Afraid of engagement? Towards an understanding of engagement in virtual communities of practice

Virtual communities of practice (VCoPs) foster learning and knowledge sharing betweenemployees. However, many virtual communities of practice fail due to the lack of engagementof collaborators. Employees often claim that they do not have time for such communities. Thispaper investigates the determinants of engagement in virtual communities of practice. Basedon a rare survey of members of VCoPs at Schneider Electric, a multinational company of 137000 employees, this research highlights the relations between job engagement, the perceivedvalue of virtual communities of practice by members, and engagement in VCoPs. As such,respondents report higher levels of engagement in virtual communities of practice as theirengagement in their job increases. Further, the perceived value of VCoPs mediates partially therelation between job engagement and engagement in VCoPs. These results lead to solutionsfor managers to implement, to increase the engagement of collaborators in virtual commu-nities of practice.