Proceedings of the 8th International Conference on Intellectual ...

Annukka Jyrämä et al.
The key difference from <strong>the</strong> point <strong>of</strong> view <strong>of</strong> current study is that communities <strong>of</strong> practice are mainly
seen as freely created even though Wenger and Snyder later (2000) propose that <strong>the</strong>y can be
cultivated. According to <strong>the</strong> dominan view, a microcommunity <strong>of</strong> knowledge is a managed entity. This
distinction can be seen as ra<strong>the</strong>r artificial as communities <strong>of</strong> practice are <strong>of</strong>ten used as managerial
tools. However, in this study we find this <strong>the</strong>oretical distinction useful, as it allows us to analyze <strong>the</strong>
differences in managed and naturally born communities. Thus, both concepts are used in this study to
highlight and analyze organizational diversity with multiple practices and siloed departments within a
city context, e.g. including <strong>the</strong> community <strong>of</strong> social workers or <strong>the</strong> community <strong>of</strong> urban planners. In
essence, all <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong>se communities share many practices in <strong>the</strong> sense <strong>of</strong> a community <strong>of</strong> practice
(Lave and Wenger, 1991; Wenger, 1998) and <strong>the</strong> development projects as managed knowledge
creating communities, ie. mircrocommunities <strong>of</strong> knowledge.
A community may become a barrier to or an enabler for knowledge creation. As <strong>the</strong> micrommunity <strong>of</strong>
knowledge or <strong>the</strong> community <strong>of</strong> practice shares similar values and similar beliefs, <strong>the</strong>y create a
shared dominant logic. A dominant logic is defined by Prahalad and Bettis (1986: 490-491): “A
dominant general management logic is defined as <strong>the</strong> way in which managers conceptualize <strong>the</strong>
business and make critical resource allocation decisions – be it in technologies, product development,
distribution, advertising, or in human resource management. The dominant logic is stored via
schemas and hence can be thought as a structure. However, some <strong>of</strong> what is stored is process
knowledge. It is expressed as a learned, problem solving behavior.” In <strong>the</strong>ir retrospective article,
Bettis and Prahalad (1995) view dominant logic as an information filter, meaning that attention is
given only to information deemed as relevant by <strong>the</strong> dominant logic <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> firm. On <strong>the</strong> o<strong>the</strong>r hand,
<strong>the</strong>y also argue that <strong>the</strong> dominant logic is an adaptive emergent property <strong>of</strong> a complex organization,
and as such, allows <strong>the</strong> organization to anticipate and adapt to changes in its’ environment.
In a similar vein, von Krogh and Grand (2000) argue that knowledge and learning cannot be seen in
isolation from <strong>the</strong> role that <strong>the</strong> dominant logic plays. The dominant logic influences <strong>the</strong> process <strong>of</strong>
justification or rejection <strong>of</strong> any new knowledge. In a way, it acts as a filter for <strong>the</strong> creation <strong>of</strong> new
knowledge, affecting <strong>the</strong> learning process: which knowledge is returned and which is appropriated
into <strong>the</strong> knowledge “stock” (see also Reuber and Fischer 1999). On <strong>the</strong> o<strong>the</strong>r hand, Lane and
Lubatkin (1998) emphasize that <strong>the</strong> similarity <strong>of</strong> firm’s knowledge bases, organizational structures and
dominant logic plays a crucial role enabling inter-organizational learning. Only when firms
(communities) share a similar dominant logic and, thus, have similar ways to perceive data and to
view <strong>the</strong> learning process, can <strong>the</strong>y successfully learn from each o<strong>the</strong>r. Yet, <strong>the</strong> dominant logic <strong>of</strong>ten
remains unquestioned and unconditionally accepted, since individuals <strong>of</strong>ten cannot even conceive <strong>of</strong>
any o<strong>the</strong>r appropriate alternatives. The role <strong>of</strong> dominant logic, in o<strong>the</strong>r words organizational culture,
affects what kind <strong>of</strong> knowledge is perceived as valid (see also Bäcklund 2007).
In this study, we argue that <strong>the</strong> contexts <strong>of</strong> learning, i.e. communities, may act both as enablers to
and barriers for learning and knowledge sharing simultaneously through <strong>the</strong>ir dominant logic. It is
proposed that within a large organization, in our case a capital city with its organization, <strong>the</strong>re may
simultaneously exists several strong communities, and thus dominant logics, as <strong>the</strong>re exist various
communities <strong>of</strong> practice. Moreover, <strong>the</strong> development projects are seen as microcommunties <strong>of</strong>
knowledge engaged in tasks to “innovate” and create new knowledge. Development work here
consists <strong>of</strong> specific projects established by <strong>the</strong> management to improve <strong>the</strong> city organization and its
services, for example, a project created to improve city’s services for entrepreneurs who organize
events. It involves people from various bureaus, such as city business development, park
maintenance, tourist services, security etc. Any development project work faces dominant logics that
enable knowledge sharing or act as barriers to disseminating new knowledge created. The
development projects might be realized ei<strong>the</strong>r within a community <strong>of</strong> practice or in-between <strong>the</strong>m.
3. Data and methods
3.1 Data collection and description
The paper reports a large survey conducted among <strong>the</strong> employees <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> city <strong>of</strong> Helsinki. The
questionnaire was available to all respondents on <strong>the</strong> city’s intranet during June 2009. Altoge<strong>the</strong>r,
1857 responses were received, which means that almost five per cent <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> employees responded.
Out <strong>of</strong> 37 bureaus, we received answers from 35.
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