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Fostering engagement in an online community of practice

Bosch, W.H.T. (2018) Fostering engagement in an online community of practice.

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Abstract:In modern society, the number of online communities keeps expanding. Because of the online development, a lot of organisations see their opportunity to connect people with the same interest. For an organisation or company, there is an added value in joining these people. At the moment the knowledge on how to manage a community is available. Pillars are stated and roadmaps are created. Of course, every community differs which ensures difficulties. However, as a manager of a community, there is no visualisation of how the community develops. In this research, the focus lies on the engagement in a community of practice. With as main goal to determine what the most important factors for the measurement and presentation of engagement in an online community of practice are. It is important for community of practice to have a common goal, a place to practice and people willing to share information. The focus can shift over time if it serves the purpose of the community. Before knowing how a community is doing, it is important to understand in which phase they are. The most important phase is the “growth” phase. This is the phase which determines if a community evolves into a formal organization. The growth of the number of members, the interaction between members and the transparency to each other are the most important factors in this phase. If a community does well it ends up in the maturity phase. Which means that the community is self-regulating and self-sustainable. By testing the literature on an exciting community, the relevance is determined. To keep track of the development it is important to look at the ratio in the community. Even though some trends go down it does not necessarily mean the community is not doing well. Knowing the targets and goals of a community is needed to interpret the data.
Item Type:Essay (Bachelor)
Faculty:BMS: Behavioural, Management and Social Sciences
Subject:85 business administration, organizational science
Programme:Industrial Engineering and Management BSc (56994)
Link to this item:https://purl.utwente.nl/essays/76112
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