A Knowledge Appropriation Model to Connect Scaffolded Learning and Knowledge Maturation in Workplace Learning Settings

Abstract

When organizations create new knowledge and work practices as a reaction to challenges they face, they often have difficulty to adopt these new practices “on the ground”. One of the reasons is that in these cases, individual informal learning and collective knowledge creation are often insufficiently connected. In this paper, we investigate knowledge practices that explain how new knowledge generated in the process of creating and adapting new practices is applied in work situations. We conducted 30 semi-structured interviews in five networks of organizations focusing on knowledge sharing in the German construction industry. Through a qualitative content analysis, we first identified five patterns of situations where individual and collective knowledge interact to implement new work practices. We detail these patterns with four knowledge maturation practices that explain how individuals contribute to collective knowledge development, and three scaffolding practices that explain how individual learning processes are facilitated through help seeking and guiding. Four practices of knowledge appropriation explain how knowledge is adapted and validated in concrete work situations. We combine scaffolding, maturation and appropriation practices into a model of knowledge appropriation that extends workplace learning research by offering a distinctive perspective on the practices that shape the interaction between knowledge creation and individual learning.