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1. CONCEPT OF COMMUNITY OF PRACTICE ASSESSMENT
REPORT
INTRODUCTION
The Concept Community of Practice has its origins in the private sector, and in the
recent literature on knowledge in management. Groups of employees, meeting regularly
to share stories and learn from each other in businesses, intuitions and corporations.
Increasingly, their value in improving organizational performance - through increasing
innovation and responsiveness; improving the employees skills; reducing duplication;
connecting workers and raising the level of trust amongst and within in responding to
challenges and problems very fast, and capturing and reusing tacit knowledge - has
become recognized and rewarded. With their impressive knowledge base and the
relationships they facilitate, CoPs present a strong business case and occupy a
prominent role in the private sector. In the Xerox Corporation, for example, groups of
technicians traditionally met informally during their coffee breaks to share their
experiences about repairing different types of machinery. These informal channels of
communication have served to address individual problems as these technicians
swapped stories and insights.
THE CONCEPT OF “COMMUNITIESOF PRACTICE” &
ORGANIZATIONAL LEARNING
One of the most significant concepts in a social learning theory set up in any society is
the notion of a community of practice. According to the cognitive anthropologists Jean
Lave and Etienne, the concept of “Communities of practice” COP refers to a group of
people or special type of informal network that emerges from a desire to work more
effectively or to understand work more deeply among members of a particular specialty
or work group. At the simplest level, Communities of practice is a small groups of
people who've worked together over a period of time and through extensive
communication and have developed a common sense of purpose and a desire to share

2. work-related knowledge and experience." (http://www.tfriend.com/op-lit.htm)
This group evolves or can always naturally due of the members' common interest in a
particular domain or area, or it can be created specifically with the goal of gaining
knowledge related to their field. It is through the process of sharing information and
experiences with the group that the members learn from each other, and have an
opportunity to develop themselves personally and professionally (Lave & Wenger 1991).
While on the other hand, organizational learning gives an impression of a progressive
change that typically adds, transforming knowledge knowhow drawing much of its
appeal from the presumption that organizations are capable of intelligent behavior, and
that learning is a tool for intelligence, though sometimes an intriguingly unreliable one.
The basic image is that organizations collect experiences, draw inferences, and encode
inferences in repositories of organizational knowledge, such as formal rules and
informal practices. In this view, organizations are shaped by complex learning
processes which combine current experiences with lessons learned in the past.
Such an example of innovation and learning as stated above contradicted a more
instructive characterization in which experts or researchers would generate knowledge,
which would then be passed on to students or learners. In the contrary, the copy and
repair provided an example of learning which was situated in the context of problem
solving; which was largely related to tacit knowledge, that could only be made explicit
through social processes in the context of an actual challenge; and which was indicative
of the difficulty of attributing “knowing” to a single individual in the setting.
Communities of practice is not new phenomena since this type of learning practice has
existed for as long as people have been learning and sharing their experiences through
storytelling. The idea is rooted in American pragmatism, especially C.S. Pierce's
concept of "the community of inquiry" (Shields 2003), but also John Dewey's principle of
learning through occupation (Wallace 2007).
While studying community of practices, their meanings, contexts, persistence,
prevalence, and scope is one of the core part of anthropology, Orr’s work, and later
Lave and Wenger’s who gave out a much deeper insight; namely, that knowledge, and

3. therefore learning, were embedded in cultural practices. This insight was tied to earlier
work in science and technology studies.
APPLICATIONS OF COMMUNITY OFPRACTICE
Some of the Social scientists have used versions of the concept of community of
practice CoP for a variety of analytical purposes, but the origin and primary use of the
concept has been in learning theory. The social scientist Anthropologist known as Jean
Lave and coined the word Community of practice while studying apprenticeship as a
learning model to which most People always think to be as a relationship between a
student and a master, but to the contrary the studies of apprenticeship reveal a more
complex set of social relationships through which learning takes place mostly with
journeymen and more advanced apprentices. The term community of practice was
coined to refer to the community that acts as a living curriculum for the apprentice. Once
the concept was articulated, the two social scientist anthropologists started to see these
said communities everywhere, even when no formal apprenticeship system existed.
And of course, learning in a community of practice is not limited to novices. The practice
of a community is dynamic so therefore it has always involves learning on the part of
everyone within the given formal / informal strucure.
a) Web
Advancements in technologies such as the Internet have extended the reach of
our interactions beyond the geographical limitations of traditional communities,
but the increase in flow of information does not obviate the need for community.
In fact, it expands the possibilities for community and calls for new kinds of
communities based on shared practice.
The concept of community of practice is influencing theory and practice in many
domains. From humble beginnings in apprenticeship studies, the concept was
grabbed by businesses interested in knowledge management and has
progressively found its way into other sectors. It has now become the foundation

