2 minutes
Critique of Communities of Practice
Critique of Communities of Practice
The examples of Communities of Practice presented in (Blackmore, 2010) do not provide a practical implementation in a business environment and is lacking information about how CoP could translate in profit for an organisation.
We have seen that CoP can translate in profit in an indirect approach, via employee satisfaction and reducing turnover rates of the company.
We could also argue that the different interpretations of CoP make it challenging to apply the concepts or to take complete advantage of the benefits that the communities of practice could offer. Nonetheless, that is expected as the module deals with complex situations that cannot be solved with a “recipe” approach of classical project management. In this context, Communities of Practice are a framework providing ideas on how to develop a system to tackle complex situations.
Last, we should note that the tension between satisfying the individual need for personal growth versus an organisation objective of creating monetary value is perhaps the most difficult of the issues that make CoPs difficult to implement.
Strengths and limitations found during analysis and design
An obvious strength I have found in the idea of a community of practice is to fight the sense of loneliness and isolation that may occur in companies formed by small and independent sections, providing a system to provide training and mentoring to junior members, while at the same time further developing the capabilities of the existing members.
Nonetheless, I have omitted a discussion regarding the possible conflict or tension that could arise between members recognised as “leaders” inside the CoP but with a lesser role inside a working team of the company. I have found nothing regarding this possible tension in the cases provided in (Blackmore, 2010). A reader could be tempted to translate the role or position inside the CoP into the organisation, but we should note that the recognition as a technical expert inside a CoP may not include other skills such as accountability and management techniques that are deemed of sheer importance in a leadership role inside an organisation.