Lee-Kelley, LizTurner, Neil2016-12-082016-12-082016-11-03Lee-Kelley L, Turner N, PMO managers' self-determined participation in a purposeful virtual community-of-practice, International Journal of Project Management, Volume 35, Issue 1, January 2017, Pages 64–770263-7863http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2016.09.014http://dspace.lib.cranfield.ac.uk/handle/1826/11116Communities-of-practice (CoPs) have received significant attention within a variety of literatures but we remain largely ignorant of the potential of purposefully-created CoPs in global organisations. In this context, the challenge is likely to be convincing ‘masters’ (Wenger, 1998) on the merits of joining the conversation on practice at a distance, thus making the willingness for exchange a key to the quality and longevity of the community. We posed the question “Why would busy, dispersed, knowledgeable professionals want to join and participate in a deliberately-organised CoP?” Our 2-year collaborative action study allowed us to observe the CoP and its membership at close range. We conclude that autonomy, competence and belonging underscore participation, co-production and diffusion of innovative problem-solving and practice beyond the CoP. The study will inform organisations contemplating similar interventions and also serves as a basis for further investigation and theory building on organized CoPs by the research community.enAttribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 Internationalhttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/Communities-of-practiceKnowledge-sharingPMOAction researchMotivationArticle