ABSTRACT
Research regarding the structure and performance of public management networks has suggested that communities of practice constitute an important means by which collaborative outcomes are achieved (Agranoff 2008). Studies of knowledge management using information and communication technologies have also identified the factors by which communities of practice foster the creation and dissemination of knowledge through agencies (Sallan, de Alava, and Barrera-Corominas 2012). More general interest in learning organizations as a focus of knowledge management has also seen potential in communities of practice either as a resource when employees already belong in existing ones or as an opportunity by encouraging their formation if certain interactions and common practices among employees suggest affinities with them (Choo 2006). Communities of practice have also been observed as a means for buttressing training programs and acculturating new public workers to their organizations and tasks (Hatmaker, Park, and Rathemeyer 2011).
