Abstract
The demand for innovative, solutions-oriented approaches to closing learning competency gaps is leading to the recasting of organizations as learning and innovation-centric organizational communities. The makerspace movement is a sector where new communities are emerging to include diverse groups of entrepreneurs. The findings in this study provide insight that will assist in meeting the challenges posed by declining economic and social conditions of former industrial centers and rural communities that were part of thriving economic pipelines during the height of the industrial age. The study examines a makerspace as a solution for creating jobs, filling gaps in the supply chain, and reimagining local manufacturing. The IOC approach also possesses potential for helping to reduce equity gaps and facilitating inclusive practices. The concept of innovation-centric organizational communities, based on maximizing affective learning, is consistent with emerging 21st century workforce demands and their relationship to entrepreneurial opportunities for underserved communities.
TopIntroduction
Building economic equity in declining urban cities is a dire need and essential in developing communities that foster job growth, commerce, and opportunities. The economic and social disparities between areas heavily populated by Black residents and White districts are astonishing and serve as barriers to equitable economic growth. Failure to address such disparities at a time of accelerating change heightened global competition, and new work paradigms are detrimental to the sustainability of national economies, national security, and the well-being of citizens who seek to improve quality of life.
It is more evident than ever before that economic disparity is deeply grounded in United States (U.S.) history and will require structural changes to address related problems. One indicator is the 2020 report produced by Citi Global Perspectives & Solutions (GPS) entitled Closing the Racial Inequality Gaps: The Economic Cost of Black Inequality in the U.S. The report placed the lost gross domestic product (GDP) caused by systemic and societal racism and discrimination faced by Black people during the first two decades of the new millennium at $16 trillion (about $49,000 per person in the US) (Citi, 2020). Despite advances since the end of chattel slavery and the displacement of Indigenous people in the U.S., the psychological impact of racism continues in social and organizational experiences.
The lagging impact of equity and inclusion efforts is evident in many public and private organizations and continues to drive statistical disparities among racial and ethnic groups. Pay inequity based between groups is common.1 The lack of diversity at the highest levels of corporations continues to be an issue in many organizations. The lack of diversity in high revenue-generating sectors such as advanced manufacturing points to systemic inequities embedded in structural and attitudinal constructs within organizations.2
Such realities demand solution-oriented examination, intervention, and assessment of relational dynamics, including how relational innovations may be achieved. If the assertion made in 1982 by futurist and inventor R. Buckminster Fuller that knowledge is doubling every 12 hours is accurate and the pace of technological change (i.e., the creation of tools) is simultaneously accelerating, relational deficits witnessed in social and organizational interactions are clear indicators that affective learning has not kept pace with cognitive and psychomotor advancements. The affective learning domain is one of three domains in Bloom's Taxonomy (Bloom, et al., 1956). The domain (Krathwohl, Bloom, Masia, 1973) includes five major categories: 1. Receiving - an awareness and willingness to hear, selected attention, 2. Responding - active participation on the part of the learners, 3. Valuing - the worth or value a person attaches to a particular object, phenomenon, or behavior, 4. Organizing –arranging of values into priorities by contrasting different values, resolving conflicts between them, and creating a unique value system, and 5. Internalizing values (characterization), having a value system that controls their behavior. Relational innovation is the looming challenge of the 21st Century and will significantly influence the gains or losses resulting from advances in knowledge and technology.
The introduction of affective learning that is apparent in learning community development requires the ability to assess learning associated with that domain. The ability to assess affective learning begins with establishing appropriate learning objectives, using the appropriate behavioral or empirical verb along with the conditions and criteria associated with the objective. Assessment is addressed by researchers such as Stephens & Ormandy (2019) in the field of nursing. However, the necessity for sound assessment criteria is not restricted to a singular discipline.
Key Terms in this Chapter
Social Belongingness: Social belongingness is the sense of affiliation and acceptance associated with interpersonal encounters. Belonging is an essential part of community building.
Playful Ingenuity: Playful ingenuity is a term coined by researcher Martin Hewing to mean engagement in creativity without the emotional burden of production standards or expectations.
Affective Learning Domain: The affective learning domain is one of three domains in which the process of awareness, familiarity, and mastery of information and process occurs. Learning is the process of intellectually receiving new information and may be applied as progress is made toward mastery. In contrast to the cognitive domain (knowledge) and psychomotor domain (skill), the affective learning domain is related to feelings, emotions, and psycho-social characteristics required for mentally healthy relationships.
Affective Competence: Affective competence is the ability to effectively apply knowledge and use skills to establish and maintain psychologically and socially healthy relationships. In contrast to affective intelligence, which is the knowledge of principles, affective competence refers to the ability to apply those principles in a manner that is conducive to emotional safety and productivity.
Analytic Induction: Analytic induction is an epistemological approach to science based on an ideographic and anti-positivistic philosophical perspective. It is grounded in inductive reasoning and inferential thinking. Most often used by sociologists and those engaged in case or qualitative studies, the approach is effective for hypothesis generation and making extrapolating generalizations that make be tested by those practicing more nomothetic, positivistic approaches to science.
Organizational Community: Organizational community is a group within a social organism bound by a sense of belongingness based on affiliation and acceptance.
Relational Innovation: Relational innovation is the ability to find new ways of advancing collaborative, interpersonal engagement. Innovation is applied to human relationships through ideation, strategy, incessant assessment, and effective learning processes.
Makerspace: A makerspace is a community of creatives, technologists, and traditional tradespeople who come together to share tools and resources for innovation and production. The makerspace concept is heavily dependent on the value of share space and the democratization of access to tools.
Innovation-Centric Organizational Community (IOC): IOC is an intra-organizational, inter-organizational, or trans-organizational group that experiences affiliation and acceptance to the extent that a sense of belonging exists based on perceived common values and beliefs. The primary characteristic of IOC is the common value of innovation. Innovation is based on ideation, strategy, incessant assessment, and organizational “double-loop” learning.