COMMUNITIES OF PRACTICES IN BUSINESSES

QUESTION

Discuss key factors in creating a community of practice within a business

SOLUTION

Knowing is an act of participation in complex “social learning systems” Wenger, (2003). All individuals and organizations by virtue of developing in a society participate and are constituted by such systems of learning, which could be an industry, a region or a consortium. The existence of such systems has led to formation of a concept of communities of practice.

Any group of people, who share a common con concern, emotion or enthusiasm for something, if form a common platform to interact on that subject to learn to pursue it better, it is known as a community of practice. Any community of practice brings those people together who share a common learning need. The learning need may or may not be explicit and motivational, but it can also be a by-product of people coming together. Eventually over a time, the collective learning thus attained forms a bond among the people in a group. The process of learning is experienced in various ways; therefore it is not a source of homogeneity but involves dynamic characteristics.

In this essay, we will discuss how communities of practice can fit into a business structure and be productive to it. The primary purpose of communities of practice is to develop and spread some knowledge to help making better business strategies. However, it is not some formal setup, which requires membership by an affiliation. It is purely based on voluntary participation of the members, who have interest in learning something common. Though a community of practice do not have any authority over business practice, it should be considered as a useful tool to acquire and adopt an expert source of knowledge and skill (Wenger, McDermott, Synder, 2002). Let us start by determining factors, which differentiate a community of practice from a business unit.

Community of Practice and Business Organization

A business organization revolves around a core responsibility of planning and managing business goals like, producing or manufacturing, serving to a market segment, expanding and achieving financial and growth targets. In a business organization, each member or department is assigned and allocated with formal roles, tasks and responsibilities for outcomes related to the business. A community of practice is more an informal structure, which loosely connected to business. It is not managed by a business, but is self-managed, despite that it is highly institutionalized. Unlike a business unit, a community of practice is not based on formal reporting, but is an association derived out of collegiality. Members of community of practice come together not due it any institutional affiliation but out of need to share and participate in developing an expert knowledge. The purpose of community of practice is not to directly guide the production targets, allocation of resources, and other business objectives. It too has difference of power among its members, and the more learned member does have a more say into community activities. However, the exercise of power here is not to control resources or give orders, it is to foster and structure knowledge of use to business (Wenger, McDermott, Synder, 2002). In the following section, we will discuss, why should business organizations institutionalize communities of practice?

Advantage of Having Community of Practice in Business

Community of practice as a concept works to shape the knowledge of any organization or institution. Etienne Wenger suggests that a good model of managing knowledge and its practice can give a company a decided advantage (Wenger, 2004). Knowledge Management researchers with different approaches have measured the impact and benefits of communities. Butler, et al.1997 used an approach to find out time savings that results from various knowledge work activities because of IT investments. Another approach leads to elaborative information from knowledge workers to list the benefits of using various collaborative systems. These findings and anecdotes have been applied to alternatively calculating the Return on Investment (US Navy, 2001). Besides, knowledge work activities have also seen related to improving social connectivity, organization performance and intellect level and it capital value (Roberts, 2000).

Fontaine and Millen, (2004) study thirteen communities in ten global organizations to understand the impact that communities of practice have its members and the organization. The findings surfaced several useful benefits of communities of practice for organizations. People, experts and researchers who have worked with communities of practices suggest that these communities enhance the level and flow of knowledge within an organization. Different knowledge management programs help quantifying the intangible benefits of participating in communities of practice. It is observed that all Human Resource departments run employee job satisfaction surveys to learn about the factors that determine employee retention, learning, development and to assess the potential cost of training. Many observe relationship of satisfaction with increased customer satisfaction and improved sales and revenue (Heskett, et al 1994; Hoisington & Huang, 1999).

Thus, it can be understood that communities of practice provide for interaction, knowledge and assessment. The interaction thus accrued increases the awareness and access to the collective expertise and experience that comes from each member of the community. Members and organization can use the community and its expert members with differentiated experience, as a source of information to build their individual strengths to contribute to the ultimate success and growth of the organization. Besides, the community members too experience enlightened intellect and expert knowledge, which can put in use to improve their individual skill and performance. There is greater sharing of knowledge, resources and expertise between the members that lead to collaborative work culture and responsibility towards the organization. In the Fontaine and Millen, (2004) study, over 70 percent of the people, who were the member of communities of practice, agreed that collaboration between members of different authority and levels increased as a result of the community interactions. 57 percent participants in this study believed that community participation increased their operational efficiency and led to cost savings, increased sales and decreased costs.

