Communities of practice as facilitators of collaborative efforts in turbulent environments: a critical approach

Facing more turbulent and competitive environments, private companies are paradoxically forced to collaborate, over short or long-term periods. In order to better understand how these collaboration processes take place, this article analyses the experience of a community of practice in Canada, established in order to promote quality improvement of public services. This community of practice counted upon the participation of provincial and federal governments, even though federal-provincial relations in Canada are characterized by tension and rivalry. From a critical and qualitative perspective, our analysis shows how the community of practice promoted cooperation in common projects, such as the adoption of a pan-Canadian survey on satisfaction with public services. As we can establish a parallel between the Canadian federal environment and the competitive environments of private companies, we believe that the public sector can inspire private practices, in the sense of using communities of practice as a strategy to diminish the ideological component of initiatives and make collaborative efforts possible.