Foundations of communities of practice: enablers and barriers to participation

This research draws upon community of practice theory to explore the factors that enabled or hindered participation in an online 'Foundations of Communities of Practice' workshop – a course that is designed to align with Wenger's communities of practice perspective. The research used a mixed methods approach, drawing upon log-on and posting data, questionnaires and semi-structured interviews to explore participant experiences. The findings show that five dimensions either enabled or constrained participation. These were emotion, technology, connectivity, understanding norms and learning tensions. As enablers these dimensions led to successful participation within an online community of practice, but as constraints, they led to peripheral participation. The findings highlight implications for tutors of such courses. These include the need to (1) assess the technical expertise of participants, particularly when a number of different technological tools are used; (2) find ways to identify and evaluate emotional responses so learners can be supported in managing these; (3) ensure that participants understand the norms of a community; and (4) develop clear induction materials and processes.     

Knowledge retrieval through virtual communities of practice

This article explores how Computer Sciences Corporation (CSC) manages knowledge retrieval by employees when they need to access documents written by colleagues in geographically distant units. CSC's establishment of virtual communities of practice facilitates the coordination of knowledge, and minimises contextual gaps between senders and receivers of knowledge. Furthermore, the knowledge-sharing friendly culture of the case company quickly establishes swift trust, which enables receivers to directly approach the original, often previously unknown, author of a document for additional information.     

Degenerative structures that inhibit the emergence of communities of practice: a case study of knowledge management in the British Council

Abstract.  This paper presents the British Council's knowledge management strategy. It outlines how, as part of this strategy, the organization attempted to engender communities of practice among a strategically significant group spread across the 110 countries in which the organization operates. Using a case study of this group, the paper explores 'degenerative structures' that impact on the ability to engender communities of practice and, through consideration of issues of individualization and risk, highlights a series of paradoxes that inhibited this organization's attempt to move from a 'hub-and-spoke' structure to become a networked organization in which communities of practice flourish.     

Exploring the dynamics of blog communities: the case of MetaFilter

This paper explores the social processes and mechanisms that give form to a prominent type of online community: community blogs. We conducted an interpretive study that examines a particular community blog, MetaFilter, by drawing on the concepts of communities of practice as a theoretical lens. Theoretically, we contribute to the body of knowledge of online communities by identifying the structures of an emergent type of community that is brought together by blog technology. Our findings suggest that cohesion in a community blog is brought about by the following practices: (a) explicit ground rules regarding membership, (b) presence of moderators, (c) availability of profile information, (d) 'net etiquette', (e) tacit warrants for discerning pertinent posts, and (f) the deployment of specific techniques of discipline.     

From transaction to transformation: information and communication technology, professional development and the formation of communities of practice

Abstract Using the concept of ‘layers of community’, this paper describes and explains the ways in which teams of teachers, teacher educators and researchers worked together on the research project InterActive Education: teaching and learning in the information age. The focus is on the development and dissemination of professional knowledge as it relates to teaching and learning that incorporates information and communications technology (ICT) as a tool. Drawing on a range of data, we illustrate how ‘micro‐’, ‘meso‐’ and ‘macro’‐communities inter‐connect to create the settings for improved professional growth. The purpose is to challenge the linearity embedded in much of the professional development processes associated with ICT and to re‐model the relationship between practice and research.     

In justice we trust: Exploring knowledge-sharing continuance intentions in virtual communities of practice

Knowledge has become the key to success in the global knowledge economy, not only for organizations, but also in virtual communities of practice (VCoPs). The major challenge in sustaining a VCoP is acquiring knowledge spontaneously from members. This challenge leads to our research question: what encourages VCoP members to voluntarily and continuously help one another through continuous knowledge-sharing? In this study, we integrate three research streams—justice, trust, and organizational citizenship behaviors (OCB)—into one model in order to analyze the antecedents of knowledge-sharing continuance intentions in VCoPs. Our model theorizes that the four dimensions of justice (i.e., distributive, procedural, interpersonal, and informational justice) affect two different referents of trust (i.e., trust in members and trust in management). We further link these trust constructs to altruism (i.e., OCB directed to the individual) or conscientiousness (i.e., OCB directed to the organization), which in turn effect the knowledge-sharing continuance intentions in VCoPs. This hypothetical model is empirically validated using data collected from 142 members of an IT-oriented VCoP in Taiwan. Our integrated model has been helpful in VCoP research as it broadens our theoretical understanding of knowledge-sharing continuance intentions.     

