Pourquoi parler des communautés de pratique dans un cours sur entreprise-réseau

1. Communautés de pratiqueCoPd’apres E.Wenger «Communities of Practice Learning, Meaning, and Identity »Cambridge University Press 1998andJ.Lave, E,Wenger« Situated Learning, Legitimate peripheral participation »Cambridge, 1991

2. Pourquoi parler des communautés de pratiquedans un cours sur entreprise-réseau • We recognize knowledge as a key source of competitive advantage in the busisness worldbut …We have little understanding of how to create and leverage it in practice. • Traditional KM attempt to capture existing knowledge within formal systems but we seldom understand how individuals develop and share the capacity to create and use knowledge. • There is a variety of types of knowledge : tacit, explicit, embodied, codified, formal, domain, supre-individual …Much of which is an unrecognized resource held in the mind of workers !!! • Here is a new approch to « Knowledge management » and « Learning organizations » :An organization is a constellation of « communties of practice » • Focus is switching from Technology to Human Capabilities • Wenger’s CoP book reveals the foundations of Knowledge Production and Management :

3. CoP : Toward a social theory of learning • At the simplest level CoPs are small group of people That do something together Who want to share knowledge and experience • CoP : network of relationships based on practice, focused on learning • Learning is seen as the result of social participation in a community :because CoP shape what we do, who we are, how we INTERPRET what we do • People in CoPs develop KNOWLEDGE that go beyond « book learning » and certification. • Learning is a source of social structure • Cops are mostly informal and distinct from organizational units.

4. Background • Activity theory (Vygotsky, Leontiev) There is an intimate connection between Knowledge and Activity • Principles internalisation/externalisationtool mediationaction is directed at … (intentional) • ZPD • Activity model activitytaskoperation • Situated action (Suchman) • Shows the importance of differentiating between work and representations of work like plans and process models. • Emphasises action as essential situated and ad hoc improvisations • Plans are representations of situated actions produced in the course of action and therefore they become resources for the work rather than they in any strong sense determine its course • Constructivism • Others : Greymas, Linard ….

5. What is a CoP CoPs are small groups of people who concentrate on : Learning that emerges through working or practicing one’s craft CoPs are self-organizing systems (as opposed to formal hierarchies of traditional organizations) • Network of personal relationships directed to a joint entreprise • A CoP defines itself : what it is about, how it functions, what capability it has produced • membership is self selecting • not necessarily co-located. • Practicing mutual engagement and generalized reciprocity CoP membership is based on PARTICPATION rather than status

6. CoP 15 characteristics

7. Différences entre CoP et :team, network, organisation … • CoP are everywhere, informal and pervasive, membership rarely explicit Workers, families, students, bands, scientists …(L’exemple du livre : « Insurance claims processing ») • YOU belong to many of them – as a core or peripheral member • CoP # community of interest and # network - because CoP involves a shared practice. • Learning in CoP is more than « learning by doing » - because in CoP doing is « situated »  • CoP # team - team is defined by task and short term • Organizations shelter interconnected CoPs • CoPs are boundary-crossing : across business units and across company boundaries, functional as well as cross-functional. • CoP produce practices,routines,rituals,artifacts,symbols,conventions,stories and histories

8. Différence entre CoP et d’autres communautés virtuelles : • Communautés de pratiqueMembers bound by what they DO together (cf AT) • # Communautés d’intérêtMembers share interests – but they don’t share practice • Exemple : Développeurs informatique • Forte dimension technologique • Exemple : Alpinisme – (communauté d’intérêt ?) • Forte dimension de pratique non-professionnelle • Exemple : Assurances : claims processing • Forte dimension de pratique professionnelle

9. How CoPs develop :Participation and Reification • Practices evolve as shared histories of learningHistories are a combination of participation and reification • Participation (people) is action+relation : role, membership, interacting … • Reification (objects): - giving form to our experience by producing objects : documents, forms, instruments, monuments, anecdotes, rules ..- reification also shapes our experience • Participation and Reification are sources of • Memory : remembering and forgetting • Continuity and discontinuity (artifacts perpetuate the repertoire of practices- QWERTY) • Participation and reification are part of the process of « negotiation of meaning»

10. CoP: stages of development • Potential : people face similar situations but don’t know each other • Coalescing : members come together • Active : members develop practice and relations • Dispersed : members no longer active but CoP is still a center of knowledge • Memorable : people remember , CoP is still part of their identity • Institutionalized : CoP becomes an organization

11. CoPs and Learning in practice Question : what type of knowledge is learned in CoPs ?« What a flower knows about being a flower » / « what a computer knows about flowers » • Flower has an experience as a living entity / Computer can deal very well with certain reifications • But what they both lack is the capability to have * an experience of meaning through * combining reification and participation • That’s how Cop provide an environment for learning !

12. CoP, identity and learning • Identity is a pivot between the individual and the social :« the focus must be on the process of their mutual constitution » • CoP participants construct identities in relation with their communities- however membership alone does not determine who we are • Practice and learning transform the IDENTITY of the participants • Because identity evolve along a trajectory of participation :peripheral, inbound, insider, boundary, outboundCommunities provide a set of models for trajectories • Non-participation also is a source of identity ! • How Identity and Learning are linked :Learning is learning to act, speak and improvise in ways that make sense to the community. • Understanding is a process - not just a local act of learning :Participation trajectories give different perspectivesA very peripheral form of participation may turn out to be central to one’s identity

13. Legitimate peripheral participation(Lave, Wengers) • Question : what kind of social engagements provide the proper context for learning. • A community can offer peripheral forms of participation that are considered legitimate:New comers join the group, old-timers leaveA newcomer may receive a work at the periphery of the groupLearning from old-timers (=apprenticeship)Then moving towards full participation • To become even a CoP peripheral member one must do some learning

14. CoP and CMCs(Hildreth, Kimble, Wright, 1998) • CMC = Computer Mediated Communication technologies • Work environment and knowledge are more and more distributed Questions : Are CoP necessarily co-located ?Do CMCs support CoPs ? • The study was made in Watson Wyatt Partners company Results : • CoP can exist in a distributed environment (VE) • E-mail and telephone are widely used • Groupware is less used than expected • Cop seem to start co-located … then link to other remote CoPs« This mirrors the network organizations » • CoP core is often co-located, remote members on the periphery • Main problems – even when using E-mail : awareness, informal communications, situatedness, grounding …

15. CoPs and Organizations • CoP are important to organizations : • CoP exchange information • CoP RETAIN knowledge in living ways ( # standard knowledge management) • Provide home for identities • Structure an organization’s learning potential • Developing and nurturing CoPs : • Work from the inside • Legitimizing workers participation (time, environment, support)

16. Conclusion • Organizations shelter interconnected CoPs • CoPs are a vehicle for knowledge sharing and building • CoP is important to KM and CoP is an active area of KM research • Most CoPs are co-located • How CoPs live in network organizations and Can groupware support CoPs are still questions