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ABSTRACT
Managers in any organization face myriad challenges. One way to figure out how to deal with these challenges is to learn what peers do in similar situations - to seek and share knowledge. Knowledge sharing has an established tradition in research. Empirical studies highlight communities of practice as one venue for knowledge sharing, although few studies examine how knowledge is shared within communities that span multiple jurisdictions particularly in public sector settings. This study reveals five structures, behaviors, and processes embedded in communities of practice that enable knowledge sharing across public sector jurisdictions: structured and unstructured exchange, anecdotes and storytelling, modeling by experienced members, multiple modes of communication, and confidentiality. Together, these practices establish a gateway to informal communication, build community through communication within and across groups, provide access to "know how" information from a diverse set of perspectives, and encourage peer comparisons.
Keywords: communities of practice, knowledge sharing, municipal government
INTRODUCTION
How do public managers figure out ways to address the challenges they face? Public managers might start by learning about what peers do in similar situations - by seeking and sharing knowledge. Knowledge sharing has an established tradition in research, particularly on private sector organizations (Powell, Koput, & Smith-Doerr, 1996; Powell, 1998; Brown & Duguid, 2001). Knowledge sharing in the public sector tends to focus on connections across organizations that must coordinate to achieve a particular goal. Research in service delivery settings such as mental health (Provan & Huang, 2012), drug courts (Hale, 2011), and emergency management (Waugh & Streib, 2006) are among the examples. However, public sector organizations may not necessarily need to coordinate to achieve a particular goal. Rather, organizations may simply need to know what others know in order to achieve their own goals. Knowledge sharing in such settings has had limited attention in research on public sector organizations. In research on organizations more generally, communities of practice (CoPs) are presented as one venue for such exchange of knowledge among peers (Lave & Wenger, 1991).
Yet, existing research on communities of practice has a largely private-sector orientation with few studies applied to the public sector (e.g. Hatmaker, Park, & Rethemeyer, 2011). In addition, this work focuses primarily on communities that have developed within organizations, with limited attention to...