Virtual Communities of Practice: \A Mechanism for Effective Knowledge Retrieval in MNCs

Gammelgaard, Jens and Ritter, Thomas (2008) Virtual Communities of Practice: \A Mechanism for Effective Knowledge Retrieval in MNCs. International Journal of Knowledge Management, 4 (2). pp. 46-51.

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Abstract

In geographically dispersed organizations, like multinational corporations (MNCs), contextual gaps exist between senders and receivers of knowledge. Employee socialization resulting from physical proximity facilitates contextualization of the transferred knowledge. However, in MNCs most knowledge transfers take place through virtual communication media. We investigate the phenomenon of virtual communities of practice, and propose them to be efficient for individual’s knowledge retrieval as participation in such communities reduces the contextual gaps between senders and receivers of knowledge. However, the organization must provide a knowledge-sharing friendly culture, and an institutional protectionism, in order to establish the required level of swift trust within the virtual community.

Item Type:	Article
Article Type:	Article
Subjects:	H Social Sciences > HF Commerce
Divisions:	Schools and Research Institutes > School of Business, Computing and Social Sciences
Research Priority Areas:	Applied Business & Technology
Depositing User:	Ineke Tijsma
Date Deposited:	17 Mar 2015 16:38
Last Modified:	07 Aug 2023 15:26
URI:	https://eprints.glos.ac.uk/id/eprint/1513

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