Knowledge and Communities (Paperback)

A compendium of articles that focus on how communities can be viewed from an organizational context, and how organizations are using communities to leverage external stakeholders, such as customers and suppliers. "Communities" are any cross-organizational subset of people that share a common knowledge, and these communities are the vehicle for social capital Within all communities are informal clusters of individuals who work together - sharing knowledge, solving common problems and exchanging insights and frustrations. When appropriately supported by the formal organization, these "communities" play a critical role: they are the major building blocks in creating, sharing and applying organizational knowledge Organizations ranging from British Petroleum to the World Bank have begun to invest time, energy and money in supporting their own communities, viewing these groups as essential vehicles for managing their organizational knowledge as a necessity to maintain competitive advantage. This book looks at how they achieve success using this approach.