Overcoming counter-knowledge through telemedicine communication technologies.

Purpose Knowledge acquired from sources of unverified information such as gossip, partial truths or lies, in this paper it is termed as "counter-knowledge." The purpose of this paper is to explore this topic through an exploration of the links between a Hospital-in-the-Home Units (HHUs) learning process (LP), counter-knowledge, and the utilization of communication technologies. The following two questions are addressed: Does the reduction of counter-knowledge result in the utilization of communication technologies? Does the development of counter-knowledge hinder the LP? Design/methodology/approach This paper examines the relevance of communication technologies to the exploration and exploitation of knowledge for 252 patients of a (HHU) within a Spanish regional hospital. The data collected was analyzed using the PLS-Graph. Findings To HHU managers, this study offers a set of guidelines to assist in their gaining an understanding of the role of counter-knowledge in organizational LPs and the potential contribution of communication technologies. Our findings support the proposition that the negative effects of counter-knowledge can be mitigated by using communication technologies. Originality/value It is argued in this paper that counter-knowledge may play a variety of different roles in the implementation of LPs. Specifically, the assignment of communication technologies to homecare units has given them the means to filter counter-knowledge and prevent users from any possible problems caused by such counter-knowledge.

Understanding patient e-loyalty toward online health care services.

BACKGROUND: Public health institutions are making a great effort to develop patient-targeted online services in an attempt to enhance their effectiveness and reduce expenses. However, if patients do not use those services regularly, public health institutions will have wasted their limited resources. Hence, patients' electronic loyalty (e-loyalty) is essential for the success of online health care services. PURPOSES: In this research, an extended Technology Acceptance Model was developed to test e-loyalty intent toward online health care services offered by public health institutions. METHODOLOGY: Data from a survey of 256 users of online health care services provided by the public sanitary system of a region in Spain were analyzed. The research model was tested by using the structural equation modeling approach. FINDINGS: The results obtained suggest that the core constructs of the Technology Acceptance Model (perceived usefulness, ease of use, and attitude) significantly affected users' behavioral intentions (i.e., e-loyalty intent), with perceived usefulness being the most decisive antecedent of affective variables (i.e., attitude and satisfaction). This study also reveals a general support for patient satisfaction as a determinant of e-loyalty intent in online health care services. IMPLICATIONS: Policy makers should focus on striving to get the highest positive attitude in users by enhancing easiness of use and, mainly, perceived usefulness. Because through satisfaction of patients, public hospitals will enlarge their patient e-loyalty intent, health care providers must always work at obtaining satisfied users and to encourage them to continue using the online services.

Exploring the role of national culture on knowledge practices: a comparison between Spain and the UK.

In the context of a competitive knowledge-based economy, the knowledge provided by a firm's founders is one of the most important measures of success. This paper aims to identify the role of national culture on a founder's knowledge practices in a modern organisation. Using data collected from 258 Small to Medium sized Enterprises (SME(S)) in the Spanish and UK telecommunication industries (130 from Spain and 128 from the UK), we propose three knowledge management practices to be analysed; namely transfer, transformation and open-mindedness. This paper provides evidence that while Spanish SME(S) are more positively associated with higher levels of transfer and transformation of knowledge, UK SME(S) are more positively associated with higher levels of open-mindedness. Hence, this study serves as an important contribution to the small amount of literature currently available in this field by examining different practices that can be explained by the cultural characteristics of both countries.

Exploring the role of national culture on knowledge practices: a comparison between Spain and the UK

In the context of a competitive knowledge-based economy, the knowledge provided by a firm’s founders is one of the most important measures of success. This paper aims to identify the role of national culture on a founder’s knowledge practices in a modern organisation. Using data collected from 258 Small to Medium sized Enterprises (SMES) in the Spanish and UK telecommunication industries (130 from Spain and 128 from the UK), we propose three knowledge management practices to be analysed; namely transfer, transformation and open-mindedness. This paper provides evidence that while Spanish SMES are more positively associated with higher levels of transfer and transformation of knowledge, UK SMES are more positively associated with higher levels of open-mindedness. Hence, this study serves as an important contribution to the small amount of literature currently available in this field by examining different practices that can be explained by the cultural characteristics of both countries (AU)

En el contexto actual de la economía del conocimiento, el conocimiento que proporciona el fundador de la empresa es uno de los factores más importantes de éxito para las organizaciones. Este trabajo pretende identificar el papel que juega la cultura nacional en las prácticas de conocimiento de los fundadores en las pequeñas y medianas empresas (PYMES). Para cumplir con este objetivo se han empleado los datos pertenecientes a 258 PYMES de España y del Reino Unido del sector de las telecomunicaciones (130 empresas españolas y 128 empresas británicas) y se han seleccionado tres prácticas de gestión de conocimiento denominadas transferencia, transformación y mentalidad abierta. Este artículo sugiere que mientras las PYMES españolas están más positivamente asociadas con transferencia y transformación de conocimiento, las PYMES británicas presentan valores más altos de mentalidad abierta. Por tanto, este trabajo contribuye a la literatura examinando estas diferencias en materia de gestión de conocimiento que pueden ser explicadas bajo la perspectiva de las diferencias culturales que existen entre ambos países (AU)

How can managers in the hospital in the home units help to balance technology and physician-patient knowledge?

