Abstract
| Language | English |
|---|---|
| Article number | 13047 |
| Number of pages | 6 |
| Journal | Academy of Management Proceedings |
| Volume | 2015 |
| Issue number | 1 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - 16 Sep 2015 |
| Event | AoM 2015: The Seventy-fifth Annual Meeting of the Academy of Management - Vancouver, BC, Canada Duration: 7 Aug 2015 → 11 Aug 2015 |
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Keywords
- communities of practice
- knowledge sharing
- personal knowledge
Cite this
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Thinking together : making communities of practice work. / Pyrko, Igor; Dörfler, Viktor; Eden, Colin.
In: Academy of Management Proceedings, Vol. 2015, No. 1, 13047, 16.09.2015.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article
TY - JOUR
T1 - Thinking together
T2 - Academy of Management Proceedings
AU - Pyrko, Igor
AU - Dörfler, Viktor
AU - Eden, Colin
PY - 2015/9/16
Y1 - 2015/9/16
N2 - This paper develops the founding elements of the concept of Communities of Practice (CoPs) by elaborating on the learning processes happening at the heart of such communities. In particular, it provides a consistent perspective on the notions of knowledge and of knowledge sharing that is compatible with the ‘DNA’ of this concept, i.e. learning entailing an investment of identity and a social formation of a person. It does so by drawing richly from the work of Michael Polanyi and his conception of Personal Knowledge, and thereby it clarifies the scope of CoP, it ‘brings knowledge back’ into CoPs as a technical term, and it offers a number of new insights into how to make such social structures ‘work’ in professional settings. The conceptual discussion is substantiated by the findings of a qualitative empirical study in the National Health Service (NHS) Scotland. As a result, the process of ‘thinking together’ is conceptualized as people mutually guiding each other through their understandings of the same problems in their area of mutual interest, and this way indirectly sharing tacit knowledge. This collaborative learning process, it is argued, is what specifically brings CoPs to life and not the other way round.
AB - This paper develops the founding elements of the concept of Communities of Practice (CoPs) by elaborating on the learning processes happening at the heart of such communities. In particular, it provides a consistent perspective on the notions of knowledge and of knowledge sharing that is compatible with the ‘DNA’ of this concept, i.e. learning entailing an investment of identity and a social formation of a person. It does so by drawing richly from the work of Michael Polanyi and his conception of Personal Knowledge, and thereby it clarifies the scope of CoP, it ‘brings knowledge back’ into CoPs as a technical term, and it offers a number of new insights into how to make such social structures ‘work’ in professional settings. The conceptual discussion is substantiated by the findings of a qualitative empirical study in the National Health Service (NHS) Scotland. As a result, the process of ‘thinking together’ is conceptualized as people mutually guiding each other through their understandings of the same problems in their area of mutual interest, and this way indirectly sharing tacit knowledge. This collaborative learning process, it is argued, is what specifically brings CoPs to life and not the other way round.
KW - communities of practice
KW - knowledge sharing
KW - personal knowledge
UR - http://proceedings.aom.org/content/2015/1/13047
U2 - 10.5465/AMBPP.2015.310
DO - 10.5465/AMBPP.2015.310
M3 - Article
VL - 2015
JO - Academy of Management Proceedings
JF - Academy of Management Proceedings
SN - 0065-0668
IS - 1
M1 - 13047
ER -