reseņas educativas (Spanish)
resenhas educativas (Portuguese)
This review has been accessed times since August 5, 2005
Wenger, Etienne; McDermott, Richard; and Snyder, William M. (2002). Cultivating Communities of Practice: A Guide to Managing Knowledge. Boston, MA: Harvard Business School Press.
Pp. xii + 284
$29.95 ISBN 1-57851-330-8Reviewed by Mark A. Heckler
University of Colorado at Denver and Health Sciences CenterAugust 5, 2005
Knowledge is widely described as a key asset for corporate success in the 21st century. Yet, with increased emphasis on intellectual property development and employee learning in industry, the gulf between traditional educational institutions and the world of work appears wider than ever. Corporations increasingly develop their own “universities” —internal educational initiatives which offer courses and certificates—in lieu of continuing education or formal degree programs offered historically by higher education institutions. Corporate educational programs, however, often borrow the same educational practices offered by traditional institutions, but focus on specific applications of content knowledge within the confines of corporate objectives.
Dissatisfaction with content, practices, and student learning outcomes offered by traditional post-secondary programs has led many corporations to search for new paradigms for increasing an organization’s human and intellectual assets while retaining its most valued employees. Among these new paradigms is the concept of “communities of practice,” a theoretical construct described first by Etienne Wenger, an independent scholar and social learning theorist, and anthropologist Jean Lave (1991), as an outcome of their conceptualization of apprenticeship. Wenger (1998) explicates the concept of communities of practice based on ethnographic research and theoretically in the arenas of situated cognition and social learning theory. In collaboration with knowledge management consultant Richard McDermott and public-sector organizational development consultant William M. Snyder, Wenger moves the conceptual framework for communities of practice into organizational applications relevant to corporations, educational institutions, public agencies, and not-for-profit entities .
The book’s first two chapters articulate the conceptual framework upon which the subsequent applications are based. The authors define communities of practice as “groups of people who share a concern, a set of problems, or a passion about a topic, and who deepen their knowledge and expertise in this area by interacting on an ongoing basis” (p. 4). These communities arise naturally, operate ubiquitously, if often invisibly, in a wide variety of organizations, and have been in existence from the very beginning of human civilization. Given the increasing importance of knowledge generation for corporate success, businesses are encouraged to leverage the inherent generative capacity within communities of practice as a deliberate competitive strategy.
A strategy that relies on a “communities of practice” concept views knowledge as a key corporate asset to be managed in the same way that human, physical, and financial resources have come to be viewed as assets in need of conscious strategic management and planning. The rapidly changing corporate environment, in which knowledge becomes obsolete quickly, coupled with increased globalization, makes a knowledge development strategy as indispensable a part of corporate planning as business strategy has been in years past. Through communities of practice, the authors argue, companies can find ways of connecting people across corporate divisions or national boundaries in order to remain competitive. Communities of practice also provide a powerful recruitment and retention tool for talented employees.
Managers often mistakenly conceive of knowledge as information, a commodity that can be objectified, its boundaries defined, and its essence captured in a database or learning module. The authors contend that knowledge is more complex, often existing in the social interaction among experts: “the knowledge of experts is an accumulation of experience—a kind of ‘residue’ of their actions, thinking, and conversations—that remains a dynamic part of their ongoing experience” (p. 9). Given the social and dynamic dimensions of knowledge generation and transmission, managers are encouraged to carefully consider the social structures that can foster knowledge development and learning within and across organizations. Communities of practice already exist within any organization. The fundamental question for managers, and one not completely answered by the authors, is whether or not communities of practice can actually be “cultivated” by managers to enhance organizational knowledge and performance.
