Knowledge Sharing through Communities of Practice in the Voluntary Sector

Abstract

Over the past few years, the concepts of knowledge management and knowledge sharing have been recognised as cognate areas of study and research. To date research has focussed mainly upon the commercial sector. However, this article looks at knowledge management and sharing through communities of practice within the voluntary sector. The work is based upon research carried out within a UK national voluntary counselling and advisory service. For reasons of privacy and confidentiality, the organisation shall remain anonymous and will be referred to as the ‘organisation’. This article considers the background to the study in terms of knowledge management and communities of practice. It then discusses the study’s methodology and findings. It concludes that knowing and sharing are active processes, and that the natural disposition of the actors was found to be important in how knowledge sharing and learning was undertaken.