IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/hal/journl/halshs-00487371.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Quantum phenomena in Communities of Practice

Author

Listed:
  • R. Ribeiro

    (CS-YORK - Department of Computer Science [York] - University of York [York, UK])

  • Chris Kimble

    (Euromed Marseille - École de management - Association Euromed Management - Marseille, CREGOR - Centre de Recherche sur la Gestion des Organisations - UM2 - Université Montpellier 2 - Sciences et Techniques)

  • P. Cairns

    (CS-YORK - Department of Computer Science [York] - University of York [York, UK])

Abstract

Although Communities of Practice have become a core concept in understanding how knowledge is managed within organizations, there have been few studies of the praxis of formation of Communities of Practice. In this article, we report on a Grounded Theory study of the members of a previously identified Community of Practice within the UK Higher Education Academy Psychology Network. In addition to providing data on the functioning of the community, the study also revealed a hitherto unrecognized form of community that exhibits all of the characteristics of CoPs yet has only a transient existence that seems to nucleate around an existing core community. Drawing on the metaphor of quantum behaviour, we termed these communities Quantum Communities of Practice. We describe a theory to explain this phenomenon that is grounded in the data from the study. We conclude by discussing the value and validity of our findings and methodology and indicating the next steps we will take in our research.

Suggested Citation

  • R. Ribeiro & Chris Kimble & P. Cairns, 2010. "Quantum phenomena in Communities of Practice," Post-Print halshs-00487371, HAL.
    • Handle: RePEc:hal:journl:halshs-00487371
    DOI: 10.1016/j.ijinfomgt.2009.11.003
    Note: View the original document on HAL open archive server: https://shs.hal.science/halshs-00487371
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://shs.hal.science/halshs-00487371/document
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.ijinfomgt.2009.11.003?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. John Seely Brown & Paul Duguid, 2001. "Knowledge and Organization: A Social-Practice Perspective," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 12(2), pages 198-213, April.
    2. Kimble, Chris & Bourdon, Isabelle, 2008. "Some success factors for the communal management of knowledge," International Journal of Information Management, Elsevier, vol. 28(6), pages 461-467.
    3. Paul Hildreth & Chris Kimble, 2002. "The Duality of Knowledge," Post-Print halshs-00492437, HAL.
    4. Lars Lindkvist, 2005. "Knowledge Communities and Knowledge Collectivities: A Typology of Knowledge Work in Groups," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 42(6), pages 1189-1210, September.
    5. Martha S. Feldman, 2000. "Organizational Routines as a Source of Continuous Change," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 11(6), pages 611-629, December.
    6. Wanda J. Orlikowski & JoAnne Yates, 2002. "It's About Time: Temporal Structuring in Organizations," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 13(6), pages 684-700, December.
    7. Birger Wernerfelt, 1984. "A resource‐based view of the firm," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 5(2), pages 171-180, April.
    8. Frank Blackler & Seonaidh McDonald, 2000. "Power, Mastery And Organizational Learning," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 37(6), pages 833-852, September.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Chris Kimble, 2010. "Building effective virtual teams: How to overcome the problems of trust and identity in virtual teams," Post-Print halshs-00550219, HAL.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Davide Nicolini, 2011. "Practice as the Site of Knowing: Insights from the Field of Telemedicine," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 22(3), pages 602-620, June.
    2. Schriber, Svante & Löwstedt, Jan, 2015. "Tangible resources and the development of organizational capabilities," Scandinavian Journal of Management, Elsevier, vol. 31(1), pages 54-68.
    3. Paola Perez-Aleman, 2011. "Collective Learning in Global Diffusion: Spreading Quality Standards in a Developing Country Cluster," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 22(1), pages 173-189, February.
    4. Anne Kokkonen & Pauli Alin, 2015. "Practice-based learning in construction projects: a literature review," Construction Management and Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 33(7), pages 513-530, July.
    5. Kimble, Chris & Bourdon, Isabelle, 2008. "Some success factors for the communal management of knowledge," International Journal of Information Management, Elsevier, vol. 28(6), pages 461-467.
    6. Isabelle Le Breton–Miller & Danny Miller, 2015. "The Arts and Family Business: Linking Family Business Resources and Performance to Industry Characteristics," Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, , vol. 39(6), pages 1349-1370, November.
    7. Elsahn, Ziad & Earl, Anna, 2022. "Alternative ways of studying time in qualitative international business research: A review and future agenda," Journal of International Management, Elsevier, vol. 28(3).
    8. Kimble, Chris & Grenier, Corinne & Goglio-Primard, Karine, 2010. "Innovation and knowledge sharing across professional boundaries: Political interplay between boundary objects and brokers," International Journal of Information Management, Elsevier, vol. 30(5), pages 437-444.
    9. Shad Morris & Scott Snell & Ingmar Björkman, 2016. "An architectural framework for global talent management," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 47(6), pages 723-747, August.
    10. Anja Danner-Schröder & Daniel Geiger, 2016. "Unravelling the Motor of Patterning Work: Toward an Understanding of the Microlevel Dynamics of Standardization and Flexibility," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 27(3), pages 633-658, June.
    11. Linus Dahlander & Siobhan O'Mahony, 2011. "Progressing to the Center: Coordinating Project Work," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 22(4), pages 961-979, August.
    12. Harvey, Jean-François & Cohendet, Patrick & Simon, Laurent & Dubois, Louis-Etienne, 2013. "Another cog in the machine: Designing communities of practice in professional bureaucracies," European Management Journal, Elsevier, vol. 31(1), pages 27-40.
    13. Gerardo Patriotta & Daniel A. Gruber, 2015. "Newsmaking and Sensemaking: Navigating Temporal Transitions Between Planned and Unexpected Events," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 26(6), pages 1574-1592, December.
    14. Siedlok, Frank & Hibbert, Paul & Sillince, John, 2015. "From practice to collaborative community in interdisciplinary research contexts," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 44(1), pages 96-107.
    15. Basaglia, Stefano & Caporarello, Leonardo & Magni, Massimo & Pennarola, Ferdinando, 2010. "IT knowledge integration capability and team performance: The role of team climate," International Journal of Information Management, Elsevier, vol. 30(6), pages 542-551.
    16. Calderón-Larrañaga, Sara & Greenhalgh, Trish & Finer, Sarah & Clinch, Megan, 2024. "What does social prescribing look like in practice? A qualitative case study informed by practice theory," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 343(C).
    17. Apitzsch, Birgit, 2006. "Unternehmensnetzwerke und soziale Einbettung: Begriffliche Bestimmungen, Funktionen und Entstehungsbedingungen," Duisburger Beiträge zur soziologischen Forschung 3/2006, University of Duisburg-Essen, Institute of Sociology.
    18. Kilfoyle, Eksa & Richardson, Alan J. & MacDonald, Laura D., 2013. "Vernacular accountings: Bridging the cognitive and the social in the analysis of employee-generated accounting systems," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 38(5), pages 382-396.
    19. Ericson, Mona, 2014. "On the dynamics of fluidity and open-endedness of strategy process toward a strategy-as-practicing conceptualization," Scandinavian Journal of Management, Elsevier, vol. 30(1), pages 1-15.
    20. Mikael Holmqvist, 2004. "Experiential Learning Processes of Exploitation and Exploration Within and Between Organizations: An Empirical Study of Product Development," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 15(1), pages 70-81, February.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:hal:journl:halshs-00487371. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: CCSD (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.