Collaborative Approaches to Management Learning in Small Firms

The purpose of this paper is to describe how learning in collaborative approaches – in this paper labeled “collaborative approaches to management learning” (CAML) – can support the learning situation of small firm owner‐managers. Drawing on a socio‐cognitive learning framework, the context of the small firm and its consequences for management learning are framed and discussed. Drawing on four episodes of management learning in CAML, it is suggested that CAML establishes a new context in which old truths can be questioned and new insights can be created. In CAML the owner‐managers are offered a position on the periphery of practice of the other managers and other network visitors, where trust among the network participants provides the foundation for admitting and openly facing lack of knowledge on different issues, something that is prohibited within their enterprises, due to the lack of peers and expected omniscience of the owner‐manager.

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