"A group of people or groups who share a concern or passion about a topic who deepen their knowledge and expertise by interacting on an outgoing basis" (wenger at al,2002) Groups or people having different goals,working in different platforms,adopting different strategies for the same goals can also form a CoP.
According to Etienne Wenger (c 2007), three elements are crucial in distinguishing a community of practice from other groups and communities:
The Domain:
A community of practice is is something more than a club of friends or a network of connections between people. 'It has an identity defined by a shared domain of interest. Membership therefore implies a commitment to the domain, and therefore a shared competence that distinguishes members from other people.
The Community:
In pursuing their interest in their domain, members engage in joint activities and discussions, help each other, and share information. They build relationships that enable them to learn from each other.
The Practice:
Members of a community of practice are practitioners. They develop a shared repertoire of resources, experiences, stories, tools, ways of addressing recurring problems in short a shared practice. This takes time and sustained interaction.
THE REAL COLOR OF CoP's: I have been reading a lot about CoP's now a days.First I thought CoP 's are a great platform to share and acquire knowledge.But whats is going on with CoP's in reality?
Are they really as effective as they seem to be?
Does a ideal CoP exist in reality?
I agree that CoP's are effective with in the organisations and there are success stories for intra-organisational CoP's.But what about the Inter-organisational CoP's? While thinking about the CoP's my mind is flooded with a stream of questions that i cant answer neither the books nor the websites I referred answered me those questions.
How can CoP's exist in IT field where every company is a competition to other?
How can they exchange the knowledge that have been acquired through great effort?
Will any organisation help other competitors so that they can perform better?
Let me make it clear to you by giving an example.
The biggest software companies in the whole world are Microsoft,IBM and Oracle corporation.They are the biggest competitors.There is no way they share the knowledge they acquire or the one in their repositories.All the projects or information are highly secured.So,what is the point of a CoP here?
The organisation that I'm presently working with is our KMS where we are assigned to do some research and present our ideas in a perspective.Our superiors told us to comment on others articles so that we can develop a CoP and share knowledge.But what exactly happening is some people din't even post anything on their blogs and there is no question of commenting on them.I din't even receive a single comment and I dint even get a reply for the comments I made.I dont know whats the reason.The reasons may be they dont want to present their idea for the fear of failing,they feel that others might copy from thier blogs,they want to surprise all of us.But I know that everyone will be having thier content on their blogs on thursday.Their might be other reasons involved such as culture,background or may be to show their superiority.I don't think the CoP in our organisation is working effectively.This is my idea but other people might think differently.
LEARNING IS IN THE RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN PEOPLE-McDermott(in Murphy 1997:17)
The best example I can give is the CoP's in NGO's.
When I'm doing my B.Tech in INDIA,where child labor prevails,I took a boy who is a orphan and homeless to a NGO.But to my utter surprise they said they wont be admitting him as he is not suffering from any disability or disease.I asked them if they can take the responsibility of sending him to other homes which they can do easily.But they said they couldn't do that as they are not related to any other NGO.I went all around.Some said that the boy should be a Christian,some said that they treat only AIDS patients.But no NGO took the responsibility. I have heard a lot about NGO's such as Oxfam, CARE, World Vision, Save the Children whose revenues exceed billions of dollars every year.But they only work in countries where they have their own networks.They are not associated with other NGO's.Some work for relief programs,some for tumor affected,some for old people but no organisation works for everyone.I know it is not possible to work for everyone.But they can form a CoP and serve the people in a better way. The concept of CoP's are good but when they are put into real practice,they will be better. "An ideal CoP should be a platform where everyone strive hard to develop their respective or chosen field." REFERENCES: Wenger,Etienne.(2007),Communities of Practise,http://www.infed.org/biblio/communities_of_practice.htm.Accessed febuary 11,2009.
STRATEGY:
The word strategy originates from the greek word "strategos",meaning "general".
An elaborate and systematic plan of action intended to achieve a specific goal is called as strategy.(or)
The art or skill of using stratagems in endeavours such as business and politics.
In war,a strategy is a plan to gain advantage over the enemy.According to Effy Oz, Business people must devise decisive courses of action to win just as generals do.In business,a strategy is a plan designed to help an organisation outperform its competitors.
