Handbook of Organizational Learning and Knowledge Management, Second Edition

Abstract

It has been twenty years since the paradigm-shifting introduction of the constructs of communities of practice and legitimate peripheral participation, which have become central to understanding learning in both an academic and organizational setting. The construct has not been without criticism—for insufficient treatment of power, for a lack of historical perspective, and for its theoretical slipperiness. What is required to meet this criticism is more examination of those elusive intersubjective elements of community relationships, identity, the negotiation of meaning. Building communities requires that individuals learn how to learn organizationally. A key to developing powerful communities is developing expanding circles of intersubjectivity about what it means to be a community and how to operate as one. A philosophy and a methodology have been developed and applied that foster three elements of intersubjectivity (believing, behaving, and belonging) called the APPLE process (assess, plan, prepare, launch, and establish). This work derives from the socio-cultural work of Vygotsky, Luria, and Leontiev, and develops a way to bridge the theoretical with the practical.