Communities of Practice: Going One Step Too Far?

Kimble, Chris; Hildreth, Paul M.

doi:10.2139/ssrn.634642

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Communities of Practice: Going One Step Too Far?

9e colloque de l'AIM, (May), Evry, France, 2004.

7 Pages Posted: 24 Dec 2004 Last revised: 30 Aug 2015

See all articles by Chris Kimble

In the late 1990s, Knowledge Management (KM) and Communities of Practice (CoPs) seemed inseparable. CoPs appeared to offer the key to reversing the failure of some of the earlier technologically based attempts to manage knowledge. However, the original CoP concept was built around a very different set of principles to those put forward by the proponents of KM. This paper presents a critical review of some of the claims made for CoPs. It will address questions such as Are CoPs really suitable for use in a business setting? and Can a CoP ever be truly virtual?

Keywords: Communities of Practice, Knowledge Management, Business Environment, Virtual Environment, Social Networks

JEL Classification: M12, M54, O33, O34

Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation

Kimble, Chris and Hildreth, Paul M., Communities of Practice: Going One Step Too Far? (2004). 9e colloque de l'AIM, (May), Evry, France, 2004., Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=634642 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.634642