[Reading a Paper] What Kind of Community of Practice Helps Establish a Career?
I have been taking a break from updating for a while.
As for what I have been doing during this time,
while studying communities of practice, I realized, "I don't understand learning theory at all..."
So, I have been reviewing learning theory.
What I want to do might be closer to learning environment design.
Learning environment design to apply parenting experience to work.
So, today I am looking at a paper by Professor Araki.
(Thanks to my colleague M-chan for introducing this paper to me.)
In a nutshell, it's like this:
How should we design a community of practice that helps with career establishment?
Since there are few previous studies that can answer this question, this paper analyzes the characteristics of 10 communities of practice by interviewing 30 people.
What is a community of practice? (Re-posted)
A group of people who share a concern, a set of problems, or a passion about a topic, and who deepen their knowledge and expertise in this area by interacting on an ongoing basis.
In other words, it is a community for learning.
In-house study groups are an easy-to-understand example.
What is career establishment?
It refers to things like acquiring a professional identity and improving motivation for career development.
And, "communities of practice for mutual aid" are considered to have the greatest impact on career establishment.
What is a community of practice for mutual aid?
The American Productivity & Quality Center (2002) classifies corporate communities of practice into four types by purpose, and this is one of them.
It refers to those that help members solve daily problems or share ideas.
Research methodology
This time, for each of the 10 mutual aid communities of practice,
Coordinator (facilitator) or core member
Active group member (someone who participates regularly but not as much as a core member)
Peripheral group member (someone with limited participation, a newcomer, etc.)
I conducted semi-structured interviews with these three people to look at the leadership they demonstrated.
Then, I categorized the experiences related to career establishment as follows. (The categorization method was also educational, but I will omit the details. So, two people divide them and then compare notes.)
Subsequently, to analyze the components of communities of practice in groups with high versus low career establishment experience, the following comparisons were made.
Activity orientation (whether it is outcome-oriented, focusing on creating deliverables, or not)
Diversity of members
Coordinator leadership (presence or absence of supportive leadership behavior)
Research Results
Career establishment experience is not concentrated in a single member. In communities of practice where there is a lot of experience related to career establishment, everyone gains career establishment experience.
Communities of practice in the high career establishment experience group have many reflection experiences, whereas those in the low group have few.
Communities of practice in the high career establishment experience group are often not outcome-oriented. This is because outcome-oriented communities of practice focus heavily on output, leaving no opportunity for reflection, such as relating things to one's own challenges or comparing oneself with others.
Communities of practice in the high career establishment experience group have member diversity. This is because members must explain things clearly to those different from themselves, which consequently increases reflection.
Supportive leadership is observed in communities of practice in the high career establishment experience group. (For the question of what exactly 'supportive' entails, please see the paper. I also want to become this kind of coordinator.) -> This also aligns with Dr. Kanazawa's recent paper.
As for discussion, to leverage member diversity, it is necessary to design loose activities that are not outcome-oriented.
What is expected of a coordinator is not to execute activity goals and plans, but to become an activity designer while observing the state of the participants.
My personal thoughts
I am currently intervening in a community of practice where diverse members gather, and...
I almost accidentally made it outcome-oriented...! (Sweating profusely)
That said, I believe that communities of practice within a company need to return learning to the company in some form. I wonder if it would be good to gradually return value in ways other than creating deliverables. It's a difficult problem.