Semiotic Learning - from Organisational Semiotics to Organisational Learning

1. Semiotic Learning- from Organisational Semiotics to Organisational Learning Ângela Araújo Lacerda Nobre anobre@esce.ips.pt, lacerda.nobre@gmail.com ESCE-IPS Portugal Semiotics 2009 - September – A Coruña

2. Introduction • “Semiotics is currently the most complete and sophisticated theory of meaning and culture” (Lagopoulos, 1993) • Semiotic Learning (SL): • – is the output of a research project on Organisational Learning (OL) (Knowledge Economy context)

3. OS and OL • OS - initiated by Stamper (1973) • OL - initiated by Argyris (1978) • Both address the organisational context • OS aims at improving the effectiveness of Information Systems design and implementation • OL aims at improving overall organisational effectiveness – parallel to Knowledge Management (KM)

4. Theoretical background • Socio philosophy theory • Social tradition on Organisational Learning • Peirce’s pragmatism • Heidegger’s ontology • Halliday’s social semiotics

5. Key theories • Pragmatism – it rejects all dualisms (inside/outside, internal/external, individual/social, theory/practice, …) • Ontology – being-in-the-world is a broader instance of knowledge than subject-object, which is a particular case of the former • Social semiotics – meaning is created by active participation in social practices and use of language

6. From research to education • Semiotic Learning (SL) – it revises key social philosophy theory that is crucial to the fundamentation of management sciences • Management education severely lacks adequate theoretical basis, able to deal with the changing global environment and the increase in complexity • Semiotics may play that role of complementing traditional education with innovative perspectives

7. Rationale of SL • Tacit knowledge cannot be copied • It is a source of sustainable competitive advantages • It can only be shared by active participation in collective practices • This implies: strengthening organisational communities and organisational sense-making => SL

8. Research question – (extended version of the presentation) “Is it possible to develop a conceptual framework and a practical method that will facilitate learning in knowledge intensive organisations (KIO)?”

9. Research objectives • To analyse real cases of organisational community life • To design a framework and method to facilitate organisational learning (OL) • To test and validate such method

10. Research method Qualitative research method - Multi-grounded theory: 1 - Case studies and identification of key themes (social ties + community relations) 2 – Design framework to improve OL – Semiotic Learning (SL) 3 – Implementation and testing SL

11. 1 Cases - analysis of data (1/2) 4 organisations were analysed: Type Study duration Case A Eur. Agency 8 months Case B Eur. Agency 1 week Case C Nat. Agency 2 months Case D Serv. Prov. 2 months

12. 1 Cases – key themes (2/2) • organisationalculture • leadership / followershiprelations • organisational images Keyinsight: thegreaterthe social interactionandleveloftrust, thegreatertheopportunities for sharing tacitknowledge, thusstrengthening OL

13. 2 Design of SL(1/3) In order to strengthen OL enhancing factors to control OL hindering aspects to promote organisational practices that empower community-level meaning-making

14. 2 Design of SL (2/3) • Framework: theoretical principles that direct practice • Method: set of procedures • Learning cycle • Learning steps • Relating theory and practice • Relating OL and socio-philosophical foundations

15. 2 Design of SL (3/3) • To transmit to people/ groups/ organisations the importance of community relations • To transmit this knowledge through practical experimentation • To enable experimenting with new approaches to group interaction • Key insight: concrete practices may be improved through new experimentations

16. 3 Testing (1/2) 4 organisations/ groups were used: Type Profess. Backgr. Group 1 Indep. Profes. psychologists Group 2 IT company diverse Group 3 IT company diverse Group 4 Telecomm. diverse

17. 3 Testing (2/2) To assess the raise in sensitiveness related to OL practices Through the analysis of two indicators, according to the participants’ own perspectives: • Raise in awareness • Professional and personal gains

18. Research results In the organisations where SL was tested: • There was evidence of raise in awareness towards OL • This suggests that it is possible to facilitate learning and to improve OL processes • The results are not to be generalised to all organisations

19. Key insights SL OL is a meaning-making collective process, embodied in the organisation community and embedded in the organisational discursive practices. Theory: The role of social context Practice: The role of community relations Semiotic Learning: The practice of reflexive discussion

20. Conclusions An important contribution of this research is the development of a framework and a method that can help improve OL at a practical level, using different theoretical concepts that have seldom been applied in practice. These positive exploratory results suggest that there is a rich potential to be further developed in future research.