Communication and Leadership – Dialectical Tensions in Virtual Communities of Practice |
UDC: 005.57:[007:004.451.6 ; 005.94:004.9 DOI: 10.7595/management.fon.2013.0021
The paper aims to evaluate the significance of leadership in communities of practice in terms of sharing knowledge and to ascertain how to improve performance through trust and communication. A virtual travel community of practice is selected to be the target via purposive sampling. Through case study methodology, the leaders’ practical performance and members’ reaction will be observed appropriately. In the studied virtual community of practice, five main measures including regulations, information technology, performance appraisal, incentives and culture are taken by the leaders to establish a free, open and effective communication environment. Their leadership style is characterized by contextual strategy, democratic decision-making and partition management. Through the research, a virtuous cycle arises between trust and communication whichis adopted by the leadership to achieve successful knowledge sharing naturally. Small scale of research targets and pre-determined characteristics of the community of practice can be considered a limitation. The paper could provide a guideline for those highly-involved, sophisticated members who intend to enhance the performance of knowledge sharing in their communities of practice. Keywords: Communities of practice, knowledge sharing, leadership
Ana Martins1, Donald Ah Pak2, Isabel Martins3 1Faculty of Economics and Administrative Sciences, Zirve University, Turkey 2International Business School, Xi’an Jiaotong-Liverpool, University, Suzhou, China 3Harold Pupkewitz Graduate School of Business, Polytechnic of Namibia, Namibia
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