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This is the first in a series of articles on this topic.

Communities of Practice
by Saul Jones Ed.D.
Academic Senate President 2001-05

When colleagues retire or change roles or jobs they take valuable information with them. This information comes at a cost and loss to the organization where the member was once employed. Malhotra (2001) found in a survey that 26% of knowledge in the average organization is stored on paper and 20% digitally, and 42% is stored in the employees’ heads. Serban and Luan (2002) in a discussion on capturing and preserving an organization’s knowledge stated that, “Organizations are increasing recognizing that capturing and sharing these experiences and skills save them money, prevent or reduce interruptions in activities, and enhance their overall ability to cope with changes in personnel” (p. 7). Brown and Duguid (2002) also noted the importance of people and the knowledge they possess to an organization’s functioning and the gap they leave in their absence commenting that, “If NASA wanted to go to the moon again, it would have to start from scratch, having lost not the data, but the human expertise that took it there the last time” (p. 122). In an effort to preserve the information and knowledge in an organization and increase an organization’s and its members ability to know and learn, some organizations have turned to a form of learning community (Raelin, 2000) actively supporting the development or nurturing of communities of practice.

A community of practice is a term coined acknowledge that collective learning occurs at work as we seek out associates with whom we share a common way of thinking and talking about our work (Lave & Wenger, 1991). Communities of practice differ from other communities in three main ways. First, they focus on a domain of shared interests, and membership implies a level of competence and knowledge of that domain which distinguishes members from other people. Second, they interact and learn together by engaging in joint activities and discussions, helping each other, and sharing information. Through these interactions, they build relationships and form a community around a domain. Third, they develop a shared collection of experiences, stories, and best practices, and ways of solving problems. The shared repertoire of stories and case studies becomes a common knowledge base upon which they can draw when facing new situations. Shared learning and interest are what keeps communities of practice together.

References

Brown, J. S., & Duguid. (2002). The Social life of information. Boston, MA: Harvard Business School Press.

Lave, J., Wenger, E. (1991). Situated learning: legitimate peripheral participation. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press.

Malhotra, Y. (2001). Knowledge assets in the global economy: Assessment of national intellectual capital. In Y. Malhotra (Ed.), Knowledge management and business model innovation (pp. 232-249). Hershey, PA: Idea Group Publishing.

Raelin, J. (2000). Work-based learning: The new frontier of management development. Upper Saddle, NJ: Prentice Hall.

Serban, A. M., & Luan (2002, Spring). Overview of knowledge management. In Andreea M. Serban & Jing Luan (Eds.). Knowledge management building a competitive advantage in higher education. New directions for institutional research, 113, 5-16.