The Influence of Knowledge Sharing on Portuguese Healthcare Organisations Performance

Abstract

Knowledge sharing (KS) lies at the core of knowledge management and reflects employees' willingness to share valuable expertise. The benefits of KS have been documented in many settings, but its effectiveness varies considerably among organisations. This research sought, first, to identify healthcare workers' perception of the importance of KS practices and the way they relate to organisational performance. Second, this study focused on verifying the (in)existence of the mediation effects of job satisfaction and turnover intention in the relationship between KS and organisational performance. Two dimensions of KS were considered: informal (IKS) and formal (FKS). To model their effects on performance, job satisfaction and turnover intention were considered mediators. Measurements of these four latent variables were collected from a sample of Portuguese healthcare professionals and validated via confirmatory factor analysis. Path structural equation modelling was used to assess the direct and indirect relationships between the four variables. The results suggest that, while FKS increases job satisfaction, it also increases the perceived performance of healthcare professionals regardless of their satisfaction levels. Keeping sample limitations in mind, our preliminary conclusion is that investing in FKS is beneficial to healthcare services, favouring the retention of satisfied workers who value non-financial organisational performance.