Keeping the Wheels Turning: The Dynamics of Managing Networks of Practice
基于对一家地理分散开发组织中22个实践网络的案例研究，揭示了管理实践网络时控制与自发性之间的困境，并构建了包含四种嵌入性关系的动态模型，帮助管理者在不扼杀网络的前提下有效管理。
abstract Intra‐organizational networks of practice (NOPs) confront managers with a dilemma: they must manage NOPs to reap benefits from integrating geographically dispersed knowledge, but the inherently emergent nature of NOPs implies that management control may frustrate practice‐related knowledge to be shared. Based on a case study of 22 NOPs in a geographically dispersed development organization (‘TDO’), we develop a model that disentangles the dynamics underlying this dilemma, helping to better understand it. Specifically, four dynamic relationships are interrelated and involve four kinds of embeddedness (organizational, in practice, relational, and structural) that relate dynamically to knowledge sharing in NOPs. Interventions in both the content shared in the network and the connections among network members can influence each of these relations. This study contributes to theoretical and practical understanding of how to manage NOPs without killing them.