Organisation, Community Practice, Social Network

WHAT IS ORGANISATION, COMMUNITY PRACTICE, SOCIAL NETWORK AND THEIR DIFFERENCES ?

ORGANISATION: What is meant by "organise" ? It means to arrange by systematic planning and can be attained by united effort. An Organisation is a place where a group of people take the responsibility of acting together with a common purpose to acheive a collective goal.
For an organisation to be successful there are many aspects to be considered and a few of them comprise of having:

• a good leadership
• the members must know team work which is a very important thing for an organisation to last long
• funding should be appropriate or else the organisation may die

Organisations may vary like organisations that work for profits and non-profit organisations.Non profit organisations, abbreviated NPO are also called as not-for-profit organisations donot work for profits. Their main aim is to serve the public and the members of such kind of organisations are generally volunteers (Kate Luckert n.d)

Example: Red cross

Whereas organisations that work for profits include people investing in that organisation for profits and the entire organisation is focused on a particular product, service or program.

COMMUNITY OF PRACTICE: "Communities of practice are groups of people who share a concern or a passion for something they do and learn how to do it better as they interact regularly" (EtienneWenger 1998). It is not a club of friends or a network which connects people but a domain which contain people of same interests. Its not that people should meet regularly on a daily basis they should interact with each other where ever they wanted to in case. These interactions help them to make a community of practice and they can even work alone. In these interactions they come up with experiences or stories that solve certain problems (EtienneWenger 1998) .The members of a community practice must share a common interest and share their opinions on that topic so that it will be useful for the other members in that community and they can grasp something out of all those experiences and opinions shared(E. L. Lesser and J. Storck 2001).

For example: Mechanics discussing at their lunch time casually about their work experience may not know that these discussions help them in solving the problems they may face.

How is a CoP benefit an organisation:

The freshers into the organisation have a way to discuss their problems and solve them quickly while interacting with their seniors or other members in the community who have experience dealing such kind of problems and thus helps in time saving and help the freshers to learn quickly. The freshers can also discuss useful tips about the topic and exchange that information within the community and gain precious knowledge useful for their career growth and also with that knowledge they can assist customers in a best way. This is also useful in cases where an expertise in that particular field is not available all the times so that when ever the expertise is available they can organise a meet so that they can discuss and solve the respective problems easily and find valuable knowledge through which they can assist the customers needs according to their (customer's) requirements.

This also provides a medium where people can express their ideas and share their challanges in meeting a specific goal. This also paves a way to discover new ideas in solving any problem faced as it creates a medium where different people with a similar interests can find space to develop relationships between individuals.

According to me Social Networking is very useful for an organisation in ways to improve customer satisfaction as individuals can discuss various means in which customers can be satisfied according to the requirements and also the cost in traning the freshers can be reduced as they can interact and gain knowledge from experts in that field and so the individuals also get to know the ideas of the experts in solving a particular issue and hence very useful for organisations as it is saving both time and money of the individuals and the organisation.

SOCIAL NETWORK: Social network is where different people of a common interest meet and that can be done anywhere like a college or a company. In simple terms it is nothing but a group formed by you and your friends to share and explore each others hobbies or activities or interests. In order to minimise the geographical barriers, these days the online social networking has become much popular and hence it can also be termed as an online community meant for people with similar interests to interact with each other and is for people who are interested in exploring other peoples activities and interests. And mostly people who are friends or old classmates or people who want to make new friends or people who want to promote their business or promote something for a social cause use it. These days social networking has become a part of everyday life for many of the people. Social networking can also be used for Business purposes, for social good also. In the case of business purposes it is very useful of small businesses where this kind of virtual networking is very cost effective. And in case of using it for the social good users with similar interests can join in the same community and lend their share of help. However, there are some disadvantages of online Social networking where people bluff others by saying that does not really exist. For example a person who is fat and old can tell the other members that they look thin and are young as it is done online and this happens when the members of that social network did not meet each other and thus creating problems in the future when other members expect that individual to be thin and looking young.

Pros of Social Networking:

• Users can get exposed to a large virtual network where they come to know about diffeent things easily.
• Very useful for jobseeker to find jobs through communicating with people in communities.
• Users get new friends virtually who share similar kind of interests.

Cons of Social Networking:

• All networking sites may not be used in a professional environment.
• Many employees are more likely to carry inappropriate conversations at work than before.
• Members may bluff others easily when they did not meet each other.

ISSUES:

1.> LEADERSHIP:

• Organisation: A good leadership is a must.
• CoP: A good leadership is necessary but not a must.
• Social Networking: No leadership necessary.

2.> INTERACTION OF PEOPLE REGULARLY:

• Organisation: Interaction on a regular basis is compulsory to make the organisation profitable.
• CoP: Interaction is necesary, but it my or may not be a compulsion.
• Social Networking: Interaction depends on the mood of the people.

3.> WHAT KIND OF PEOPLE GET TOGETHER:

• Organisation: group of people take the responsibility of acting together with a common purpose to acheive a collective goal.
• CoP: People who share similar interests come together and form a CoP.
• Social Network: People with similar interests who want to explore the interests and activities of other people.

4.> USED FOR:

• Organisation: Busines purposes (if it is a profit oriented organisation).
• CoP: Social purposes, Business purposes.
• Social Network: Making friends, Business purposes.

REFERENCES:

• Lesser, E.L. & Storck, J. (2001) Communities of practice and organizational performance. IBM Systems Journal, 40(4), 831-841 Retrieved on 11th February 2009, from: http://www.research.ibm.com/journal/sj/404/lesser.html .
• Etienne Wenger 1998, Communities of Practice: Learning as a Social System:"Systems Thinker," June 1998, Retrieved on 11th February 2009 from: http://www.co-i-l.com/coil/knowledge-garden/cop/lss.shtml .
• Retrieved from web on 11th February 2009, from: http://www.whatissocialnetworking.com/
• Retrived on 1 Feb 2009 from :http://www.google.co.uk/search?hl=en&defl=en&q=define:organisation&sa=X&oi=glossary_definition&ct=title
• Retrived on 1 Feb 2009 from :http://www.blurtit.com/q517012.html
• Kate Luckert n.d; Retrived on 1 Feb 2009 from :http://learningtogive.org/papers/paper41.html
• EtienneWenger 1998, Retrieved on 1 February 2009 from:http://www.ewenger.com/theory/
• Retrieved on 1 February 2009 from:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_network_service