Hints for Rethinking Communities of Practice in Public Administration: An Analysis from Real Practice

Resum

This chapter is based on some of the practical research and consultancy carried out by the Organisational Development Team from the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (http://edo.uab.cat) over the last 10 years (e.g., Rodríguez-Gómez & Gairín, 2014; Gairín, Rodríguez-Gómez & Armengol, 2012; Gairín & Rodríguez-Gómez, 2012; Rodríguez-Gómez, 2011), presenting some ideas to facilitate the introduction of improvements in the usual functioning of Communities of Practice in the public administration. Specifically, the purpose of this chapter is twofold: (1) to analyse the procedures of Knowledge Creation and Management by means of Communities of Practice (CoP) in the public administration and through the intensive use of technology; and (2) to suggest elements which may allow us to rethink and improve CoP. First of all, this chapter addresses the need to promote informal learning processes which respond to current workplace learning requirements (Tynjälä, 2013; Littlejohn, Milligan & Margaryan, 2012; Scott & Carrington, 2011) and which help facilitate innovation processes within organisations. Second, we present knowledge management and communities of practice. These first two sections, with a literature review of the main topics involved in this chapter, provide the background to the subject and a framework for the following sections where we present our study, detailing the methodology, results and conclusions.

David Rodríguez-Gómez

Professor Agregat

Professor del Departament de Pedagogia Aplicada de la UAB, investigador de l’Equip de Desenvolupament Organitzatiu, reconegut com a grup d’investigació consolidat per la Generalitat de Catalunya, consultor del Màster U. en Psicopedagogia de la UOC i Avaluador de l’Agència Nacional d’Avaluació de la Qualitat i Acreditació.