This paper reports on the nature of dispersed and integrative practices (Schatzki, 1996) in collaborative work. Working in collaboration is becoming more common across organizations and a research topic across domains. We use the situation of changes in the use of collaboration to investigate the dispersed-integrative concept using in-depth interviews and observations in organizations employing the same high collaboration work method (Lean Production, LP).

We show that it was the introduction of collaborative work that was followed by the binding of the dispersed practice with the integrative practice to form a new integrative practice containing the social component.  This result has implications for research and for practice. In general, it supports the importance of the practice theory lens in study of organizations as a generator of novel insight. It also moves practice theory forward by developing theory about changes in dispersed and integrative practices and their relation to each other.