Twenty-third International Conference on Knowledge, Culture, and Change in Organizations

Abstract

The healthcare industry is one of the largest and fastest-growing industries in the world, as well as in Australia. With rapidly ageing population, industry demand has surged over the past decade, as people tend to use healthcare services to a greater extent, particularly post-COVID-19. The industry is changing at an accelerating pace in the technological, financial, and organisational realms. The changes are generating daunting challenges. The performance of healthcare organisations depends on the ability to perform effectively and efficiently (resilience), obtain competitive advantage and meet customer expectations. Healthcare practices are knowledge-intensive organisations where workers deal with large amounts of complex data and information that need to be transformed into knowledge and applied (consumed or absorbed) to improve service and quality of work. Knowledge will not stimulate resilience unless healthcare employees learn from, apply, or absorb new knowledge. This study explores how employees’ knowledge-behaviours of absorbing new knowledge develop or descend organisational resilience in healthcare organisations. Two studies were conducted. The main study employs a qualitative multiple case study method to investigate employees’ knowledge-behaviours. Twenty-six semi-structured interviews were conducted. A secondary study consists of two focus groups to validate previous findings, gain additional data and enhance the rigour and credibility of the study. Findings suggest that knowledge is not effectively absorbed in case organisations, from acquiring new knowledge to the utilisation of such knowledge. A knowledge-conscious mindset of knowledge-workers was identified as a critical factor that needs special attention to improve knowledge absorption and become resilient organisations.