Why Communities of Practice (CoP) are ‘Still’ Relevant for the Organizations?

Abstract

There is a continuous scholarly debate on emerging structure of Communities of Practice (CoP) in modern organizations. The understanding of CoP differs among the organizations and so are the benefits. Over the years CoP concept has emerged and the new subsets are introduced such as Communities of Innovation (CoInv), Communities of Participation (CParp) and Communities of Creation (CoC). This paper proposes that CoP should evolve itself, not constructed in the organizations. Authors argue these communities emerged and evolved out of the need for doing something new and relevant in the organization. The paper draws upon existing research to substantiate their casewhy communities of practice are still relevant for the organizations? The paper insinuates a practice-based-standpoint supported through semi-structured interviews with ten corporate executives to understand the relevance of CoPs in current environment. Through this research, authors are proposing SKLC (Stakeholder, Learning, Knowledge, Collaboration) framework to comprehend the embryonic construction of CoPs. The framework would describe the way of CoP is understood and explore how CoP stakeholders augment knowledge through learning and collaboration. Further, this paper examines how the companies can use CoP to improve internal communications, improve profitability and align their processes.