Navigating Organizational Success: Knowledge Management Capabilities in Public Healthcare

Abstract

Knowledge Management (KM) has been studied in healthcare for over two decades and has an established role in healthcare management. By leveraging KM, healthcare organizations aim to enhance organizational performance, facilitate informed decision-making, and elevate service quality. However, KM faces specific challenges in healthcare, including siloed service provision and effective management of growing volumes of data and evidence. Public healthcare organizations encounter additional challenges due to the complex environment, conflicting values, wicked problems, and resource constraints. While research on KM in the public sector has increased recently, it remains relatively scarce. Notably, the capabilities of effective KM and its significance for organizations' survival have received limited attention. Finland has recently implemented a massive healthcare reform, which shifted the responsibility for organizing healthcare, social welfare and rescue services to new autonomous regional-level organizations, wellbeing services counties. This study explores how KM can support the success of public healthcare organizations after such a fundamental change. The central research question is: What are the critical KM capabilities when rebuilding KM function after a major public reform? To address this question, we employ a qualitative case study approach. Through the interviews of KM specialists from the newly established wellbeing services county, we gain valuable insights into the practical aspects of KM within an integrated public healthcare organization. Our key findings shed light on challenges related to diverse stakeholders and values, emphasize the importance of internal and external relationships, underscore the significance of specialist diversity, and highlight the value of KM to the healthcare organization.