Knowledge management in a regional integrated health and social care system

Purpose

This article analyses a major healthcare and social welfare reform establishing new regional and integrated wellbeing services counties in Finland. The authors approach the reform and service integration as a knowledge management (KM) issue and analyse how KM appears and contributes in the context of integrated care, specifically in the process of integrating social and health care.

Design/methodology/approach

The article analyses the case organisation's KM initiatives in light of the integrated care literature and recognises the tasks and requirements for effective KM when building integrated health and social care system. The empirical research material for this qualitative study consisted of the case organisation's strategy documents, the results of an external maturity assessment, KM workshop materials and publicly available documentation of the Finnish health and social care reform.

Findings

This study identifies the mechanisms by which KM can support health and social services integration. At the macro level, national coordination and regional co-operation require common information structures. At the meso level, a shared regional strategy with shared objectives guides both organisational decision-making and collaboration between professionals. At the micro level, technology supported and data-driven planning of service chains complements the experiences of professionals and may help remove obstacles to integration.

Originality/value

This study contributes to the literature on integrated care by providing a more comprehensive view of the role and tasks of knowledge and KM when reforming health and social services than approaches focussing solely on health informatics and internal efficiency.

Effects of knowledge management on the management of health and social care: a systematic literature review

Purpose

The purpose of this study is twofold. First, it suggests that knowledge management (KM), as an academic discipline and managerial practice, provides valuable perspectives and tools to help health and social care management cope with both existing and future challenges. Second, it reviews the existing evidence on the effects of KM on the management of health and social care. Based on the results of the review, an evaluation framework for the effects of KM is proposed.

Design/methodology/approach

The literature review was conducted using the guidance of the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses statement to search the Web of Science and SCOPUS databases. The search terms included “knowledge management”, “healthcare” and “effect.” Academic articles published between 2010 and 2020 were included.

Findings

The study identifies six main categories among the effects of KM on the management of health and social care as follows: enhanced understanding of customer needs, improved organizational performance, better targeted decision-making, improved quality of service, behavioral or cultural change and improved risk management.

Originality/value

This study contributes by summarizing the literature on the effects of KM on the management of health and social care and proposing avenues for future research in this area.

Managerial choices in orchestrating dialogic performance management

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to propose a definition for dialogic performance management and investigate the managerial choices that dialogic performance management necessitates from public managers.

Design/methodology/approach

The research strategy was based on a narrative analysis grounded in relativism and constructivism. Multiple data collection methods were used in this case study to examine a local government in Finland.

Findings

The paper proposes a definition and provides practical illustrations of the concept of dialogic performance management. The empirical findings are a set of managerial choices used to orchestrate dialogic performance management.

Practical implications

The concept of dialogic performance management encourages practitioners to ask themselves whether their current performance management practices are based on managerial monologues, rather than dialogues that incorporate staff into the performance management. The results also show that managerial choices shape the form of dialogic performance management.

Originality/value

The previous accounting and performance management literature has not examined the managerial choices that are used to shape dialogic performance management. In this research, the authors identify these types of managerial choices in the case organisation. The research is valuable because only after explicating managerial choices can one start to examine why dialogic performance management either fails or succeeds when public managers orchestrate it.

Strategic knowledge management and evolving local government

Purpose

The characteristics of new public management and new public governance are well known, but their impact on managerial knowledge needs and the implementation of knowledge management in local government remains unclear. The purpose of this paper is to elaborate the key elements of a public organization’s knowledge strategy and shows how knowledge management can support public management.

Design/methodology/approach

A case study on the application of an action research process was conducted to study how the City of Tampere in Finland aimed to overcome challenges in utilizing performance information by applying the ideas of knowledge management.

Findings

The study suggests that a holistic knowledge management strategy promotes the use of performance information by providing a systematic management framework for gathering and utilizing the information.

Practical implications

Four factors appear critical for strategic knowledge management in local government. First, it should be driven by the city’s strategy. Second, it should be carefully integrated into the general management system. Third, clear processes and responsibilities for refining the data are needed. Fourth, the quality of the data must be guaranteed. The results also emphasize the roles of management culture and continuous performance dialogue.

Originality/value

This paper makes two contributions. First, it extends the analysis of a knowledge management strategy to public management, and second, it provides a practical illustration of the development process, where knowledge was put into prime focus in developing public management.

Distinctive features of service performance measurement

Purpose

– The purpose of this paper is to study the distinctive features of service performance measurement. It also provides an overview of current status of performance measurement in three service sectors in Finland.

