Communities of Practice: Chevron Texaco

Communities of Practice: Chevron Texaco

Communities of Practice are informal networks of professionals or practitioners who are dedicated to sharing experience and knowledge. Organisational Networks are the focal organisation’s pattern of relationships with other organisations in the same network. (Gulati, et al.,2008). Organizational networks are based on self-interest (people usually network together for their own benefit and to develop their own work). People move in and out of networks depending on how they personally benefit from participating.

How are the CoPs in ChevronTexaco different to an organisational network?

In Chevron Texaco, network is a critical component that helps the organisation to achieve its Operational Efficiency. All networks at Chevron Texaco are interconnected and support each other to produce the desired results. In Chevron Texaco, the difference between the Communities of practice and Organisational Network is that CoP connects people with work responsibilities that is the network consist of a leader and voluntary members, while organisational network provides proficiency in a specific field to the organisation usually internal consultants. CoPs in Chevron Texaco are different to an organizational network based on the fact that they are "communities". People make a commitment to be there for each other. They participate not only for their own needs, but to serve the needs of others. People usually network together for their own benefit and develop their own work.

How have the CoPs been developed?

The communities of practice have been developed in various ways that include; an assembled online toolkit guiding the group in design, grouping members with similar skills and responsibilities, critical skills, competencies/expertise, built COPs around senior management support. Senior managers identified the need for such groups and provided leadership in running affairs of the groups (Wenger 2011). In addition, the networks have formal charters and annual operating plans, business units, selected leaders, and core team members. The network also comes with performance agreements, network funding, clear deliverables and metrics. There are also regular conferences, workshops and moderated collaborative websites (Wenger 2011).