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Developing a dynamic project learning and cross-project learning capability: synthesizing two perspectives

journal contribution
posted on 2023-06-08, 18:29 authored by Susan Newell, Linda F Edelman
Driven by the complexity of new products and services, project work has become increasingly common in all types of organizations. However, research on project learning suggests that often project teams do not meet their stated objectives and, moreover, there is limited organizational learning from the experiences of project work. We use the dynamic capabilities framework to argue that building a dynamic project learning capability is useful for organizations that make extensive use of projects. We use both survey and interview data to discuss the key ways in which such a dynamic capability can be built. Our survey data demonstrate the importance of documenting project learning, but our interview data show that teams are often remiss at documenting their learning. The results from the two different approaches are synthesized using Boland & Tenkasi’s notions of perspective-making and perspective-taking. Importantly, combining the results from the two sets of data suggests that organizations need to emphasize the benefits from project reviews and documentation and explore ways in which the documents produced can be made more useful as boundary objects to encourage the sharing of learning across projects.

History

Publication status

  • Published

Journal

Information Systems Journal

ISSN

13501917

Publisher

Wiley

Issue

6

Volume

18

Page range

567-591

Department affiliated with

  • Business and Management Publications

Full text available

  • No

Peer reviewed?

  • Yes

Legacy Posted Date

2014-09-24

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