LEARNING AND COMPETENCE DEVELOPMENT Yrj Engestrm University of - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

LEARNING AND COMPETENCE DEVELOPMENT Yrjö Engeström University of Helsinki Center for Research on Activity, Development and Learning CRADLE

THREE HISTORICAL MODES OF COMPETENCE COMPETENCE AS DYNAMIC CAPABILITY COMPETENCE COMPETENCE COMPETENCE AS AS AS EXPERTISE SKILL SKILL

THREE HISTORICAL MODES OF COMPETENCE COMPETENCE AS DYNAMIC CAPABILITY The firm’s ability to learn quickly and transform in order to meet today’s challenges of fast changing markets COMPETENCE COMPETENCE COMPETENCE AS SKILL AS SKILL AS EXPERTISE Capacity to reach pre ‐ Capacity to reach pre ‐ Set of characteristics determined results in good time determined results in good time which distinguish experts and with the least consumption and with the least consumption from novices of energy of energy

THE EXAMPLE OF OSAKA AIRPORT: PROBLEMATIZING THE RELATIONS BETWEEN SKILL, EXPERTISE AND DYNAMIC CAPABILITIES A famous architect was invited to design the new airport. The island started gradually to sink, as the weight of the material used to construct the island would cause it to compress downwards. The project then became the most expensive civil works project in modern history. Who was responsible? The carpenters and other workers were not consulted. Renzo Piano, architect, did not consider it his fault – he had done a skilled design. Japanese authorities asked structural engineers and seismic experts for help. 4

Virkkunen & Ahonen (2004) “The contradictory demands of producing and learning are becoming increasingly salient … The workers often work in a context characterized by the coexistence of several generations of technology and partly overlapping cycles of transformation of business, product and production concepts. The new concepts are rarely completely finalized and concretized before their implementation. Rather, the workers are ‘rowing a boat that is under construction’ ” (p. 58) “Changing the business concept calls for a different kind of learning from the optimization of a production process of an existing product. The practitioners have to understand the activity as a historically developing system … and to take an 5.5.2011 5 active part in creating a new form of the activity” (p. 59)

In new historical forms of work competence is a relational concept which at the same time includes and challenges the notions of skills, expertise and dynamic capabilities

FOUR FACES OF WORK MORALLY DESIRABLE WORK ACTUALLY OFFICIALLY REALIZED WORK REQUIRED WORK POSSIBLE NEW WORK

EMERGING DIMENSIONS OF WORK • 1. WORK AS SOCIAL NAVIGATION AND ORCHESTRATION • 2. WORK AS DEALING WITH THE PAST AND THE FUTURE • 3. WORK AS TAKING MORAL AND POLITICAL RESPONSIBILITY • 4. WORK AS VOLITION, TAKING INITIATIVE AND ACTING FOR CHANGE

1. WORK AS SOCIAL NAVIGATION AND ORCHESTRATION • SOCIAL NAVIGATION (DOURISH & CHALMERS, 1994) REFERS TO NAVIGATION IN THE INFORMATION SPACE (TYPICALLY INTERNET) WITH THE HELP OF TRACES LEFT BY OTHERS MOVING IN THE SAME SPACE • NUMEROUS APPLICATIONS HAVE BEEN DEVELOPED TO SUPPORT SOCIAL NAVIGATION – JUST THINK ABOUT THE RECOMMENDATIONS AMAZON.COM GIVES THE CUSTOMER • THESE APPLICATIONS ARE USUALLY CONSERVATIVE IN THAT THEY GUIDE YOU TO MOVE INTO PLACES WHICH HAVE ALREADY HAD LOTS OF VISITORS • BUT BURT’S RESEARCH ON STRUCTURAL HOLES SHOWS THAT THE GREATEST ADVANTAGES ARE GAINED WHEN CONNECTIONS ARE CREATED BETWEEN PREVISOULY SEPARATE ACTORS – WE SHOULD GO TO PLACES WHERE OTHERS HAVE NOT BEEN!

