Knowledge Sharing and Communities of Practice PDF

Knowledge Sharing and Communities of Practice  Once knowledge has been captured and codified, it needs to be shared and disseminated throughout the organization With the advent of personal computers and the World Wide Web, it seems to be implicitly assumed that all web users are good re...

Knowledge Sharing and Communities of Practice  Once knowledge has been captured and codified, it needs to be shared and disseminated throughout the organization With the advent of personal computers and the World Wide Web, it seems to be implicitly assumed that all web users are good researchers or searchers. Unfortunately, this has not been accompanied by any type of training or what is sometimes referred to as “information literacy,” which is defined as “a set of abilities requiring individuals to recognize when information is needed and have the ability to locate, evaluate and use effectively the needed information” Search for Information Cost International Data Corporation (IDC) (Feldman, 2004) estimates that knowledge workers spend from 15 to 35% of their time searching for information. These workers typically succeed in finding what they seek less than 50% of the time This means that although 80 to 85% of a company’s information is hard to access tacit knowledge, it does not appear that explicit knowledge is any easier to find and use. The IDC study estimates that an organization with 1000 knowledge workers loses a minimum of $6 million per year in time spent just searching for information Where to find information In 2000, the IBM Institute conducted a survey of 40 managers at large accounting organizations to identify the sources of information people used in organizations that had a well- developed knowledge management system or infrastructure (Bartlett, 2000). The results showed that people still first turned to people in order to find information, solve problems, and make decisions. In fact, the company knowledge base was ranked only fourth among the five choices for preferred sources of information,. Cross and Parker (2004) found that people are the most critical conduits of information and knowledge. Knowledge workers typically spend a third of their time looking for information and helping their colleagues do the same  All these studies point to one key dimension, and that is that learning is a predominantly social event Community of Practice A community of practice refers to “a group of people having common identity, professional interests and that undertake to share, participate and establish a fellowship A community of practice can also be defined as a group of people, along with their shared resources and dynamic relationships, who assemble to make use of shared knowledge, in order to enhance learning and create a shared value for the group Community of Practice The term community suggests that these groups are not constrained by typical geographic, business unit, or functional boundaries but rather by common tasks, contexts, and interests. The word “practice” implies knowledge in action—how individuals actually perform their jobs on a day-to-day basis as opposed to more formal policies and procedures that reflect how work should be performed. Two basic orientations to KM 1. The information-based: emphasize explicit knowledge rather than tacit and favors the externalization objective. The learner is viewed as a tabula rasa, or blank slate, into which content is simply poured in. 2. People or interaction-based approaches, on the other hand, place a great deal of emphasis on knowledge-sharing interactions, which in today’s organizations tend to be associated with communities of practice THE SOCIAL NATURE OF KNOWLEDGE Social constructivism views knowledge not as an objective entity but as a subjective, Social constructivists argue that knowledge is produced through the shared understandings that emerge through social interactions. As individuals and groups of people communicate, they mutually influence each other’s views and create or change shared constructions of reality SOCIAL NETWORK ANALYSIS (SNA) is the mapping and measuring of relationships and flows between people, groups, organizations, computers, or other information/knowledge processing entities. In the context of knowledge management, (SNA) enables relationships between people to be mapped in order to identify knowledge flows: from whom do people seek information and knowledge? With whom do they share their information and knowledge? In contrast to an organizational chart that shows formal KNOWLEDGE-SHARING COMMUNITIES Internet communities are “social worlds.” The Internet itself was an initiative called ARPANET, which was intended as a means of making it easier for researchers to share large data files. Networks form because people need one another to reach common goals. Mutual help, assistance, and reciprocity are common to all functioning networks. These networks are not only self-organizing but also self- regulating. For example, no one “decrees” that a community will exist. It is not a top-down formal organization as a task force or project team would be. There is no one person “in charge” of the community, although there may be founding members. Similarly, if someone is in it only for themselves, the other members will quickly realize this, Conclusion In todays knowledge based economy, CoP is where you should go to search and contribute knowledge. Homework Respond to a survey in Moodle