Introduction
Due to the fact that today’s economy runs on knowledge, many organisations are working hard to capitalize on this by using cross-functional teams, customer or product-focused business units and work groups to capture and spread ideas and Know – how (Wenger et al, 2000). This paper attempts to define the concepts of Social Networks (SN) and Communities of Practice (CoP) and discuss how organisations have been using them to manage knowledge. The differences and similarities that exist between SN and CoP will also be discussed with examples of how organisations have employed these concepts to improve organisational performance.
Communities of Practice (CoP)
According to Wenger et al (2000), Communities of practice are informal group of people bound by shared expertise and a passion for a joint enterprise, and who share their experience and knowledge in free-flowing and creative ways that promote new approaches to solving problems. To enable a proper understanding of the CoP concept, Wenger et al (2000) differentiates between CoP and formal work teams. Formal work teams are formed by managers to complete specific projects and members are selected by managers based on their ability to contribute to achieving the team’s goals. The team is disbanded on completion of the project. CoPs on the other hand are informally established by members who select their own members, decide on their leadership and set their own agenda and the group’s interaction is continuous. p. In addition, CoPs are not developed for specific projects but the goal is to share experiences and expertise about a specific area of common interest and members decide to join based on their perception of whether they can contribute to the group or not.
A CoP can exist within a department of an organisation, across divisions within an organisation or even have members from different organisations. According to Wenger et al (2000), CoPs add value to organisations in many ways including driving strategy (CoP at the heart of World Bank’s knowledge management strategy); starting new lines of business (a group of consultants whose focus was retail marketing for banking but formed a COP that eventually led to a new line of business of marketing approaches for financial services firms); solving problems quickly (members of CoP within Buckman’s Lab respond to queries from other members around the world within 24 hours); transferring best practices (‘tech clubs’ within DaimlerChrysler helping the company to move to platforms which cut R&D costs by half); developing professional skills (IBM where CoP members hold their own conferences to sharpen their skills); and helping companies to recruit and retain talents (at American Management System, a consultant decided to stay after a community helped her to find project opportunities that suited her interests and expertise). Wenger et al (2000) also suggested that to derive maximum benefits from CoPs, organisations must cultivate them by identifying potential CoPs that will enhance the organisations strategic capabilities, providing infrastructures to support the CoPs in using their expertise effectively, and using non-traditional methods to assess the value of the organisation’s CoPs.
Social Networks
According to Wikipedia (accessed on March 4 2008), Social Networks refer to a social structure made up of nodes (individuals or organisations), that are tied by one or more specific type of interdependencies including values, visions, idea, friends, kinship, dislike, taste, conflict, trade, web links, sexual relations and so on. In its simplest form a social network is a map of the relevant ties between nodes. Social Networks (SN) occur at different levels, from individuals, to families and up to governments. In recent times, SN have come to mean Internet based communities where members set up their profiles to find old friends, meet new friends, start relationships, share interests, share personal information, and meet people who have similar interests. The most popular of such sites on the Internet today include Myspace and Facebook which account for most traffic in terms of online social networking. Within these social networks, there are facilities for people to form groups with divergent interests from fund raising for a cause, to old and current students of educational institutional institutions, supporters of sport clubs or political parties, human right activists and even people that have common interest in music, movies and art. It would not be out of place to say that the opportunities for networking provided by these social networks are endless. People have even been able to find jobs or lost relatives through them. These networks also have capacity to enable business people to work together and share ideas on business projects. In fact some organisations encourage their members to join these social networks to collaborate with members of the same organization located in the same or different geographic zones.
COMPARISON OF CoP and SN
Communities of practice and social network are similar in the sense that they both involve the interaction of people and they can be used as a platform for creating and sharing knowledge. The difference is in the purpose for which they are formed. CoPs are often formed within organisations and are encouraged by such organisations to foster knowledge creation and sharing amongst its members - who have the same passion or are experts in specific professional domains like engineering, software development, nursing, medicine or financial management - with the purpose of creating value for the organisation. Social Networks on the other hand, involve people and even organisations from all works of life interacting for the purpose of simply socialising. Looking at the 2 concepts, it is also possible for a CoP to employ a social network in carrying out its activities by forming a group within the social network. Members of the CoP can share personal information or domain specific knowledge through the social network. In essence a CoP can be called a form of Social Network given their informal nature but Social Networks cannot be regarded as CoP.
References
Wenger, E.C., Snyder, W.M. (2000), "Communities of practice: the organizational frontier", Harvard Business Review, Vol. 78 No.1, pp.139-45.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_network accessed on March 6, 2007.
