Social Media Communities Of Practice: Reputation At Risk?

This paper relies on the study of side effects of Communities of Practice (CoP), namely on those activities\r\nthat are potentially in conflict with the main and publicly declared objectives (statements) of the company\r\nto which the CoP’s members belong. Communities of Practice (CoP) are seen as a good opportunity for\r\norganizations to improve their own performance. When people with a shared passion join a CoP, they are\r\nable to add value to organizations, for example by helping drive strategy, or by exploring new lines of\r\nbusiness. When members of a CoP choose a Social Network Website as a “place” to host their meetings\r\nand to share their thoughts, the practice performed within a CoP becomes public and - at least potentially\r\n- a corporate reputation issue arises. By analyzing 165 pieces of content (posts) produced by 5.223\r\nmembers across 15 weeks within a CoP hosted on Facebook and created by Italian employees of the\r\nFrench Company “Auchan”, we show how a “good” organizational practice can affect negatively the\r\nreputation of a company.