Communities of Practice: The Shop Floor of Human Capital Tracy Bridgeford

10.2190/resc9 ◽  
2007 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tracy Bridgeford
Keyword(s):  
Human Capital ◽  
Communities Of Practice ◽  
Shop Floor

scholarly journals Situated learning in a business incubator: Encouraging students to become real entrepreneurs

2021 ◽  
pp. 095042222110081
Author(s):  
Oswald Jones ◽  
PingPing Meckel ◽  
David Taylor
Keyword(s):  
Human Capital ◽  
Young People ◽  
Learning Environment ◽  
Communities Of Practice ◽  
Situated Learning ◽  
Financial Burden ◽  
Business Incubator ◽  
Business Incubation ◽  
Job Market ◽  
Gig Economy

The options for conventional graduate careers have become more limited in the last 20 years. This has stimulated an increase in university programmes and modules designed to encourage students to start their own businesses. The recent global Covid-19 pandemic is likely to make the job market even more difficult for those graduating from universities in the next few years. A career as an entrepreneur is a realistic alternative to employment in the ‘gig’ economy for many young graduates. University-based incubators can provide a sheltered learning environment for those wishing to develop business ideas without incurring a large financial burden. In this paper, the authors draw on a range of literature (business incubation, entrepreneurial learning, human capital and communities of practice) to develop a model of a university-based incubator that will support young people in their transition to becoming real entrepreneurs.

scholarly journals Towards a cultural history of digital autodidacticism: changing cultural narratives of education

Perspectiva ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 37 (1) ◽  
pp. 125-139
Author(s):  
Julian Sefton-Green
Keyword(s):  
Human Capital ◽  
Communities Of Practice ◽  
Cultural History ◽  
Education System ◽  
Cultural Narratives ◽  
World Today ◽  
The World ◽  
History Of

The essay argues that the various new imaginaries of the connected, creative, autonomous, coding, motivated and making digital learner have their roots in diverse and older visions of a different kind education system (especially the craft learner working in communities of practice) than that promulgated by the human-capital inspired neoliberal governmentalised States in the world today. Tracing the histories of the older imaginaries in a cultural history of autodidacticism I examine how they become incorporated by, and thus recalibrate competing visions of the “new learner of tomorrow”.

Achieving Best Practice Manufacturing Involving Tacit Knowledge through the Cautious Use of Mixed-mode Modelling

2010 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 35-52 ◽  
Author(s):  
Miles G. Nicholls ◽  
Barbara J. Cargill
Keyword(s):  
Communities Of Practice ◽  
Tacit Knowledge ◽  
Mixed Mode ◽  
Best Practice ◽  
Solution Process ◽  
Shop Floor ◽  
Optimal Solutions ◽  
Production Processes ◽  
Employee Groups ◽  
Subjective Input

In the real world, ‘optimal’ solutions for many production process problems do not exist. In such circumstances, ‘best practice’ is the realistic outcome for which practitioners aim. The reasons for this stem from many causes, including that data associated with production processes are often corrupted and/or missing. These types of processes usually rely heavily on the subjective input of the process workers on the shop floor (tacit knowledge). This paper outlines how the use of mixed-mode modelling has been utilised to help solve these types of problems. The industry examples used in the paper incorporate the concept of Communities of Practice (CoPs) in the mixed-mode models that are developed as a means of capturing tacit knowledge and incorporating it into the solution process. Additionally, CoPs need to sit comfortably within the culture and values of the organisation and employee groups, and must be clearly owned and facilitated by the community of workers whose knowledge is to be shared. Finally, CoPs should be presented as opportunities to share, compare, and learn so that a ‘craft’ is not lost or diminished.

scholarly journals ‘Are they out to get us?’ Power and the ‘recognition’ of the subject through a ‘lean’ work regime

2020 ◽  
pp. 017084062091270
Author(s):  
Ewan Mackenzie ◽  
Tom McGovern ◽  
Adrian Small ◽  
Chris Hicks ◽  
Tracy Scurry
Keyword(s):  
Human Capital ◽  
Social Relations ◽  
Professional Autonomy ◽  
Shop Floor ◽  
Critical Studies ◽  
Neoliberal Governmentality ◽  
Worker Health ◽  
Work Intensification ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Lean Methods

Critical studies of ‘lean’ work regimes have tended to focus on the factory shop floor or public and healthcare sectors, despite its recent revival and wider deployment in neoliberal service economies. This paper investigates the politics of the workplace in a United Kingdom automotive dealership group subject to an intervention inspired by lean methods. We develop Foucauldian studies of governmentality by addressing lean as a technology of power deployed to act on the conduct of workers, examining how they debunk, distance themselves from and enact its imperatives. Our findings support critiques of lean work regimes that raise concerns about work intensification and poor worker health. Discourses of professional autonomy allow workers to distance themselves from lean prescriptions, yet they are reaffirmed in their actions. More significantly, we illustrate the exercise of a more encompassing form of power, showing how lean harnesses the inherently exploitable desire for recognition among hitherto marginalised workers, and its role as a form of ‘human capital’. The paper contributes to critical studies of lean by illustrating its subtle, deleterious and persistent effects within the analytical frame of neoliberal governmentality. We also demonstrate how studies of governmentality can be advanced through the analysis of contested social relations on the ground, highlighting the ethico-political potential of Foucauldian work.

A Second Look At Productivity, Machinery and Skills in Britain and Germany

1987 ◽  
Vol 122 ◽  
pp. 84-108 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hilary Steedman ◽  
Karin Wagner
Keyword(s):  
Human Capital ◽  
Research Programme ◽  
Shop Floor ◽  
Furniture Industry ◽  
Relative Contribution ◽  
Second Look ◽  
Wood Furniture

The overall aim of the National Institute's research programme in this field is to examine the relative contribution of physical and human capital to productivity with the help of site visits to samples of matched plants in Britain and Germany. A first study, carried out in 1983-4, was based on metalworking plants in Britain and Germany; it pointed to the overriding importance of skills at supervisory and shop floor levels in contributing to the better choice and utilisation of machinery and to a substantial German productivity advantage. The present study was carried out three years later, in 1986-7, and compares part of the wood furniture industry: the production of fitted kitchens. This branch is more standardised in its products—and hence easier to compare—than the more traditional branches of the furniture industry. It now accounts for over a quarter of the value of all furniture sales in both countries.

Human Capital

2007 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. Rajaram
Keyword(s):  
Human Capital

Human Capital

1979 ◽  
Author(s):  
Roger P. Bartlett
Keyword(s):  
Human Capital

Human Capital and Global Business Strategy

2013 ◽  
Author(s):  
Howard Thomas ◽  
Richard R. Smith ◽  
Fermin Diez
Keyword(s):  
Human Capital ◽  
Business Strategy ◽  
Global Business
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