The socio-material nature of careers work: an exploration of knowledge co-creation amongst career practitioners

Milosheva, Marina; Hall, Hazel; Robertson, Peter; Cruickshank, Peter; Lyall, Catherine

Abstract

While knowledge co-creation is a main source of innovation in organisations, little is known about the co-creation of knowledge in career settings, particularly in the context of career guidance. This study represents a novel contribution in the consideration of knowledge co-creation in career settings through the exploration of daily routines of a previously underexplored group of professionals. Ten semi-structured interviews with career practitioners employed by Skills Development Scotland (SDS) were conducted and analysed through a socio-material methodological approach. The findings indicate that career knowledge co-creation is an assemblage of information and socialisation practices situated in a set of socio-material contexts. Specifically, these practices are performed in both physical and technological spaces, and are predicated on career practitioners’ interpretation of their employing organisation’s practice-structuring concepts. While technologies are conducive to the information and socialisation practices that constitute career knowledge co-creation, they can also serve as barriers to its success.

Citation

Milosheva, M., Hall, H., Robertson, P., Cruickshank, P., & Lyall, C. (2021, March). The socio-material nature of careers work: an exploration of knowledge co-creation amongst career practitioners. Presented at iConference 2021, Online

• Presentation Conference Type: Conference Paper (published)
• Conference Name: iConference 2021
• Acceptance Date: Jan 11, 2021
• Online Publication Date: Mar 19, 2021
• Publication Date: Mar 17, 2021
• Deposit Date: Feb 5, 2021
• Publicly Available Date: Mar 17, 2021
• Book Title: iConference 2021 Poster Proceedings
• Keywords: Knowledge, Co-creation, Careers, Information behaviour, Technologies, Socio-material
• Public URL: http://researchrepository.napier.ac.uk/Output/2725733
• Publisher URL: http://hdl.handle.net/2142/109678