You are here

Home » Content

DEMYSTIFYING VIRTUAL COMMUNITIES OF PRACTICE: A Case Study of IBM

Journal Name:

  • The Turkish Online Journal of Distance Education

Publication Year:

  • 2010
Author NameUniversity of Author
Abstract (2. Language): 
The purpose of this proposed research study is to empirically explore the nature of virtual communities of practice (CoP) in a global organisation within the context of its International Corporate Volunteer (ICV) Program. This study investigates whether and how the use of virtual CoP evolves and becomes embedded within this organization. Following the logic of inductive research, a qualitative case study will be proposed here, to gain insight on the extent to which virtual CoPs can be utilized. For this purpose, a global business organisation that established a partnership with a Canadian non-profit organisation and implements a corporate volunteer program is proposed. Although previous studies confirmed the important role that the quality of dialogue plays in the cultivation of effective communities of practice this study shows that despite the quality of exchanges, virtual CoP are not necessarily utilized due to some alternative channels of communication.
Bookmark/Search this post with
FULL TEXT (PDF): 
PDF icon arastirmax-demystifying-virtual-communities-practice-case-study-ibm.pdf
  • 3
119-128
  • English

REFERENCES

References: 

Argyris, C. (1977) Double-loop Learning in Organizations. Harvard Business Review, 55 (5), pp. 115-125.
Argyris, C. & Schon, D.A. (1978) Organizational Learning: A Theory of Action Perspective. Reading, Mass: Reading, Mass: Addison-Wesley.
Cyert, R.M. & March, J.G. (1992) A Behavioral Theory of the Firm. Oxford : Blackwell Business.
Daft, R. & Huber, G.P. (1987) How Organizations Learn: A Communications Framework. Research in the Sociology of Organizations, 5, pp. 1-36.
Daft, R. & Weick, K.E. (1966) Toward a Model of Organizations as Interpretation Systems. Academy of Management Journal, 9 (2), pp. 160-160.
Dewey, J. (1938) Logic: The Theory of Inquiry. New York: Holt.
Dewey, J. (1997) How We Think. Mineola, N.Y.: Dover Publications.
Dewey, J. (2004) Democracy and Education. Mineola, N.Y.: Dover Publications.
Easterby-Smith, M., Burgoyne, J. and Araujo, L. (1999) Organizational Learning and the Learning Organization: Developments in Theory and Practice. London: SAGE.
Easterby-Smith, M., Crossan, M. and Nicolini, D. (2000) Organizational Learning: Debates Past, Present and Future. Journal of Management Studies, 37 (6), pp. 783-796.
127
Easterby-Smith, M. & Lyles, M.A. (2003) The Blackwell Handbook of Organizational Learning and Knowledge Management. Oxford: Blackwell.
Gulati, R. (1995) Social Structure and Alliance Formation Patterns: A Longitudinal Analysis. Administrative Science Quarterly, 40 (4), pp. 619-652.
Gulati, R., Nohria, N. and Zaheer, A. (2000) Strategic Networks. Strategic Management Journal, 21 (3), pp. 203.
Huber, G.P. (1991) Organizational Learning: the Contributing Processes and the Literatures. Organization Science, 2 (1), pp. 88-115.
Kogut, B. & Zander, U. (1992) Knowledge of the Firm, Combinative Capabilities, and the Replication of Technology. Organization Science, 3 (3), pp. 383-397.
Kogut, B. & Zander, U. (1996) What Firms Do? Coordination, Identity, and Learning. Organization Science, 7 (5), pp. 502-518.
Nonaka, I. (1994) A Dynamic Theory of Organizational Knowledge Creation. Organization Science, 5 (1), pp. 14-37.
Nonaka, I. (1995) The Knowledge-creating Company: How Japanese Companies create the Dynamics of Innovation. Oxford : Oxford University Press.
Polanyi, M. (1967) The tacit dimension. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul.
Polanyi, M.F.D. (2002) Communicative Action in Practice: Future Search and The
Pursuit of An Open, Critical and Non-coercive Large-group Process. Systems Research & Behavioral Science, 19 (4), pp. 357-366.
Punch, K. (2005) Introduction to Social Research: Quantitative and Qualitative Approaches. London: SAGE.
Salomon, G. (1997) Distributed Cognitions: Psychological and Educational Considerations. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Stake, R.E. (1995) The Art of Case Study Research. London : Sage Publications.
Tsoukas, H. (1996) The Firm as a Distributed Knowledge System: a Constructionist Approach. Strategic Management Journal, 17, pp. 11-25.
Tsoukas, H. (2009) A Dialogical Approach to the Creation of New Knowledge in Organizations. Organization Science, 20 (6), pp. 941-957.
Weick, K.E. (1998) Improvisation as a Mindset for Organizational Analysis. Organization Science, 9 (5), pp. 543-555.
Weick, K.E. (1991) The Nontraditional Quality of Organizational Learning. Organization Science, 2 (1), pp. 116-124.
Wenger, E. C. (1999) Communities of Practice: Learning, Meaning, and Identity. Cambridge : Cambridge University Press.
128
Wenger, E.C. (2000) Communities of Practice: The Key to Knowledge Strategy. In E. L. Lesser, M. A. Fontaine, J. A. Slusher (Eds.) Knowledge and Communities. Boston: Butterworth Heinemann, pp. 3-20.
Wenger, E. C. (2004) Communities of Practice and Social Learning Systems. In K. Starkey, S. Tempest, & A. McKinlay (Eds.) How Organizations Learn: Managing the Search for Knowledge. London: Thomson, pp. 238-258.
Wenger, E.C. & Snyder, W.M. (2000) Communities of Practice: The Organizational Frontier.
Yin, R.K. (2003) Case Study Research: Design and Methods. Thousand Oaks, California: Sage Publications.

Thank you for copying data from http://www.arastirmax.com