HUMAN LEARNING - NATURAL DRIFT TO LOOSE COMMUNITIES OF PRACTICE

HUMAN LEARNING - PROFESSOR CONCEDES CoP AS GOLD STANDARD IN EXECUTIVE DEVELOPMENT

HUMAN LEARNING - 3,000 CoPS AT CATERPILLAR WORLDWIDE

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Entered 28/09/04

NATURAL DRIFT TO LOOSE
COMMUNITIES OF PRACTICE
Hyer, N.C. Brown, K.A.(2003) Work Cells with Staying Power. Lessons for Process-Complete Operations. California Management Review 46:1 p.27-52

Are communities of practice all that natural ? Yes...says researchers who found a phenomenon called functional drift when trying to set up advanced cross-functional groups called work cells. Knowledge workers often reverted to a loose type of community of practice when support was not in place. Part of their findings reveal the underlying human and social drivers that have created CoPs.

Drift to Functional Group Researchers were attempting to discover the success factors of well-run cross-functional operational teams - 'work cells'. But many cells floundered.

'Even well-designed cells can flounder, often drifting back to less-effective functional arrangements... There are a variety of reasons why people display a tendency to move back to functional forms... into groups whose members present characteristics similar to their own. We have observed this phenomenon on factory floors, in new product development, and in the macro-level organization restructuring. ' p.28

Along with business and technical factors driving functional drift the researchers have found five (5) Human and Social Factors, as quoted in full below :

1. Human affiliative needs; we like to be with people who are similar to us.

2. Information exchange - Desire for professional information exchange with peers; learning from others.

3. Career progression - in most organizations, if one is separated from one's functional area, he or she may go unnoticed when it comes to performance reviews and promotions.

4. Hierachy security - The comfort that comes with hierachy; if people are in the ivory tower and separated from the hoi poloi, they gain a sense of comfort about their own superiority and relative power. In particular, this causes engineers to drift back to their functional homes.

5. Employment mobility - depth of knowledge and experience in a particular functional area (as opposed to shallower knowledge across a wider set of skills) may give someone more of a "leg up" on the job market, particularly in white collar and professional categories. p.

The researchers' conclusions in creating and sustaining work cells were as follows :

'As the principles of cells with staying power underscore, companies wishing to implement and sustain cells must focus on human issues, continuous process improvement, adaptability, infrastructure, and metrics. When problems arise because the organisation has failed to attend to these cell elements (ed.emphasis), those involved are likely to feel disenchanted with the cell concept.' (p.49)

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