Distributed systems of generalizing as the basis of workplace learning

This article proposes a new way of conceptualizing workplace learning as distributed systems of appropriation, development and the use of practice‐relevant generalizations fixed within mediational artifacts. This article maintains that these systems change historically as technology and increasingly sophisticated forms of production develop. Within these parameters, Taylorism is analyzed as the principal form of the learning systems of mass production, and the total quality management as the learning system of flexible manufacturing, or continuous improvement of processes, as it is also called. The article also maintains that the current IC technology‐based transformation of businesses increasingly calls for meta‐level learning, which makes it possible for the stakeholders within a given system of production to flexibly transform their system of producing generalizations, as the business concept's life cycle proceeds from one phase to another.