How Benefits of Communities Are Applied to Solving Business Problems

The Fontaine and Millen, (2004) study further helped to quantify and realize the anecdotes of benefits of participating in communities of practice, by as asking the members how the resources gained from communities helped them solving actual business issues. Many members agreed that documents and templates received from community meetings helped them save 60 percent of their time for project implementation process and 40 percent of the time, which they would have consumed in the planning phase itself. The methodology and procedures thus learned from communities also helped members gaining greater customer satisfaction and in potential cost saving of over 30 percent.

After, assessing and understanding importance and advantage of creating community of practice within an organization, we shall learn about the key characteristics, which are involved in incorporating this tool in a business organization.

Key Characteristics of Communities of Practice

Organizations in future will have to learn to explore the creative powers of self-organizing project communities, knowledge networks and open source teams to inculcate new and innovative ways of work and learning. It is this prospective innovation movement intended for business as well as non-business organizations that widens the scope and utility of communities of practice Community Intelligence, (2003).

Etienne Wenger has described three important dimensions of communities of practice:

Domain: In a community of practice, the people come together and organize around a domain of knowledge, which is of their common interest and use. The domain of knowledge creates a sense of joint enterprise among the member towards the community.

Community: In order to be classified as a community an organization or a knowledge network needs mutual engagement that brings members together in a social entity. In a community members interact regularly to engage in joint activities and gradually build trust and relationship.

Practice: A community by developing a shared resources and expertise of tools, documents, vocabulary, symbols and procedures etc accrues a knowledge of the community as its practice. The practice of shared learning and development serves an instrument for future learning.

In a community of practice, the major goals and basic nature of the enterprise is negotiated among the members and simply decided the management like in the work teams and project teams. No specific authority or leader uses his or her discretion to select members of the community of practice. It is completely self-selecting, as people, who identify with the shared knowledge, concern or enthusiasm of the community, they volunteer to participate in the community (Allee, 2000).

Conclusion

Communities of practice have emerged as an instrumental platform in the modern-day business networks where talents are being combined, and expertise and knowledge is shared among members, who voluntarily come seeking that knowledge. Self-organizing communities of practice in business are working as innovative edge to upgrade skills and enhance performance and sustainability of members and organizations as a whole.

References:

Allee, V. (2000). Knowledge Networks and Communities of Practice. OD Practitioner, Fall/Winter 2000.

Butler, P., Hall, T., Hanna, A., Mendonca, L., Auguste, B., Manyika, J.,and Sahay, A. (1997). A revolution in interaction. The McKinsey Quarterly, 1,4-23.

Community Intelligence, (2003). Innovation and Communities of Practice. Community Intelligence Ltd Co.

Fontain, M.A. and Millen, D.R. (2004). Understanding the Benefits and Impact of Communities of Practice. IBM Institute for Knowledge-Based Organizations, U.S.A.

Heskett, J. L., Jones, T. O., Loveman, G. W., Sasser, W. E., & Schlesinger, L. A. (1994). Putting the service-profit chain to work. Harvard Business Review. March-April, 164-174.

Hoisington, S., & Huang, T-H. (1999). Customer satisfaction and market share at IBM Rochester, Baldrige Worksheet found at http://www.baldrigeplus.com/Exhibits/Exhibit%20%20Customer%20satisfaction%20and%20market%20share.pdf. [1999, July 27th]

Roberts, B. (2000). A balanced approach. Knowledge Management, September, 26-33.

U. S. Navy. (2001). Metrics guide for knowledge management initiatives. United States Department of Navy, August.

Wenger, E. McDermott, R.A., Synder,W. ( 2002). Cultivating Communities of Practice: A Guide to Managing Knowledge. Harvard Business School Press. USA.

Wenger, E. (2004), Knowledge management as a doughnut: Shaping your knowledge strategy through communities of practice. Improving The Practice of management. Ivey Management Services.

KI55

Please  Click on the  below links to Chat Now  or fill the Order Form !