Mechanisms of cross-boundary learning : communities of practice and job crafting

This book reveals the mechanism through which adults learn through boundary-crossing experiences. Boundary crossing, though defined in various ways, refers to activities in which persons belonging to different organizations collaborate in a context different from their workplace. While boundary crossing attracts researchers and practitioners as a platform for adult learning, previous analysis of its mechanism has been insufficient. To address this research gap, this text reviews literature on theories related to boundary crossing on an interdisciplinary basis, and empirically analyses the mechanism of learning through boundary crossing and associated job crafting. It also explains the concepts and techniques of the Modified-grounded theory approach (M-GTA) in order to facilitate easy understanding among researchers and practitioners in management and organization research. While job crafting is one of the research topics attracting a large number of researchers today, there is a lack of empirical studies on this topic. This book addresses cases in Japan where various experimental projects are in progress. However, noting the fact that the labor market and human resource management (HRM) practices in Japan are not as different from other countries as is usually said, its findings can be applied to other settings across the globe. Table of Contents 6 Introduction • Nobutaka Ishiyama, Yoshinobu Nakanishi, Kenta Koyama, Hiroshi Takeshita 10 Part I: Theoretical Background 16 1 Boundary Crossing • Nobutaka Ishiyama 18 2 Job Crafting • Kenta Koyama 32 3 Communities of Practice • Yoshinobu Nakanishi 42 Part II: Methodology 66 4 Thoughts in and Methods Used in M-GTA • Hiroshi Takeshita 68 Part III: Empirical Research 100 5 Knowledge Brokers and Activities Outside of Organizations • Nobutaka Ishiyama 102 6 Boundary-Crossing Experience and Job Crafting from the Perspective of Job Characteristic Theory • Kenta Koyama 130 7 Inter-Organizational Communities of Practice: Shared- and Inter-Contextual Learning • Yoshinobu Nakanishi 140 Index 168