Scaffolded contributions, active meetings and scaled engagement: How technology shapes informal learning practices in healthcare SME networks

The importance of informal learning in modern, fast paced work environments has long been recognised. While technology support has been suggested for informal learning by individuals and in organisations, it is only more recently, that we have been able to study in more detail how technology can support such learning in real workplaces. This paper examines technology supported informal workplace learning in the relatively unexplored context of cross-organisational networks of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). We developed an informal learning tool, using a participative, co-design approach found useful for engaging such networks. We analyse qualitative data on tool usage, collected over six months from 30 professionals, working in three different cross-organisational healthcare SME networks. We identify three changes in practice: (1) scaffolded contributions, (2) active meetings and (3) scaled engagement. We explain how and why some functionalities in the tool contributed to these changed practices while others were unused. The changed practices are linked to three stages of organisational knowledge creation: making individual knowledge explicit, group knowledge integration and institutionalisation. We propose three associations between tool functionalities and these processes that contribute to our understanding of technology support for informal learning in early stages of knowledge creation in cross-organisational networks. •Informal learning studied in the real-world context of UK healthcare SME networks.•Tool co-designed with professionals found to shape three informal learning practices.•Of these, one unanticipated practice supports informal learning in active meetings.•Discussion and collaborative document editing functionality remain unused.•Three conjectures associate tool functionality and stages of knowledge creation.