Design/methodology/approach

– The paper builds on two complementary empirical studies. In the first study, data were gathered through individual interviews in Finnish service organizations. In the second study, group interviews were held in order to enhance the understanding. The service sectors studied are knowledge-intensive, public and industrial services. There are two main units of analysis in the data set: an organization and service operations.

Findings

– The results show that the specific performance measurement characteristics are more apparent at service operations level. The findings reveal three distinctive features of service performance measurement. First, the contingency perspective stresses a need to consider the characteristics of different service contexts. Second, customer-orientation implies that the measurement should also cover customers’ actions during the service operation as well as the impacts of service operations. Third, the systemic perspective proposes that performance measurement should encompass all actors participating to service operations.

Research limitations/implications

– The results provide support for structuring the existing research and identifying paths for future research. They also assist practitioners in their search for best measurement practices.

Originality/value

– This paper contributes by providing empirical insights from three service sectors on the development needs of performance measurement. The findings provide understanding on what exactly makes service performance measurement problematic and suggests three paths to move forward.

Top management's perception of knowledge management in a vocational education and training organization in Finland

Purpose

– The purpose of this paper is to report top management's view of knowledge management in an educational organization. The paper also recognizes the main knowledge-based development areas. The aim of this paper is to bridge a knowledge gap regarding managerial processes that support teachers in their diverse knowledge tasks; gathering, creating, sharing and explicating knowledge.

Design/methodology/approach

– A qualitative case approach was applied to uncover the knowledge processes of a vocational education organization in Finland. The empirical data were gathered in two phases. First, the existing knowledge needs of management team members were mapped by an e-mail enquiry. Second, a group interview was held with the same management team. Interview themes were derived from the literature and from the first empirical phase. The interview data are discussed and analyzed in light of the knowledge-based management literature.

Findings

– The results of the study indicate that knowledge management is so closely related to education organizations’ value creation processes that it should be considered an essential part of modern educational management. Based on this notion the paper argues that more emphasis is needed especially on mastering knowledge that relates to the education function and the creation of enabling knowledge structures that support this function.

Practical implications

– The paper provides practitioners with a basic understanding about the existing knowledge-based management processes in education organizations. It also turns the focus onto knowledge usage instead of mere information provision. Furthermore, the paper provides a basis for a systematic modeling and development of knowledge integration and coordination in educational organizations.

Originality/value

– The paper links knowledge management activities to the value creation processes of education services. Whereas the existing educational management literature seems to consider knowledge management mainly as a support function, the discussion presented here makes it the main focus and argues that for knowledge-intensive education organizations it should form an essential part of their strategic management.

Overcoming the specific performance measurement challenges of knowledge‐intensive organizations

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to identify practical ways to overcome the specific performance measurement challenges of knowledge‐intensive organizations. By reviewing performance measurement, service management and human resources management literature the paper recognizes two aspects that are crucial for the success of knowledge‐intensive organizations: the performance and well‐being of individual knowledge workers and the ability to provide value for the customer. The authors evaluate three measurement solutions for measuring these aspects, in three empirical settings.

Design/methodology/approach

Qualitative case approach, carried out as an action research, is used with empirical data obtained through interviews, workshops and analysis of documentation related to measurement systems. The empirical study consists of three case studies where two main phases were carried out: investigating the status of existing measurement practices; and development and evaluation of new measurement approaches and tools.

Findings

The results of the evaluation of proposed measurement approaches provide understanding of their potential in different workplaces. Eventually, this potentially supports the managers of knowledge‐intensive organizations in developing not only the measurement practices but also the overall performance of their organizations.

Originality/value

As the key academic contribution, the study provides new understanding on the potential of selected measurement approaches in overcoming the specific performance measurement challenges in knowledge‐intensive organizations. The results take into account the perspectives of an individual knowledge worker, a customer and an organization as a whole. In many previous studies, the main focus has been solely on the organizational perspective.

Managing Intellectual Capital in Non-Profit Elderly Care Organizations

The management of intellectual capital (IC) is considered as a highly promising approach for non-profit organizations (NPO). However, lack of in-depth understanding about the issue and practical tools to support management persists. IC research in the case of NPO’s is still rather generic and conceptual. This paper makes a contribution by describing the practices of IC management in this particular context. The paper describes one possible approach to recognize the key intangibles of non-profit organizations. This approach was applied in three case organizations in order to illustrate the significance of IC from the viewpoint of value creation in services. More generally, the paper illustrates first, the necessity to concretize the strategic perspectives of IC management and second, the need for measurement tools that enable the monitoring of IC.