The project workplace for organizational learning development

This paper conceptually examines how and why projects and project teams may be conceived as highly generative episodic individual and team learning places that can serve as vehicles or agents to promote organizational learning. It draws on and dissects a broad and relevant literature concerning situated learning, organizational learning, learning spaces and project management. The arguments presented signal a movement towards a project workplace becoming more organizationally acknowledged and supported as a learning intense entity wherein, learning is a more conspicuous, deliberate and systematic social activity by project participants. This paper challenges conventional and limited organizational perceptions about project teams and their practices and discloses their extended value contributions to organizational learning development. (C) 2011 Elsevier Ltd. and TPMA. All rights reserved.