Commissioning as Workplace Learning: Visibility, Identity, and Tacit Knowledge Risks

Abstract

Commissioning—the phase in which engineered systems transition from design to operation—creates a distinctive workplace learning ecology characterised by compressed timelines, high stakes, interdependent teams, and a heavy reliance on tacit knowledge. Despite its centrality to capability development, commissioning remains invisible mainly in organisational systems, standards and curricula. This structural invisibility shapes how participation, legitimacy and knowledge transfer unfold in practice, yet commissioning is almost absent from workplace learning research.

Drawing on sociotechnical safety theory, identity construction and practice-based learning, this paper introduces three constructs that explain learning vulnerability in commissioning environments: Commissioning Visibility Deficit (CVD), Identity Under Pressure Load (IUPL) and Tacit-Critical Knowledge Risk (TCKR). These constructs are integrated into the Commissioning Visibility–Risk Model (CVRM), which conceptualises commissioning as an interdependent learning ecology in which structural invisibility, legitimacy pressures, and tacit fragility shape capability continuity, participation, and inclusion. Two practice-informed vignettes illustrate how these dynamics manifest during high-risk commissioning episodes.

The paper extends workplace learning theory by showing how visibility, identity and tacit knowledge dependencies interact during complex technical work, and provides pathways for operationalising CVD, IUPL and TCKR in future empirical studies. The findings highlight the need to recognise commissioning as a critical site of workplace learning and organisational resilience.