Knowledge Collaboration in Distributed Practice Communities

Abstract

Information Technology is now making distributed collaboration possible on a very large-scale and across many different kinds of boundaries, thereby transforming professional work. Yet, our understanding of how such work is accomplished in large, distributed environments is limited. Professional work tends to be complex, uses established procedures, and is rooted in specific historically and materially situated practices. Approaches that take the social and situated nature of knowledge and learning into account, such as the literature on communities of practice, have been developed largely in relation to small, collocated groups. The practices that enable knowledge collaboration in large, distributed environments, mediated by a variety of information technology and other artefacts, have not received attention. Therefore, we undertook an empirical investigation of the practices through which work is accomplished in a professional legal association, whose more than ten thousand members are scattered around North America and play an essential role in shaping how the laws related to their practice areas are developed and implemented. Our investigation revealed two sets of practices that allow this organization to balance demands of stability and change. These practices shed light on how larger communities of practice overcome diversity, dispersion, and a complex set of boundaries to achieve a deeper and more dynamic level of collaboration.

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