Strategies tend to fall in some categories such as developing a new product,identifying an unmet consumer need,changing a service to entice more customers or retain existing clients or taking other action that increases the organisation's value through improved performance.
A company achieves strategic advantage by using strategy to maximize its strengths,resulting in a competitive advantage.
The Case study of Walmart and The Albertons:
The Alberton's were th elargest super-market chain in the west before the establishment of Walmart.Walmart was launched with huge investments and they launched very large super markes and aslo the prices are low when compared to that of The Aberton's.They get their products directly from the manufacturer and they have their own transportation which made them huge profits and the Alberton's insured heavy losses.
After few years the Alberton's approached some KM consultancies.The Alberton's reduced the prices of their products just to get into market but also they advertised that their shops are compact and the customer can find the products easily.But Walmart launched some mini super markets like Asda and more to retrieve their position.Walmart's goal is to capture the market and to sweep the customes off their feet.They used different strategies which change from time to time depending upon the situation,market fluctuations and competition.Thus they now expanded their market to Russia,China,Argentina,Brazil,Canada and most of the Europe.
James Brian Quinn in The Strategy process:concepts and contexts,indicated "A strategy is a plan or pattern that integrates an organisation's major goals,policies and action sequences into a cohesive whole.
(cohesive-holding the particles of a homogeneous body together)
An effective business strategy should include three elements:
1.A clear and decisive statement of the primary goals and objectives that are to be achieved.
2.An analysis of companies limitations and guidelines.
3.A record of companies resources to achieve the desired goal.
Strategy cannot be always standard even till the goal is reached.Strategies can be changed or deffer ed due to the fluctuations in the market,competition,resources,etc...
For an organisation or even for a individual,there should be a plan of action or a path which one has to follow to achieve a goal is called strategy.
A small example would be to win a game of cricket.Cricket is a big game known for the best strategies adopted. The strategy will be designed by the Coach and captain of the team and may be the senior most player.These strategies changes from minute to minute.Before designing the strategies they need to know the resources they have ie:opening batsmen,middle order and the bowlers.They keep shifting the places of players such as one down,second down,etc..depending on the runs scored and the overs remaining.When the team was fielding there will be different fielding and bowling strategies for different players.These are desinged by observing the weakness of the players from past matches.
The importance of strategy and the people invoving in planning it can be seen in a live example.The INDIAN cricket teams new coach Gary kristen and captain M.S.Dhoni designed the best strategies ever which made INDIAN team win 9 matches in a row which is a world record and which took them from 6th position in the ICC world rankings to the 1st.
Desiging a strategy is the first step and managing is the second and vital step.
Knowledge Management Strategies:
According to Nonaka,(2005), "The consulting business employs two different knowledge management strategies.In some companies knowledge centers in the computer.The knowledge is codified and is stored in databases,where it can be used and accessed from the computer easily by any employee of the company.We call this CODIFICATION STRATEGY.
In some companies knowledge is closely tied to the person who developed it and is shared through person to person contact.The purpose is to help people communicate knowledge,not to store it.we call it PERSONALIZATION STRATEGY."
The choice of the strategy depends on the way the company serves its clients,the economics of the business and the people it hires.Trying the wrong one or emphasising on both resluts in undermining the company.
Some companies also design their own Knowledge management strategies.But they focus and invest more on KM.
REFERENCES:
Effy Oz.2002."Strategic Uses of Information Systems:Management Information systems,third edition.
Quinn.J.B. and Mintzberg.H.1992."The Strategy Process:Concepts,contexts,cases,Fourth edition.
Ikujiro.n.2005."Knowledge Management:Critical Perspectives on Business and Management".
Tacit knowledge can also be attained but is not easily transfered.Tacit can be attained through dialogues,job shadowing,story telling and sharing of best practice and lessons learned.It usually is rooted in an individuals experiences,intuition,insight,judgment and knowledge of organisational values.Individuals with tacit knowledge are considered to be experts.
The organisation should invest continually in search of knowledge,no matter how good their repositories and networks are.There should be constant quench for knowledge.Knowledge acquired should be adapted efficiently.
