Author(s)

S. Callahan & P. Milne

Abstract

A new framework for communities of practice is required to unite the disjointed approaches currently employed to understand this organisational form. This paper proposes a framework based on complexity theory and applies a model developed by Axelrod and Cohen. A set of mechanisms are explored to understand how a designer might influence variety (of strategies and types) in a community of practice. Four mechanisms are addressed namely: the process of copying strategies and types, copying with error (mutation), recombination of ideas and the role of the physical environment. Understanding these mechanisms a designer can attempt to increase or decrease variety within a community of practice. Keywords: communities of practice, complexity, knowledge management, variety. 1 Introduction The communities

Keywords