The Paradox of Communities of Practice (original) (raw)
Related papers
Sharing Knowledge through Communities of Practice
Methodologies for Competitive Advantage
Campos, editors. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. Summary: "This book provides a sound understanding of the managerial implications of communities of practice as well as their opportunities and limits for knowledge management"-Provided by publisher.
Exploring Knowledge Sharing among Members of a Community of Practice
Online Submission, 2008
This paper presents the findings of a qualitative study that explored knowledge sharing among members of a community of practice (CoP) in a large, urban high school. Findings suggest that social relationships, informal channels, community culture, levels of trust, and spatial factors influence knowledge sharing, and that CoPs have the potential to foster an organizational culture that supports knowledge sharing. Implications for future research and practice are presented.
UNDERSTANDING COMMUNITIES OF PRACTICE
Managing knowledge is an issue that is of critical importance to the international firm and the successful sharing of know-how and best practice have been identified as key elements in an international firm's competitive advantage (Nonaka and Takeuchi, 1995; Wan & Hoskisson, 2003). While there may be agreement on the value of knowledge sharing, there are many barriers and unknowns to the achievement of this objective.
Computer Science and Information Systems, 2012
According to some literature, communities of practice should normally stem from a voluntary initiative within an organization, whose members share some knowledge or expertise they wish to improve. However, over time, we have seen that communities tend to be created within organizations, in order to attain objectives of learning and knowledge development. This represents a challenge in the context of a community of practice taking the form of a research network in partnership that brings together members with common interests certainly, but spread out in different organizations and even several countries in which they perform different types of work. Also, the community does not exist in a vacuum and the explanation for what happens within it does not lie solely within the way the group interacts; indeed the individuals are part of different organizations and thus have different priorities, in relation with these affiliations. In this context, our research objective was to determine the factors that facilitate or hinder cooperation within a community of practice composed by two groups of actors, community and university actors. We thus found that individuals' different work affiliations might not facilitate the work within the CoP and that ICT/web 2.0 tools are not always a solution to increase participation in a CoP. Although participants are somewhat familiar with the tools, they mostly seem content with receiving and accessing information, not searching for a more active participation. Some explications and solutions will be proposed.
Studies and Initiatives, 2007
The objective of this chapter is to explore the social dynamics and the effectiveness benefits that a community of practice creates for its members in a knowledge-intensive IT industry. Social dynamics is examined in terms of informal and organised forms of socialisation processes. Effectiveness benefits were evaluated in terms of commitment, friendship, community satisfaction, process satisfaction, and trust. The results of the study indicate that organised socialisation had a significant positive impact on all aspects of community effectiveness, but no particularly outstanding effect. The results further indicate that informal socialisation had a stronger positive impact on community effectiveness than organised socialisation, except for process satisfaction. These findings confirm the value of socialisation for effective knowledge organisations, and suggest the need for strategies that would provide encouragement without overformalisation.
UNDERSTANDING COMMUNITIES OF PRACTICE: TAKING STOCK AND MOVING FORWARD
Academy of management Annals, 2022
This paper provides a comprehensive, integrative conceptual review of work on communities of practice (CoPs), defined broadly as groups of people bound together by a common activity, shared expertise, a passion for a joint enterprise, and a desire to learn or improve their practice. We identify three divergent views on the intended purposes and expected effects of CoPs: as mechanisms for fostering learning and knowledge-sharing, as sources of innovation, and as mechanisms to defend interests and perpetuate control over expertise domains. We use these different lenses to make sense of the ways CoPs are conceptualized and to review scholarly work on this topic. We argue that current debate on the future of work and new methodological developments are challenging the received wisdom on CoPs and offer research opportunities and new conceptual combinations. We argue also that the interaction between the lenses and between CoP theory and adjacent literatures might result in new theory and conceptualizations.
Thinking Together: What Makes Communities of Practice Work?
Human Relations, 2017
In this article, we develop the founding elements of the concept of Communities of Practice by elaborating on the learning processes happening at the heart of such communities. In particular, we provide a consistent perspective on the notions of knowledge, knowing and knowledge sharing that is compatible with the essence of this concept – that learning entails an investment of identity and a social formation of a person. We do so by drawing richly from the work of Michael Polanyi and his conception of personal knowledge, and thereby we clarify the scope of Communities of Practice and offer a number of new insights into how to make such social structures perform well in professional settings. The conceptual discussion is substantiated by findings of a qualitative empirical study in the UK National Health Service. As a result, the process of 'thinking together' is conceptualized as a key part of meaningful Communities of Practice where people mutually guide each other through their understandings of the same problems in their area of mutual interest, and this way indirectly share tacit knowledge. The collaborative learning process of 'thinking together', we argue, is what essentially brings Communities of Practice to life and not the other way round.
Knowledge Sharing Within and Between Communities of Practice in a Knowledge Intensive Organization
IGI Global eBooks, 2011
The aim of this chapter is to link communities of practice to the knowledge creation and dissemination in the specific context of knowledge intensive organization. This is done by pointing out the role that CoPs may have in relation to knowledge sharing and innovativeness in the knowledge intensive context. CoPs can fulfill numerous functions in respect to the creation, accumulation, and diffusion of knowledge. Thus, Wenger's (1998) clarifying categorization of those knowledge-related functions has served as a foundation and inspiration in this context-specific description: exchange and interpretation of information; retaining knowledge; steward competencies and provide homes for identities. However, it is worth noting that while communities of practice are traditionally seen as the creators of knowledge and innovations, it is also important to acknowledge the challenges and even obstacles of these tightly-coupled groups may bring to the organizational knowledge sharing and learning processes. These issues are mainly defined through our empirical case examples we have linked to the theoretical review.
Why communities of practice succeed and why they fail
European Management Journal, 2008
A specific form of intra-organizational networks -a community of practice (COP) -is increasingly regarded as an important structure within organizations. This network structure is well suited for the development and sharing of knowledge and practices across divisions. Our research explores the most salient reasons for the success and failure of such networks. An investigation of 57 COPs from major European and US companies led to the discovery of 10 ''commandments'' that lead to the successful development and sharing of best practices. It also identified five main reasons for failure.