• EVEN BURT’S IDEAS ARE LIMITED TO THE INDIVIDUAL ACTOR • WE NEED INCREASINGLY NOT JUST INDIVIDUAL NAVIGATION BUT COLLECTIVE ORCHESTRATION, BRINGING TOGETHER DIFFERENT GROUPS AND ORGANIZATIONS • ORCHESTRATION IS BECOMING A KEY COMPETENCE

2. WORK AS DEALING WITH THE PAST AND THE FUTURE • COLLECTIVE RECONSTRUCTION OF THE PAST; COLLABORATIVE REMEMBERING • JOINT WORKING OUT OF CRITICAL CONFLICTS; EXPERIENCING (Vasilyuk) • ’FIGURED WORLDS’, ’MICROCOSMS’, ’TRANSITIONAL ACTIVITIES’: CREATING FUTURES WITH THE HELP OF TRANSPLANTED WORLDS

3. WORK AS TAKING MORAL AND POLITICAL RESPONSIBILITY • WORK AS BUILDING RESILIENCE, CAPACITY TO FACE CATASTROPHIES • WORK AS REINTEGRATION OF FRAGMENTED LIVES AND SERVICES • SUSTAINABILITY WORK

4. WORK AS VOLITION, TAKING INITIATIVE AND ACTING FOR CHANGE • WILL AND VOLITION WILL BECOME A CRUCIAL FORM OF CAPITAL FOR ORGANIZATIONS • CULTIVATING VOLITION IS DIFFICULT; HIERARCHICAL ORGANIZATIONS HAVE FOR A LONG TIME MAINLY LEARNED TO ELIMINATE VOLITION AMONG THEIR EMPLOYEES • CULTIVATING WILL REQUIRES TOOLS AND SPACES FOR VOLITION • IT ALWAYS INVOLVES SOME FORMS OF BREAKING AWAY

EXAMPLE 1: IN A VILLAGE IN THE BAY OF BENGAL IN INDIA A GROUP OF MEN BUILD LARGE FISHING BOATS WHICH PASS GOVERMENT INSPECTIONS; THE BUILDERS HAVE NOT RECEIVED ANY FORMAL SCHOOLING AND THEY DO NOT USE WRITTEN PLANS OR BLUEPRINTS. HOW IS THIS POSSIBLE AND WHAT CAN WE LEARN FROM THEM? Source: Swapna Mukhopadhyay, Portland State University, 2010

EXAMPLE 2: IN OSTROBOTHNIAN VILLAGES IN FINLAND TOMATO GROWERS ARE PLAGUED BY THE WHITEFLY, AN INSECT THAT DESTROYS THEIR CROPS AND SPREADS EFFICIENTLY. THE GROWERS ARE USED TO OPERATING ON THEIR OWN, NOT TOGETHER; NOW THEY MUST LEARN TO WORK TOGETHER TO PREVENT THE DAMAGE AND TO CONSTRUCT THE CONCEPT AND PRACTICE OF INTEGRATED PEST MANAGEMENT FOR THEIR OWN ACTIVITY Greenhouse whitefly ( Trialeurodes vaporariorum ) Source: Irene Vänninen, Project ANSARI, 2010 15

EXAMPLE 3: IN THE HOME CARE OF THE ELDERLY IN HELSINKI, THERE IS A GROWING DISCREPANCY BETWEEN STANDARDIZED ROUTINE SERVICES AND THE CLIENTS’ NEEDS – SUCH AS THE NEED FOR PHYSICAL MOBILITY. THE PRACTITIONERS NOW FACE THE CHALLENGE TO EXPAND THE OBJECT OF THEIR WORK TO INCLUDE FACILITATION OF THE MOBILITY OF THE CLIENTS BY MEANS OF ’MOBILITY AGREEMENTS’

EXPANSIVE LEARNING (ENGESTRÖM, 1987) AS A NEW TYPE OF DYNAMIC CAPABILITY NEEDED IN TODAY’S WORK LIFE A TYPE OF LEARNING BASED ON COLLECTIVE TRANSFORMATION, EXPERIMENTATION AND DESIGN OF NEW ACTIVITIES WITH THE HELP OF THE ANALYSIS OF THEIR CONTRADICTIONS 5.5.2011 17

ACTIVITY SYSTEMS ARE TRANSFORMED THROUGH CYCLES OF EXPANSIVE LEARNING…. 7. CONSOLIDATING AND GENERALIZING THE NEW PRACTICE STABILIZATION 6. REFLECTING ON THE PROCESS 1. QUESTIONING NEED STATE RESISTANCE 2. ANALYSIS 5. IMPLEMENTING THE DOUBLE BIND NEW MODEL 3. MODELING THE NEW ADJUSTMENT, SOLUTION ENRICHMENT BREAKTHROUGH 4. EXAMINING AND TESTING THE NEW MODEL