|
For information on the European Conference on Knowledge Management, click here
For information on the International Conference on Intellectual Capital, Knowledge Management and Organisational Learning, click here
Downloadable documents on this site require Adobe Acrobat Reader (free download here)
| |
|
Volume 5 Issue 1, February 2007
Knowledge Management in a Virtual Community of Practice using Discourse Analysis
Khalid Hafeez and Fathalla Alghatas
School of Management, Bradford University, UK
|
|
|
|
The topic of Community-of-Practice (CoP) has been discussed in the management literature since the early 1990´s, and has attracted a lot of attention from academics and professionals around the globe. Communities of Practice (CoP) have become a strategic approach for fostering learning and transferring knowledge. However, there are few studies which explain what makes a community engage in a discussion to share their knowledge and experience. This paper discusses the anatomy of a CoP, and examines a number of knowledge management tools such as story telling and discourse analysis to illustrate how knowledge is transferred and learning takes place in a virtual Community of Practice. Results are presented from a 'live' virtual community of practice which is in the maturity period of its life cycle to discuss the role of domain experts and moderators and how they engage the community in dialogue and help generate new knowledge. Using Nonaka and Takeuchi´s knowledge spiral model it is explained how learning takes place in this virtual community of practice.
Keywords:
Community of practice, discourse analysis, knowledge management, story telling, Nonaka and Takeuchi´s knowledge spiral model
Download FULL PAPER
Back to Contents
|
|
