scholarly journals Role of transitory communities of practice in business school collaborative knowledge-sharing projects: from the partner's perspective

2016 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
pp. 109 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christopher Brown ◽  
Philip Frame
Keyword(s):  
Communities Of Practice ◽  
Knowledge Sharing ◽  
Business School ◽  
Collaborative Knowledge

Communities of practice as an initiative for knowledge sharing in business organisations: a literature review

2016 ◽  
Vol 20 (4) ◽  
pp. 731-748 ◽  
Author(s):  
Abobakr Aljuwaiber
Keyword(s):  
Communities Of Practice ◽  
Knowledge Sharing ◽  
Relevant Literature ◽  
Influential Factors ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Potential Barriers ◽  
Organisational Factors ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Insight Into

Purpose This paper aims to review the research and to summarise the evidence on communities of practice (CoPs) as a tool for sharing knowledge. It will highlight the related literature from the past two decades by looking at potential barriers, solutions and influential factors regarding CoPs within business organisations. Design/methodology/approach The study consists of a constructed approach to determine the sources for the review that covers relevant literature on the topic of CoPs. Findings This paper provides insights about the important role of CoPs in fostering knowledge-sharing within business organisations. It suggests that the impact of globalisation has encouraged many business firms to intentionally establish CoPs as a vital tool for knowledge management (KM) initiatives. It also appears that the importance of the three organisational factors – top management, structure and culture – lies in their ability to have a direct effect on intentionally established CoPs within business organisations. Research limitations/implications The paper suggests a number of ways in which intentionally established CoPs can be developed within business companies. This paper limited its review to three organisational factors. Investigation of other organisational factors is needed. Originality/value This paper provides a detailed insight into the management literature on CoPs as an initiative for knowledge sharing within business organisations.

scholarly journals Translators as Networkers: The Role of Virtual Communities

2017 ◽  
Vol 22 (42) ◽  
pp. 49
Author(s):  
Hanna Risku ◽  
Angela Dickinson
Keyword(s):  
Literature Review ◽  
Empirical Study ◽  
Communities Of Practice ◽  
Knowledge Sharing ◽  
Virtual Communities ◽  
Expert Knowledge ◽  
Participant Observation ◽  
Real Life ◽  
Commercial Interest

Recent years have seen a rise in the importance of virtual and real-life knowledge sharing communities and communities of practice across many fi elds of private and commercial interest, including professional translation. This article examines the characteristics of knowledge sharing communities in general, identifies their key elements, looks at the motivation for membership and presents an empirical study of life in a thriving virtual translation community. In doing so, it draws on the results of a literature review combined with a participant observation based study and member survey of a major virtual translation community. The results indicate that virtual translation communities can be lively platforms and offer translators a forum not only for sharing expert knowledge and collaborating, but also for keeping in touch with like-minded individuals.

Exploring the relationships among tacit knowledge sharing, communities of practice and employees’ abilities: The case of KADDB in Jordan

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Mohammad Orsan Alzoubi ◽  
Ala’aldin Alrowwad ◽  
Ra’ed Masa’deh
Keyword(s):  
Communities Of Practice ◽  
Knowledge Sharing ◽  
Tacit Knowledge ◽  
Research Model ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Future Studies ◽  
Mediating Role ◽  
Tacit Knowledge Sharing ◽  
The Relationship

