Communities of Practices (CoPs) become building blocks of the knowledge economy. CoPs offer a productive solution for improving knowledge and knowledge management. This article presents the results of an empirical study that explored the impact of leadership on overall community effectiveness and knowledge creation and management. The research method employed was a multi-case study, with purposive sampling on two communities of Radiology and Anesthesia in a nonprofit healthcare organization of Taiwan. A total of 24 semi-structured interviews were taken with longitudinal non-participant observation of the routine meetings over a period of one year. The research revealed that two communities develop different leadership styles. In particular, two leadership styles are compared: shared leadership and single leadership. Shared leadership represents communities whose members are empowered to share the tasks and responsibilities of leadership. The results of the study suggest that CoP with shared leadership can nurture CoP to promote innovative learning and knowledge-sharing environment. First, shared leadership is capable of building a social setting for utilizing and articulating individuals and groups' embedded knowledge. Second, shared leadership can work together on setting learning support system entailing various types of meeting, such as regular meeting, morning meeting, and monthly meeting, make environmental influence on individual' motivation to engage in CoPs. Third, the sharing norms purposely developed by leadership overcome the power differences among members and provide chances for constructive interactions. On the other hand, a CoP that took the traditional approach of relying on a single leader has poor performance on the cohesiveness and ability to communicate. The article concludes with a discussion of some guidance for purposeful design of CoPs, implications, and future research opportunities.

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