How to build Knowledge Management on a corporate

level Using bottom up approach

A group of people who are linked together by a common ability or a shared interest

This common ground results in: • Common experience• Specialized information• Intuitive knowledge

Community of Practice is examined as a driving force for effective KM within a company.

Communities of Practice are everywhere

Many times are hidden in organizations• Ex. In your own work experience

Dynamic: people come and go This makes CoP difficult to support on

a corporate level

CoP are formed by a group of people sharing their practical experience, specialist skills, and intuitive knowledge about a common interest with each group developing its own social and cognitive governing.

People learn through participation in smaller informal connections

• Respect for colleagues • Trust in co-workers• Understanding of the corporate environment

In 1998 Siemens chose to establish formally the informal connections within their corporation.

They developed the CoP KM• No mandate for participation• Voluntary• Factory students to top managers

Promoting Knowledge Processes• Localization• Recording• Dissemination• Accumulation

Bottom-up movement

Supporting CoP KM Developing the ability for these loose

social connections to be documented and formalized

Help business meet daily challenges Increase motivation to share

knowledge Systematic sharing of knowledge and

experiences

Potential Communities of Practice must be identified

Necessary infrastructure and resources

Non-traditional measures of value

Articulated and codified by individuals

Implicit knowledge is context specific Difficult to define border of CoP

within corporate framework

Think of a time in which you were a part of a community of practice.

How did this community come into being? Was there a hierarchy or rules within the

community? Could your example be formalized within a

setting to be successful? What infrastructure or corporate support could

you have used in your community? Could communities be useful within the

corporation in order to transfer knowledge in a bottom-up manner?