Making Sense of Learning Landscapes in Project- Based Organisations

This paper reports preliminary findings from a 3-year study investigating the capture and transfer of organisational knowledge and learning practices in the production of what have been termed complex product systems (CoPS). CoPS have been defined as capital-, engineering-, and IT-intensive, business-to-business products, networks, constructs and systems (Hobday, 1998). They tend to be high in value and produced on a project basis, often in multi-firm alliances, as one-offs or in small and customised batches for specific customers and markets (Hobday, 1998). Examples of these types of products and systems include flight simulators, global business telecommunications networks, aircraft and avionics systems, power stations, offshore oil and gas platforms, process plants, mobile telephone systems, intelligent buildings, and large civil engineering projects. These kinds of activity, which involve high levels of customisation and a strong emphasis on project styles of organising, provide particularly interesting insights because of the severe challenges they present for effective learning between projects, especially compared with more routine organisational activities. The customised nature of CoPS products, the discontinuous nature of, and the level of complexity, interdependence, and uncertainty inherent in CoPS projects reduces both the repeatability of projects and the potential for projectto-project learning. These are examined in more detail in section 3 of the paper.