BACKGROUND: With the passing of time, knowledge like other resources can become obsolete. Thus, people in a healthcare system need to update their knowledge in order to keep pace with the ongoing changes in their operational environment. Information technology continually provides a great amount of new knowledge which can lead to healthcare professionals becoming overloaded with knowledge. This overloading can be alleviated by a process of unlearning which enables the professional to retain just the relevant and critical knowledge required to improve the quality of service provided by them. OBJECTIVE: This paper shows some of the tools and methods that Hospital-in-the-Home Units (HHUs) have used to update the physician-patient knowledge and the technology knowledge of the HHUs' personnel. DESIGN: A survey study was carried out in the HHU in Spanish health system in 2010. SETTING: Fifty-five doctors and 62 nurses belonging to 44 HHUs. INTERVENTIONS: None. RESULTS: Three hypotheses are presented and supported, which suggest that technology and physician-patient knowledge is related to the unlearning context and the unlearning context impacts positively on the quality of health services provided. CONCLUSION: The key benefits of the unlearning context for the quality of service provided in HHUs are clear: it enables them to identify and replace poor practices and also avoids the reinvention of the wheel (e.g.: by minimizing unnecessary work caused by the use of poor methods) and it reduces costs through better productivity and efficiency (improving services to patients).

Improving quality of service of home healthcare units with health information technologies.

Deployment of health information technologies (HITs) provides home care units with the means to generate improvements in accuracy and timeliness of information required to meet dynamic patient demands and provide high quality patient care. Increasing availability of information can also facilitate organisational learning, which leads to the invocation of processes that result in improved responses and decisions. This study examined crucial links between HITs and quality of service provided through an empirical investigation of 252 patients in a hospital-in-the-home unit (HHU) in a Spanish regional hospital. The study sought to test the relationship between HITs and the quality of service using factor analysis and structural equation modeling (SEM) to investigate how HITs mediate effects of organisational learning on quality of service. Findings support the notion that the relationship between organisational learning and quality of service can be mediated by HITs. This study provides HHU managers with guidelines for understanding the role of organisational learning processes with respect to HITs and quality of service.

An application of the Hospital-in-the-Home unlearning context.

Many researchers who have investigated health care organizations have indicated that health care professionals are replete with outdated knowledge, and some researchers go even further to argue that without the presence of a context that facilitates unlearning (forgetting) practitioners may lose the ability to recognize relevant changes with respect to knowledge pertaining to all aspects of the health care sector and they may decide to rely on potentially out-of-date knowledge and inappropriate ways of interpreting data with attendant loss of decision quality and attendant risks. This article presents an analysis and develops a model of the factors that influence unlearning which is focused on the health care industry and is comprised of three constituent components: (1) a framework characterizing the lens through which individuals view situations; (2) a framework for characterizing how individual habits change; and (3) a framework for characterizing the manner in which emergent understandings are consolidated into existing knowledge and knowledge structures. The model was developed and analyzed using qualitative data from the Hospital-in-the-Home Unit of a Spanish Regional Hospital. From a practical perspective the article provides for the identification of factors that influence the nature and effectiveness of the unlearning context in Hospital-in-the-Home-Units in regional hospitals. This not only valuably adds to the knowledge of the way these units function but also may enable actions to be taken to improve the learning processes associated with such units, resulting in an improvement in the quality of knowledge used in day-to-day decision making. It is to be assumed that, as a result of improving the quality of knowledge used in decision making, the quality of decisions will be improved.

