Dealing with the coronavirus disease through a social knowledge management approach: The case of Iranian coronavirus patients in Tehran

Abstract

Managing social crises requires collective wisdom and social knowledge. Social Knowledge Management (SKM) plays a key role in dealing with social crises such as the coronavirus disease. This research aims to describe the practices of SKM from the perspective of recovered coronavirus patients in Tehran, Iran, in response to the coronavirus disease, through semi-structured interviews. The findings revealed that various elements (such as social capital, networks, media, learning, benefits, and social systems), factors (including knowledge providers and recipients, social actors, knowledge capital, and skill capital), processes (such as acquisition, application, sharing, transferring, creation, storage, and knowledge organization), and roles of SKM (internalization, socialization, externalization, and the combination of social knowledge) are effective in preventing the spread of coronavirus disease on a large scale. This research concludes that the utilization of SKM by health policymakers effectively prevents social crises and can help increase public awareness and utilization of the elements, factors, processes, and roles of social knowledge in health to prevent coronavirus disease.