Learning Through Formalized Communities of Practice Within a Large IT Organization

Abstract: In a fast-paced and knowledge driven IT industry companies are increasingly becoming interested in making use of acquired knowledge and becoming "learning organizations". To achieve that, some managers have taken an interest in incorporating communities of practice in their knowledge management strategy. However, these are often much more formal and structured than what the original concept entailed. This study looks at enabling factors for learning through formalized communities of practice, as well as prominent perspectives on knowledge and learning in a large IT organization. A qualitative case study using mixed methods was conducted at Scania IT. Three enabling factors for learning through formalized communities of practice were discovered. These were; having a clear and common objective, obtaining resources to achieve that objective, and being inclusive. Furthermore, some tensions that affect how a formalized community of practice can position their scope were discovered. Many perspectives on knowledge and learning could also be found in the studied organization. However, when it came to the knowledge a skilled developer should have, pragmatism became very prominent.