The Impact of Organizational Factors on the Effectiveness of Knowledge Management among Nurses

Abstract

Background and Objectives: Knowledge Management (KM) has emerged as a pathway towards competitive advantage in current complex industrial environment. The aim of the present study was to explore the relationship between KM effectiveness and various organizational factors including social interactions (trust, communication and coordination), infrastructure factors (structure, information technology, and organizational culture), and process factors (knowledge acquisition, conversion, application and protection) in nursing staff. Methods: A sample of 220 nurses was surveyed out of the total of 392 nursing staff at Golestan Hospital of Ahvaz City (South Western Iran). KM effectiveness questionnaire (Lin, 2008), social interactions questionnaire (Huang and Li, 2009), and infra-structure and process questionnaire (Ghosh and Scott, 2006) were used as the study tools. The data were analyzed by structural equation modeling (SEM) and partial least squares (PLS) methods. Findings: The results showed that social interactions, infrastructural factors, and process factors are significant predictors of the effectiveness of KM among nurses at both individual and organizational levels. Conclusions: Among other organizational factors, infrastructure factors have the strongest positive influence on KM. This implies that KM practices need to focus on promoting structure, information technology and culture to foster a knowledge-friendly environment for nurses.