Community, Practice, and Domain Behaviors, and the Moderator Influence of Information Technology among global Communities of Practice: A Meta-Analysis

Abstract

The theory of Communities of Practice (CoPs) emerged in the middle 1990s through the work of Etienne Wenger and other contemporary authors (Wenger, 2004; Wenger, McDermott, & Snyder, 2002; Wenger & Snyder, 2000). Domain, practice, and community are the main dimensions of CoPs, each with a set of defined behavioral dynamics that allow communities of learners to develop continued growth and sustainability. Professional associations and educational institutions are using online CoPs to engage industry and academia in contributing with innovative solutions to everyday problems. The knowledge management theory has defined groups that meet to produce knowledge solutions in response to common interests as invisible colleges, epistemic communities, learning communities, and CoPs. A meta-analysis of 84 research designs dated from 2000 to 2011, and representing 18 geographic areas in more than 20 industries, demonstrated that professional CoPs manifest distinctive behaviors in all CoP structural dimensions as described by Wenger et al. (2002). Reflective collaboration (e.g., community), sense of common purpose (e.g., practice), and innovation, creativity, and solutions to everyday problems (e.g., domain) are the behaviors present with more frequency among global CoPs. The moderator role of information technology for collaboration and knowledge creation is evident in the observed CoP behaviors and dynamics of this meta-analysis. The use of technologies to promote CoPs creates new challenges for organizations, which will be providing more technological services and support to the diverse CoPs’ memberships.