Standardized Engineering – How Communities of Interest Facilitate Global Knowledge Sharing

Communities of Practice can connect socially embedded knowledge with knowledge embedded in explicit form e.g. guidelines, however knowledge about how to intentionally develop CoP is incomplete. This study contributes with new knowledge by analyzing a case company that has worked with Communities for app. 10 years. NNE is a global engineering company that chose Communities of Interest (COI) is key initiative for realizing their key differentiator of having access to experts and sharing knowledge worldwide. The study deploys a single organization case study method and data were collected during a workshop with two company representatives. Using the Star model the study analyzes the COI organization and finds that the organization lack attention to people and rewards. The Star model is found useful for analyzing an existing Community organization as it provides insights into how coherent the current actions support the Communities; however frameworks tailored to analyze Communities must be applied to refine the results and to guide development actions.