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