PROCESS THINKING

In organizations existing rules and norms are usually used as the basis for solving new problems even when this means stretching those rules. Such absorption of new problems by rules reduces the need to explore and develop new solutions and to encode those solutions into new rules. Furthermore, one way that organizational learning can occur is through problem solving, i.e. learning takes place through identifying and resolving problems that occur in the execution of projects. Thus, finding a viable perspective and approach with which project-based companies can understand how their organizational learning through problem solving activities take place in the course of time is a very important issue. Therefore, the goal of this paper is to explore the potential of process thinking to open up new ways to understand organizational learning – particularly through problem absorption within problem solving – in project-based companies. All in all, with the help of this paper we have sought to offer a brief illustration of how process thinking may help to understand this issue.► Problem absorption is a form of company’s experiential learning. ► Rules and norms store knowledge that enables to solve problems. ► Revision of rules can be regarded as a basic outcome of organizational learning.

This chapter examines innovation in the context of the small scale fashion
industry. The chapter tells a story of the struggles of translating innovative
ideas into material forms, and shows that the work of innovation consists
of continuous attempts to create material order. Hardy negotiations are
involved when innovative ideas are given durable form. The process of
materialization is a complex process, where abstract ideas may meet material
obstacles and textural boundaries. Innovation, thus, is a continuous
process of negotiating material realities.
The main points of the chapter are that innovation is a continuous
process of working for order. Very often, material objects are central in
fixing and materializing an innovative idea. This chapter argues that it does
not make sense to talk about innovation without focusing on the materialities
which the innovative efforts are centered around. Innovation is viewed
as a process which works against a background of fluidity, of continuous
decay and disintegration. Central to innovative efforts are two things: materializations
- working at and with physical objects - and conversational
processes which aim at sharing perspectives on the innovation activities.
Processes of innovation are processes of social and material conversation
and negotiation.
The concept of innovation with care points to relations between the
diverse sets of actors which may participate in innovation, and the advice
that these relations must be handled with care that they must be worked
at and bridged together. This chapter suggests that this bridging is undertaken
with explicit attention to the role of material entities. Material objects
are viewed as potential stabilizers, they are viewed as the boundary objects
which may give concrete form to innovative ideas, but they are also viewed
as entities which are fragile. Their cohesion may be obstructed, and their
materialization may fail to emerge, and even once they are constructed,
they may easily fall apart again. This shows that innovation is a continuous
process, and that maintaining an innovation is just as crucial as the initial
birth of an idea. Innovation is portrayed as taking place in tightly knit,
inseparable, and co-creative socio-material relations in continuous making
and decay.