Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of figures and tables
- Acknowledgements
- The authors
- List of abbreviations
- Series Editor's introduction
- Introduction
- Section 1 Theories
- Section 2 Infrastructure
- Section 3 Activities and tools
- 34 Action learning sets
- 35 Apprentices, graduate trainees and work placements
- 36 Awards
- 37 Buddying
- 38 CILIP qualifications
- 39 CILIP qualifications – revalidation
- 40 Coaching
- 41 Collaborative working
- 42 Communities of practice – internal
- 43 Communities of practice – external
- 44 Conferences – attending
- 45 Conferences – organizing
- 46 Conferences – posters
- 47 Conferences – presenting
- 48 Conferences – sharing the learning
- 49 Conferences – volunteering
- 50 Conferences – workshops
- 51 Conferences – writing proposals for papers
- 52 CVs
- 53 Exchange of Experience events, TeachMeets and Unconferences
- 54 Formal qualifications
- 55 Funding for CPD
- 56 Group conversations
- 57 Job rotation
- 58 Learning logs and journals
- 59 Meetings – attending
- 60 Meetings – chairing
- 61 Meetings – note taking
- 62 Mentoring – external
- 63 Mentoring – peer
- 64 Minutes of madness
- 65 MOOCs
- 66 Networks
- 67 Networks – setting up
- 68 Networks – running
- 69 Personal development plans
- 70 Presentations – general tips
- 71 Professional membership
- 72 Projects
- 73 Project management tools
- 74 Reflection – facilitating
- 75 Reflective practice
- 76 Reflective writing
- 77 Research activities
- 78 Secondments
- 79 Shadowing
- 80 Social media
- 81 SWOT analysis
- 82 Time management
- 83 Time management tools
- 84 Training courses – attending
- 85 Training courses – commissioning
- 86 Training courses – planning, delivering and evaluating
- 87 Twitter
- 88 Twitter chats
- 89 VLEs
- 90 Visits
- 91 Volunteering
- 92 Webinars
- 93 Writing blog posts
- 94 Writing business cases
- 95 Writing case studies
- 96 Writing e-mails
- 97 Writing journal articles
- 98 Writing newsletters
- 99 Writing procedures
- 100 Writing project plans
- 101 Writing reports
- Index
42 - Communities of practice – internal
from Section 3 - Activities and tools
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 09 June 2018
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of figures and tables
- Acknowledgements
- The authors
- List of abbreviations
- Series Editor's introduction
- Introduction
- Section 1 Theories
- Section 2 Infrastructure
- Section 3 Activities and tools
- 34 Action learning sets
- 35 Apprentices, graduate trainees and work placements
- 36 Awards
- 37 Buddying
- 38 CILIP qualifications
- 39 CILIP qualifications – revalidation
- 40 Coaching
- 41 Collaborative working
- 42 Communities of practice – internal
- 43 Communities of practice – external
- 44 Conferences – attending
- 45 Conferences – organizing
- 46 Conferences – posters
- 47 Conferences – presenting
- 48 Conferences – sharing the learning
- 49 Conferences – volunteering
- 50 Conferences – workshops
- 51 Conferences – writing proposals for papers
- 52 CVs
- 53 Exchange of Experience events, TeachMeets and Unconferences
- 54 Formal qualifications
- 55 Funding for CPD
- 56 Group conversations
- 57 Job rotation
- 58 Learning logs and journals
- 59 Meetings – attending
- 60 Meetings – chairing
- 61 Meetings – note taking
- 62 Mentoring – external
- 63 Mentoring – peer
- 64 Minutes of madness
- 65 MOOCs
- 66 Networks
- 67 Networks – setting up
- 68 Networks – running
- 69 Personal development plans
- 70 Presentations – general tips
- 71 Professional membership
- 72 Projects
- 73 Project management tools
- 74 Reflection – facilitating
- 75 Reflective practice
- 76 Reflective writing
- 77 Research activities
- 78 Secondments
- 79 Shadowing
- 80 Social media
- 81 SWOT analysis
- 82 Time management
- 83 Time management tools
- 84 Training courses – attending
- 85 Training courses – commissioning
- 86 Training courses – planning, delivering and evaluating
- 87 Twitter
- 88 Twitter chats
- 89 VLEs
- 90 Visits
- 91 Volunteering
- 92 Webinars
- 93 Writing blog posts
- 94 Writing business cases
- 95 Writing case studies
- 96 Writing e-mails
- 97 Writing journal articles
- 98 Writing newsletters
- 99 Writing procedures
- 100 Writing project plans
- 101 Writing reports
- Index
Summary
A Community of Practice can be described as a network of people emerging spontaneously, and held together by informal relationships and common purpose, that shares common knowledge or a specific domain, expertise and tools, and learn from one another.
van Wyk, 2005, 92COMMUNITIES OF PRACTICE (CoPs) have been discussed in a number of sectors such as business, education and health and they are common in LKS. In fact we are all probably members of formal or informal communities of practice, even if we don't define them in this way. One problem with the literature is that definitions are varied and have evolved over time; however members of a CoP generally share common goals and motivations (Kimble and Hildreth, 2005). They can be created within a single organization, and often these CoPs are influenced by management goals and may be linked to the overall knowledge management (KM) strategy.
Example from practice: the Academic Library Service at the University of Pretoria (van Wyk, 2005)
The Academic Library Service at the University of Pretoria includes a collection of service units. Through interviews and focus groups, two types of CoP were identified: Cross-organizational CoPs and internal CoPs.
Cross-organizational CoPs are: Knowledge Management Practitioners Group of Pretoria; Gaelic Cataloguers and Technical Services Working Group; African Goats Group.
Internal CoPs are: Information Specialists Group; Digital Repositories Group; Information Network for E-Information Experts.
van Wyk (2005) found that these CoPs enabled members to work smarter, share knowledge and feel part of a wider network. They were also beneficial to the organization, as they helped to embed knowledge within the organization and avoid the loss of tacit information when individuals left. They also spread ideas across the organization and enabled innovation.
Whilst there are many benefits to organizational CoPs, van Wyk (2005) outlines a number of critical factors which can threaten the success of organizational CoPs. Management support, time to participate, workload, incentives, size of the CoP, trust and motivation can all provide challenges to a community of practice.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Practical Tips for Developing Your Staff , pp. 105 - 107Publisher: FacetPrint publication year: 2016