A community of practice (CoP) is a group of people involved in an activity that leads to the achievement of a common good. Participants of a CoP build ways of carrying out tasks, communication processes, sharing of power, values and views to meet their goals (Ardichvilli, Page and Wentling, 2003, p.64). Shared experiences and commitment to understanding are cited as necessary conditions in the achievement of meaning for a CoP (Wenger, 2000, p.3; Cox, 2005, p.528).
Telstra hired CARA interior project Management Company to transform their interior retail layout. For their project team to be considered as a CoP, they fulfilled three processes of CoP which are Domain, Community and Practice. The Project team created a “Domain” through shared interests, commitment to specific objectives or goals. Telstra project team shared common interest involving the redesigning of the retail format of their stores. Participants for this domain were CARA the project manager, Ellis Andy, Robert, Mackenzie, Brendon, Telstra’s interior design analysts, ASOFIA consultants and Master builders.
Participants must share a common work, repertoire through a definite work plan in any CoP (Lesser and Storck, 2001, p.832). For this project, a shared work plan was achieved through the fulfilment of project objectives. Often, objectives create a sense of mutual understanding through the engagement in the enterprise’s goal, involvement in duties and association to the environment (Barton and Tursting, 2005, pp.23). The Telstra’s team embraced the project’s objectives, and through the articulation of tacit knowledge, they managed to achieve goals within the defined limits.
In theory, CoP meets the second standard through shared work experiences and participants’ identities (Denscombe, 2008, pp.273; Lesser, Fontaine and Slusher, 2000, pp.54). A community creates learning, interaction and the desire to share ideas through “the communal” process (Wenger, 2000, p.3). CARA PMI gave the community its identity because its primary business is interior design and renovation of floor spaces. Ellis Andy, Telstra’s retail manager, provided the team with Telstra’s requirements and intentions for the project plan. Participants like ASOFIA consultants and Master builders assisted in the gathering of requirements, designing prototype floor plans, implementation, testing and reviewing of changes.
Communities of practice carry out joint ventures over a period of time (Wenger, 2000, p.4). Telstra’s project team carried out its objectives and activities over a three to five year period. Moreover, CoP’s are involved in the request of information which assists in duty fulfilment (Bechky, 2003, pp.314). For this project, this was achieved through kick off meetings, team, quality assurance and status meetings, status reports and design change requests. Communication was carried out on a weekly, monthly or fortnightly basis either by face to face or email modes according to requirements.
The sharing of the group’s interests created the third process, the “practice” where the focus is on sharing, maintenance and development of shared knowledge. The project team also participate in coordination and synergy activities, which lead to discussions and reviews (Duguid, 2005, pp.110). With the assistance of time and resource budgets, the team was able to achieve objectives in an efficient and timely manner. The community also made use of knowledge mapping methods to identify gaps in the project (Kimble, Hildreth and Bourdon, 2008, pp. 34). In conclusion, the creation of the project team to tackle Telstra’s transformation process created a community of practice.
Reference List
Ardichvilli, A., Page, V. and Wentling, T., 2003. Motivation and barriers to participation in virtual knowledge sharing in communities of practice. Journal of knowledge management 7 (1), pp.64–77.
Barton, T. and Tursting, K., 2005. Beyond Communities of Practice: Language Power and Social Context. Cambridge University Press.
Bechky, A.B., 2003. Sharing Meaning across Occupational Communities: The Transformation of Understanding on a Production Floor. Organization Science JSTOR, 14(3), pp.312-330.
Cox, A., 2005. What are communities of practice? A comparative review of four seminal works. Journal of Information Science, 31(6), pp. 527–540.
Denscombe, M., 2008. Communities of Practice: A Research Paradigm for the Mixed Methods Approach. Journal of Mixed Methods Research, 2(3), pp.270-283.
Duguid, P., 2005. The Art of Knowing: Social and Tacit Dimensions of Knowledge and the Limits of the Community of Practice. The Information Society, pp.109–118.
Kimble, C., Hildreth, P. and Bourdon, I., 2008. Communities of Practice: Creating Learning Environments for Educators. Information Age Publishing.
Lesser, E.L., Fontaine, M.A. and Slusher, J.A., 2000. Knowledge and Communities, Butterworth-Heinemann.
Lesser, E.L. and Storck, J., 2001. Communities of Practice and Organizational Performance. IBM Systems Journal, 40(4), pp.831-841.
Wenger, E., 2000. Communities of Practice and Social Learning Systems. Sage Organization Journal, 7(2), pp.225-246.