Encyclopaedia of Communities of Practice in

Information and Knowledge Management.

Elayne Coakes and Steve Clarke

Idea Group Reference 2005

Foreword by

Professor Brian Lehaney

 I am delighted to write the Foreword to this new, creative, and innovative book on Communities of Practice (CoP s) in Information and Knowledge Management (KM).  The global importance of Knowledge Management has been recognized only recently, and KM is still in its infancy.  It is, nevertheless, a complex and challenging area of enquiry.   This book is therefore especially welcome at a time when recognition that the creation, retention, and dissemination of knowledge are key to organizational survival and competitiveness. 

 By addressing a major aspect of Knowledge Management (Communities of Practice), the authors help provide understanding where there has previously been mystery.  Although this is one (major) area of KM, the authors have been careful to take a holistic approach to the issues, and have avoided the temptation of a reductionist approach.  This makes the book comprehensive in scope, and appropriate for students, managers, and academics.  The book is highly readable, highly enjoyable, and full of superb insights that may be used and adapted to many different settings.

 The notion of ‘Communities of Practice’ has arisen alongside the development of Knowledge Management.  As with KM, Cops have existed far longer than they have been recognized, but their importance for the public and private sectors, and for other organizations, is only just beginning to be understood.  The appropriate use of technology to support such communities is key to their success, but it is the word appropriate that must be emphasized.  Unlike many texts that purport to address KM, but which really deal solely with information technology, this book address the key organizational and communications issues that are the real challenges facing us in the 21st century.  Technology is an enabler, but the drivers for action must come from the needs of the community, be it a public organization, a large company, a charity, an SME, or a group of people who share interests and directions, or who want to develop those interests in a cooperative fashion.  If technology becomes the driver those needs become subsumed, and all too often it is apparent that systems are serving themselves, rather than the communities they should be serving.

 The book’s contributors provide a wonderful collection of material that will both interest, and serve as reference, for anyone who wants to think about the world in which we now live, and who want to improve that world.

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Journal of Knowledge Management Practice, October, 2005

Book Review

The Encyclopedia of Communities of Practice in Information and Knowledge Management

Reviewed By: Peter A.C. Smith, The Leadership Alliance Inc.

The implementation of knowledge management is still a daunting task in most organizations as the pages of this journal can amply testify. The emergence over the last decade of multi-purpose organizational building blocks that promise to significantly facilitate knowledge management has created considerable excitement and interest. These unique organizational elements are Communities of Practice (CoPs), one of three types of practical Collective Work-Based Learning explored at length by Raelin (2000; pp. 74 - 89), and  for which Wenger et al have proposed the following definition: “Communities of Practice are groups of people who share a concern, a set of problems, or a passion about a topic, and who deepen their knowledge and expertise in this area by interacting on an ongoing basis” (Wenger et al, 2002; pp. 4).

A search of Amazon for “Communities of Practice” yields three books (Wenger, 1998; Wenger et al, 2002; Saint-Onge & Wallace, 2003), a reprint of a journal piece (Wenger & Snyder, 2000), and one book dealing with a closely related theme (Lave & Wenger, 1991).  All but one of these books feature Etienne Wenger as author or co-author. In my opinion this has led to a somewhat narrow view of CoPs, and I think it’s fair to say that the jury is still out on whether CoPs will live up to their billing. What is required to cut through the mystery surrounding the current theory, practice, and promise of CoPs is an authoritative, broad-based, up-to-date review of the CoPs field. Such a book has now appeared and is reviewed here; it is enthusiastically recommended to all who seriously seek to optimize organizational performance.

This new holisitic view of CoPs is contained in Idea Group’s most recent publication The Encyclopedia of Communities of Practice in Information and Knowledge Management (Coakes & Clark, 2005). The encyclopedia is a ‘blockbuster’ that more than amply fulfills the publisher’s corporate goals of publishing only “ ….high quality, blind peer-reviewed, comprehensive, and authoritative reference titles, edited by some of the most recognized researchers worldwide.”  I believe that this encyclopedia will become the leading reference source for dynamic and innovative research in the field of CoPs for some time to come. I hope that the title’s emphasis on “Information and Knowledge Management” will not limit its readership, since on reviewing the book I have been struck by its relevance to so many disciplines and interests.

In any event, this single volume encyclopedia certainly provides a comprehensive, critical and descriptive examination of all facets of CoPs in information and knowledge management in societies and organizations. The encyclopedia contains in its 601 pages 100 articles contributed by more than 120 researchers from 22 countries highlighting concepts, issues, and future challenges facing the field of CoPs. It also offers more than 550 technical and managerial terms with their full definitions. The articles and terms are supported by more than 19,050 references providing additional sources of information. Key features include organization by titles, indexing by topics, and cross referencing of key terms, figures and information pertinent to CoPs.

The encyclopedia is divided into seven major categories:

1. Generic aspects of CoPs

2. CoPs and the business environment

3. Organizational aspects of CoPs

4. Virtual teams and the role of communities

5. The role of knowledge management

6. Enabling technology

7. The philosophy theory of CoPs/KM

Topics covered are encyclopedic as one would expect, and include:

¨      Collective learning within CoPs

¨      CoPs and knowledge management

¨      CoPs and organizational development-ethics and values

¨      CoPs for cross functional working

¨      CoPs and the development of core competencies

¨      Intellectual capital

¨      Language and simple developments in CoPs

¨      Leadership issues within CoPs

¨      Knowledge management infrastructure

¨      Narrative inquiry and CoPs

¨      Rewards systems and formal CoPs

¨      Reward systems and informal CoPs

¨      Social and intellectual capital in CoPs

¨      The philosophy and theory of CoPs

¨      The strategic advantage of CoPs

¨      Using CoPs for organizational learning

¨      Using communities to support political action (charitable organizations)

As with any major undertaking there are strengths and weaknesses here; however, I do not feel that based on my own interests and mindset it would be helpful in this review to “pick over” this bountiful work. Rather let me just conclude by saying that for focused information retrieval or synergistic browsing, no-one seriously interested in CoPs should be without access to this encyclopedia.

Information Science Reference

References

Coakes, E. and Clarke, S. (Eds), 2005, The Encyclopedia of Communities of Practice in Information and Knowledge Management, Idea Group Reference, Hershey, PA; available from the publisher www.idea-group-ref.com or through online bookstores

Raelin, J.A., 2000, Work-Based Learning, Prentice Hall, Upper Saddle, NJ

Saint-Onge, H. and Wallace, D., 2003, Leveraging Communities of Practice for Strategic Advantage, Butterworth-Heinemann, Boston, MA

Lave, J. and Wenger, E., 1991, Situated Learning: Legitimate Peripheral Participation, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK

Wenger, E. 1998, Communities of Practice: Learning, Meaning and Identity, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK

Wenger E. and Snyder, W.M., January – February 2000, Communities of Practice: The Organizational Frontier, Harvard Business Review; pp. 139 - 145

Wenger, E., McDermott, R. and Snyder, W.M., 2002, Cultivating Communities of Practice, Harvard Business School Press, Boston, MA

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