An Analysis Of The Implementation Process Of Communities Of Practice In An Expert Organisation

Effective and efficient knowledge creation, sharing and application are indispensable in nowadays globalized and knowledge-based economy. To maintain competitiveness especially knowledge-intensive organisations have to establish a working environment that supports the entire chain of knowledge processing comprising knowledge creation, transfer and usage. arsenal research, an applied research organisation, has therefore developed a knowledge management strategy that aims especially at improving knowledge creation and transfer. Main focus is laid on the implementation of a collaborative and innovative working environment that cross-links its highly multidisciplinary research staff. For that purpose, the concept of Communities of Practice has been chosen as the main tool. Communities play an important role in implementing and improving organisational learning. Therefore, by actively supporting and facilitating these communities, organisations can develop their social capital and gain significant competitive advantage. Main objective of the communities at arsenal research is the knowledge and experience exchange between the scientific employees. By that efficient knowledge application as well as knowledge transfer within the organisation should be supported. Based on the first experiences a review of the communities' status is given to identify the critical factors. For this purpose the basic requirements and the strategic background of the organisation for implementing the communities as well as the implementation process and the results obtained up to now are described. Furthermore, the further development demand is deduced and suggestions for improving the communities are given.