A Practice-Based Perspective on Work Activities in a Global Software Development Company

A PRACTICE-BASED PERSPECTIVE ON WORK ACTIVITIES IN A GLOBAL SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT COMPANY

UMUT İNAL

IŞIK UNIVERSITY

2011

A PRACTICE-BASED PERSPECTIVE ON WORK ACTIVITIES IN A GLOBAL SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT COMPANY

UMUT İNAL

Executive MBA Program, Işık University, 2011

Submitted to the Graduate School of Social Sciences

In partial fulfilment of the requirements for the assignment

In

Knowledge Management Course

IŞIK UNIVERSITY

2011

IŞIK UNIVERSITY

GRADUATE SCHOOL OF SOCIAL SCIENCES

A PRACTICE-BASED PERSPECTIVE ON WORK ACTIVITIES IN A GLOBAL SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT COMPANY

UMUT İNAL

APPROVED BY:

Assist.Prof.Dr Ahmet Hakan Yüksel _____________________

APPROVAL DATE:

Table of Contents

Table of Contents iii

1 Introduction 1

2 Conflicts, Power plays and Impediments 2

3 Conclusion 6

References 7

Chapter 1

Introduction

The practice-based perspective, unlike the objectivist approach, stipulates that the knowledge is not an entity that can be separated from mind and codified into symbols and words, but is embedded in practice, embodied in people, socially constructed, culturally embedded, contestable and that the tacit and explicit components of knowledge cannot be separated from each other, in fact they represent two aspects of knowledge.[6]

This approach is supported by a variety of authors and academicians and entail the suggestion that rather than being unitary and coherent, organizational knowledge bases are fragmented and dispersed, being made up of specialized and specific knowledge communities. It further suggests that the transmitter-receiver model of the objectivist perspective is questionable due to the human component of the learning and constructing meaning from received stimulus. The stimulus which in many ways is the language we use to communicate is further complicating the issue for there is always scope for interpretations by...