What do you think Wenger means by an "organizational unit"?

Wenger states "These 'communities of practice' are mostly informal and distinct from organizational units"

Wenger describes the relationship between 'communities of practice' and organizational units! He states that "'Communities of practice' exist in any organisation" but what he means by this organizational unit is that the memberships of these 'communities if practice' are 'based on particpation rather than official status' Therefore it is to be understood that they are not bound by organizational affiliations.

I understand that these organizational units are most likely to be within a work/ business type situation. It is a unit in which people address each other on recurring problems. Therefore by participating in these 'Units' a communal memory can be formed and will help them to do their job without having to remember everything themselves!

With this idea in mind it is important to consider that these organizational units are made up of people who have to be together whereas people in a community of practice have chosen to be together.

Week 6: Think of a CofP to which you belong (or have belonged) explain in your seminar forum how your example fits into Wenger's model.

Etienne Wenger states that "Communities of practice are formed by people who engage in a process of collective learning in a shared domain of human endeavor". He also suggests that the most important feature of this term 'Communities of practice' is that these people "share a concern or a passion for something they do and learn how to do it better as they interact regularly. http://www.ewenger.com/theory/

I personally have had the opportunity to be part of a community of practice when i had a part-time job as a waitress. This community of practice existed amongst all the staff; this included the owner, chefs and waitresses that worked there. Whilst we all did very different jobs, it was vital for us all to work together as a team in order for the restaurant to run smoothly. (A factor that was often emphasized to us by the boss).

Wenger highlights three main characteristics of this 'Community of Practice.'

Firstly the domain (a shared interest), in the case of my part-time job this was helping and serving customers to the best of our ability. The chefs and waitress needed to work together in order ensure customers were pleased and left happy, as know matter what we must remember the customer is always right!! The waitresses in my part-time job could even be described as a 'community of practice' on their own, as not only did we have the shared interest of being polite and efficient but working together and helping each other out during busy hours at the restaurant.

This lead me on to Wenger's second characteristic of 'Communities of Practice'--- The Community
This is where members engage in joint activities and discussions, help each other, and share information. This was definitely the case between the waitresses, and certainly built in to a wider community along side the chefs. Relationships were built that enable each of us to learn from each other. Often when a new waitress began work, one of the other waitresses than had been working there longer, took her on to train her in all the activities and jobs we had to do.


This leads me to Wengers third characteristic of 'communities of practice' and that is ----The practice -----A community of practice is not merely a community of interest--people who like certain kinds of movies, for instance. Members of a community of practice are practitioners.

In AJ's (the restaurant I worked in) The practice involved running the restaurant productively and effectively whilst being able to take time out and be polite and at times over helpful towards customers. As a team we also shared the knowledge of being able to help each other out, whether it was simple tasks as how to work the tills or perhaps dissatisfied customers.