6.1) Think of a CofP to which you belong (or have belonged) explain in your seminar forum how your example fits into Wenger's model:
I’ve posted a brief eg of a CofP in the group A forum. The example I gave was of a study group. The second eg which I’ll post here in a bit more detail is of my part time job in a café/shop. While it could be argued that most businesses create communities or sort, I will try and explain why I think the business I work for is a CofP.
Although there is an official hierarchy of authority, with all workers below the owner and café boss, this is rarely implemented in any obvious way. All workers are equally free to make decisions about what food is served, what stock is ordered for the shop and who is employed and can sometimes override the owner or bosses decision. This gives everyone an equal sense of responsibility in the joint enterprise of the business succeeding financially. It is certainly true that I take interest and enjoyment in a good profit probably as much as the boss of the cafe does. I would say that I often put extra effort in to my work to ensure this goal is met-it is not part of my job description to sell extra items to customers but I find myself doing so to enjoy the satisfaction of knowing the business will profit although I do not personally gain; a shared endeavour of all workers.
Communal resources are clear, even as far as made up words and in-jokes that noone outside of the organisation would understand. A lot of the routine goes unsaid or tasks are referred to with nicknames that allow everyone to know what needs to be done. Although noone is designated a specific task to undertake, everyone knows what is to be done and all tasks are completed with the mutual understanding that certain jobs must be done to allow everyone to go home on time-another joint enterprise that is part of the over all enterprise of a smooth running business and ultimately the business profiting.
I may also go as far to include the suppliers of produce, or regular customers who sometimes talk about supporting local business and mention that they would never buy bread as Tesco, lunch at Greggs or coffee at Starbucks. I would argue that this is where the café’s CofP branches out to a wider CofP with the aim/joint enterprise of supporting independent suppliers and local businesses.
I'm not sure it's possible to have a CofP which coincides with all the members of an organisation? The key thing about Wenger et al's original idea was that they were drawing attention to key practical knowledge of required processes which resided outside the organisational structures' groupings and teams. An example relevant to your employment might be that the posters promoting specials and the blackboard listing regular dishes might be done by a small number of people with good handskills, who share the knowledge of how to get the chalk to look good, how to fit promotional details properly onto a given size of card. Maybe one of you brought in this expertise from a previous workplace and another of you knows where to get good chalk cheap? Perhaps one of you has DTP software and the experience to use it? Perhaps that person knows a graphic designer that can do the Xmas specials? All the time, the organisation doesn't even consider how this all gets done -it just happens, it's certainly not managed, monitored nor motivated. If anyone needs promotional/informational material for the cafe, then one of this 'secret network' (who must know of each others expertise and involvement) will be called -because "everyone knows" that's the thing to do.
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