The Peculiarities of the Organizational Learning of Clinicians and their Causes

Abstract

The perception of knowledge management has evolved over the last several decades from managing the information to the involvement of employees in knowledge work – in particular, in the OL processes. However, research literature describes various obstacles for organizational learning in hospitals, related to both, the context of the organization’s activities, as well as the clash between the professional autonomy of the clinicians and the bureaucratic requirements regulating the work done by the clinicians. This paper looks into the peculiarities of the OL of clinicians occurring on both individual and collective levels and examines the causes that condition these peculiarities. The paper opens with an introduction, wherein the research problem is substantiated, the aim of the research and the conceptual positions are provided, the logical structure of the research is outlined. The literature review conducted in the second chapter reveals the essence of organizational learning, explains the significance of individual and collective learning for OL. Next, the researchers delve into the work done by clinicians as professionals in the context of OL. The steps taken allow substantiating the three levels of clinicians’ involvement in the OL processes – individual, group/department and organization‑as‑a‑whole. A thorough review of the theoretical background created the conditions for the empirical investigation into the organizational learning of clinicians. The research has been conducted in a small hospital in Lithuania. Highly selective sampling suggests that the data on the OL of the clinicians acquired during the research, and a detailed description of its relation to the context provides reliable insights into various aspects of the organizational learning of clinicians. The conclusions also raise questions that require further investigation, suggest health care administrators and clinicians consider collective efforts to create better quality organizational knowledge that would enable healthcare institutions to cope with continuously emerging ill‑structured problems.