Handbook of Research on Communities of Practice for Organizational Management and Networking: Methodologies for Competitive Advantage

Communities of practice are increasingly recognized as an important mechanism through which individual, organizational, and social knowledge is held, transferred, and created. Here scholars mostly of business fields explore the implications of the notion for business management. They cover conceptualizing, contextualizing, performance and innovation, knowledge intensive organizations, and sharing and experience. The topics include unraveling power dynamics in communities of practice, Samson and Delilah as a discourse of communities of practice, people-focused knowledge sharing initiatives in medium-high and high technology companies, roles of peripheral participants and brokers within and beyond communities of practices, and Catalonia's government as an example of communities of practice in public administration. Annotation c2011 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)