Abstract
Communities of practice play a critical role as the building blocks for creating, sharing, and applying organizational knowledge. Lesser and Prusak propose that communities of practice are “formed by individuals who need to associate themselves with others facing similar issues and challenges within the organization. They exist without formal charters or operational mandates.” As these informal organizations become recognized by organizations, both knowledge and human capital can be leveraged. Addressing this potential, Lesser and Prusak point to social capital as “the web of social relationships that influences individual behavior and thereby affects economic growth.” The authors propose that communities of practice serve as the primary vehicle for building social capital. This is illustrated by exploring the structural, relational, and cognitive dimensions of communities of practice and their implications for managers attempting to bridge the gap between creating, sharing, and applying knowledge.
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