Communities of Practice

Characteristics of CoPs

Harvesting, creating, sharing and leveraging of knowledge are what CoPs are working together to achieve. The exchange of knowledge in communities can take place explicitly or implicitly. Therefore, the distinction between explicit and implicit knowledge is important. Members in a CoP usually mutually dedicate and identify the relevant field of expertise or a particular topic to share their ideas. Community members may have different backgrounds, but they all work together towards achieving the same goal(s), using their knowledge, skills and abilities. In general, CoPs are self-emerging and self-organizing knowledge networks in which everyone can participate. Members of a CoP do not necessarily work together daily, but they find value in their meetings and interactions.

Usually, the members of a CoP have a common motivation to cultivate a climate of trust, learn together and develop best practices for the organization. The trust members develop is based on their ability to learn together: to care about the domain, to respect each other as practitioners, to expose their questions and challenges and to provide responses that reflect practical [Page 136]experience. It is their commitment to the process that keeps them going and their respect for the voices they represent that builds trust. This allows CoP members to openly share information, insight and advice; explore ideas and act as both human ‘transceivers' and ‘repeaters'.

The data, information and insights they harvest, create and share ultimately accumulate into knowledge. As the CoPs not only extend across the units of a single organization but can also comprise members of separate organizations, this knowledge leads to the development of a common body of knowledge, approaches, techniques, templates, tools and methodologies within the CoP and beyond—to the organization(s) and the rest of society. Thus, CoPs have been cited as a vehicle for knowledge transfer and competence development and as a bridge between the theories of organizational learning and organizational performance.

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