Communities of Practice

Paper Summary:

This paper discusses how the globalization of knowledge pools and resources is responsible for the growing number and importance of communities of practice. The writer defines the term and gives the criteria that must be met for a community to qualify as a "community of practice." The author also describes various ways in which such a community functions and explains how informal networks and professional communities benefit the organization in which they exist as well as the individual members. Additionally, te author lists ways to cultivate communities of practice, and also notes some of their downsides. The paper includes a case study of an organization that set up a community of practice, and charts.

Case Study
Communities of Practice and Organizational Performance
Cultivating Communities of Practice

From the Paper:

"With communities of practice, one cannot think in concrete or opposed terms. There is normally a continuum. For example, knowledge can be more or less explicit. Similarly, explicit knowledge is not freed from the tacit. It is not possible to make everything explicit and eliminate the tacit. It is only possible to change relationships. As a result, the process of making something explicit, formalizing or sharing are not just translations; they are instead transformations--the development of a new context of both participation and reification where the relations between the tacit and the explicit will be renegotiated."

Sample of Sources Used:

• Brown, S. and Gray, E.S. (1995) The people are the company. Fast Company 1(1): 78.
• Davenport, T., & Pursak, L. (1998) Working Knowledge. Boston: Harvard Business School Press.
• Dixon, N. (2000) Common Knowledge. Boston: Harvard Business School.
• Fitzgerald, D. (October 29, 2002) With a little help from my friends. April 15, 2008. Retrieved from http://articles.techrepublic.com.com/5100-22-1051911.html
• Lesser, E.L., & Storck, J. (2001) Communities of practice and organizational performance. 40(4) [Online Version] http://www.research.ibm.com/journal/sj/404/lesser.html

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