Communities of Practice: The Organizational Frontier – A Review
I. Introduction
Sharing of knowledge and expertise has always been the mainstay of development, be it personal or organizational. It is a natural tendency of humans with specific interests and goals to interact with others having similar interests and ambitions, and engage in productive discussions that enable them in achieving their goals more efficiently. Such interactions give rise to “communities”, which are well-knit groups of like-minded professionals who share their knowledge and tactical skills and even attempt at solving common problems related to their area of expertise through collective brainstorming. These are active groups where knowledge is shared dynamically and which drive change and advancements in their respective fields. Such communities have been termed as ‘Communities of Practice’.
The present article discusses the concept of ‘Communities of Practice’ in the context of business organizations. This is a review of the insightful paper, Communities of Practice: the Organizational Frontier, by Wenger and Snyder (2000), wherein, the authors discuss how business firms can cultivate communities of practice in their own organizations and use them to leverage their knowledge and productivity. The key points made by the authors are discussed here. Examples of how such communities can add value to business organizations and relevant success stories discussed by the authors are also reviewed. This paper also attempts at discussing the applications of these concepts apart from critically evaluating the authors’ ideas.
II. Key Concepts
The key concepts discussed in the reviewed paper are summarized as follows:
A. Communities of Practice
The authors d...
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... while others enable transfer of best practices. Managers will have to identify potential communities of practice in their organizations and provide them with appropriate infrastructure to reap the long-term benefits of such communities.
References
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Psychology has always fascinated me. Learning about classical conditioning (Ivan Pavlov), personality the id, ego, and superego (Sigmund Freud), was all interesting subjects in my high school introduction to psychology class. Although psychology was my first love, it lay dormant for years until I decided to return for my master’s degree. Choosing clinical psychology with a specialization in forensics was an easy decision since I love psychology and learning about the law of our country and the United Kingdom. Which fueled one of my favorite past times watching old and new television shows like Perry Mason, The Good Wife on CBS, Law and Order/Special Victims Unit on NBC, Damages, and Silk on Netflix. Television shows are not my
The CareGroup Case Study comprises various components. The core concepts were broken down into the history of CareGroup itself, CareGroup’s IT, the collapse of the network, dealing with the collapse of the network, and the lessons learned from the entire situation (McFarlan, F. Warren, and Robert D. Austin, pg.1). CareGroup was formed on the basis of three major Massachusetts hospitals; Beth Israel, Deaconess, and Mount Auburn (McFarlan, F. Warren, and Robert D. Austin, pg.1). After a surprising merger of Mass General and Brigham and Women’s Hospital, all three hospitals in CareGroup suffered great financial losses (McFarlan, F. Warren, and Robert D. Austin, pg.2). Due to the multi-million dollar financial losses, CareGroup felt they needed a change, which is when they added Halamka to their team, naming him their CIO (McFarlan, F. Warren, and Robert D. Austin, pg.3).
Kirst-Ashman, K. K., & Hull G. H., Jr. (2015). Generalist Practice with Organizations and Communities (6th ed.). Stamford, CT: Cengage Learning.
The majority of physician practices are group practice for a variety of reasons. In a group
In his book The Community of Those Who Have Nothing in Common, Alphonso Lingis (1994) discusses community and proposes an untraditional view of community, the “other community”. Traditionally community is known as a social structure in which individuals have something in common. This usually refers to a shared location, shared identity or common values or beliefs. In this traditional view or “rational community” these commonalities are crucial in uniting individuals.
Glaze, A. (2013). How Ontario spread successful practices across 5,000 schools. Phi Delta Kappan, 95(3), 44.
The role of community has a powerful context in teaching and learning. Learning does involve individual behavioral changes, but it is the community that can change the social environment, involving many people. Palmer provided different types of social environments which he found to enhance the educational mission of teaching and learning. The three types of communities that Palmer analyzed were the therapeutic, civic, and marketing models. I found the models to be restricting as each model has something to offer but were to one dimensional. None of the models worked well for students by themselves, but an assortment of them may produce an education process that would create teaching beneficial for students. For an assortment to be conceivable the method for doing so
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Wenger, E. (2000) Communities of Practice and Social Learning Systems. Organization Articles. 7 (2), p225-246
Community is like a Venn diagram. It is all about relations between a finite group of people or things. People have their own circles and, sometimes, these circles overlap one another. These interceptions are interests, common attitudes and goals that we share together. These interceptions bond us together as a community, as a Venn diagram. A good community needs good communication where people speak and listen to each other openly and honestly. It needs ti...
Rothman, J. (1974). Three models of community organization practice. Strategies of community organization: A book of readings, 22-38.
Introduction With today’s rate of development in technology, there has also been an immense increase in global information sharing. Innovations in technology and design seem to be emerging in the market almost every month. One of the key aspects of any business is to gather, organize and efficiently apply this information. According to Antonic (2005), economic assets are fast becoming of secondary importance in the market as companies ascribe more importance to intellectual capital. With the right application of knowledge management methods, companies can achieve a competitive advantage by managing the immense amount of information available (Balanced Scorecard Institute, 2002).
Pasher, E., & Ronen, T. (2011). The complete guide to knowledge management: A strategic plan to leverage your company 's intellectual capital. Hoboken, N.J: John Wiley & Sons.
“Informal groups have a powerful influence on the effectiveness of an organization, and can even subvert its formal groups. But, the informal group’s role is not limited to resistance. The impact of the informal group upon the larger formal group depends on the norms that the informal group sets. So the informal group can make the formal organization more effective, too.” Informal groups can either be a manager’s best friend or worst enemy. Group Development: The Formation of Informal Work Groups Informal work groups are part of any working environment; how they form, the leadership within the group and how these groups communicate, follow the same basic model. “Groups are particularly good at combining talents and providing innovate solutions to possible unfamiliar problems.” “There are five stages of group development. The first is forming,which is where the group first comes together. Everyone is usually polite. Conflict is seldom voiced directly. Individuals will be guarded in their own opinions and reserved.” The second form of developmentis “storming a chaotic vying for leadership and trailing of group operates.” The third is norming as the second stage evolves the rules of engagement for the group becomes established, and the scopes of the group’s task or responsibilities are clear and agreed. Fourth is performing,not all groups reach this point. Everyone knows each other well enough to be able to work together. And the fifth stage is adjourning; this is about the completion and disengagement of the tasks and group members. The formations of informal work groups are employed by an organization to perform specific functions. Informal groups almost always arise ...
When most people talk about community, they think of a location, an area in which people live. By definition “community” is a group of people living in the same location and under the same government. Community can also be defined as a group of people with the same common interests or segments in society. However, these definitions, which can be found in any dictionary, are only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to explaining what community really is. Community is the memories and traditions of a certain area, as well as the interactions and responsibilities of its members. In order to truly belong to a community people must follow a set of values. These communal values are needed to provide stability among communities in this ever changing world. In the past ten years, with the advent of the internet and many other forms of communication, communities have become less interactive and isolated. In this paper I will be discussing the purpose of communal values and why they should be protected.