COMMUNITIES OF PRACTICE

Heuristic Approach to New Products Development through Communities of Practice: A Knowledge Management Perspective

Abstract

This investigation led to the idea for communities of practice. The research about communities of practice discussed its growing use and effectiveness in organizational settings. Social learning theories and theories of experiential learning are part of the landscape of knowledge management. These theories view knowledge learning as a social activity self-directed by the learner. Communities of practice go beyond the usual group or team assignments. The primary difference is that communities of practice do not focus on producing a finish product in the most efficient manner. Current research supports the effectiveness of communities of practice in the organizational realm. First, employees are exposed to a setting where strong interdependence is the norm. Therefore, knowledge management about using communities of practice for professional development is an important skill for employees to learn. Communities of practice exist in some form in every organization - regardless of whether they were intentionally created or not. Support these communities by knowledge managers. This paper mainly focuses on designing a comprehensive methodology in order to test the hypotheses. A survey has been conducted among the companies of two countries i.e. Rwanda and Uganda, different questionnaire were distributed to the employees of those companies to come up with decent and convincing conclusion which should be acceptable in journal of knowledge management. Statistical analysis like correlations, descriptives, independent sample t-test and crosstabs were applied on the data set to find out the best possible outcomes.

Heuristic Approach to New Products Development through Communities of Practice: A Knowledge Management Perspective

Review of theory

This investigation led to the idea for communities of practice. The research about communities of practice discussed its growing use and effectiveness in organizational settings. Well-respected organizations such as McKinsey Consulting use communities of practice for knowledge management, mentoring programs, and employee professional development (Wenger, McDermott, & Snyder, 2002). Samsung Corporation uses communities of practice as an alternative for some of their employee training programs (Choi, 2006).

Social learning theories (Lave & Wenger, 1991) and theories of experiential learning (Kolb, 1984) are part of the landscape of knowledge management. These theories view knowledge learning as a social activity self-directed by the learner. Three common threads are (a) learning occurs as learners construct their own meaning and application about new knowledge (Candy, 1991), (b) situated learning stresses the importance of embedding learning in the social context where the knowledge will be used (Lave, 1993), and (c) learners construct knowledge on collaborative and self-directed levels using experience (Hung, Tan, & Koh, 2006; Kolb, 1984). Self-directed learning requires that learners assess their needs, determine the best means to acquire needed knowledge or skills, and evaluate that learning has occurred.

Collaborative learning, on the other hand, promotes “a sharing of information in relationships . . . [that] promotes new growth for each participant” (Jackson & MacIsaac, 1994, p. 24). Knowledge Management educators who recognize the value of collaborative learning use group projects, team building exercises, and other collaborative assignments to ...