ABSTRACT
This chapter reviews a knowledge communication theory: Communities of Practice (CoP) theory. CoP theory is based on the finding that people engage in communities centred around a shared knowledge domain. They do so to find a sense of meaning and shared identity in their job. Organisations should be interested in harvesting knowledge creations from such communities. The chapter exemplifies the theory with interview analyses from the interview with ‘Henrik’ from HR Consult Denmark. Henrik is unable to communicate knowledge with his local colleagues in Denmark but finds meaning and a place for his knowledge creation practice in a virtual organisationally instigated Community of Practice. Finally, the chapter rounds off with a discussion of how Communities of Practice theory fits with the Sensemaking theory presented in Chapter 2. The two theories overlap in their focus on the human need to find a sense of meaning and identity in interaction with others. However, where Communities of Practice theory focuses on identity as a social concept, Sensemaking theory sees identity as an aspect of cognition, which is influenced and updated in interaction with the social context.
