Communities of practice Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3250 words

Communities of practice - Essay Example Particularly as people advance past routine processes into challenges that are more complex, they rely greatly on their community of practice as their principal resource of knowledge. In recent years, the idea that learning entails an intensifying process of involvement in a community of practice has gained considerable ground. Communities of practice have as well become a key focus within organizational development and when thinking about working with groups, they have substantial value (Smith, 2009, para1). Communities of practice are groups of individuals who share asset of problems, or concern, or a passion regarding a topic, and who enrich their expertise and knowledge in this area through continuous interactions (Wenger, McDermott and Snyder, 2002, p4). Allee (2000) quotes John Seely Brown, Vice President and Chief Scientist at Parc Xerox who describes communities of practice as ‘peers in executing real work, with a common sense of purpose in addition to a real desire to know what each other knows holding them together.’ He explains that what sets communities or practice apart from teams is the fact that knowledge defines communities unlike the latter, which is defined by task. He further explains that a community’s life cycle is not determined by project deadlines, but by the value it creates for its members (Allee, 2000, p5). Communities of practice are voluntary and therefore their ability to engender enough excitement, relevance, as well as value, which attract and engage participants, make these.