Collaborative Learning Strategies in Organizations

Among the different types of innovative learning initiatives, organizations have been implementing communities of practice as a collaborative learning strategy. However, in many cases, one finds the term community of practice attributed to other types of communities or work groups. This chapter aims to define, identify, and characterize communities of practice and differentiate them from other organizational structures which are not such communities. It establishes a comparison among them and observes the benefits obtained from each structure, indicating which strategy to apply depending on the goal or challenge. Finally, a number of conclusions and guidelines on the future development of communities of practice are presented.