communities of practice

• Communities of practice

• The Effectiveness of Communities of Practice: An Empirical Study

A critical component of Knowledge Management is creating mechanisms to facilitate collaboration and sharing of information. One such mechanism of increasing popularity is Communities of Practice (CP). This article presents the results of an empirical study that explored the impact of select CP characteristics on overall community effectiveness and community members' satisfaction with their community experience. The CP characteristics examined in the study include community's leadership quality, CP members' affective commitment to the community and its goals, members' perceived connectedness with others in the community, trust among CP members, and perceived impact of CP involvement on members' own jobs. The data for this study were collected at State Farm Insurance Companies. State Farm...

• Journal of Managerial Issues; JMI
• Vol. 21 Nbr. 2, July 2009

• Sustaining Communities of Practice

The Federal Highway Administration (FHWA, fhwa.dot.gov) community members connect with one another via the community Web site, using the discussion forums, the community directory and community events to stay in touch and share knowledge around the topic areas most relevant or interesting to them. Community facilitators work diligently to keep the community forums relevant and up-to-date with hot topics and new content. Many organizations have spent much time and many resources designing and implementing communities of practice (CoPs) in an attempt to connect people to others with similar issues and to collect valuable content to improve business processes. This article will explore how organizations sustain and evolve their efforts, and highlight responses from more than 700 actual CoP...

• KM World
• Vol. 15 Nbr. 3, March 2006

• Limitations of communities of practice: a consideration of unresolved issues and difficulties in the approach.

Communities of practice are becoming increasingly common on the organizational landscape. Organizations are simultaneously incorporating communities o...

• Journal of Leadership & Organizational Studies
• Vol. 15 Nbr. 1, August 2008

• Intra-Organizational Knowledge Sharing in Mncs Depending On the Degree of Decentralization and Communities of Practice

This paper investigates the process of knowledge sharing between the different sites of a multinational company (MNC) and its influencing factors in 8 renowned MNCs in various industries all over the world. Following the research question 'How does the organizational structure influence knowledge sharing across the single sites of MNCs?', we focus on analyzing the organizational context of structure (the degree of decentralization of knowledge management and the existence of communities of practice) and its impact on the technical and personal knowledge flows and the intensity of cross-site knowledge sharing investigated with qualitative research methods.

• Journal of Global Business and Technology
• Vol. 4 Nbr. 1, April 2008

• Evidence-based practice in mental health care to ethnic minority communities: has its practice fallen short of its evidence?

Evidence-based practice (EBP) in the provision of mental health care for adults is a powerful mandate in the United States, where it has dramatically ...

• Social Work
• Vol. 53 Nbr. 4, October 2008

• Transportation: Communities of Practice Leverage Knowledge

FHWA plans to extend the community of practice by adding on-demand multimedia presentations. "Many of FHWA's expert staff will be retiring over the next five years, and it's important to capture their knowledge before they go," says [Mark Youman]. The US highway system is a part of the nation's critical infrastructure, one on which the economy and security are highly dependent. Keeping the highway system running smoothly is an ongoing challenge, best accomplished when information is shared quickly and efficiently. At the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA), online communities of practice (CoPs) are facilitating the exchange of information, experience and ideas. The benefits of the ongoing CoPs are not yet fully documented, but if previous efforts are any indication, the future is prom...

• KM World
• Vol. 15 Nbr. 7, July 2006

• Communities of practice in government: leveraging knowledge for performance; Learn how this evolving tool for cross-organizational collaboration currently is being used in a variety of public sector settings and how it can help you cultivate improved performance outcomes in your backyard.

It is well known that breakthroughs in government policies and programs are held back when colleagues within an agency are unable to connect the dots ...

• The Public Manager
• Vol. 32 Nbr. 4, December 2003

• Libraries, knowledge management, and communities of practice.

The library collection included many bound journals. There were stacks and stacks of items that had not been moved for many years. A brief examination...

• Information Outlook
• Vol. 10 Nbr. 1, January 2006

• Breaking Into Communities of Practice

In my opinion, relationship building is crucial for success in pushing the information literacy paradigm, and these communities are the ideal place to get started. Digital librarians need to build personal relationships with faculty and students that advance the cause of information literacy. If the library staff is in closer conversation with faculty, attends classes, participates in online forums, or perhaps even joins an online social networking community like MySpace, the library would stand a better chance of being relevant in classroom life.

• Computers in Libraries
• Vol. 26 Nbr. 5, May 2006

• Creating Communities of Professional Practice in the Correctional Education Classroom

Meaningful professional development (PD) for correctional educators is not frequently addressed, though they work with students who are most at-risk in terms of academic success. In addition to the challenges that the students themselves face, there are obstacles inherent in administering educational programs in correctional facilities whose goals are very different from those of traditional educational programs. When teachers in correctional programs attend professional development venues offered by many districts, they often leave feeling that while they received valid and interesting information, it didn't really apply to them. Since continued professional development is critical to the teaching profession, and teaching in a correctional education program poses unique challenges, tea...

• Journal of Correctional Education
• Vol. 59 Nbr. 3, September 2008