The Effectiveness of Communities of Practice: An Empirical Study

摘要

A critical component of Knowledge Management is creating mechanisms to facilitate collaboration and sharing of information. One such mechanism of increasing popularity is Communities of Practice (CP). This article presents the results of an empirical study that explored the impact of select CP characteristics on overall community effectiveness and community members' satisfaction with their community experience. The CP characteristics examined in the study include community's leadership quality, CP members' affective commitment to the community and its goals, members' perceived connectedness with others in the community, trust among CP members, and perceived impact of CP involvement on members' own jobs. The data for this study were collected at State Farm Insurance Companies. State Farm is the largest property and casualty insurance company in the United States. Recognizing the need for better Knowledge Management and greater connectivity among its decentralized structure of 13 zone offices, more than 300 claim offices and contact centers, and 17,000 agents, the company launched a Knowledge Management initiative. The centerpiece of this initiative has been a network of CPs with a focus on encouraging information sharing, collaborative problem solving, and sharing best practices. To collect the data for this study, anonymous surveys were sent to the entire population of 579 employees who were participating in the company's CP network. Of these surveys, 204 were completed and returned, representing a 37% response rate. The study results for the most part supported the hypothesized relationships regarding determinants of CP effectiveness.