Benefits of Face-to-Face Interaction Community of Practice, Managers Essay

Essays on Benefits of Face-to-Face Interaction Community of Practice, Managers Role in the Creation and Development of a Community of Practice Essay The paper â€Å"Benefits of Face-to-Face Interaction Community of Practice, Manager’s Role in the Creation and Development of a Community of Practice† is a   motivating version of an essay on human resources. Communities of practice play a great role in the transfer of knowledge and the creation process. A community of practice is a term that describes a group of persons who have a common interest, a craft, and a profession. The group can emerge naturally as a result of the member’s common interest in a specific domain or it can be established specifically with the intention of gaining knowledge related to a particular field or rather their field. It is during the process of sharing information and experiences with the group members whereby the members share information and opportunities open to them.This sharing assists the members to develop each other both at the personal level and also professionally. Communities of practice can be created on the internet t hrough links such as discussion boards and newsgroups or in real-life situations like lunchrooms at places of work, in a fieldset on a plant floor or any other appropriate place in the environment. The communities of practice require a leader, the members, and a facilitator to operate and achieve its objectives. The facilitator performs the role of guiding the group into realizing its objectives, a role that the particular person should be trained on (Harman Brelade, 2003).For an organization to keep a reasonable competitive advantage over others in the particular industry it operates, it is necessary that it fosters and manages knowledge within the firm. Organizations struggle to search for optimal means of facilitating the flow and transfer of the firm’s knowledge to individual persons and to incorporate every person’s unique knowledge into the firm’s knowledge bank. The search for a more comprehensive understanding of the means and methods of efficiently exp loiting knowledge has resulted in a wave of research emphasizing the knowledge transfer process, particularly within organizations and teams. Several issues work in collaboration in the transfer of knowledge through communities of practice (Argote Ingram, 2000).From its definition community of practice can be illustrated as a component of main and distinct sub-components.These include the degree to which there is alleged to be a shared vocabulary with the members involved, the level to which education from others within the community is considered a goal of the community, the level to which there is alleged to be free communication within the community, and the level to which the community is regarded as a means of recalling previous lessons. The four components of the community of practice can be illustrated in the form of a model that clearly depicts the role played by a community of practice in the transfer of knowledge (Argote Ingram, 2000).Shared vocabulary is one of the compon ents of the community of practice. Within the community of practice, the members of creating a common language to interact with each of them and enhance the process of transfer of information. Additionally, having a common vocabulary may also be a means for the group to create a bit of uniqueness. Having this uniqueness adds to the value and motivation for a professional to attend and offer some aid to the group. Learning from each other is another aspect of the group. In fact, this is one o the reasons as to why the communities of practice are created.