning for cultivating learning within projects?......Page 61
3 Sociological Perspectives and Learning in Projects......Page 64
3.1 A view from within the field......Page 65
3.2 A view from outside the field......Page 71
3.3 Concept of a project team from a learning perspective......Page 75
3.4 The pentagon of project situated learning behaviour......Page 82
4 Cognitive Style......Page 85
4.1 The theory of cognitive styles......Page 86
How does cognitive style relate to learning style?......Page 88
4.2 The methods of understanding cognitive styles......Page 90
Cognitive styles assessment in the project team case study......Page 99
4.3 How did the cognitive styles of project participants in this project case impact their situated learning behaviours?......Page 103
The match/mismatch of cognitive style to project information-processing demands......Page 104
Participants individually and collectively selecting situations which align with their cognitive style......Page 105
Predominance of a particular cognitive style type across a team......Page 107
4.4 Summary......Page 109
5 Learning Relationships and Pyramid of Authority......Page 112
The importance of understanding the learning relationships......Page 113
How did the learning relationships exhibited in this project case, impact participants' situated learning behaviours?......Page 116
What is a pyramid of authority?......Page 127
The importance of managing politics for learning in projects......Page 129
How did the pyramids of authority of project participants in this project case impact their situated learning behaviours?......Page 134
5.3 Summary......Page 151
6 Knowledge Management and Situational Context......Page 155
Managing knowledge flow in projects......Page 156
How did the project participants' knowledge management approaches impact their situated learning behaviours in this case study project team?......Page 162
Situational context and situated learning......Page 168
How did the situational context of this project case impact the situated learning behaviours of project participants?......Page 170
6.3 Summary......Page 183
7.1 A summary of the key issues for project learning......Page 186
The conceptual issues......Page 187
The methodological issues......Page 192
7.2 Limitations of this study and recommendations for future research......Page 194
7.3 Some questions to further stimulate your thinking on this topic......Page 196
7.4 Summary......Page 197
References......Page 200
H......Page 217
P......Page 218
T......Page 219
