Projects and Learning

The metaphor of projects as learning experiments for the company embraces an awareness of the importance of both exploration and exploitation of knowledge in organisations (Burgelman, 1991; Levinthal and March, 1993; March, 1991). To see an individual project as an experiment means that new knowledge is created and explored among project participants. The project knowledge and experience gained from earlier or current projects can be used to create new knowledge to suit current situations or problems. Projects, as a form of organising work, can be one way to explore new knowledge, project related as well as operational. During participation in a project, team members, through their engagement in the learning process, gain new experience and knowledge that could be used to solve problems. Furthermore, this knowledge and experience could be useful for other projects. In that sense, a project can be viewed as a learning experiment for the companies involved (Drew and Smith, 1995).

Sahlin-Andersson (1998) sees projects as local arenas for knowledge creation, as individuals possessing different experience and skills work together to solve a common task within a limited timeframe. Through collaboration, new technical knowledge and knowledge for organising the project are developed over time. It can be argued that projects should not be seen as vehicles for reaching the stakeholders’ re-defined objectives alone, as frequently cited in project management literature. March et al. (1991) argue that organisations learn from experience to improve future performance. By the same token, projects can be used as a media for organisational learning, where knowledge and experience gained in one project can be transferred and utilised in the next. This strategy does not aim solely to save time and money, but also to avoid ‘reinventing the wheel’ which can occur so frequently in every new project. Penrose (1995) argued that utilising and employing experiences, and the resultant knowledge thus created, make an organisation grow.

In project-oriented companies, learning from projects is the key for building strategic competitive advantage. During a project’s existence, a number of decisions are made. Every decision involves a degree of uncertainty. Packendorff (1995), for example, argues that the problems or mistakes that cause this uncertainty are ofien of a similar character. Yet it is not clear whether this is a global generalisation or whether it depends on the sector or stage of an industry life cycle. Nevertheless, experience to date has shown that once experience is gained in a project, knowledge is created that may be re-applicable. The basic hypothesis of the project learning approach is that learning from projects can reduce the uncertainties that might lead to inefficiencies. The use of project experiences and their integration into the organisation to expand the body of knowledge are important and valuable cornerstones in a project learning

approach. Ensuring that people pass on their experience to others is one o f the greatest challenges for an organisation and its organisational memory (Morris, 1994). However, learning and projects are not a natural combination (Bartezzaghi et al., 1997) since conflicts of a basic logical character are involved. These conflicts comprise the time aspect, the task orientation, the team structure and the transitional culture of projects (Lundin and Soderholm, 1995).

To carry out their project work effectively, project team members need to develop the capability of managing across boundaries. If learning is assumed as social, learning is engagement in practice and dealing with boundaries (Wenger, 1998). Project-based organisations offer an excellent opportunity to engage in learning and to acquire reflective habits that transcend the boundaries of projects. Not only does the nature of single projects support learning - so does the web of relationships that are created in project management organisations.

Membership in projects is temporary and thus offers individuals the opportunity to belong to multiple communities. In project-based organisations, there is a large number o f weak ties that help diffuse knowledge and practices (Granovetter, 1973). In the majority of organisations, project members maintain their links with their primary organisations (to where they will return upon the completion of the project). Membership in multiple existing teams contributes to creating informal webs of people who act as knowledge brokers (Wenger, 1998). Project-based organisations thus enable continuous building and cultivation of relationships, nurturing the development o f ‘communities of practice’ (Brown and Duguid, 1999). Communities of practice are natural internal mechanisms where ideas and practices spread in work

settings, although they tend to exist outside the boundaries of the formal hierarchy (Wenger and Snyder, 2000). Project-based organisations may grow into constellations of interrelated communities of practice, offering a web of mutual support for cultivating reflective practices. When projects share members, they are bound together and become embedded in the same social network (Granovetter, 1973). The recursive interaction among projects creates social networks of mutual assistance. Project-based learning looks to augment the natural workings of such social networks and communities of practice as already exist.

When a project is completed, the members either return to their functional units or organisations or move on to the next project which makes project teams unique from any other organisational arrangement. In addition, it is not uncommon for individual team members to be members of several teams simultaneously (Henke et al., 1993; O’Leary, 1996).