Organizational communities of practice: Review, analysis, and role of information and communications technologies

ABSTRACT

Information and communications technologies (ICTs) play a key role in supporting Communities of Practice (CoPs). A review of the extant literature reveals six factors that facilitate or constrain the development, sustenance, and effectiveness of CoPs that, in turn, enable generative and degenerative structures and behaviors that affect epistemic environments within Organizational Communities of Practice (orgCoPs). OrgCoPs are accepted as beneficial organizational learning structures and need to be deliberately designed and cultivated. The materiality of ICTs that is used to support orgCoPs may play a role in supporting or opposing seeding structures. The literature review further reveals five material properties that describe the relationship between the orgCoPs and the technologies used to support it. We argue that these distinct but intersecting properties are germane to understanding the role that ICTs play in supporting orgCoPs and propose that the future work on orgCoPs could be nuanced if examined through the lens of ICTs’ materiality.

KEYWORDS:

• Community identity
• community of practice
• community seeding structures
• ICT materiality
• information and communication technologies
• knowledge management
• literature review
• organizations
• organizational learning

Notes

¹ We found only 54 CoP articles in 20 IS journals during the 1990–2015 time period.

² Review papers were included in our analysis.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Benyawarath Nithithanatchinnapat

Benyawarath Nithithanatchinnapat is a doctoral candidate in Management Information Systems at Washington State University. She earned her bachelor’s degree in Computer Science from Mahidol University, Thailand and obtained her master degree in Information Systems Management and an M.B.A in Finance from University of Akron, Ohio. After graduating from University of Akron, Nithithanatchinnapat transitioned into an IT professional as a business analyst in banking industry and as a telecommunication junior consultant of the World Bank, Thailand. Her academic interests include data management and analytics, ICT and Communities of Practice, and ICT workforce development.

Joseph Taylor

Joseph Taylor in an Assistant Professor of Information Systems in the College of Business. He received his PhD from Washington State University, and an MBA in International Management from Thunderbird. Before completing his PhD Joseph worked for 17 years for Walmart Stores, Inc., eventually becoming the director of IT strategy, innovation and governance in the Information Systems Division. While at Walmart Joseph led teams that developed feasibility analysis and proof of concept projects for hundreds of emerging technologies, working with leading technology companies such as Microsoft, Motorola, Intel, HP, IBM and others to evaluate the potential business impacts of technology implementations. Joseph’s academic research interests focus on crowdsourcing and the use of technology to create business value. He currently resides in El Dorado Hills with his wife DeNeal and their five children.

K. D. Joshi

Dr. K. D. Joshi is the Philip L. Kays Distinguished Professor of Information Systems at Washington State University. She received her Master of Science in Engineering from the University of Michigan and received her Doctor of Philosophy in Business Administration (Decision Sciences and Information Systems) from the University of Kentucky. Dr. Joshi’s research interests focus on IT Workforce Issues, Broadening Participation in STEM, Knowledge Management, Crowdsourcing, IT-Enabled Innovation, Value Sensitive Designs, and Health IT. Her published research is cited over 3,700 times according to Google Scholar. She has been a Principle Investigator or Co-Principle Investigator on grants totaling over $5M from the National Science Foundation (NSF). Her research has appeared in journals such as MIS Quarterly, Information Systems Research, Decision Support Systems, IEEE Transactions of Engineering Management, Journal of Strategic Information Systems, Information and Management, Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology, The Information Society, Information Systems Journal, and Communications of the ACM. Professor Joshi is currently a Senior Editor of the Information Systems Journal and Special Section Editor of Social Inclusion and IS for the ACM’s DATABASE Journal. She is an Associate Editor of Communications of the AIS and of the Journal of Organizational Computing and Electronic Commerce.

Meredith Leigh Weiss

Meredith Leigh Weiss is the Senior Associate Vice Chancellor for Finance and Administration at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and an adjunct faculty member in UNC Chapel Hill’s School of Information and Library Science. Additionally, she teaches for several online executive MBA and PhD programs across the country. Weiss earned her bachelor’s degree in human resources from the University of Delaware. She earned master’s degrees in business administration and information science from North Carolina Central University; a master’s degree in instructional technology and certificate in distance learning and administration from East Carolina University. She holds a Ph.D. in information science from UNC Chapel Hill’s School of Information and Library Science. Her academic interests include evidence-based management, business intelligence, leadership, information technology, human resources, and distance education.