The co-learning process in healthcare professionals: Assessing user satisfaction in virtual communities of practice

Communities of practice are nowadays an important concept in the healthcare sector. Particularly, the intensive use of ICT has allowed their creation into a virtual environment – Virtual Communities of Practice (VCoPs) developing optimal conditions to make possible the collaborative learning process. The VCoPs antecedents can be situated on social network phenomenon, where individuals with different traits but a common interest/objective are linked, use ICT potency (especially social media) to interchange information, experiences and contents among them. And as a result, people create and share knowledge, and learn collaboratively. VCoP users have a higher satisfaction level in the collaborative learning process when they can: (1) Achieve benefits related to patient diagnosis and treatment (cost reductions, faster management, quality and accuracy of diagnosis, etc.); (2) Increase the share capital of participants and creating networks of trusted individuals. Given the interest in this topic, the objective of this work is to identify the factors that determine user satisfaction in relation to Community Practice (CoP) and the process of building shared knowledge. For this, a sample of 130 Spanish health professionals participating in an online community, and developed in a virtual community of practice, is discussed. The results obtained from an analysis of logistic regression show evidence of the perception of efficiency and effectiveness in collaboration with the members of the VCoP as positively influencing the perceived satisfaction with the CoP. Also, the degree of individual participation in the community affects the degree of perceived satisfaction. The conclusions provide interesting strategic recommendations in the management process of the CoP.     

System Integration Techniques of Sharing and Collaboration among Work-groups, Computers and Processes

Systems Engineering (SE) and Concurrent Engineering (CE) implies sharing of information, data, process and knowledge [20] across different levels in an enterprise. Division of work into classes and then to the work-groups or to the concurrent sub-teams is one form of sharing large organizations like Ford Motor and General Motors have used [29]. Other forms of sharing are governed by the state of computer communications, workstation and database technologies [9]. For accomplishing the needed collaboration (and to facilitate concurrent engineering), several concepts and models for work-group computing were tried at Delphi Divisional units of Electronic Data Systems (EDS) and General Motors. Based on such experiences, the paper describes Systems Engineering and CE techniques for sharing information in a concurrent engineering organization, which has been found most effective for collaborating knowledge among a set of multidisciplinary work-groups, array of computers and processes.     

Mobility at work: A typology of mobile communities of practice and contextual ambidexterity

Innovations in mobile technology shape how mobile workers share knowledge and collaborate on the go. We introduce mobile communities of practice (MCOPs) as a lens for understanding how these workers self-organize, and present three MCOP case studies. Working from contextual ambidexterity, we develop a typology of bureaucratic, anarchic, idiosyncratic and adhocratic MCOPs. We discuss how variations in the degree of organizational alignment and individual discretion shape the extent to which these types explore and exploit mobile work practices and approach organizational ambidexterity. This article concludes with important strategic implications for managing mobile work and practical considerations for identifying, creating, and supporting MCOPs.     

Ethical theory, codes of ethics and IS practice

Ethical issues, with respect to computer-based information systems, are important to the individual IS practitioner. These same issues also have an important impact on the moral well-being of organizations and societies. Considerable discussion has taken place in the Information Systems (IS) literature on specific ethical issues, but there is little published work which relates these issues to mainstream ethical theory. This paper describes a range of ethical theories drawn from philosophy literature and uses these theories to critique aspects of the newly revised ACM Code of Ethics. Some in the IS field on problematic ethical issues which are not resolved by the Code are then identified and discussed. The paper draws some implications and conclusions on the value of ethical theory and codes of practice, and on further work to develop existing ethical themes and to promote new initiatives in the ethical domain.     

Participation in virtual academic communities of practice under the influence of technology acceptance and community factors. A learning analytics application

Participation in virtual communities of practice (vCoP) can be influenced at the same time by technology acceptance and by community factors. To overcome methodological issues connected with the analysis of these influences, learning analytics were applied. Based on a recent vCoP model, the collaborative dialogue comprising 4040 interventions in 1981 messages created by a vCoP located at a US American online university was automatically analyzed. The text-based asynchronous online discussions were scored using a cohesion-based participation and collaboration analysis. Additionally, a sample of N = 133 vCoP participants responded a technology acceptance survey. Thus, a combined research model including the vCoP model and an established technology acceptance model was verified. The results confirmed the vCoP model entirely, and the acceptance model only partially. As consequence for educational research, the CoP model was confirmed and extended to vCoP settings, while the acceptance model appears to need reconsideration. For academic practice, the study initiates the development of assessment tools fostering knowledge sharing through dialogue in vCoP. Also, it suggests how virtual classrooms can be extended to open spaces where value creation takes place through social learning. Learning analytics proved thus successful, provides information that impacts both theory and practice of technology-enhanced learning.