Toward an Actor-Network Approach for Investigating Learning within a Corporate University
By considering the number of spaces and ways employees' education and learning disclose, a large number of objects (material actors) must be investigated. Such objects might be animating or inanimate, namely human and non-human. Nonetheless, researchers in organization studies and professionals still tend to disregard or subordinate material objects that settle the backgrounds of professional work and learning practices. However, organizational daily learning practices would simply not exist without them. The so-called ¿practice turn¿ and the changing sociomaterial context pave the way for exploring how education and learning in Knowledge Management can vary from a specific learning setting through organisational settings. By drawing on Actor-Network Theory (ANT), this research aims to analyse how a Corporate University (CU) shapes and reshapes its identity to achieve its main goal: members¿ lifelong learning and development of skills and knowledge needed to implement the organizational Industrial Plan. In an exploratory ambition, the research design draws upon qualitative data collection and analysis techniques. In accordance, ANT is concurrently employed conceptually, methodologically and empirically to follow the introduction and affirmation of an ICT for corporate education and learning. It provides a framework for identifying and supporting relevant calculative centres.
Whit the aim of analysing the role of a modern CU within one of the most important Italian telecommunication companies, the black box of organizational learning is opened.