Community of practice. What is a community of practice and what benefits might it bring to an organisation - Essay Example

? and Section # of With the passage of time and the advancement in technologies, there is more and more pressure over organizations to maintain a competitive advantage over the rivals. For this purpose, it is becoming increasingly important to make efficient use of the resources of the organization. Among the most important resources of the organization come the Human resources. Hence, there are increasing efforts to enhance the efficiency and productivity of the workers. This paper would discuss the community of practice and how it has benefitted organizations over the passage of time. Moreover, it would elaborate over the challenges faced by knowledge-based communities with the advent of the concept of community of practice. DISCUSSION The article written by Lauren Keller Johnson (2006) entitled Are you getting the most from your knowledge workers? discussed relevant issues pertaining to managing knowledge workers. According to Serrat (2008), knowledge worker is unique and distinct as this type is described as “someone who is employed because of his or her knowledge of a subject matter, rather than ability to perform manual labor. They perform best when empowered to make the most of their deepest skills”. The process of influencing the performance of knowledge workers is mainly developmental; they need also to hone skills in appraising, coaching, mentoring, and providing feedback. One measure of their effectiveness will be by the quality of the (internal and external) relationships that they create” (Serrat, 2008, 2). Knowledge based communities are based on the concept that the various participants of the society can share their knowledge, insights and experiences with other who may have similar goals and objectives. Community of practice came into being with the advent of knowledge based communities. The community of practice is used to facilitate the transfer and sharing of knowledge as a part of an organization corporate culture. We cannot separate knowledge from the communities that create it, use it and alter it. On an everyday basis workers engage in the transfer and sharing of knowledge, skills and experiences. In an organizational environment where the work is complex, the workers rely over the communities of practice as a source of knowledge and guidance. Communities of practice enable workers to work with others with the same purpose and while creating value through the community of knowledge sharing. Some of the benefits of a community of practice would be described in the following lines. Community of practice promotes and enhances a learning environment for all the stakeholders, according to Johnson (2001) “the learning that evolved from these communities is collaborative, in which the collaborative knowledge of the community is greater than any individual knowledge” (Johnson 2001: 34). Community of practice promotes the formation of synergies, raises the capabilities of the workforce by gaining insight from one another. The practice also inculcates new information, knowledge and skills of the workers into the corporate culture with the help of knowledge sharing and learning. Furthermore, community of practice endorses innovation and expertise, it connects people from different backgrounds, with diverse knowledge and increases the level of trust as well as motivation enabling them to pool their knowledge and know how in solving business problems that require information across different subjects. The ongoing interactions through a knowledge based environment helps in coordination, organization and development of initiatives across various domains of knowledge. It fosters a sense of belonging among the workers which increases the morale while building the capabilities and knowledge of the workers. Moreover, Community of practice encourages neo-apprenticeship style of learning and nurtures professional and personal development of workers. Community of practice aids in the improvement of business outcomes, it helps in problem solving, reduces the time taken to solve issues and accelerate business decision making through the availability of a number of perspectives over a problem. The development of organizational capabilities is another advantage of community of practice as it inculcates innovation, fosters technological developments and increases the retention of talent. In addition, Community of practice ensures professional development through the provision of networking, and also forums that expand skills and expertise that lead to increased marketability and a strong sense of professional identity (Bettoni, 2002). Serrat (2008) averred that with knowledge workers, managing entails knowledge managers and not bosses where leadership skills and styles are exercised. The changing role from boss to player/coach is important for managers to realize and implement it in knowledge based organizations. A player/coach role was identified by Davenport as manifesting eight key trends, to wit: (1) doing work from overseeing it; (2) organizing communities against hierarchies; (3) understanding rather than imposing work designs and methods; (4) a focus on recruiting and retaining versus hiring and firing employees; (5) building knowledge rather than manual skills; (6) evaluating invisible versus visible performance achievements; (7) building knowledge friendly culture as against totally ignoring culture; and (8) a focus on supporting rather than fending off bureaucracy (Wagner, 2002, 1 cited Davenport, 2001). Some of the problems that the management has to face include the role of power in communities of practice. As the communities of practice would be comprised of members from various backgrounds in terms of expertise, knowledge, personality and authority, these factors may bring in a factor of power that would govern their degree of participation in the communities of practice in the organization. The structure of the organizational culture may also reflect the process of knowledge sharing. For example, a decentralized network may inculcate a more open environment towards negotiation, participation and thereby knowledge sharing whilst a centralized structure may hinder equal participation and give preference to those with greater power (Roberts, 2006) Another factor that causes concern to the management of knowledge-based organizations is the level of trust. Management has to make sure that there is a mutual understanding and appreciation among the participants of the community of practice as distrust would obstruct the process of knowledge sharing in the organization. Furthermore, it is argued that communities of change are prone to become stationary with respect to knowledge sharing and are often resistant to change. This makes it the responsibility of the management to keep the process functioning and effective. Most organizations rarely acknowledge that their financial auditors, product development engineers, or customer relations professional are knowledge workers who can assume the roles of player/coach as envisioned, characterized, and defined by Davenport. By being hired initially as an expert in the field of customer relations, for example, the knowledge shared and imparted by this professional in his or her field of endeavor begins to be incorporated in the organization’s culture. The inputs imparted could necessitate revisions in the organization’s policies and procedures which aim to improve customer relation skills at all levels of the organization. Eventually, one who was initially hired as a knowledge worker can eventually be honed into a knowledge manager assuming the role of a player/coach. Managing a knowledge worker requires the development of skills and acknowledges that “managers themselves act as good follower and team player as well as leader and technologist. Since the process of influencing the performance of knowledge workers is mainly developmental, they need also to hone skills in appraising, coaching, mentoring, and providing feedback. One measure of their effectiveness will be by the quality of the (internal and external) relationships that they create” (Serrat, 2008, 2). One manages or leads knowledge workers despite the difficulty in identifying, measuring, or quantifying that knowledge through being sensitive to the nature of the work and by assuming roles of player/coach as called for by the situation. The manager must have the ability to clarify the nature of the job, finding the appropriate fit for the assigning projects which are aligned with organizational goals, and being able to design ways to evaluate the performance of knowledge workers (Johnson, 2006, 4). CONCLUSION Communities of practice is a growing phenomenon being practice in many organizations, as the benefits of communities of practice are emerging, it is becoming increasingly pertinent to organizations across all industries. Moreover, managing knowledge workers remain to be a challenging, yet rewarding tasks for knowledge managers. It would continue to be a revolutionary endeavor that could still find shifts in future roles as the need requires. BIBLIOGRAPHY Davenport, T.H. (2001). “Knowledge Work and the Future of Management." The Future of Leadership, edited by Warren Bennis et al. Jossey-Bass. Johnson, C. M. (2001). A survey of current research on online communities of practice. The Internet and Higher Education, 4(1), 45-60. Johnson, L.C. (2006). “Are you getting the most from your knowledge workers?” Harvard Management Update, 11(6), 3-4. Roberts, J. (2006). “Limits to communities of practice” journal of management studies. Bettoni, M. (2002) Communities of Practice: Meanings, Benefits and methodology. Retrieved 16 March 17, 2011 < http://www.weknow.ch/marco/A2002/Rome02/Slides_021106.pdf> Serrat, O. (2008). Managing Knowledge Workers. Retrieved 10 March 2011. < http://www.adb.org/Documents/Information/Knowledge-Solutions/Managing-Knowledge-Workers.pdf> Wagner, C.G. (2002). The rise of the knowledge manager: The age of do-nothing managers is over. (Economics). Retrieved 10 March 2011. Read More