Professional knowledge creation in the hospital sector: a qualitative study in Taiwan.
This paper aims to develop a professional knowledge creation model for the hospital sector. For this purpose, we qualitatively explore the determinants and process of knowledge creation in the hospital sector. Drawing from organization theory, we develop a hospital's professional knowledge creation model and develop three propositions first. We further explore the theoretical model at organization level by case study in Taiwan. The findings suggest that the hospital's professional knowledge creation is influenced by knowledge stock, social ties and isomorphic pressures as propositions argued. However, hospitals' attempts to keep aligned with their highly institutionalized environments may pay more attention to both existing knowledge stock and the process of professional knowledge creation for their survival. Finally, it is hoped that the significances of this study will contribute to the development of hypotheses in the future quantitative study for building a generalized knowledge creation model for the hospital organization.
School of Humanities and Management, Fooyin University, No. 46 Kuang-Hwa 2 Road, Chen-Cheng, Kaohsiung, Taiwan, Republic of China. xx709@mail.fy.edu.tw
Chen-Wei
CW
Yang
Shih-Chieh
SC
Fang
Julia L
JL
Lin
D007722:Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; D006779:Hospitals, Public; D006801:Humans; D007407:Interviews as Topic; D051188:Knowledge Bases; D008962:Models, Theoretical; D019982:Organizational Case Studies; D036301:Qualitative Research; D013624:Taiwan