Knowledge: Climbing the Learning Ladder to a ‘Phenomenological’ View

Abstract

Attempts to summarise Claudio Ciborra's work through a single theme cannot succeed due to its breadth and the ease in which he moved between subjects. This paper is a tentative attempt to discover a common theme in his work, with the notion of knowledge identified as an appropriate starting point. Encompassing learning and rationality, the theme of knowledge has been persistent and evolving in Ciborra's work, with three knowledge combinations reflecting its development: knowledge-rationality, knowledge-learning and everyday-knowledge. The first combination depicts rationality as a catalyst in the pursuit of specific objectives that determine knowledge. Ciborra continued his exploration of knowledge by theorising that background knowledge structure objectives were the basis of sense-making and organisational action, while short-term knowledge structure was required to address developing situations. This introduced and provided the foundation for the knowledge-learning combination. Ciborra's final knowledge combination was predicated on the interpretation of reality as created by the experiences of the individual, including participation in organisational life where feelings, moods and the totality of existence is expressed, delineating the everyday-knowledge combination in the process. Ciborra utilised these and other approaches like the learning ladder in his investigation of complex multilayered subjects like information systems, undertaken from among others, a phenomenological vantage point that shaped many of his key contributions.

Keywords

knowledge learning learning ladder knowledge management care rationality phenomenology infrastructure ICT technology drift enactment actualisation

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Amit

, and Schoemaker

PJ.H.

(1993). Strategic Assets and Organisational Rent, Strategic Management Journal 14: 33–46.

Argyris

(1982). Reasoning, Learning, and Action, San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

Argyris

, and Schon

D.A.

(1996). Organisational Learning, Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley.

Ciborra

C.U.

(1988). Knowledge and Systems in Organisations: A Typology and a Proposal, in Lee

R.M.

(eds.) Organisational Decision Support Systems, Amsterdam: North-Holland, Elsevier Science Publisher BV.

Ciborra

C.U.

(1989). Tecnologie di Coordinamento, Milano: Franco Angeli.

Ciborra

C.U.

(1992). From Thinking to Tinkering: The grassroots of strategic information systems, Information Society 8: 297–309.

Ciborra

C.U.

(1993). Teams, Markets and Systems, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Ciborra

C.U.

(1996). Introduction, in Ciborra

(ed.) Groupware and Teamwork, Chichester: Wiley.

Ciborra

C.U.

(1998a). Introduction, in Ciborra

(ed.) Infraglobe, Milan: EtasLibri.

10.

Ciborra

C.U.

(1998b). Crisis and Foundations: An inquiry into the nature and limits of models and methods in the information systems discipline, The Journal of Strategic Information Systems 7: 5–16.

11.

Ciborra

C.U.

(1999). Notes on Improvisation and Time in Organisations, Accounting, Management and Information Technology 9: 77–94.

12.

Ciborra

C.U.

(2000). A Critical Review of the Literature on the Management of Corporate Information Infrastructure, in Ciborra

C.U.

(ed.) From Control to Drift, Oxford: Oxford University Press.

13.

Ciborra

C.U.

(2001). In the Mood for Knowledge. A New Study of Improvisation, ‘Working Paper Series, London: London School of Economics and Political Science.

14.

Ciborra

C.U.

(2002). The Labyrinths of Information, Oxford: Oxford University Press.

15.

Ciborra

C.U.

(2004). The Mind of the Heart? It Depends on the (definition of) Situation, Seminar delivered on 8 June 2004 at the London School of Economics and Political Science, London.

16.

Ciborra

C.U.

, and Andreu

(1996). Organisational Learning and Core Capabilities Development: The role of ICT, Strategic Information Systems 5: 111–127.

17.

Ciborra

C.U.

, and Andreu

(2001). Sharing Knowledge Across Boundaries, Journal of Information Technology 16(2): 73–81.

18.

Ciborra

C.U.

, and Hanseth

(1998). Toward a Contingency View of Infrastructure and Knowledge, ICIS Conference Proceedings, Helsinki, December.

19.

Ciborra

C.U.

, and Hanseth

(2000). Introduction, in Ciborra

(ed.) From Control to Drift, Oxford: Oxford University Press.

20.

Ciborra

C.U.

, and Lanzara

G.F.

(1989). Change and Formative Contexts and Information Systems Development, in Klein

H. K.

(eds.) Systems Development for Human Progress, Amsterdam: North-Holland, pp 21–40.

21.

Ciborra

C.U.

, and Lanzara

G.F.

(1999). Introduction, in Ciborra

(eds.) Labirinti dell'Innovazione, Milano: EtasLibri.

22.

Deyer

J.H.

, and Singh

(1998). The Relational View: Cooperative strategy and sources of interorganisational competitive advantage, Academy of Management Review 23(4): 660–679.

23.

Dosi

, Teece

D.J.

, and Winter

(1990). Towards a Theory of Corporate Coherence: Preliminary Remarks, Mimeo, March.

24.

Dreyfus

H.L.

(1994). Being-in-the-World, Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

25.

Festinger

(1957). A Theory of Cognitive Dissonance, New York: Harper and Row.

26.

Gulick

, and Urwick

(eds) (1937). Papers on the Science of Administration, New York: Institute of Public Administration.

27.

Heidegger

(1962). Being and Time, New York: Harper and Row.

28.

Heidegger

(1995). The Basic Problems of Phenomenology, Bloomington: Indiana University Press.

29.

Heidegger

(2004). The Phenomenology of Religious Life, Bloomington: Indiana University Press.

30.

Husserl

(1970). The Crisis of European Sciences and Transcendental Phenomenology, Evanston, IL: Northwestern University Press.

31.

Nonaka

, and Takeuchi

(1995). The Knowledge-Creating Company, Oxford: Oxford University Press.

32.

Ouchi

W.G.

(1980). Markets, Bureaucracy and Clans, Administrative Science Quartey 25: 129–141.

33.

Piaget

(1974). Understanding Causality, New York: Norton.

34.

Polany

(1966). The Tacit Dimension, Garden City, NY: Doubleday.

35.

Simon

H.A.

(1976). Administrative Behavior, New York: The Free Press.

36.

Taylor

F.W.

(1911). The Principles of Scientific Management, New York: Harper.

37.

Thompson

J.D.

(1967). Organisation in Action, New York: McGraw Hill.

38.

Unger

R.M.

(1987). The False Necessity, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

39.

Veva

A.H.

, and Simon

H.A.

(1993). Situated action: a symbolic interpretation, cognitive science 17: 7–48.

40.

Weber

(1964). The Theory of Social and Economic Organisation, New York: The Free Press.

41.

Weill

, and Broadbent

(1998). Leveraging the New Infrastructure: How Markets Leaders Capitalize on Information, Oxford: Oxford University Press.

42.

Williamson

O.E.

(1975). Markets and Hierarchies: Analysis and Antitrust Implications, New York: The Free Press.