This article proposes a shift in how researchers study knowledge and knowing in organizations. Responding to a pronounced lack of methodological guidance from existing research, this work develops a framework for analyzing situated organizational problem solving. This framework, rooted in social practice theory, focuses on communicative knowledge-accomplishing activities, which frame and respond to various problematic situations. Vignettes drawn from a call center demonstrate the value of the framework, which can advance practice-oriented research on knowledge and knowing by helping it break with dubious assumptions about knowledge homogeneity within groups, examine knowing as instrumental action and involvement in a struggle over meaning, and display how patterns of knowledge-accomplishing activities can generate unintended organizational consequences.
Alvesson, M. (1993). Organizations as rhetoric: Knowledge-intensive firms and the struggle with ambiguity. Journal of Management Studies, 30, 997-1015.
2.
Alvesson, M. (2001). Knowledge work: Ambiguity, image, and identity . Human Relations, 54, 863-886.
3.
Alvesson, M., & Kärreman, D. (2001). Odd couple: Making sense of the curious concept of knowledge management. Journal of Management Studies, 38, 995-1018.
4.
Bain, P., & Taylor, P. (2000). Entrapped in the "electronic panopticon"? Worker resistance in the call centre. New Technology, Work and Employment , 15, 2-18.
5.
Barley, S.R., & Kunda, G. (2001). Bringing work back in. Organization Science, 12, 76-95.
6.
Boden, D. (1994). The business of talk: Organizations in action . Cambridge, UK: Polity Press.
7.
Brown, J.S., & Duguid, P. (1991). Organizational learning and communities-of-practice: Toward a unified view of working, learning, and innovation. Organization Science, 2, 40-57.
8.
Brown, J.S., & Duguid, P. (2001). Knowledge and organization: A social-practice perspective. Organization Science, 12, 198-213.
9.
Carlile, P. (2002). A pragmatic view of knowledge and boundaries: Boundary objects in new product development. Organization Science, 13, 442-455.
10.
Child, J.T., & Shumate, M. (2007). The impact of communal knowledge repositories and people-based knowledge management on perceptions of team effectiveness . Management Communication Quarterly, 21, 29-54.
11.
Cicourel, A. (1990). The integration of distributed knowledge in collaborative medical diagnosis. In J. Galegher, R. Kraut, & C. Egido (Eds.), Intellectual teamwork: Social and technical foundations of cooperative work (pp. 221-242). Hillsdale, NJ : Lawrence Erlbaum.
12.
Cohen, I.J. (1989). Structuration theory: Anthony Giddens and the constitution of social life. New York: St. Martin's Press.
13.
Cohen, M.D., March, J.G., & Olsen, J.P. (1972). A garbage can model of organizational choice. Administrative Science Quarterly, 17, 1-25.
14.
Conrad, C., & Haynes, J. (2001). Development of key constructs. In F. M. Jablin & L. L. Putnam (Eds.), The new handbook of organizational communication: Advances in theory, research, and methods (pp. 47-77). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
Contu, A., & Willmott, H. (2003). Re-embedding situatedness: The importance of power relations in learning theory. Organization Science, 14, 283-296.
17.
Contu, A., & Willmott, H. (2006). Studying practice: Situating talking about machines . Organization Studies, 27, 1769-1782.
18.
Cook, S.D.N., & Brown, J.S. (1999). Bridging epistemologies: The generative dance between organizational knowledge and organizational knowing. Organization Science, 10, 381-400.
19.
Cook, S.D.N., & Yanow, D. (1993). Culture and organizational learning. Journal of Management Inquiry, 2, 373-390.
20.
Cooren, F. (2004). The communicative achievement of collective minding: Analysis of board meeting excerpts. Management Communication Quarterly, 17, 517-551.
21.
Corman, S.R., Kuhn, T., McPhee, R.D., & Dooley, K.J. (2002). Studying complex discursive systems: Centering resonance analysis of communication. Human Communication Research , 28, 157-206.
22.
Corman, S.R., & Scott, C.R. (1994). Perceived networks, activity foci, and observable communication in social collectives. Communication Theory , 4, 171-190.
23.
Cronen, V.E., & Chetro-Szivos, J. (2001). Pragmatism as a way of inquiring with special reference to a theory of communication and the general form of pragmatic social theory. In D. K. Perry (Ed.), American pragmatism and communication research (pp. 27-65). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
24.
Cross, R., Rice, R.E., & Parker, A. (2001). Information seeking in social context: Structural influences and receipt of information benefits. IEEE Transactions on Systems, Man, and Cybernetics-Part C: Applications and Reviews, 31, 438-448.
25.
Deetz, S.A. (1992). Democracy in an age of corporate colonization: Developments in communication and the politics of everyday life. Albany: State University of New York Press.
