ASSESSMENT AND DEVELOPMENT OF KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT FRAMEWORK FOR KNOWLEDGE SHARING IN HIWOT FANA SPECIALIZED UNIVERSITY HOSPITAL IN ETHIOPIA

Abstract

Knowledge is considered as a prime asset of organizations, especially in knowledge intensive organizations like, health sector. However, the practices and implementation of knowledge sharing practices is still low in healthcare institutions. The main objective of this study was to assess knowledge sharing practices and identify challenges of knowledge sharing practices and develop knowledge management framework for knowledge sharing between and /or among health professionals and patients in Hiwot Fana Specialized University Hospital in Ethiopia. To carry out this research both cross sectional research design and design science research design methods were used in this research. A questionnaire, observation and semi-structured interviews were used as data collecting tools. Accordingly, one hundred and seventy-three questionnaires were distributed to be filled out by health professionals and patients in Hiwot Fana Specialized University Hospital using stratified simple random sampling technique. Spearman’s correlation analysis method was used to understand degree of association between knowledge sharing factors and knowledge sharing practice. To analyze the data, the researcher was used descriptive and inferential statistics with SPSS version 20. The vast majority of the respondents, 69.4% said that there is no organized framework for knowledge sharing in the hospital. The study revealed that 40.0% of the study participants frequently share their knowledge. Furthermore, when asked about the presence of motivational scheme in the hospital, 73.5 % of the study participants said there is no motivational scheme in hospital for sharing knowledge. Correlation analysis result (rs= .479, p<.01); (rs = .478, p<.01); (rs =.468, p<.01); (rs =.430, p<.01); (rs =.405, p<.01) indicates that information communication technology tool, past mistake, group interaction, management support and information communication technology infrastructure found to be a major independent predictor for knowledge sharing respectively. Based on the result of the study the researcher proposed technology based framework for knowledge sharing and prototype of it also designed. Furthermore, evaluation of the knowledge sharing prototype system was conducted with the assistance of a subset of medical experts in the field existing in the hospital. Based on the finding of the result of the user acceptance test questions presented to respondents, 80.20 % of the participants in the evaluation and testing has positive attitude. Therefore, there is a dire need to work toward the designing of collaborative and innovative culture to motivate health professionals for their engagement in knowledge sharing in order to create a good knowledge flow environment. The future research is that the framework will form the basis of teaching by future researchers for further possible enhancements.