A community of practice (CoP) can be understood as any group whose members, sharing common practice and epistemological reference, meet regularly to reflect together on their practice, learning to understand it and, mainly, to make it better. But what it happens to a CoP when it is "discovered", stimulated and managed by an organization? And how organizational culture and control interfere in this relationship? Organizational studies on CoP’s have predominantly had a functionalist approach. In this text, the intention is to make theoretical analysis on CoP’s and its relationship with organizations, focusing, however, on aspects of organizational culture and control. Support was sought on recent works of organizational studies. Conclusion was draw that CoP’s management by organizations is a conceptual impossibility, resulting in a paradox: in case of being managed, CoP dies.