How to build Knowledge Management on a corporate level Using bottom up approach

 A group of people who are linked together by a common ability or a shared interest  This common ground results in: Common experience Specialized information Intuitive knowledge  Community of Practice is examined as a driving force for effective KM within a company.

 Communities of Practice are everywhere  Many times are hidden in organizations Ex. In your own work experience  Dynamic: people come and go  This makes CoP difficult to support on a corporate level

 CoP are formed by a group of people sharing their practical experience, specialist skills, and intuitive knowledge about a common interest with each group developing its own social and cognitive governing.  People learn through participation in smaller informal connections Respect for colleagues Trust in co-workers Understanding of the corporate environment

 In 1998 Siemens chose to establish formally the informal connections within their corporation.  They developed the CoP KM No mandate for participation Voluntary Factory students to top managers

 Promoting Knowledge Processes Localization Recording Dissemination Accumulation  Bottom-up movement

 Supporting CoP KM  Developing the ability for these loose social connections to be documented and formalized  Help business meet daily challenges  Increase motivation to share knowledge  Systematic sharing of knowledge and experiences

 Potential Communities of Practice must be identified  Necessary infrastructure and resources  Non-traditional measures of value

 Articulated and codified by individuals  Implicit knowledge is context specific  Difficult to define border of CoP within corporate framework

 Think of a time in which you were a part of a community of practice.  How did this community come into being?  Was there a hierarchy or rules within the community?  Could your example be formalized within a setting to be successful?  What infrastructure or corporate support could you have used in your community?  Could communities be useful within the corporation in order to transfer knowledge in a bottom-up manner?