Purpose This study aims to assess the relationships among tacit knowledge sharing, communities of practice (CoPs) and employees’ abilities to solve problems, customer’s satisfaction and innovation. Design/methodology/approach This quantitative research aims to examine the causal relationships among the key study variables. A questionnaire-based survey was developed to evaluate the research model by drawing a convenience sample that includes 219 employees working in the King Abdullah Design and Development Bureau which is located in Amman, Jordan. Surveyed information was examined following the structural equation modelling procedures. Findings Results revealed that sharing tacit knowledge in defence organizations had no direct effect on employees’ abilities to solve problems, customer’s satisfaction and innovation, while there was an affirmative effect to CoPs on employees’ abilities in those areas. Also, this study showed that CoPs had a significant mediating role to play in the relationship between sharing knowledge and employees’ abilities in terms of solving work problems, customer’s satisfaction and innovation. Research limitations/implications Findings of this study have laid the basis for future studies related to examining the effect of tacit knowledge sharing and the CoPs on improving employees’ abilities as preconditions for organization performance. These findings can be supported by conducting further research studies to examine the large samples of defence companies to give deeper meanings and insights to the relationship among the key study variables. The authors recommend expanding future studies and examine the mediating role of other social learning methods such as mentoring and storytelling on the relationship between sharing tacit knowledge and employees’ abilities. Practical implications The research model may enable managers and practitioners to make decisions related to the improvement of collective learning by encouraging employees’ engagement in the process of tacit knowledge sharing. The model also helps managers to understand the role of CoPs as a knowledge sharing tool that contributes to increasing employees’ abilities and organizational competitiveness. Furthermore, the research model can be a step forward for further research studies on the relationships among tacit knowledge sharing, CoPs and employees’ abilities. Social implications The suggested model can act as the promising step for continuous improvement to the defence industry in terms of producing high-quality products and services that protect national security, humans’ lives and society at large from enemies and terrorist groups. Originality/value In spite of the fact that most academic studies on knowledge management show a positive relationship between tacit knowledge sharing and organizational performance, a few studies have examined the effect of mediating the CoPs on relationships between sharing tacit knowledge and employees’ abilities as preconditions for raising the performance of the organizations working in security and defence industry. Hence, this research attempts to fill these gaps and gives a new direction for future research.

The Role of Social Identity and Communities of Practice in Mergers and Acquisitions

2017 ◽  
Vol 43 (4) ◽  
pp. 623-647 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jennifer R. Spoor ◽  
Mei-Tai Chu
Keyword(s):  
Social Identity ◽  
Mergers And Acquisitions ◽  
Communities Of Practice ◽  
Knowledge Sharing ◽  
Tacit Knowledge ◽  
Organizational Identification ◽  
Business Strategy ◽  
High Failure Rate ◽  
Two Factors

Globally, organizations spend billions on mergers and acquisitions (M&As) each year; however, it is commonly estimated that at least half of these ventures fail. Two factors that contribute to this high failure rate are the difficulty in merging diverse areas of organizational knowledge and developing employees’ organizational identification with the post-M&A organization. In this article, we recommend the strategic use of organizational communities of practice (CoPs), groups where people share knowledge, to improve knowledge sharing within the post-M&A organization. We also argue that CoPs can indirectly increase knowledge sharing by easing M&A-triggered social identity concerns and fostering post-M&A organizational identification. We develop conceptual propositions for the relationships between CoPs participation, organizational identification, and knowledge sharing in the post-M&A organization. We also argue that the extent to which CoPs participation can increase organizational identification and knowledge sharing will depend on the post-M&A organization’s overall business strategy and whether it is primarily concerned with explicit or tacit knowledge.

scholarly journals Introduction to the thematic file

2018 ◽  
Vol 21 (3) ◽  
pp. 12-17
Author(s):  
Karine Goglio-Primard ◽  
Claude Guittard ◽  
Thierry Burger-Helmchen
Keyword(s):  
Organizational Learning ◽  
Literature Review ◽  
Communities Of Practice ◽  
Knowledge Sharing ◽  
Know How ◽  
Business Units ◽  
Geographically Dispersed ◽  
Networks Of Practice ◽  
Informal Settings

This chapter aims at a better understanding of the dynamics leading firms to create Networks of practice (NoP) to transfer knowledge and know-how between its geographically dispersed business units. In this introduction we focus on the complementarity between communities of practice (CoP) and networks of practice (NoP) inside firms to share knowledge and consolidate organizational learning. We show that informal settings where people interact around their practices, such as CoP facilitate and consolidate knowledge sharing inside firms and enable them to create a larger network. After a literature review on CoP and NoP, the chapter will highlight the role of CoP and boundaries processes (brokers, boundary objects) in the development of NoP.

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