26.
Dervin, B. (1992). From the mind's eye of the "user": The sense-making qualitative-quantitative methodology. In J. D. G. Lazier & R. R. Powell (Eds.), Qualitative research in information management (pp. 61-84). Englewood, CO: Libraries Unlimited.
27.
Dewey, J. (1938). Logic: The theory of inquiry. New York: Holt, Rinehart, and Winston.
28.
Drew, P., & Heritage, J. (1992). Analyzing talk at work: An introduction. In P. Drew & J. Heritage (Eds.), Talk at work: Interaction in institutional settings (pp. 3-65). Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
29.
Eisenberg, E.M. (1998). Flirting with meaning. Journal of Language and Social Psychology, 17, 97-108.
30.
Engeström, Y. (1990). Learning, working, and imagining: Twelve studies in activity theory. Helsinki: Orienta-Konsultit .
31.
Engeström, Y. (1996). Interobjectivity, ideality, and dialectics. Mind , Culture, and Activity: An International Journal, 3, 259-265.
32.
Ewenstein, B., & Whyte, J. (2007). Beyond words: Aesthetic knowledge and knowing in organizations. Organization Studies, 28, 689-708.
33.
Feldman, M.S., & Pentland, B.T. (2003). Reconceptualizing organizational routines as a source of flexibility and change. Administrative Science Quarterly, 48, 94-118.
34.
Fisher, B.A. (1982). Communication pragmatism: Another legacy of Gregory Bateson. Journal of Applied Communication Research, 10, 38-49.
35.
Fleming, P., & Spicer, A. (2003). Working from a cynical distance: Implications for power, subjectivity, and resistance. Organization, 10, 157-179.
36.
Forester, J. (1993). Critical theory, public policy, and planning practice . Albany: State University of New York Press.
37.
Forrester, M.A., & Ramsden, C.A.H. (2001). Discursive ethnomethodology: Analysing power and resistance in talk. Psychology, Crime, & Law, 6, 281-304.
38.
Fox, S. (2000). Communities of practice, Foucault and actor-network theory. Journal of Management Studies, 37, 853-867.
39.
Garfinkel, H. (1967). Studies in ethnomethodology. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall.
40.
Gherardi, S. (2000). Practice-based theorizing on learning and knowing in organizations. Organization, 7, 211-223.
41.
Giddens, A. (1979). Central problems in social theory. Berkeley: University of California Press.
42.
Giddens, A. (1984). The constitution of society: Outline of the theory of structuration. Berkeley: University of California Press.
43.
Grandori, A., & Kogut, B. (2002). Dialogue on organization and knowledge. Organization Science, 13, 224-231.
44.
Gumperz, J.J., & Cook-Gumperz, J. (1982). Introduction: Language and the communication of social identity. In J. J. Gumperz (Ed.), Language and social identity (pp. 4-15). Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
45.
Handley, K., Sturdy, A., Fincham, R., & Clark, T. (2006). Within and beyond communities of practice: Making sense of learning through participation, identity, and practice. Journal of Management Studies, 43, 641-653.
46.
Hargadon, A., & Bechky, B.A. (2006). When collections of creatives become creative collectives: A field study of problem solving at work. Organization Science, 17, 484-500.
47.
Harrè, R., & Secord, P. (1972). The explanation of social behaviour. Oxford, UK: Basil Blackwell.
48.
Heaton, L., & Taylor, J.R. (2002). Knowledge management and professional work: A communication perspective on the knowledge-based organization. Management Communication Quarterly, 16, 210-236.
49.
Heritage, J. (1984). Garfinkel and ethnomethodology. New York: Polity.
50.
Hutchins, E. (1990). The technology of team navigation. In J. Galegher, R. E. Kraut , & C. Egido (Eds.), Intellectual teamwork (pp. 191-220). Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
51.
Hutchins, E., & Klausen, T. (1996). Distributed cognition in an airline cockpit. In Y. Engestrom & D. Middleton (Eds.), Cognition and communication at work (pp. 69-96). Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
52.
Iverson, J.O., & McPhee, R.D. (2002). Knowledge management in communities of practice: Being true to the communicative character of knowledge . Management Communication Quarterly, 16, 259-266.
53.
James, W. (1995). Pragmatism. New York: Dover. (Original work published 1907)
54.
Jarzabkowski, P. (2005). Strategy as practice: An activity-based approach . Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
55.
Jian, G., & Jeffres, L.W. (2006). Understanding employees' willingness to contribute to shared electronic databases: A three-dimensional framework. Communication Research, 33, 242-261.
56.
Jones, D., & Stubbe, M. (2004). Communication and the reflective practitioner: A shared perspective from sociolinguistics and organisational communication . International Journal of Applied Linguistics, 14, 185-211.
57.