4. of a perspective on knowing and learning that informs efforts to create learning
systems in various sectors and at various levels of scale, from local communities,
to single organizations, partnerships, cities, regions, and the entire world.
b) Organization
This concept of Community of practice CoP has been adopted most readily by
people in business because of the recognition that knowledge is a critical asset
that needs to be managed strategically to achieve set objectives in the business,
firms and organization. Initial efforts at managing knowledge had focused on
information systems with disappointing results. Communities of practice provided
a new approach, which focuses on people and on the social structures that
enable them to learn with and from each other. At presently, there is hardly any
organization of a reasonable size that does not have some form communities-of-
practice initiatives within its set objectives and goals. A number of features
explain this rush of interest in communities of practice as a vehicle for developing
strategic capabilities in organizations:
 Communities of practice enable practitioners to take collective responsibility
for managing the knowledge they need, recognizing that, given the proper
structure, they are in the best position to do this.
 Communities among practitioners create a direct link between learning and
performance, because the same people participate in communities of practice
and in teams and business units.
 Practitioners can address the tacit and dynamic aspects of knowledge
creation and sharing, as well as the more explicit aspects.
 Communities are not limited by formal structures: they create connections
among people across organizational and geographic boundaries.
From this perspective, the knowledge of an organization lives in a constellation of
communities of practice each taking care of a specific aspect of the competence
that the organization needs. However, the very characteristics that make
communities of practice a good fit for stewarding knowledge—autonomy,
practitioner-orientation, informality, crossing boundaries—are also characteristics

5. that make them a challenge for traditional hierarchical organizations. How this
challenge is going to affect these organizations remains to be seen.
c) Education
All learning institutions are organizations in their own right, and they too face
increasing knowledge challenges. The first applications of communities of
practice have been in teacher training and in providing isolated administrators
with access to colleagues. There is a wave of interest in these peer-to-peer
professional-development activities. But in the education sector, learning is not
only a means to an end: it the end product. The perspective of communities of
practice is therefore also relevant at this level. In business, focusing on
communities of practice adds a layer of complexity to the organization, but it
does not fundamentally change what the business is about. In schools, changing
the learning theory is a much deeper transformation. This will inevitably take
longer. The perspective of communities of practice affects educational practices
along three dimensions:
 Internally: How to organize educational experiences that ground school
learning in practice through participation in communities around subject
matters?
 Externally: How to connect the experience of students to actual practice
through peripheral forms of participation in broader communities beyond the
walls of the school?
 Over the lifetime of students: How to serve the lifelong learning needs of
students by organizing communities of practice focused on topics of
continuing interest to students beyond the initial schooling period?
From this perspective, the school is not the privileged locus of learning. It is not a
self-contained, closed world in which students acquire knowledge to be applied
outside, but a part of a broader learning system. The class is not the primary
learning event. It is life itself that is the main learning event. Schools, classrooms,

6. and training sessions still have a role to play in this vision, but they have to be in
the service of the learning that happens in the world.
d) Government
Like businesses, government organizations face knowledge challenges of
increasing complexity and scale. They have adopted communities of practice for
much of the same reasons, though the formality of the bureaucracy can come in
the way of open knowledge sharing. Beyond internal communities, there are
typical government challenges such as education, health, and security that
require coordination and knowledge sharing across almost levels and ministries
of government. There also, communities of practice hold the promise of enabling
connections among people across formal structures. And there also, there are
substantial organizational issues to overcome.
e) Associations
A growing number of professionals and associations are seeking ways to focus
on learning through reflection on practice. Their members are restless and their
allegiance is fragile. They need to offer high-value learning activities. The peer-
to-peer learning activities typical of communities of practice offer a
complementary alternative to more traditional course offerings and publications.
f) Social Sector
In the civic domain, there is an emergent interest in building communities among
practitioners. In the non-profit world, for instance, foundations are recognizing
that philanthropy needs focus on learning systems in order to fully leverage
funded projects. But practitioners are seeking peer-to-peer connections and
learning opportunities with or without the support of institutions. This includes
regional economic development, with intra-regional communities on various

7. domains, as well as inter-regional learning with communities gathering
practitioners from various regions.
g) International Development
There is increasing recognition that the challenge of developing nations is as
much knowledge as a financial challenge. A number of people believe that a
communities-of-practice approach can provide a new paradigm for development
work. It emphasizes knowledge building among practitioners. Some development
agencies now see their role as conveners of such communities, rather than as
providers of knowledge.
SignificanceOf Community Of Practice To ORGANIZATIONAL
LEARNING
Notions of the organizational learning gained prominence in the nineteen fifties when
they were thrown into an ongoing debate between behaviorists and economists. Since
then, a number of studies have found that the most important factor in an
organizations success lies within the Community of Practice most of this
organization.
This has in the long run always lead to long term benefits to organizational
learning within – such that
Fostering further development within the organization since employees are
able to work in togetherness and understanding of unclear objectives
within the firm.
Members of Community of Practice sharing a common interest in developing
practices in specifics fields, whereas a purely informal network only lasts as long
as its members continue to find it beneficial for the cultivation of business
relations that meets their professional needs. Contrary to a COP, a purely
informal network passes on information on a multitude of independent topics and
does not focus on improving members’ know-how on one specific domain.

