Knowledge Sharing, Learning and Situated Practice: Communities of Practice for Projects

Abstract

The concept of community of practice is a common parlance in many organisations, but has yet to be utilised as strategic tool by construction organisations to improve the performance of their operations. In this paper communities of practice are introduced and a proposal as to how they can be used to improve the performance of projects made. An inter-organisational form of community of practice, known as ‘champions of practice’, is propagated for use in the construction industry. The ‘champions of practice’ is independent from the project team and comprised of individuals from a learning alliances that have been established. The ‘champions of practice’ is developed as an active know-how platform to provide advice pertaining to issues of ‘best practice’ that have been accumulated from projects. The ‘champions of practice’ provides a continuous source of learning and knowledge for all those organisations that have formed a learning alliance. The creation of such a form of community of practice can provide invaluable insights about best practice, which can be formalised and shared in a meaningful and reflective way. It is through proactively sharing knowledge and learning together that the industry can change and obtain the significant improvements that have been asked for by various governments worldwide.