Developing a Program Community of Practice for Leadership Development. (February 2019)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Smith, Sue; Kempster, Steve; Wenger-Trayner, Etienne
• Is Part Of: Journal of management education. Volume 43:Number 1(2019)
• Page Start: 62
• Page End: 88
• Publication Date: 2019-02
• Subjects: community of practice -- leadership development -- leadership practice -- emergent curriculum -- SMEs; Management -- Study and teaching -- Periodicals; Executives -- Training of -- Periodicals; Organizational behavior -- Study and teaching -- Periodicals; 658
• DOI: 10.1177/1052562918812143
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1052-5629

Abstract

This article outlines how a community of practice can be designed within management education for effective leadership development. Through a qualitative study of a cohort of 25 owner–managers of small businesses, we explore how a program community of practice (PCoP) acts as a pedagogical device for focusing on the development of leadership practice. Drawn from "grounded theory" analysis, we outline a pedagogic heuristic of a PCoP built on an emergent rather than a didactic curriculum, shaped by the PCoP members' own experiences and practices of managing their businesses. Our contribution is to illustrate the significant value of applying communities of practice theory to pedagogic designs in order to advance the development of leadership practice in small businesses. We critically examine this contribution with regard to the scope that designing a PCoP can bring to leadership development and the challenges for educators designing and facilitating an emergent curriculum.