8. Fostering of an environment in which knowledge can be created and shared to
improve the efficiency of existing practices and internal control system used in
organizations (Lesser and Everest 2001) for instance, Software engineers at
Safaricom Communications Ltd from different departmental units in various
regions are able to exchange technical know-how on how to build improved the
companies communication systems in cases of abrupt emergency of unexpected
loss of network coverage in any given region. The exchange of know-how across
organizational borders is intrinsically related to a common impetus to learn together.
It links diverse groups of practitioners from different disciplines - and are thereby
making such groups to be interconnected with the organizational structure of a
business, firm or company.
It develops, captures, and transfers the best practices on specific topics, by
Stimulating the active sharing of opinions.
Finally, promote innovative approaches to address specific development
challenges.
In most societies, organizations and even institutions, communities of practice have
always being a crucial integral part of the set up structure be it the society, organization
or the institution (Mc Dermott & Archibald 2010) as its also argued that traditional
bureaucratic orientation is no longer appropriate in today’s knowledge economy and
increasingly complex environment and rather, that a learning orientations is needed
(Jamali, Khoury & Sahyoun, 2006). It is very important that leaders incorporate the
collective intra-organizational dynamism of working in a knowledge economy as this
enhances awareness, promotes inter-learning amongst, provides an executive oversight
to ensure efficiency in operations and improved performance.

9. IMPACT OF COMMUNITYof PRACTICE ON INNOVATION
Responding more rapidly to customer needs and inquiries.
In an era where both prospective and existing customers are expecting rapid answers to
inquiries, communities of practice plays an important role in quickly transferring the
knowledge necessary to address customer issues. From a connection perspective,
communities can help individuals rapidly identify an individual with the subject
matter expertise necessary to provide the best answer to a client problem. This is
especially true in organizations where the expertise needed to solve
a particular client problem may be separated by time zones, distance, and/or
organizational boundaries. For example, in the specialty chemical company that
examined by a group of researchers, technical support personnel’s group were able
were able to tap into a community of researchers through the use of discussion boards
to identify individuals who may have encountered similar problems in other customer
locations. This ability to rapidly identify and locate individuals with particular knowledge
was considered to be an important source of competitive differentiation
in the marketplace.
At presently, most organizations do recognize the value of building and supporting
“communities of practice” (CoPs). This is clearly supported by the recent research and
articles published in Harvard Business Review and other leading journals suggest that
creating groupings of like-minded profession also with common interests and goals in
the long run has an effect of dramatically reducing operating expenses thereby increase
more revenues.
Creation of determined, strategic interconnections between people across different
regions, time zones, and business functions, makes it a possibility in tap into and
leverage the collective knowledge of a group. Such focused Communities of practice on
strategic innovation share best practices so far, competencies and thereby leading to
higher drive of business growth to greater heights.

10. Such Innovation Community of Practice enables more and more firms, businesses and
organizations in:
Leveraging innovation best practices that high quality standard services and
diverse ways of approach
Sharing and dissemination of research, tools, templates and other resources
Capturing, rank and sorting out new business Opportunities in a secured
framework and approach.
Collaborating across business enterprises and geographies
Reducing innovation-related expenses and time-to market
Delivering tangible, measurable results.
Finally, Community of Practice enhances fast-tracking of organizations to drive
profitable progressive growth rates by taking strategic approach to innovation by
blending non-traditional and conventional consulting approaches while at same time
working with forward-looking teams to identify breakthrough opportunity areas, define
innovative strategies and business models, pursue new markets and ventures, revitalize
partner and customer relationships, and create customer-inspired products and
services. We help organizations create sustainable competitive advantage by
developing and Institutionalizing a capacity for strategic innovation – in part by
establishing Innovation Communities of Practice to drive results

11. HOW Community Of Practice Damages INNOVATION
Decreasing the learning curve of new employees.
One of the most common challenges faced by more and more businesses, firms and
companies is the need to rapidly increase the productivity of new employees. Given that
the employee mobility continues to increase to greater levels across these businesses,
firms and organizations, the ability to quickly assimilate individuals into the methods,
tools, and activities of a new position represents an important capability. Such a
task becomes especially important in dispersed and scarce organizations where an
employee’s direct instructor may be located across town, or in a different country
altogether.
CONCLUSION
Innovation Communities of Practice are ideal for organizations that are distributed
across multiple geographies with business units whose success depends on a high
degree of knowledge sharing and collaboration.

12. Bibliography
Cultivating communities of practice: a guide to managing knowledge. By Etienne
Wenger, Richard McDermott, and William Snyder, Harvard Business School
Press, 2002
What is a Community of Practice and How Can We Support It?
Christopher Hoadley.
Why communities of practice succeed and why they fail 2008
Gilbert Probst & Stefano Borzillo
Innovation Communities of Practice
A collaborative approach to leveraging innovation best practices
Organizational Learning Martin Schulz University of Washington 2001
Communities of Practice by E-Wenger
Communities of practice: the organizational frontier. By Etienne Wenger and
William Snyder. Harvard Business Review. January-February 2000
Supporting communities of practice: a survey of community-oriented
technologies. By Etienne Wenger. Self-published report available at, 2001