Managing environmental knowledge through learning processes in spanish hospitality companies

The major focus of this research is to investigate whether environmental knowledge has any impact on organizational outcomes through an empirical investigation of 127 Spanish hospitality companies, using structural equation models. Our results show that environmental knowledge is an important determiner for developing organizational outcomes. However, this relationship is completed with just two related constructs: Firstly, the company’s acquisition process plays a key role in managing the tension between the knowledge necessary to develop the appropriated environmental initiatives and current knowledge. Secondly, the company’s distribution process also sheds light on tangible means for managers to enhance their company’s outcomes through environmental knowledge (AU)

El objetivo principal de esta investigación es analizar mediante ecuaciones estructurales aplicadas a 127 empresas del sector español de la hospitalidad, si el conocimiento ambiental ejerce algún impacto en los resultados empresariales. Nuestros resultados muestran que el conocimiento ambiental ejerce un papel importante para alcanzar los objetivos entre las empresas objeto de estudio. Sin embargo, este papel se encuentra condicionado a la presencia de dos dimensiones más que actúan de forma complementaria. En primer lugar, el proceso de adquisición de conocimiento juega un papel clave para lidiar la tensión entre el conocimiento necesario para impulsar las iniciativas ambiéntales demandadas y el conocimiento actual disponible. En segundo lugar, el proceso de distribución también posibilitad medidas palpables y realizables para que los directivos puedan mejorar sus resultados a través del conocimiento ambiental (AU)

Managing environmental knowledge through learning processes in Spanish hospitality companies.

The major focus of this research is to investigate whether environmental knowledge has any impact on organizational outcomes through an empirical investigation of 127 Spanish hospitality companies, using structural equation models. Our results show that environmental knowledge is an important determiner for developing organizational outcomes. However, this relationship is completed with just two related constructs: Firstly, the company's acquisition process plays a key role in managing the tension between the knowledge necessary to develop the appropriated environmental initiatives and current knowledge. Secondly, the company's distribution process also sheds light on tangible means for managers to enhance their company's outcomes through environmental knowledge.

Linking national contexts with intellectual capital: a comparison between Spain and Morocco.

The 'national environment', which includes belief and value systems, shapes the way individuals, groups and organisations perceive the world around them and determines how they react to ongoing changes. This paper analyses the role of different context's effects on intellectual capital by means of an empirical investigation of 112 Small to Medium sized Enterprises (SMEs) in the Spanish and Moroccan telecommunication industries. Within the investigation, repeated ANOVA were used, which were validated by factor analysis. Results support that Spanish SMEs are more positively associated with higher levels of human, structural and relational capital. The meaningful differences are clearly found in the 'structural capital'. Our findings open avenues for further research to explore how governments can facilitate learning and unlearning environments in SME communities. These findings have important implications for general intellectual capital theories, as they suggest that there is no guarantee that intellectual capital theories developed within the cultural context of one particular country can be applied in another with good effect. National contexts provide the environment for learning, which in turn may have the effect of adequately improving intellectual capital.

Linking national contexts with intellectual capital: a comparison between Spain and Morocco

The ‘national environment’, which includes belief and value systems, shapes the way individuals, groups and organisations perceive the world around them and determines how they react to ongoing changes. This paper analyses the role of different context’s effects on intellectual capital by means of an empirical investigation of 112 Small to Medium sized Enterprises (SMEs) in the Spanish and Moroccan telecommunication industries. Within the investigation, repeated ANOVA were used, which were validated by factor analysis. Results support that Spanish SMEs are more positively associated with higher levels of human, structural and relational capital. The meaningful differences are clearly found in the ‘structural capital’. Our findings open avenues for further research to explore how governments can facilitate learning and unlearning environments in SME communities. These findings have important implications for general intellectual capital theories, as they suggest that there is no guarantee that intellectual capital theories developed within the cultural context of one particular country can be applied in another with good effect. National contexts provide the environment for learning, which in turn may have the effect of adequately improving intellectual capital (AU)

El ambiente nacional, el cual incluye las creencias y los sistemas de valores compartidos, influye de una forma clara y directa cómo las personas, los grupos y las organizaciones perciben el mundo alrededor de ellos, y determina cómo afrontan a los cambios a los que tienen que hacer frente. Este trabajo analiza el papel que los diferentes contextos nacionales ejercen sobre la creación de capital intelectual, mediante un trabajo empírico de 112 pequeñas y medianas empresas (PYMEs) del sector de las telecomunicaciones en España y Marruecos. Para ello, hemos utilizado la técnica estadística de medias repetidas apoyada con un análisis factorial confirmatorio. Los resultados sugieren que las empresas españolas se encuentran asociadas a niveles mayores de capital humano, estructural y relacional. Las mayores diferencias se encuentran en el capital estructural. Circunstancias estas que ponen en riesgo la validez de generalizar los resultados obtenidos por la nueva corriente desarrollada entorno al capital intelectual en diferentes contextos culturales. Además, dado que los resultados apoyan que el contexto nacional proporciona el ambiente necesario para aprender, y este a su vez se asocia a la creación de capital intelectual, el presenta trabajo plantea una futura línea de investigación que relaciona el contexto de aprendizaje y desaprendizaje impulsado desde los diferentes gobiernos y el capital intelectual de las PYMEs (AU)