Information and learning activities in organisations: participants' views on where and how to engage

The purpose of this paper is to explore how people’s views on where and how to engage in social interaction relate to how they interact. More specifically, the purpose is to examine how these views, based on negotiated social values and norms, may explain the nature of relationships. This paper is based on a qualitative study in the form of interviews at the Land Warfare Centre (LWC), a part of the Swedish Armed Forces (SwAF). The results show that interaction and learning in the studied setting are characterised by 1) local and oral learning, 2) bypassing formal processes and 3) treasuring colleagues. The conducted research provides empirical findings that show that people’s views clearly relate to how they interact and to how they construct relationships and learning within them. Thus, in order to take steps to facilitate learning in organisations, it is important to understand these dynamics.ye