Knowledge Sharing in Healthcare Centers: Practices and Influences

The desire to improve health services provided to citizens in Saudi Arabia increases the need to encourage health practitioners to share their knowledge with peers. Unfortunately, there is no evidence that information and knowledge are shared in healthcare sectors. This study thus investigates the practice of knowledge sharing by workers and practitioners in primary healthcare centers. The influence of technology and management support in dissemination of the culture of knowledge sharing is also studied. The findings revealed that the staff in healthcare centers has a positive perception towards the importance of knowledge sharing in the work environment Workers have the desire to exploit all available potentials to transfer, exchange, and provide new knowledge within these centers. However, some factors were found to be barriers to sharing knowledge. Such factors include discouragement by top management as well as a lack of technology that supports knowledge management and sharing. Therefore, employees depend on their own efforts to share knowledge and apply it in the work place.