‘Structuring spontaneity’: investigating the impact of management practices on the success of virtual communities of practice

Abstract

Despite the increasing number of virtual communities of practice (VCoPs), little is known about how organizations can help lead them to success. This paper aims to identify those management practices that are likely to increase their chance of success. Using an action research approach that brought together a multidisciplinary team of researchers, coaches and organizational participants, we closely followed the experiences of eight VCoPs over a six- to nine-month period and collected a large quantity of quantitative and qualitative data from many sources. Our results indicate that three types of management practices seem to have the most impact on a VCoP’s success: taking ongoing actions to develop a knowledge-sharing culture, providing adequate resources to the VCoPs, and monitoring the leadership of the community in order to address any occurring problems. This study represents a first step towards building an empirically based understanding of how organizations can sustain their VCoPs.