A Review of Community of Practice in Organizations: Key Findings and Emerging Themes

Agrawal, Anukrati; Joshi, Kailash

doi:10.1109/hicss.2011.26

Cited by 18 publications

(24 citation statements)

References 36 publications

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“…Online communities offer a means to reduce isolation [7]. In particular, virtual communities of practice are a type of online learning community that have been shown to be highly effective in large companies, improving knowledge sharing and thus overcoming professional and structural isolation [8,9]. Given the promise of online communities, this literature review will critically review the current evidence relevant to virtual communities of practice in General Practice training, identify evidence-based principles that might guide their construction and suggest further avenues for research.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

General practice training and virtual communities of practice - a review of the literature

et al. 2012

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BackgroundGood General Practice is essential for an effective health system. Good General Practice training is essential to sustain the workforce, however training for General Practice can be hampered by a number of pressures, including professional, structural and social isolation. General Practice trainees may be under more pressure than fully registered General Practitioners, and yet isolation can lead doctors to reduce hours and move away from rural practice. Virtual communities of practice (VCoPs) in business have been shown to be effective in improving knowledge sharing, thus reducing professional and structural isolation. This literature review will critically examine the current evidence relevant to virtual communities of practice in General Practice training, identify evidence-based principles that might guide their construction and suggest further avenues for research.MethodsMajor online databases Scopus, Psychlit and Pubmed were searched for the terms “Community of Practice” (CoP) AND (Online OR Virtual OR Electronic) AND (health OR healthcare OR medicine OR “Allied Health”). Only peer-reviewed journal articles in English were selected. A total of 76 articles were identified, with 23 meeting the inclusion criteria. There were no studies on CoP or VCoP in General Practice training. The review was structured using a framework of six themes for establishing communities of practice, derived from a key study from the business literature. This framework has been used to analyse the literature to determine whether similar themes are present in the health literature and to identify evidence in support of virtual communities of practice for General Practice training.ResultsThe framework developed by Probst is mirrored in the health literature, albeit with some variations. In particular the roles of facilitator or moderator and leader whilst overlapping, are different. VCoPs are usually collaborations between stakeholders rather than single company VCoPs. Specific goals are important, but in specialised health fields sometimes less important than in business. Boundary spanning can involve the interactions of different professional groups, as well as using external experts seen in business VCoPs. There was less use of measurement in health VCoPs. Environments must be supportive as well as risk free. Additional findings were that ease of use of technology is paramount and it is desirable for VCoPs to blend online and face-to-face involvement.ConclusionsThe business themes of leadership, sponsorship, objectives and goals, boundary spanning, risk-free environment and measurements become, in the health literature, facilitation, champion and support, objectives and goals, a broad church, supportive environment, measurement benchmarking and feedback, and technology and community.General Practice training is under pressure from isolation and virtual communities of practice may be a way of overcoming isolation. The health literature supports, with some variation, the business CoP framework developed by Probst. Further re...

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

General practice training and virtual communities of practice - a review of the literature

et al. 2012

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“…The current literature suggests that naturally occurring potential CoPs can be effectively fostered given favourable contextual factors (Agrawal and Joshi 2011). In the case of ISPRN, appropriate seeding conditions were identified in which to engage appropriate stakeholders and provide research opportunities to novice primary care researchers.…”

Section: What Can Be Learnt From This Case Study?mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The themes that arose from the literature indicated that PBRNs serve a variety of objectives and can be developed using frameworks such as knowledge translation ((Armstrong and Kendall 2010;Tapp and Dulin 2010), quality assurance (Mold and Peterson 2005;Brouwer et al 2006), research capacity building (Del Mar and Askew 2004;Green et al 2005) and CoPs (Wenger et al 2002;Agrawal and Joshi 2011). The literature suggested that the evolution of CoPs can be intentionally fostered if appropriate seeding conditions are present (Agrawal and Joshi 2011). Given the commonalities that existed between organisations in the Illawarra involving the community of general practitioners (GPs) (Agrawal and Joshi 2011), favourable seeding conditions were identified for the development for a PBRN using a CoP framework.…”

Section: Establishing the Illawarra And Southern Practice Research Nementioning

confidence: 99%

“…The literature suggested that the evolution of CoPs can be intentionally fostered if appropriate seeding conditions are present (Agrawal and Joshi 2011). Given the commonalities that existed between organisations in the Illawarra involving the community of general practitioners (GPs) (Agrawal and Joshi 2011), favourable seeding conditions were identified for the development for a PBRN using a CoP framework. The organisations involved were the University of Wollongong's Graduate School of Medicine (GSM), Coast City Country General Practice Training (CCCGPT) and the Illawarra Health and Medical Research Institute (IHMRI) (Fig.…”

Section: Establishing the Illawarra And Southern Practice Research Nementioning

confidence: 99%

“…Another important component of CoP leadership is the coordinator and facilitator of the CoP activities who links members to helpful resources and works with members to solve any problems that arise (Wenger et al 2002;Agrawal and Joshi 2011 …”

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confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

Development of an Australian practice-based research network as a community of practice

Dijkmans-Hadley¹,

Bonney²,

Barnett³

2015

Aust. J. Prim. Health

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There are many aspects of the communities of practice (CoP) framework that are applicable to the development of a practice-based research network (PBRN), where the focus is upon building primary healthcare workers' research capacity and research questions. However, there is limited literature focussed on the application of CoP principles applied to research capacity building in Australia. The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate, through a case study, how a developing PBRN, the Illawarra and Southern Practice Research Network, successfully applied the theoretical foundation of CoP to develop a PBRN in a time-and resourcelimited context. What is known about the topic?• The communities of practice theoretical framework is well established; however, there is limited description of its application to practice-based research networks or research regarding relevant outcomes. What does this paper add?• This paper demonstrates relevant outcomes from the successful application of a community of practice theoretical framework to the development of a practice-based research network in a time-and resourcelimited context.

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Imitating CoPs: Imposing formality on informality

Dessne

Byström

2015

Asso for Info Science & Tech

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The aim of this article is to explore the claim that communities of practice (CoPs) can be designed and managed. The concept of CoPs was originally developed as a social learning theory, and CoPs were defined by their informal emergent nature. This informal nature has been recognized to be of value to organizations, resulting in a desire to design CoPs. In this article, the nature of CoPs is addressed by focusing on aspects of formality and informality in relationships and learning; CoPs are described as emergent and designed practices. Furthermore, it is questioned whether a designed CoP may realize the essential characteristics attributed to an emergent CoP. It is argued that it is crucial to recognize the informal nature of CoPs in order to either encourage them as informal phenomena or to use the concept of CoPs as inspiration for designing imitations of them. However, when attempting to design them, the original meaning of a CoP is lost, even though, in some cases, the consequences of such a design may be beneficial to organizations. Nevertheless, when not taking the nature of a CoP into account, a designed construct may have a negative impact on learning and knowing.

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A Review of Community of Practice in Organizations: Key Findings and Emerging Themes

Cited by 18 publications

References 36 publications

General practice training and virtual communities of practice - a review of the literature

General practice training and virtual communities of practice - a review of the literature

Development of an Australian practice-based research network as a community of practice

Imitating CoPs: Imposing formality on informality

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