Communities of Practice at Hewlett Packard

Questions: 1.Identify the processes that human resource professionals use to support communities of practice.2.Describe how communities of practice contribute to the development of a high-performance work environment. 3.Recommend two specific actions that a human resource professional might take to facilitate communities of practice. Answers: 1. The three processes played by the human resource professional in support of Community of Practice (CoP). First, establishing the links between the targeted members. The HR department can help to identify the people with specific expertise and skills in an organization. To establish a link between these teams, also known as the community, transparency ought to be there (Ardichvili, et al., 2006, p. 43 ). The second process is to build trust that would enable sharing of knowledge among the established team. The last process would be to ensure that the team is motivated to engage in ongoing exchange of common ideas and problems facing them. 2. The participants in the CoP learn together by tackling problems that relate directly to their work. Their work performance has become more effective and easier and coming up with sharing practices. CoP help in generating knowledge management and sharing, renewal and reinforce relationship in the company and improve productivity (Taylor, 2013, p. 71). ?The human resource professional and the creation and maintenance of communities of practice There are two ways that the HRM can contribute to the development and maintenance of the CoP. First a HR department can facilitate the creation of CoP infrastructure and context within the organization. The success of CoP in an organization fully depend on the support received from the HR professions. Second, the HRM can be involved directly in the creation of CoP. For instance, the department can offer consultancy and coaching services to the teams/ communities (Wenger Snyder, 2010, p. 67). 3. To provide the infrastructure, context and the required support for creating and maintaining CoP. o promote the culture of trust, transparency and knowledge sharing among the employees with common professions. References List Ardichvili, A., Maurer, M., Wei, L. Wentling, T., 2006. Cultural Influences on Knowledge Sharing Through Online Communities of Practice. Journal of Knowledge Management, 10(1), pp. 94-107. Taylor, G., 2013. Implementing and Maintaining a Knowledge Sharing Culture via Knowledge Management Teams: A Shared Leadership Approach. Journal of Organizational Culture, Communications and Conflict, 17(1), pp. 69-91 . Wenger, E. C. Snyder, W. M., 2000. Communities of Practice: The Organizational Frontier. [Online] Available at: https://hbr.org/2010/01/communities-of-practice-the-organizational-frontier [Accessed 10 04 2017].