A qualitative study of how public sector Communities of Practice overcome barriers and transform professional practice

Communities of Practice (CoPs) in complex organisational contexts face multiple obstacles that limit their potential. This qualitative study analyses the barriers identified by participants in six CoPs within the Andalusian public administration, the strategies adopted to overcome them, and their subsequent impact on professional practice and service delivery. Using an interpretive phenomenological design based on focus groups ( n = 21 participants across six CoPs with active membership ranging from two to five), four main categories of obstacles were identified: (1) time management and coordination, (2) resistance to change, (3) lack of institutional support, and (4) an inadequate definition of objectives. The most effective overcoming strategies were found to be external collaboration and adaptive time management, which directly contributed to significant transformations in professional competencies, improved organisational dynamics and the transfer of new skills. The study concludes that addressing such impediments requires a comprehensive, multi-level approach that combines institutional support, clarity of objectives, effective time management and the development of collaborative competencies, and highlights the need for specific institutional policies to strengthen CoPs as instruments of innovation in the public sector. Given its contextualisation in the Andalusian public administration, its cross-sectional self-report design and its small, purposive sample, these findings should be transferred to other settings with caution.