Abstract
We present a detailed model of collaboration in communities of practice and we examine its dynamic consequences for the group as a whole. We establish the existence of a novel mechanism that allows the community to naturally adapt to growth, specialization, or changes in the environment without the need for central controls. This mechanism relies on the appearance of a dynamic instability that initiates an exploration of novel interactions, eventually leading to higher performance for the community as a whole.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Allen, T. (1984),Managing the Flow of Technology. MIT Press.
Argote, L., and D. Epple. (1990), “Learning Curves in Manufacturing.Science, 247(4945)920–924.
Blau, P.M., and W.R. Scott (1962).Formal Organizations. Chandler, San Francisco.
Boorman, S. and H.C. White. (1976), “Social Structures from Multiple Networks: II. Role Structures.American Journal of Sociology, 81:1384–1446.
Burns, T., and G.M. Stalker. (1961),The management of Innovation. Tavistok, London.
Burt, R.S. (1980), “Models of Network Structure.Annual Review of Sociology, 6:79–141.
Clearwater, S.H., B.A. Huberman, and T. Hogg. (1991), “Cooperative Solution of Constraint Satisfaction Problems.Science, 254:1181–1183.
Cohen, J.E., and C.M. Newman. (1984), “The Stability of Large Random Matrices and Their Products.”Annals of Probability, 12:283–310.
Crane, D. (1972),Invisible colleges, diffusion of knowledge in scientific communities. University of Chicago Press, Chicago.
Crozier, M. (1964),The Phenomenon of Bureaucracy. University of Chicago Press, Chicago
Eckert, P. (1994), “Trajectory and Forms of Institutional Participation.” In Lisa Crockett and Ann Crouter (eds.),Pathways Through Adolescence: Individual Developments in Relation to Social Contexts. Lawrence Erlbaum
Furedi, Z., and K. Komlos. (1981), “The Eigenvalues of Random Symmetric Matrices.Combinatorica, 1: 233–241.
Glance, N.S., and B.A. Huberman. (1994), “Dynamics of Social Dilemmas.Scientific American, 270(3): 76–81.
Glance, N.S., and B.A. Huberman. (1994), “Social Dilemmas and Fluid Organizations.” In K. Carley and M. Prietula (eds.),Computational Organization Theory, pages 217–239. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc., New Jersey.
Gross, E. (1953), “Some Functional Consequences of Primary Controls in Formal Work Organizations.”American Sociological Review, 18:368–373.
Hayek, F.A. (1937), “Economics and Knowledge,”Economica, New Series, 4:33–54.
Hogg, T., and C.P. Williams. (1993), “Solving the Really Hard Problems with Cooperative Search. InProc. of the 11th Natl. Conf. on Artificial Intelligence (AAAI93), pages 231–236, Menlo Park, CA. AAAI Press.
Hogg, T., B.A. Huberman, and J.M. McGlade. (1989), “The Stability of Ecosystems.”Proc. of the Royal Society of London, B237:43–51.
Holmstrom, B., and P. Milgrom. (1950), “The Firm as an Incentive System.”American Economic Review, 84:972–991.
Homans, G.C. (1988),The Human Group. Harcourt, 1950.
Huberman, Bernardo (1988),The Ecology of Computation. North-Holland, The Netherlands
Huberman, B.A. (1989), “The Adaptation of Complex Systems.” In B. Goodwin and P. Saunders (eds.),Theoretical Biology. Epigenetic and Evolutionary Order from Complex Systems Edinburgh University Press, Great Britain.
Hutchins, E. (1991), “Organizing Work by Adaptation.”Organization Science, 2:14–39.
Juhasz, F. (1982), “On the Asymptotic Behavior of the Spectra of Non-symmetric Random (0, 1) Matrices.”Discrete Mathematics, 41:161–165.
Kaufer, D.S. (1993),Communication at a Distance. Lawrence Erlbaum.
Kissinger, H.A. (1979),The White House Years Little, Chicago.
Kornfeld, W. (1981). “The Use of Parallelism to Implement Heuristic Search.” Technical Report 627, MIT AI Lab.
Kreiner, K., and M. Schultz. (1993), “Informal Collaboration in R&D: The Formation of Networks Across Organizations.Organization Studies, 14:189–209.
Lave, J. and E. Wenger. (1991),Situated Learning: Legitimate Peripheral Participation. Cambridge University Press.
Levinthal, D., and J.G. March (1981), “A Model of Adaptive Organizational Change.”Journal of Economic Behavior and Organizations, 2:307–333.
Malone, T.W., and S.A. Smith. (1988), “Modeling the Performance of Organizational Structures.Operations Research, 36(3):421.
March, J.G. (1981), “Footnotes to Organizational Change.”Administrative Science Quarterly, 26:536–577.
Mehta, M.L. (1967),Random Matrices and the Statistical Theory of Energy Levels. Academic Press, New York.
Orr, J.E. (1986), “Narratives at Work: Storytelling as Cooperative Diagnostic Activity.” InProceedings of the conference on Computer Supported Cooperative Work.
Ouchi, W.G. (1980), “Markets, Bureaucracies and Clans.”Administrative Science Quarterly, 25:129–141.
Rogers, E.M. (1983),Diffusion of Innovations. Free Press, 3rd edition.
Salas, S.L., and E. Hille (1978),Calculas: One and Several Variables. John Wiley, NY, 3rd edition.
Schelling, T.C. (1978),Micromotives and Macrobehavior, W.W. Norton and Company, Inc. United States.
Scott, W.R. (1992),Organizations: Rational, Natural, and Open Systems Prentice-Hall, Inc., Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey.
Shrager, J., T. Hogg, and B.A. Huberman. (1988), “A graph-dynamic model of the power law of practice and the problem-solving fan-effect.”Science, 242(4877):414–416.
Weidlich, W., and G. Haag. (1983),Concepts and Models of a Quantitative Sociology. The Dynamics of Interacting Populations. Springer, Berlin.
Zelditch, M. (1969), “Can You Really Study an Army in the Laboratory?” In Amitai Etzioni (ed.),A Sociological Reader on Complex Organizations. Holt, Reinehart and Winston.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Huberman, B.A., Hogg, T. Communities of practice: Performance and evolution. Comput Math Organiz Theor 1, 73–92 (1995). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01307829
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01307829