A Gendered Analysis of Their Functioning and Results on the Basis of a Canadian Research

This paper highlights various results from an action-research on communities of practice in Canada, in particular the main conditions and challenges of such new modes of knowledge creation and management and their gendered characteristics. It does this on the basis of seven case studies analysed in detail, as well as the results of a questionnaire survey administered to the participants of these communities of practice. Participants’ commitment and motivation in the project, dynamism and continuity of leadership, organizational support and recognition of employees’ involvement appear to be the key elements, and some of these variables present interesting differences by gender and by age, as well as by type of organization.