Communities of Practice: Performance and Evolution

Organizations and groups rely on the effective capture and sharing of knowledge for their survival. They spend a significant amount of effort and time to codify and manage the body of knowledge that their constituents collectively possess. Despite these efforts, tacit knowledge tends to solely reside within those who use it for their day to day work. It is widely believed that tacit knowledge disappears when the individual possessing it leaves an organization or group. More and more organizations are fostering communities of practice as a mechanism to influence knowledge creation and dissemination. Hence, it becomes imperative for us to understand how best to capture the knowledge that now resides within these communities, which could extend across multiple organizations. In this research article, we establish that the knowledge contained within communities of practice evolves over a period of time. We examine the evolution of this knowledge, and its impact on the community as well as the invidividuals concerned.

Journal of Workplace Learning, 2006

Purpose -The purpose of this research is to get a clear view on how can we judge groups in relation to the characteristics of a community of practice (CoP), and the presence of collective learning in these groups. Design/methodology/approach -A review of literature on collective learning and CoPs led to the development of a conceptual model, which was tested through case study research against empirical data from three groups in organizations. Findings -The groups differed concerning group characteristics, but also concerning the collective learning processes and learning outcomes present. The group that can be characterized as a CoP learns a lot, but the (learning) processes in the group are not always in favour of the organizational learning process.

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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.

1999

Abstract:'Community of practice'is a relatively new term for an apparently new discovery-groups inside workplaces and elsewhere through which individuals learn a practice, simultaneously developing their own identities, and reproducing the practice. It has been hailed as significant for understanding organizational learning and knowledge management.

Innovation Through Communities of Practice

This chapter examines knowledge sharing between Communities of Practice, a relatively neglected topic of study. Theory and evidence is presented to suggest that knowledge sharing between communities is likely to be more complex than intra-community knowledge sharing, due to the lack of shared consensual knowledge or shared sense of identity which typically exists in inter-community contexts. In such situations, the development of trust is seen to be a key foundation which requires to be developed before effective knowledge sharing can occur. Three brief case studies are presented to illustrate the arguments made. Practitioner implications flowing from this chapter are twofold. Firstly, to facilitate effective inter-community knowledge sharing requires effort to be invested in developing the social relationship (and hence trust) between members from the communities. Secondly, organizations need to balance their efforts at building Communities

2012

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.