Kinsella, W.J. (1999). Discourse, power, and knowledge in the management of "big science": The production of consensus in a nuclear fusion laboratory . Management Communication Quarterly, 13, 171-208.
58.
Knorr-Cetina, K.D. (1981). The micro-sociological challenge of macro-sociology: Toward a reconstruction of social theory and methodology. In K. Knorr-Centia & A. V. Cicourel (Eds.), Advances in social theory and methodology (pp. 1-48). Boston: Routledge / Kegan Paul .
59.
Kuhn, T. (2002). Negotiating boundaries between scholars and practitioners: Knowledge, networks, and communities of practice. Management Communication Quarterly, 16, 106-112.
60.
Kuhn, T. (2006). A "demented work ethic" and a "lifestyle firm": Discourse, identity, and workplace time commitments. Organization Studies, 27, 1339-1358.
61.
Kuhn, T., & Corman, S.R. (2003). The emergence of homogeneity and heterogeneity in knowledge structures during a planned organizational change. Communication Monographs, 70, 198-229.
62.
Landry, M. (1995). A note on the concept of "problem." Organization Studies, 16, 315-343.
63.
Lanzara, G.F., & Patriotta, G. (2001). Technology and the courtroom: An inquiry into knowledge making in organizations. Journal of Management Studies , 38, 943-971.
64.
Lave, J. (1988). Cognition in practice. Cambridge , UK: Cambridge University Press.
65.
Lave, J. (1993). The practice of learning. In J. Lave (Ed.), Understanding practice: Perspectives on activity and context (pp. 3-32). Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
66.
Lazega, E. (1992). The micropolitics of knowledge: Communication and indirect control in workgroups. New York: De Gruyter.
67.
Lee, O. (2000). The constitution of meaning: On the practical conditions of social understanding. In J. M. Lehmann (Ed.), Current perspectives in social theory (Vol. 20, pp. 27-64). Stamford, CT : JAI.
68.
Leonard, D. (1995). Wellsprings of knowledge: Building and sustaining the sources of innovation. Boston: Harvard Business School Press.
69.
Leonardi, P., & Jackson, M. (2004). Technological determinism and discursive closure in organizational mergers. Journal of Organizational Change Management, 17, 615-631.
70.
Lyon, A. (2005). "Intellectual capital" and struggles over the perceived value of members' expert knowledge in a knowledge-intensive organization . Western Journal of Communication, 69, 251-271.
71.
Maier, G.W., Prange, C., & von Rosenstiel, L. (2001). Psychological perspectives of organizational learning. In M. Dierkes , A. Berthoin-Antal, J. Child, & I. Nonaka (Eds.), Handbook of organizational learning and knowledge (pp. 14-34). Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.
72.
McPhee, R.D., Myers, K.K., & Trethewey, A. (2006). On collective mind and conversational analysis: Response to Cooren. Management Communication Quarterly, 19, 311-326.
73.
McPhee, R.D., & Zaug, P. (2000). The communicative constitution of organizations: A framework for explanation. Electronic Journal of Communication / La Revue Electronique de Communication, 10. Available at http://www.cios.org/getfile%5CMcPhee_V10n1200
74.
Nickerson, J.A., & Zenger, T.R. (2004). A knowledge-based theory of the firm: The problem-solving perspective. Organization Science, 15, 617-632.
75.
Nicolini, D., Gherardi, S., & Yanow, D. (2003). Introduction: Toward a practice-based view of knowing and learning in organizations. In D. Nicolini, S. Gherardi, & D. Yanow (Eds.), Knowing in organizations: A practice-based approach (pp. 3-31). Armonk, NY: M. E. Sharpe.
76.
Nonaka, I. (1994). A dynamic theory of organizational knowledge creation . Organization Science, 5, 14-37.
77.
Orlikowski, W.J. (2002). Knowing in practice: Enacting a collective capability in distributed organizing. Organization Science, 13, 249-273.
78.
Orlikowski, W.J., & Gash, D.C. (1994). Technological frames: Making sense of information technology in organizations. ACM Transactions on Information Systems, 12, 174-207.
79.
Orr, J.E. (1996). Talking about machines: An ethnography of a modern job. Ithaca, NY: ILR Press.
80.
sterlund, C., & Carlile, P. (2005). Relations in practice: Sorting through practice theories on knowledge sharing in complex organizations. Information Society, 21, 91-107.
81.
Palazzolo, E.T., Serb, D.A., She, Y., Su, C., & Contractor, N.S. (2006). Coevolution of communication and knowledge networks in transactive memory systems: Using computational models for theoretical development. Communication Theory, 16, 223-250.
82.
Patriotta, G. (2004). On studying organizational knowledge. Knowledge Management Research and Practice, 2, 3-12.
83.
