The Effectiveness of Communities of Practice: An Empirical Study
The Effectiveness of Communities of Practice: An Empirical Study
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实践社区的有效性：实证研究
DOI：
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发表时间：
2009
期刊：
影响因子：
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通讯作者：
Carol M. Csanda
中科院分区：
文献类型：
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作者：
M. Hemmasi;Carol M. Csanda
知识管理（KM）是一门新兴的学科，在大型组织中越来越受欢迎。公司比以往任何时候都更加重视分享知识以及促进知识转让的技巧和技术的能力（Murray和Peyrefitte，2007年）。知识管理允许组织共享、获取、组织和存储公司内部知识和智力资本。它是一种发现、理解和利用知识创造价值的方式（O'Dell，2004）。大卫C. Blair（2002）将知识管理定义为对组织支持和专业知识的积极管理。知识管理举措的一个关键组成部分是创造便利信息共享的方法。大多数企业在开展知识管理活动时支持的方法之一是实践社区。Etienne Wenger（1991）将实践社区定义为通过信息共享促进组织学习的方法。将一个团体确定为实践社区的关键特征包括：（1）一个公认的兴趣领域，小组成员共同感兴趣并致力于此，（2）小组成员之间的关系，使他们能够参与联合活动，分享信息和互相帮助，（3）发展一种共享的做法，包括共享资源，经验，故事，工具，等（Wenger等人，2002年）。实践社区似乎是团队概念的演变（Wenger等人，2002年）。虽然传统的团队多年来一直非常成功，但实践社区似乎提供了更多的好处，因为它在应对当今迅速变化的环境、日益激烈的全球竞争和不断发展的信息技术带来的机遇和挑战方面更加敏感。实践社区可以为组织提供一种获取隐性或隐性知识的方法，将具有相似兴趣的人联系起来，使他们能够获取信息，并使整个组织都能获得这些信息。此外，正如Droege和Hoobler（2003）所指出的，CP是通过提供知识转移和保留所需的联系，可以有效防止与员工流动相关的隐性知识损失的结构。实践社区向其成员提供一组同行，他们可以通过技术迅速方便地与之联系，提出问题或具体问题，并在较短的时间内获得建议。因此，实践社区可以帮助组织从传统的多部门或M型组织转变为更具竞争力的学习型组织（James，2002）。虽然近年来出现了越来越多的关于实践社区的文献，涉及实践社区的特点、优势、使用实践社区的组织动机以及设计和实施实践社区的方式，但粗略地回顾一下这些文献就会发现，其中绝大多数都依赖于轶事案例研究。这是可以理解的，因为这一概念和相关做法仍然是新的和正在出现的。因此，关于这一问题的系统的实证研究很少。本文试图缩小上述差距，在文献中提出的实证研究，探讨选择社区特征的影响，感知整体社区的有效性，报告的社区成员，社区成员的满意度与他们的社区经验的结果。本研究的结果应提供新的洞察力成功的国家方案的特点，并最终有助于形成更新和更有效的知识管理举措。了解社区效力的预测因素也有助于保持活跃社区的整体健康，并为社区领导人提供一个基础，以确保组织取得成功，社区成员的参与也有回报。…
Knowledge Management (KM) is an emerging discipline with increasing popularity among large organizations. Greater importance than ever before is being placed by companies on their ability to share knowledge and the techniques and technologies that facilitate knowledge transfer (Murray and Peyrefitte, 2007). Knowledge Management allows organizations to share, capture, organize, and store internal company knowledge and intellectual capital. It is a way of finding, understanding, and using knowledge to create value (O'Dell, 2004). David C. Blair (2002) defined Knowledge Management as the active management of organizational support and expertise. One critical component of KM initiatives is creating methods to facilitate sharing of information. One of these methods supported in most enterprises with KM initiatives is the Communities of Practice (CP). Etienne Wenger (1991) defined communities of practice as a method to promote organizational learning through information sharing. The key characteristics that identify a group as a community of practice include: (1) a recognized domain of interest that the group members share an interest in and commit to, (2) relationships between group members that allow them to engage in joint activities, share information and help each other, and (3) the development of a shared practice that consists of shared resources, experiences, stories, tools, etc. (Wenger et al., 2002). Communities of Practice appear to be an evolution of the team concept (Wenger et al., 2002). Although conventional teams have been highly successful over the years, Communities of Practice appear to provide additional benefits by being more responsive in dealing with the opportunities and challenges of today's rapidly changing environment, growing global competition, and the ever advancing information technology. Communities of Practice can provide organizations with a way to capture tacit or implicit knowledge by connecting people with similar interests, allowing them to capture information and make it accessible to the organization at large. Furthermore, as Droege and Hoobler (2003) point out, CPs are structures that can effectively prevent loss of tacit knowledge associated with employee turnover by providing the connections necessary for transfer and retention of knowledge. Communities of Practice provide their members with a group of peers whom they can contact quickly and easily through technology, pose issues or specific problems, and obtain suggestions, in a relatively short time-frame. Therefore, Communities of Practice can help organizations transform from the traditional multidivisional or M-form organization into more competitive learning, or L-form, organization (James, 2002). Although in recent years a growing body of literature has been emerging on communities of practice regarding their characteristics, the advantages they offer, the organizational motivation to use them, and ways of designing and putting them into practice, a cursory review of these works reveals that the vast majority of them rely on anecdotal case studies. This is understandable since the concept and related practices are still new and emerging. As such, systematic empirical studies on the subject are scant. This article is an attempt to narrow the above gap in the literature by presenting the results of an empirical study that explores the impact of select community characteristics on perceived overall community effectiveness, as reported by community members, and satisfaction of community members with their community experience. The results of the present study should provide new insight into the characteristics of successful CPs and, ultimately, contribute to the shaping of newer and more effective KM initiatives. Knowledge of predictors of community effectiveness can also assist in maintaining the overall health of active communities and providing a foundation on which community leaders can build to ensure a successful outcome for the organization and a rewarding participation for community members. …