Health and social care managers' self-assessed competence in knowledge management: A descriptive cross-sectional study

Abstract

Aim: To describe health and social care managers' self-assessed competence in knowledge management and the factors associated with management competence.

Background: It has been shown that the performance of an organization is as good as the competence of its managers, so health and social care managers' competence in knowledge management should be assessed to improve organizational performance.

Desgin: A descriptive cross-sectional design.

Methods: A total of 116 managers participated from six Finnish public health and social care organizations. The data were collected in February and August 2022 using the managers' competence in knowledge management (MCKM) instrument and analysed using descriptive statistical methods.

Results: Health and social care managers rated their self-reported total competence in knowledge management as good. Among the dimensions of knowledge management competence, managing a culture of competence received the highest rating, while planning competence development and cooperation was perceived as the weakest dimension. The results indicate that background factors such as the healthcare setting, the number of units managed and the number of direct staff had a statistically significant association with the health and social care managers' self-assessed competence in planning competence development and cooperation.

Conclusion: Even though the health and social care managers' total self-assessed competence level in knowledge management was rated as good, the results underscore the significance of continuous competence development among these managers in all dimensions of knowledge management.

Impact: By enhancing and clarifying managers' tasks and competence in knowledge management, managers can increase staff retention, attractiveness and work well-being.

Implications: The results can be utilized to identify managers' strengths and weaknesses in knowledge management and, thus, effectively target their limited competence development resources.

Reporting method: The STrengthening the Reporting of OBservational studies in Epidemiology (STROBE) checklist.

Patient or public contribution: There is no patient or public contribution.

Keywords: health and social care; knowledge management; manager; self‐assessed competence.