Sensemaking in communities of practice

[摘要] This thesis explores the notion of communities of practice, and in particular how they makesense of their environment in order to create knowledge and enable learning. Traditionallycommunities of practice are viewed as stewards of expert knowledge, but this thesis arguesthat they are better understood as sensemaking phenomena.Chapter one introduces the theory of sensemaking as developed by Karl Weick. This chapterintroduces the seven properties of sensemaking. It also explores organisational sensemakingby taking the intersubjective and generic subjective levels of sensemaking into account.Chapter two focuses on the literature on communities of practice as self-organisingknowledge structures. Three structural aspects of communities of this kind are introduced,namely domain, community and practice. Following Etienne Wenger two additional aspectsof communities of practice-namely meaning and identity-are analyzed as these provide thebasis for a link to sensemaking theory. In the final part of this chapter the downside ofcommunities of practice is reviewed as they do not only present opportunities but also uniquechallenges for organisations.Chapter three combines the conclusions from the previous two chapters by interpretingcommunities of practice from a sensemaking perspective. The seven properties ofsensemaking are applied to communities of practice and the role of meaning in communitiesof practice is viewed through the lens of sensemaking. Furthermore the role communities ofpractice might play in enhancing the phases of organisational sensemaking is indicated.Chapter four concludes that communities of practice indeed function as sensemakingphenomena in their environments. It is argued that nurturing communities of practice ascentres of sensemaking could be advantageous to organisations and recommendations aremade on how to best achieve this.

[发布机构] Stellenbosch University