The authors pose a structural model for the relationship of communities of practice to the ongoing structures and business processes of an organization. Suggestive of the concept of “matrix” organizations, where coordination and responsibility are designed to cut across organizational boundaries, Wenger, et al. propose that employees in a business can play at least two roles. First, they may be voluntary members of a community of practice operating outside of the formal organizational structure of a business and focusing on sharing, documenting, and validating knowledge. Second, through their formal position within the business structure, they may apply that knowledge through problem solving, quality assurance, and leveraging knowledge to create new business opportunities. For example, lateral employees within a company, but not within the same unit or division might choose to gather for breakfast once a week to talk about how a project is affecting each of their units and how each is contributing to project and reacting to its demands. Out of their casual and voluntary exchange, ideas are shared, problems posed, and solutions developed. Each employee then returns to his or her unit and offers the knowledge gleaned from the informal session to suggest changes in how the unit executes its part of the project. Once the project is completed, the company may be reorganized or acquired by another company; however, these community of practice relationships remain and the breakfast conversations continue. Considering the dynamic of change in the corporate sector, with frequent mergers and restructuring of formal business organizations, the authors assert that informal communities of practice may provide stability for individuals in the midst of relentless change.
Structural elements of communities of practice are outlined in the first section of the book as well, including size, lifespan, situation or distribution of the community, and the relative homogeneity of its members. Other structural elements available for analysis include the relationship of the community to organizational boundaries, the intent of the community, and the degree of institutionalization evident in the community of practice. In addition to these facets of communities of practice, which differ widely from one community to the next, three structural elements are common to all: (a) a domain or area of knowledge around which participants gather, (b) a community or social organization within which people operate, and (c) a practice or specific artifacts and stories shared members in the community of practice. The authors advise prospective sponsors of communities of practice to design future communities with careful attention to these principles in order to achieve desired outcomes.
Anecdotes from major corporations engaged in a community of practice model of knowledge development provide concrete examples of the concept and approach in practice. The authors’ first-hand experience as consultants and researchers working with DaimlerChrysler, Hewlett-Packard, Xerox, Shell Oil, McKinsey & Company and the World Bank provide ample and compelling evidence of how the model can work in creating and applying knowledge in the corporate sector. In each story, however, the community arose naturally and informally rather than by design, an observation that will be expanded upon later in this review.
The next several chapters offer a set of design principles for those interested in generating a community of practice within their businesses. Organizers should design the community organically from emergent activity rather than attempt to generate it from nothing. Insiders from the organization involved in developing the community of practice would be well advised to include voices from outside the community in the process. The community design should encourage different levels of participation from the fully to peripherally engaged, focus on creating value for the participants and the organization as a whole, and consciously creating a rhythm for the community of practice and its participants. The authors argue that, although communities of practice arise naturally within organizations, members who consider design as an ongoing part of the community’s planning and implementation will improve overall performance and participant satisfaction.
The book next offers advice for the planning and launching of communities of practice, examining the five stages of community development from genesis to either death or transformation. The authors examine key issues that emerge for communities at each developmental stage and offer activities that can help communities improve, depending on where each community finds itself in the life cycle. Each stage and concomitant issue is examined through the structural dimensions of domain, community, and practice, offering a typical work plan of strategies and activities that approximate those observed in naturally occurring communities of practice.
A similar approach is taken to distributed communities, that is, those individuals who function as a community of practice, but cannot do so through face-to-face meetings, as in global corporations or internet-based communities. While the analytical and structural tools employed for situated communities can be applied to distributed models, the authors are clear about specific challenges inherent in these communities and offer clear strategies and activities designed to mitigate potential problems. The authors claim that communities of practice are “essential to knowledge-based organizations that seek to become truly global” (p. 137).
There are downsides to communities of practice, and the authors explore these in depth through the dimensions of domain, community, and practice. Issues of imperialism, exclusivity, factionalism, and cliques are common disorders in communities. Some communities are not well designed; others may lack passion or trust among its members. Communities with practice disorders overemphasize documentation or stifle innovation through dogmatism. In each case, the authors offer “treatments” for each community disorder, as well as those disorders that can occur across the boundaries of communities that may interact with one another. Knowing the potential pitfalls and problems of communities of practice can help managers anticipate challenges in designing communities initially, or responding to issues that arise over the life cycle of a community.
