Communities of practice: A focus from complex systems

A community of practice (CoP) is a dynamic and complex learning system that is generated and developed from the common interest of individuals experienced in a knowledge area. These communities develop in a self-organizing and emergent manner, and can be viewed as autopoietic systems. Their purpose, based on sharing experiences and knowledge of all their participants in the search for solutions to common problems, is to identify the best practices contributing to the performance and learning improvements of all participants and organizations involved. In this paper, we describe our first attempt to explore the relationship of CoPs with complex systems viewed as viable systems. Stability and viability of CoPs that are managed by means of a viable system model are ensured by describing and understanding their environments, operational elements, and meta-systems.