Religious Communities of Practice and Knowledge Management—The Potential for Cross-Domain Learning

2012 ◽  
pp. 29-46 ◽  
Author(s):  
Denise Bedford
2007 ◽  
Vol 18 (1) ◽  
pp. 53-67 ◽  
Author(s):  
David M. Carballo

AbstractInvestigations into the evolution of early religious institutions should emphasize how the ritual manipulation of symbolically charged objects generated shared understandings regarding divine entities among religious communities of practice. This study demonstrates that the origins of two distinctively central Mexican deities—the Old God of Fire and the Storm God—can best be understood through contextual analysis of effigy vessels depicting them during later Formative periods (ca. 600b.c.–a.d. 100). By presenting new examples of such effigy vessels and assembling contemporary counterparts from other central Mexican sites, we can better appreciate the Formative religious integration of the region and its legacy for the religious systems of later societies. Specifically, the primacy of the Old God of Fire and the Storm God to Aztec dedicatory offerings, and the private/domestic associations of the former and public/monumental associations of the latter at Teotihuacan were elaborations on patterns apparent in Formative ritual practices.


Author(s):  
Lakshmi Goel ◽  
Elham Mousavidin

Despite considerable academic and practitioner interest in knowledge management, success of knowledge management systems is elusive. This chapter provides a framework which suggests that KM success can be achieved by designing sustainable communities of practice. Communities of practice have proven to have significant economic and practical implications on organizational practices. A growing body of literature in KM recognizes the importance of communities that foster collaborative learning in organizations and almost all KMS have a ‘network’ component that facilitates connecting people in communities of practice. Evidence has shown that communities have been a key element in KMS of many companies including Xerox PARC, British Petroleum Co., Shell Oil Company, Halliburton, IBM, Proctor and Gamble, and Hewlett Packard.


Author(s):  
Lee Tan Wee Hin ◽  
Thiam-Seng Koh ◽  
Wei-Loong David Hung

This chapter reviews the current work in knowledge management (KM) and attempts to draw lessons from research work in situated cognition about the nature of knowledge which can be useful to the field of KM. The role of technologies and the issues of literacy in technology are discussed in the context of communities of practice (CoPs) and the KM framework with some examples described for K-12 settings. Implications are drawn in terms of how teachers and students can be a community of learners-practitioners through technologies which support their work and learning processes.


This chapter compares the universal TB model with the previous TB interpretation discussed in the first half of the book. Special attention is devoted to 19 selected TB properties ranging from adaptability to universality. Furthermore, tangible results follow in form of potential implications to business administration. Namely, information and knowledge management and information technologies are considered. In the area of information management, a generic time bank information management framework is outlined. In the scope of knowledge management, the function of TB is compared with the phenomenon known as communities of practice. Finally, co-productive behavior of the TB related to open source communities are depicted in the area of information technologies.


Author(s):  
Ziska Fields ◽  
Sulaiman Olusegun Atiku

This chapter explores the role of communities of practice (CoPs) in knowledge management (KM) and how various collaborative practices can be used to enrich the activities of CoPs in organisations. The objectives of the chapter are firstly to define and explain the role of CoPs as a form of social and team networks in KM, secondly to identify the role and importance of collaborative approaches, specifically focusing on collective learning, creativity, innovation and problem-solving in CoPs and how these impact on the KM process, and thirdly to make recommendations to enhance the collaborative approaches to ultimately enrich the activities of CoPs in a digital age in organisations. Recommendations are made that management needs to support the forming and activities of CoPs in KM strategies, and that a suitable organisational structure and culture are needed to stimulate and support collaborative approaches to enrich the activities of CoPs.


Author(s):  
Élise Lavoué ◽  
Sébastien George ◽  
Patrick Prévôt

In their daily practice, practitioners belong to local communities of practice (CoPs) within their organisation. This knowledge is rarely capitalised upon because discussions are mainly verbal. Practitioners can also belong to general CoPs online. Within these general CoPs, discussions are rarely linked to the context in which they appeared, since the members are from different companies or institutions. This paper (1) connects these two levels of CoPs by contacting practitioners belonging to CoPs centred on the same general activity but who are geographically distributed and (2) capitalises on the produced knowledge by contextualising, allowing it to be accessible and reusable by all the members. The authors detail the main results of the research: (1) a model of the interconnection of CoPs (ICP) to support knowledge sharing and dissemination; and (2) a specific knowledge management tool for the ICP knowledge base. The authors apply the model and platform to university tutors by: (1) developing a use case, which links the model and the TE-Cap 2 platform and highlights the new possibilities offered by the knowledge management tool; and (2) conducting a descriptive investigation lasting for five months.


Author(s):  
Francisco M.M. Neto ◽  
Francisco V. Brasileiro

Support for knowledge management (KM) requires mechanisms for creation, mapping and transference of knowledge. Many organizations use computer tools, like knowledge mapping tools, knowledge repositories, tools to support communities of practice and computer-supported collaborative learning (CSCL), to achieve these goals. In particular, CSCL can support knowledge transfer at the same time that it improves the process of creating new knowledge. However, whole CSCL potential to transfer knowledge and foment learning is not being used adequately, mainly because of the lack of appropriate integration with other KM tools. In fact, there is a lack of guidance on how to effectively integrate CSCL into KM and how to evaluate the benefits of this integration. This chapter fills in this gap by proposing a model to improve KM through the consistent and effective integration of CSCL into the KM structure of organizations. It also describes a framework to evaluate the results of this integration.


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