COMMUNITY OF PRACTICE

A Critical Examination of 3 Organizations Approaches to the Implementation of Communities of Practice

Executive summary

The paper includes a case study on the communities of practice and its implementation in three various organizations. Knowledge management systems consists of many different kinds of strategies and practices which are adopted so that employees can share their experiences and insights with the rest of the employees. The case study consists of three organizations. The firs organization had no knowledge management system, but when they applied it resulted in employee satisfaction and enhanced employees learning. The second organization adopted certain communities of practice but improved them which enhanced communication. The third organization adopted a new and revised knowledge management system which helped them to manage their company and promote organizational learning. Table of contents

Community of Practice1

Introduction1

Background1

Findings2

Communities of practice2

Global oil field service provider2

Engineering contractor3

International project management5

Conclusion6

References9

Community of Practice

Introduction

The term knowledge management is a set of adequate strategies and practices which are adopted in various organizations to identify, develop, represent and distribute experiences and insights. The experience and insights developed consists of vast knowledge which is either personified in individuals or is included in the organizations in the form of processes. The primary objective of knowledge management is to focus on organizational goals such as improve performance, competitive advantage, innovation and continuous improvement of the organization (Dalkir, 2005, pp 51)

The paper will begin with a brief background of the three various organizations discussed in the case study. The paper will consist of findings from the case study and relevant literature and will critically evaluate the various perspectives. The paper will end with a conclusion of the discussion and findings.

Background

The case study includes three organizations. The first organization is global oilfield service provider. Global oil field service is head quartered in Texas. It consists of more than 25,000 employees and is being operated in more than 90 countries. It is specialized in the production of upstream oil.

The second organization in the case study is the engineering contractor which is responsible for delivering design, construction and maintenance services to oil and gas industries in more than 100 countries. There are more than 85,000 employees and it is situated in Houston. The case study is located in Europe which is a significant part of their downstream segments.

The third organization mentioned in the case study delivers and distributes international project management and related services to various industries all across the globe. It can be stated that it is a direct competitor to the second organization in the case study.

Findings

Communities of practice

The community of practice is basically formed by people who are involved in the procedure of collective learning in the shared domain of human behavior. In short communities of practice is composed of group of people which work together as a team and share common passion for something that they want to achieve. With the help of this they learn how to integrate and interact with each other and do things more effectively (Earl, 2001, pp ...