title: Building organizational knowledge and value: informed decision making in Kansas children's community-based mental health services.
abstract: Knowledge is managers' principal asset and knowledge building is managers' primary work. This qualitative study explores knowledge building by directors of children's community-based mental health services in Kansas. Of the state's 27 directors, 25 completed a survey about knowledge building, in their preference of online or telephone format. Fourteen participants took part either in preliminary interviews for study development, or in follow-up interviews for further detail and member checking. Study findings indicate that with requisite resources, directors inform their decision making with streams of information, which they manage and generate to build organizational knowledge and value for local practice effectiveness.
authors.affiliation: School of Social Welfare, University of Kansas, Twente Hall, Lawrence, KS 66045-2510, USA. ksudu@ku.edu
authors.forename: Karen Flint
authors.initials: KF
authors.lastname: Stipp
authors.forename: Stephen A
authors.initials: SA
authors.lastname: Kapp
mesh_terms: D003156:Community Mental Health Services / Q000458:organization & administration*; D003625:Data Collection / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D003657:Decision Making; D003659:Decision Making, Organizational; D055317:Evidence-Based Practice; D058016:Health Facility Administration; D006801:Humans; D019451:Information Management; D016247:Information Storage and Retrieval; D007615:Kansas; D019359:Knowledge; D036301:Qualitative Research