A Community for the Better!

When the word community comes to mind more often than not the first thing that comes to my mind is an image of people in a society going about their daily lives. I believe that what makes a community is the fact that we can operate under the same set of circumstances no matter the level of diversity which is present. A community of practice follows this same logic.In order to be a community, individuals must be unified to a point where they are interested in utilising one another as partners as far as what determining what it means to be competent and understand the practice which has brought them together in their area, but that is as far as the extent in which it is required. What differentiates a community from a group is the fact that there doesn’t have to always been a uniform agreement between members of a community compared to that of a group/team. As a matter of fact all there needs to be is enough agreement to where each member respects one another’s opinion however there needs to be enough disagreement for the community to function and operate as one, there needs to be some degree of tension.

Wegner et al (2002) explain the benefits of a community of practice when explaining exactly what a community of practice is “groups of people who share a concern, a set of problems, or a passion about a topic, and who deepen their knowledge and expertise in this area by interacting on an ongoing basis” (page 4). By this very definition Wegner also identifies the key benefit derived from a community of practice which is ‘knowledge’ which is the most valuable resource and instrumental in organisations having and sustaining a competitive advantage. Knowledge is power in all aspects of life, and the information sharing provided by a community of practice is proof of this notion.

I feel the aspects of a community of practice will present itself within my group for our applied project assessment for our digital campaign that will enable us to become a community. Holmes et al (1999) state that the three crucial dimensions of a community of practice are; a mutual agreement (through regular interaction), a joint enterprise (a shared goal/negotiated enterprise) and a shared repertoire (pg.175). These three dimensions will present it when our group communicates with one another about how to approach the campaign.

The concept of what a community consists of has really been evident in our unit Facebook page. I believe we are all part of a community of practice, especially when we consider what a community of practice consists of; sharing our concerns and our passions (which we do through our written blogs) as well as our learning how we can do things better as we interact regularly (which is achieved when we give feedback to each other on how to improve our written blogs). There is also a role of leadership which is distributed equally in our unit and that is an important aspect of a community of practice. Gronn (2003) supports this statement by saying that “communities of practice depend on internal leadership, and enabling leaders to play their role is a way to help the community develop”. (pg.31)