The Collaborative Learning Cycle: Advancing Theory and Building Practical Design Frameworks through Collaboration

Abstract

We describe a program of collaborative research investigating the design of team-based organizations in nine divisions of Hewlett-Packard (HP). This study was an intersection of the knowledge generating work of three communities of practice. It was part of an ongoing stream of collaborative research carried out by researchers at the Center for Effective Organizations at the University of Southern California, and the first step in a series of collaborations with companies to investigate teaming in knowledge work settings. It was also part of a stream of research, consultation, and management knowledge asset production by the Factory of the Future Groupii at HP, an internal group that worked collaboratively with many business units at HP to carry out action research, and to generate knowledge useful throughout the corporation. The third community of practice were the members of HP engaged in leading and carrying out the development of new products, and who were dealing with intense competitive pressures and were attempting to establish teams to improve this process. We describe the collaboration, its antecedents, and the two streams of knowledge production that grew out of this collaboration. The chapter will include the individual voices of the authors.