What’s Going On Out There? – Designing Work Systems for Learning in Real Life

This paper is about designing work systems for learning in real life, fostering informal learning in the workplace. It is argued that, on the one hand, much is known about the characteristics of learning-intensive workplaces. On the other hand, much less is known about the genesis of these learning-intensive workplace in the ‘real world’, i.e. in practical management and development of organizations and operations, outside of publicly funded projects. As a conceptual framework, work processes of first and second order are introduced. First-order work processes bring about the products and services the organization is dealing with. Second-order work processes reflect first-order work processes; here, individual and – eventually – organizational learning take place. Three short case studies are presented to illustrate the genesis of learning-intensive work processes in different settings (manufacturing, IT support, hospital). For future research, a closer look into local theories of work process design is called for, including an analysis off the various players in practical work process design and their respective professional methodologies.