COP

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Introduction

A community of practice (CoP) is, according to HYPERLINK “https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cognitive_anthropology” o “Cognitive anthropology” cognitive anthropologists HYPERLINK “https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean_Lave” o “Jean Lave” Jean Lave and HYPERLINK “https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Etienne_Wenger” o “Etienne Wenger” Etienne Wenger, a group of people who share a craft and/or a profession. The group can evolve naturally because 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 ( HYPERLINK “https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Community_of_practice” l “CITEREFLaveWenger1991” Lave & Wenger 1991).

CoPs exist in offline (i.e., physical) settings, for example, a lunch room at work, a field setting, a factory floor, or elsewhere in the environment, but members of CoPs do not have to be co-located. They form a “virtual community of practice” (VCoP) ( HYPERLINK “https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Community_of_practice” l “CITEREFe.g._Dub.C3.A9_et_al.2005” e.g. Dubé et al. 2005) when they collaborate online, such as within discussion boards and newsgroups, or a ‘‘mobile community of practice’’ (MCoP) ( HYPERLINK “https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Community_of_practice” l “CITEREFKietzmann_et_al.2013” Kietzmann et al. 2013) when members communicate with one another via mobile phones and participate in community work on the go.

Communities of practice are not new phenomena: 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 HYPERLINK “https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_pragmatism” o “American pragmatism” American pragmatism, especially HYPERLINK “https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C._S._Pierce” o “C. S. Pierce” C.S. Pierce’s concept of ” HYPERLINK “https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Community_of_inquiry” o “Community of inquiry” the community of inquiry” (Shields 2003), but also HYPERLINK “https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Dewey” o “John Dewey” John Dewey’s principle of learning through occupation (Wallace 2007). Jean Lave and Etienne Wenger coined the phrase in their 1991 book, ‘Situated learning’ ( HYPERLINK “https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Community_of_practice” l “CITEREFLaveWenger1991” Lave & Wenger 1991), and Wenger then significantly expanded on the concept in his 1998 book, ‘Communities of Practice’ ( HYPERLINK “https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Community_of_practice” l “CITEREFWenger1998” Wenger 1998).

Communities of practice, looking from an organizational perspective can be defined as the part of the organizational structure that insists on sharing the learning that people have gained in doing a work with the other people of the organization (Wenger, 1998). These vary from other types of groups present within the organization, since they have their own boundaries and exist for a certain period of time.  There are various stages through which communities of practice develop. The stages are characterized by activities of different kinds and interactions at different levels by the members of the community. The following figure shows the five stages of development as proposed by Wenger, McDermott, and Snyder (2002, p 69), through which communities of practice develop:

HYPERLINK “http://i0.wp.com/www.projectguru.in/publications/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/fig1.jpg”

Figure 1: Stages of Development of communities of practice (Source: Wenger, McDermott, and Snyder (2002, p 69))

As the above figure shows, communities of practice develop through various stages. Each stage has a different set of activities. The stages can be explained as follows

Stage 1: Potential: It is the stage in which, people encountering similar problems or situations, find each other and identify their commonalities

Stage 2: Coalescing: In this stage people after finding each other, identify their potential and discuss about what knowledge is to be shared.

Stage 3: Active: This is the stage in which actual knowledge sharing takes place. The maturity stage is the one in which communities of practice meet its purpose of knowledge sharing. It is the most active stages among all the five stages of development of communities of practice.

Stage 4: Dispersed: In this stage people do not interact actively. However, the formed community acts as a knowledge center from which the members of the community access required information whenever necessary

Stage 5: Memorable: The final stage is one that persists after the community becomes extinct. In this stage the members retain the memories of knowledge gathered when they were a part of a community.

Thus communities of practice are present everywhere and are developed with the help of the above mentioned five stages, thereby enabling efficient knowledge sharing among the members of the community.

References

Wenger, E. (1998). Communities of practice: Learning, meaning, and identity. New York: Cambridge University Press

Wenger, E., McDermott, R., & Snyder, W. M. (2002). Cultivatingcommunities of practice: A guide to managing knowledge. Boston: Harvard Business School Press