Communities of Practice: Chapters 1, 2, & 3

After reading the first few chapters of Cultivating Communities of Practice, I understand the definition of, the importance of, and the impact of communities of practice. "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, McDermott, & Snyder, 2002, p.4). Communities of practice have both short-term and long-term value; members receive help on current projects and also build expertise and knowledge to meet future organizational goals (Wenger et al., 2002, p. 15). Creating knowledge bases or standards manuals is a tangible value of a community of practice, meanwhile building relationships and a sense of trust among members is an intangible value of a community of practice (Wenger et al., 2002, p. 15). Having an active and growing community of practice associated with a company can greatly help the company; the community of practice will encourage employees to think outside the box, it will encourage them to seek one another for professional help, and it will infuse energy into the organization by encouraging employees to think of and share new ideas. While introducing key components of Information Technology, Post and Anderson (2006, p.40) explained that "Information Technology changes constantly." Companies must find a solution for coping with changing technology and the answer is communities of practice. They are constantly looking forward to new products and technologies and deciding how to effectively incorporate them into the organization.

Post, G. V., & Anderson, D. L. (2006). Management Information Systems: Solving business problems with Information Technology. New York: McGraw-Hill/Irwin.

Wenger, E., McDermott, R, & Snyder W. M. (2002). Cultivating communities of practice: A guide to managing knowledge. Boston: Harvard Business School Press.

Personality types can vary among employees and the same goes for members of a community of practice; is it common to administer personality tests to members of a community of practice in order to give members an understanding of one another and how to work together?