IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/hal/journl/halshs-00489632.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Communities of Practice: Going One Step Too Far?

Author

Listed:
  • 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, MRM - Montpellier Research in Management - UM1 - Université Montpellier 1 - UPVM - Université Paul-Valéry - Montpellier 3 - UM2 - Université Montpellier 2 - Sciences et Techniques - UPVD - Université de Perpignan Via Domitia - Groupe Sup de Co Montpellier (GSCM) - Montpellier Business School)

  • Paul Hildreth

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

Abstract

In the late 1990s, Knowledge Management (KM) and Communities of Practice (CoPs) seemed inseparable. CoPs appeared to offer the key to reversing the failure of some of the earlier technologically based attempts to manage knowledge. However, the original CoP concept was built around a very different set of principles to those put forward by the proponents of KM. This paper presents a critical review of some of the claims made for CoPs. It will address questions such as "Are CoPs really suitable for use in a business setting?" and "Can a CoP ever be truly virtual?"

Suggested Citation

  • Chris Kimble & Paul Hildreth, 2004. "Communities of Practice: Going One Step Too Far?," Post-Print halshs-00489632, HAL.
    • Handle: RePEc:hal:journl:halshs-00489632
    Note: View the original document on HAL open archive server: https://shs.hal.science/halshs-00489632
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://shs.hal.science/halshs-00489632/document
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Chris Kimble & Paul Hildreth, 2004. "Communities of Practice: Going One Step Too Far?," Post-Print halshs-00489632, HAL.
    2. Wanda J. Orlikowski, 1992. "The Duality of Technology: Rethinking the Concept of Technology in Organizations," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 3(3), pages 398-427, August.
    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. Joanne Roberts, 2006. "Limits to Communities of Practice," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 43(3), pages 623-639, May.
    2. Chris Kimble & Paul Hildreth, 2004. "Communities of Practice: Going One Step Too Far?," Post-Print halshs-00489632, HAL.
    3. Rod Jarman, 2005. "When Success Isn’t Everything – Case Studies of Two Virtual Teams," Group Decision and Negotiation, Springer, vol. 14(4), pages 333-354, July.

    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. Mariek Vanden Abeele & Ralf De Wolf & Rich Ling, 2018. "Mobile Media and Social Space: How Anytime, Anyplace Connectivity Structures Everyday Life," Media and Communication, Cogitatio Press, vol. 6(2), pages 5-14.
    2. Emmanuelle Vaast & Geoff Walsham, 2009. "Trans-Situated Learning: Supporting a Network of Practice with an Information Infrastructure," Information Systems Research, INFORMS, vol. 20(4), pages 547-564, December.
    3. Pradeep Racherla & Munir Mandviwalla, 2013. "Moving from Access to Use of the Information Infrastructure: A Multilevel Sociotechnical Framework," Information Systems Research, INFORMS, vol. 24(3), pages 709-730, September.
    4. repec:dau:papers:123456789/4907 is not listed on IDEAS
    5. Pamela J. Hinds & Diane E. Bailey, 2003. "Out of Sight, Out of Sync: Understanding Conflict in Distributed Teams," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 14(6), pages 615-632, December.
    6. Pascale Amans & Agnes Mazars & Fabienne Villesèque-Dubus, 2013. "Techniques de gestion et organisations du spectacle vivant : quels dispositifs de soutien et quelles interactions pour l'innovation artistique ?," Post-Print hal-01002362, HAL.
    7. Wanda J. Orlikowski & C. Suzanne Iacono, 2001. "Research Commentary: Desperately Seeking the “IT” in IT Research—A Call to Theorizing the IT Artifact," Information Systems Research, INFORMS, vol. 12(2), pages 121-134, June.
    8. Philip J. Dobson, 2001. "The Philosophy of Critical Realism—An Opportunity for Information Systems Research," Information Systems Frontiers, Springer, vol. 3(2), pages 199-210, June.
    9. Klaus Brockhoff, 2006. "Technologischer Wandel und Corporate Governance," Schmalenbach Journal of Business Research, Springer, vol. 58(54), pages 7-31, January.
    10. Sara Cannizzaro & Rob Procter & Sinong Ma & Carsten Maple, 2020. "Trust in the smart home: Findings from a nationally representative survey in the UK," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 15(5), pages 1-30, May.
    11. Yekinni Oyedeji Taofeeq & Owolabi Ayotunde Olayinka & Obaniyi Kayode Samuel, 2023. "Extension Practitioners Perception and Constraints on ICT Use in Southwestern Nigeria," SAGE Open, , vol. 13(4), pages 21582440231, December.
    12. V. L. Tambovtsev, 2019. "Institutions-technologies interaction and economic growth," Journal of New Economy, Ural State University of Economics, vol. 20(2), pages 55-70, May.
    13. repec:dau:papers:123456789/15200 is not listed on IDEAS
    14. Franck Aggeri & Julie Labatut, 2010. "La gestion au prisme de ses instruments. Une analyse généalogique des approches théoriques fondées sur les instruments de gestion," Revue Finance Contrôle Stratégie, revues.org, vol. 13(3), pages 5-37., September.
    15. Yang Liu & Moses Olabhele Esangbedo & Sijun Bai, 2019. "Adaptability of Inter-Organizational Information Systems Based on Organizational Identity: Some Factors of Partnership for the Goals," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(5), pages 1-20, March.
    16. Andrew Hargadon & Angelo Fanelli, 2002. "Action and Possibility: Reconciling Dual Perspectives of Knowledge in Organizations," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 13(3), pages 290-302, June.
    17. Joanne Roberts, 2006. "Limits to Communities of Practice," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 43(3), pages 623-639, May.
    18. XiaoHu Wang & XiaNan Wei & Montgomery Wart & Alma McCarthy & Cheol Liu & Soonhee Kim & David H. Ready, 2023. "The role of E-leadership in ICT utilization: a project management perspective," Information Technology and Management, Springer, vol. 24(2), pages 99-113, June.
    19. Daniel Beverungen, 2014. "Exploring the Interplay of the Design and Emergence of Business Processes as Organizational Routines," Business & Information Systems Engineering: The International Journal of WIRTSCHAFTSINFORMATIK, Springer;Gesellschaft für Informatik e.V. (GI), vol. 6(4), pages 191-202, August.
    20. Michiel Bal & Jos Benders & Lander Vermeerbergen, 2022. "‘Bringing the Covert into the Open’: A Case Study on Technology Appropriation and Continuous Improvement," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(10), pages 1-17, May.
    21. Stephen R. Barley & Debra E. Meyerson & Stine Grodal, 2011. "E-mail as a Source and Symbol of Stress," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 22(4), pages 887-906, August.
    22. Adhikari, Pawan & Upadhaya, Bedanand & Wijethilake, Chaminda & Dhakal Adhikari, Shovita, 2023. "The sociomateriality of digitalisation in Nepalese NGOs," The British Accounting Review, Elsevier, vol. 55(5).

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Communities of Practice; Knowledge Management; Business Environment; Virtual Environment; Social Networks.; Communautés de Pratique; Gestion des Connaissances; Environnement Affaires; Environnement Virtuel; Ré-seaux Sociaux.;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • M12 - Business Administration and Business Economics; Marketing; Accounting; Personnel Economics - - Business Administration - - - Personnel Management; Executives; Executive Compensation

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    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-00489632. 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.