Due to the fact that today’s economy runs on knowledge, many organisations are working hard to capitalize on this by using cross-functional teams, customer or product-focused business units and work groups to capture and spread ideas and Know – how (Wenger et al, 2000). This paper attempts to define the concepts of Social Networks (SN) and Communities of Practice (CoP) and discuss how organisations have been using them to manage knowledge. The differences and similarities that exist between SN and CoP will also be discussed with examples of how organisations have employed these concepts to improve organisational performance.
Communities of Practice (CoP)
According to Wenger et al (2000), Communities of practice are informal group of people bound by shared expertise and a passion for a joint enterprise, and who share their experience and knowledge in free-flowing and creative ways that promote new approaches to solving problems. To enable a proper understanding of the CoP concept, Wenger et al (2000) differentiates between CoP and formal work teams. Formal work teams are formed by managers to complete specific projects and members are selected by managers based on their ability to contribute to achieving the team’s goals. The team is disbanded on completion of the project. CoPs on the other hand are informally established by members who select their own members, decide on their leadership and set their own agenda and the group’s interaction is continuous. p. In addition, CoPs are not developed for specific projects but the goal is to share experiences and expertise about a specific area of common interest and members decide to join based on their perception of whether they can contribute to the group or not.
A CoP can exist within a department of an organisation, across divisions within an organisation or even have members from different organisations. According to Wenger et al (2000), CoPs add value to organisations in many ways including driving strategy (CoP at the heart of World Bank’s knowledge management strategy); starting new lines of business (a group of consultants whose focus was retail marketing for banking but formed a COP that eventually led to a new line of business of marketing approaches for financial services firms); solving problems quickly (members of CoP within Buckman’s Lab respond to queries from other members around the world within 24 hours); transferring best practices (‘tech clubs’ within DaimlerChrysler helping the company to move to platforms which cut R&D costs by half); developing professional skills (IBM where CoP members hold their own conferences to sharpen their skills); and helping companies to recruit and retain talents (at American Management System, a consultant decided to stay after a community helped her to find project opportunities that suited her interests and expertise). Wenger et al (2000) also suggested that to derive maximum benefits from CoPs, organisations must cultivate them by identifying potential CoPs that will enhance the organisations strategic capabilities, providing infrastructures to support the CoPs in using their expertise effectively, and using non-traditional methods to assess the value of the organisation’s CoPs.
Social Networks
According to Wikipedia (accessed on March 4 2008), Social Networks refer to a social structure made up of nodes (individuals or organisations), that are tied by one or more specific type of interdependencies including values, visions, idea, friends, kinship, dislike, taste, conflict, trade, web links, sexual relations and so on. In its simplest form a social network is a map of the relevant ties between nodes. Social Networks (SN) occur at different levels, from individuals, to families and up to governments. In recent times, SN have come to mean Internet based communities where members set up their profiles to find old friends, meet new friends, start relationships, share interests, share personal information, and meet people who have similar interests. The most popular of such sites on the Internet today include Myspace and Facebook which account for most traffic in terms of online social networking. Within these social networks, there are facilities for people to form groups with divergent interests from fund raising for a cause, to old and current students of educational institutional institutions, supporters of sport clubs or political parties, human right activists and even people that have common interest in music, movies and art. It would not be out of place to say that the opportunities for networking provided by these social networks are endless. People have even been able to find jobs or lost relatives through them. These networks also have capacity to enable business people to work together and share ideas on business projects. In fact some organisations encourage their members to join these social networks to collaborate with members of the same organization located in the same or different geographic zones.
COMPARISON OF CoP and SN
Communities of practice and social network are similar in the sense that they both involve the interaction of people and they can be used as a platform for creating and sharing knowledge. The difference is in the purpose for which they are formed. CoPs are often formed within organisations and are encouraged by such organisations to foster knowledge creation and sharing amongst its members - who have the same passion or are experts in specific professional domains like engineering, software development, nursing, medicine or financial management - with the purpose of creating value for the organisation. Social Networks on the other hand, involve people and even organisations from all works of life interacting for the purpose of simply socialising. Looking at the 2 concepts, it is also possible for a CoP to employ a social network in carrying out its activities by forming a group within the social network. Members of the CoP can share personal information or domain specific knowledge through the social network. In essence a CoP can be called a form of Social Network given their informal nature but Social Networks cannot be regarded as CoP.
References
Wenger, E.C., Snyder, W.M. (2000), "Communities of practice: the organizational frontier", Harvard Business Review, Vol. 78 No.1, pp.139-45.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_network accessed on March 6, 2007.