Understanding the need for corporate management to demonstrate return on investment, Wenger, et al. offer a measurement model for gauging impact. The authors suggest that companies develop the means for gathering anecdotal evidence systematically, in the form of causal stories, as the best way for measuring how the complex interactions within communities of practice translate into value creation for an organization. Strategies are offered to focus qualitative measurement, as are techniques for interviewing and translating the data into an overall picture of the community’s impact. Sensing a need to respond to corporate management’s quest for quantifiable, bottom-line results, however, the authors also offer a formula for calculating return-on investment.
The concluding chapters offer a perspective on how organizations might launch and sustain knowledge initiatives using the communities of practice model. Of particular concern in this discussion is the role of management in providing staff and fiscal support, symbolic leadership, visibility, and sustainability throughout the community life cycle. The book closes by imagining the spread of the community of practice model beyond businesses and non-profits in an effort to redesign “the world as a learning system” (p. 232).
Wenger, et al. offer a useful framework, concrete examples, and sensible design principles for identifying, facilitating, and sustaining communities of practice within and across organizations. The book is written in an accessible, straightforward style for the business reader and uses frequent case study examples and illustrations to clarify key concepts. For scholarly readers, the authors ground the work in a significant body of scholarship, providing copious endnotes and an extensive bibliography. In addition, Wenger’s seminal contributions to the communities of practice paradigm give the work instant credibility.
Conversely, the work also contains several troubling contradictions that are acknowledged by the authors, but are not satisfactorily addressed. The authors seem torn in their efforts to write for an audience of take-charge business managers focused on deliberate strategies to grow corporate value, while recognizing the inherent need for communities of practice to arise spontaneously and informally within and across organizations. Some sections of the book read like a “how-to” manual, while other sections pose theoretical questions: “What is the role of design for a ‘human institution’ that is, by definition, natural, spontaneous, and self-directed” (p. 51)?
Additional contradictions emerge from the discussions on the role of knowledge in an organization. The authors vacillate between what Sfard (1998) identifies as participatory and acquisition metaphors for knowledge generation and learning, at times discussing knowledge as a corporate “asset” that must be “managed” as a commodity. Other sections of the book, however, appear more grounded in socio-cultural theory where knowledge is generated through participation and creates organizational value. This contradiction is evidenced in the chapter on measurement and management, where the authors articulate an elaborate argument for measuring the value of communities of practice through systematic qualitative research, yet end the chapter with a short section that describes a formula to calculate return on investment. These contradictions combine in ways that obfuscate the authors’ purpose and weaken the book’s conclusions.
While the book focuses its examples on the corporate sector, understandable given its publisher, one can readily see applications of the concepts and principles to educational institutions, government, and not-for-profit sectors. Higher education institutions, in particular, present fertile ground for both experiments in and research on the implementation of communities of practice as a conscious strategy for bridging disciplinary silos in the pursuit of new knowledge and multi-disciplinary solutions to complex problems of practice. Leaders in K-12 environments may glean strategies for engaging, empowering, and retaining teachers while responding to school reform initiatives. Despite its contradictions, any reader interested in effecting sustainable organizational change will find the communities of practice model an interesting paradigm for knowledge generation, employee retention, and organizational stability in these turbulent times.
References
Lave, J., & Wenger, E. (1991). Situated learning: Legitimate peripheral participation. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
Sfard, A. (1998). On two metaphors for learning and the dangers of choosing just one. Educational Researcher, 27(2), 4-13.
Wenger, E. (1998). Communities of Practice: Learning, meaning, and identity. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
About the Reviewer
Mark A. Heckler serves as Provost at the University of Colorado at Denver and Health Sciences Center, where he is also pursuing doctoral studies in educational leadership and innovation. His doctoral research is focused on intersections of higher education leadership, organizational change, and faculty reward systems.
Copyright is retained by the first or sole author, who grants right of first publication to the Education Review.
~ ER home | Reseņas Educativas | Resenhas Educativas ~
~ overview | reviews | editors | submit | guidelines | announcements | search ~