As hard as iron, as soft as knowledge: How artefacts can hamper the process of organizational learning

In this paper, we explore how physical artefacts hamper the cognitive, structural, and political aspects of organizational learning. Identifying a wide range of ways in which physical artefacts can be linked to these three aspects of organizational learning, we distinguish between four dimensions of physical artefacts (materiality, form, function, and arrangement) in order to better analyze the hampering role of artefacts. We then empirically ground our analysis into a longitudinal case study to show various impeding roles of physical artefacts. We comment on several theoretical insights and practical implications of this study.