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

Author(s):  
Tracy Bridgeford
2021 ◽  
pp. 095042222110081
Author(s):  
Oswald Jones ◽  
PingPing Meckel ◽  
David Taylor

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.


Perspectiva ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 37 (1) ◽  
pp. 125-139
Author(s):  
Julian Sefton-Green

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”.


Author(s):  
Miles G. Nicholls ◽  
Barbara J. Cargill

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.


2020 ◽  
pp. 017084062091270
Author(s):  
Ewan Mackenzie ◽  
Tom McGovern ◽  
Adrian Small ◽  
Chris Hicks ◽  
Tracy Scurry

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.


1987 ◽  
Vol 122 ◽  
pp. 84-108 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hilary Steedman ◽  
Karin Wagner

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.


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

Author(s):  
Roger P. Bartlett
Keyword(s):  

Author(s):  
Howard Thomas ◽  
Richard R. Smith ◽  
Fermin Diez

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