Linkages among organisational culture, knowledge management, and patient safety performance: evidence from a state hospital in a developing country

Abstract

The present study aims to reveal the effects of organisational culture and knowledge management applications on patient safety performance. The sample of the study consists of nurses working in a state hospital with a 502-bed capacity in Turkey. The data were collected through a questionnaire. The analyses conducted revealed that there is a negative correlation between various aspects of organisational culture and patient safety performance. In this correlation, it was found that the strongest effect comes from developmental culture and the weakest effect comes from rational culture. A positive strong and significant correlation was found between applications of knowledge management techniques and patient safety performance. This correlation is most affected by knowledge dissemination and it is followed by knowledge acquisition and responsiveness of knowledge. Moreover, we found a significant correlation between knowledge management and organisational culture. Finally, the implications for practice and literature were discussed and suggestions were made for further research.