The Institutionalization of Knowledge in an Automotive Factory: Templates, Inscriptions, and the Problem of Durability

This paper depicts knowledge institutionalization as a recursive process that involves the progressive writing, enactment and reproduction of a generative template or code within a stable medium and reconstructs the chain of transformations by which agency and knowledge are embedded into a variety of technical and organizational artifacts.

Abstract

This paper focuses on the process of institutionalization of technical and organizational knowledge in the work setting. Drawing on a rich qualitative study, we apply an inscription—delegation model to the analysis of knowledge dynamics in a greenfield automotive plant. In particular, we depict knowledge institutionalization as a recursive process that involves the progressive writing, enactment and reproduction of a generative template or code within a stable medium. We first reconstruct the chain of transformations by which agency and knowledge are embedded into a variety of technical and organizational artifacts, leading to the creation of a cognitive and institutional order. We then focus on the frictions and tensions that can emerge in the transformations, and we discuss problems of vulnerability and durability that may arise in the maintenance and reproduction of such order.