Pentland, B.T. (1992). Organizing moves in software support hot lines . Administrative Science Quarterly, 37, 527-548.
Perrow, C. (1967). A framework for the comparative analysis of organizations . American Sociological Review, 32, 194-208.
86.
Perrow, C. (1999). Normal accidents: Living with high-risk technologies . Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
87.
Ragin, C.C. (1994). Constructing social research: The unity and diversity of method. Thousand Oaks, CA: Pine Forge Press.
88.
Reckwitz, A. (2002). Toward a theory of social practices: A development in culturalist theorizing. European Journal of Social Theory , 5, 243-263.
89.
Reed, M. (1996). Organizational theorizing: A historically contested terrain. In S. R. Clegg, C. Hardy, & W. R. Nord (Eds.), Handbook of organization studies (pp. 31-56). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
90.
Rorty, R. (1999). Philosophy and social hope. New York: Penguin.
91.
Sachs, P. (1995). Transforming work: Collaboration, learning, and design. Communications of the ACM, 38(9), 36-44.
92.
Sacks, H. (1992). Lectures on conversation (Vol. 1). Cambridge, MA: Blackwell.
93.
Schön, D. (1983). The reflective practitioner: How professionals think in action. New York: Basic Books.
94.
Schreyögg, G., & Geiger, D. (2007). The significance of distinctiveness: A proposal for rethinking organizational knowledge. Organization Studies , 14, 77-100.
95.
Schultze, U., & Leidner, D.E. (2002). Studying knowledge management in information systems research: Discourses and theoretical assumptions. Management Information Systems Quarterly, 26, 213-242.
96.
Schultze, U., & Stabell, C. (2004). Knowing what you don't know? Discourses and contradictions in knowledge management research. Journal of Management Studies , 41, 549-573.
97.
Schwartzman, H.B. (1989). The meeting: Gatherings in organizations and communities . New York: Plenum.
98.
Sillince, J.A.A. (2006). Resources and organizational identities: The role of rhetoric in the creation of competitive advantage. Management Communication Quarterly, 20, 186-212.
99.
Suchman, L. (1994). Do categories have politics?Computer Supported Cooperative Work, 2, 177-190.
100.
Suchman, L. (1996). Constituting shared workspaces. In Y. Engestrom & D. Middleton (Eds.), Cognition and communication at work (pp. 35-60). Cambridge , UK: Cambridge University Press.
101.
Taylor, J.R., Groleau, C., Heaton, L., & Van Every, E. (2001). The computerization of work: A communication perspective . Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
102.
Taylor, P., Hyman, J., Mulvey, G., & Bain, P. (2002). Work organization, control and the experience of work in call centres. Work, Employment and Society, 16, 133-150.
103.
Thackaberry, J.A. (2004). "Discursive opening" and closing in organisational self-study: Culture as trap and tool in wildland firefighting safety. Management Communication Quarterly, 17, 319-359.
104.
Townley, B. (1993). Foucault, power/knowledge, and its relevance for human resource management. Academy of Management Review, 18, 518-545.
105.
Tremblay, D.-G. (2005). Virtual communities of practice: Explaining different effects in two organizational contexts. Canadian Journal of Communication, 30, 367-382.
106.
Tsoukas, H. (2000). Knowledge as action, organization as theory: Reflections on organizational knowledge. Emergence, 2, 104-112.
107.
Tsoukas, H., & Vladimirou, E. (2001). What is organizational knowledge? Journal of Management Studies, 38, 973-993.
108.
Turner, J.H. (1988). A theory of social interaction. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.
109.
Tyre, M.J., & von Hippel, E. (1997). The situated nature of adaptive learning in organizations. Organization Science, 18, 71-83.
110.
Weick, K. (1978). The spines of leaders. In M. McCall & M. Lombardo (Eds.), Leadership: Where else can we go? (pp. 37-61). Durham, NC: Duke University Press.
111.
Weick, K.E. (1979). The social psychology of organizing (2nd ed.). New York: McGraw-Hill.
112.
Weick, K.E. (1993). The collapse of sensemaking in organizations: The Mann Gulch disaster. Administrative Science Quarterly , 38, 628-652.
113.
Wenger, E. (1998). Communities of practice: Learning, meaning, and identity. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
114.
Wicks, A.C., & Freeman, R.E. (1998). Organization studies and the new pragmatism: Positivism, anti-positivism, and the search for ethics. Organization Science , 9, 123-140.
115.
Yanow, D. (2004). Translating local knowledge at organizational peripheries. British Journal of Management, 15, 9-26.
116.
Zorn, T.E., & Taylor, J.R. (2004). Knowledge management and/as organizational communication . In D. Tourish & O. Hargie (Eds.), Key issues in organizational communication (pp. 96-112). London: Routledge .
