Knowledge management in social work

management support, incentives, knowledge implementation, and employee empowerment

Simon Colnar (Author), Vlado Dimovski (Author)

Abstract

In this article, we build on the current research about knowledge management in social work settings to demonstrate that knowledge management has the potential to enable social work organizations to influence public policies and improve the quality of their services. By increasing awareness and information about knowledge management in the field of social work, our goal is to examine a direct positive relationship between management support and incentives and knowledge implementation. In addition, as we wanted to explore the moderating effect of employee empowerment on knowledge implementation, we define and test several hypotheses in order to discover how management support, incentives and employee empowerment impact knowledge implementation in social work settings. We use moderation regression to test our hypotheses with a sample of 98 managers and employees of social work organizations in Slovenia who completed a questionnaire specifically prepared for the study. The study results support the existence of a significant and positive relationship between management support and incentives with knowledge implementation. Employee empowerment also acts as a moderator in the relationship between incentives and knowledge implementation, however, the interaction term is negative. In any case, the highest levels of knowledge implementation occur when employee empowerment is high as well. In the conclusion of the paper, we discuss the theoretical and practical implications derived from the research study.

Keywords

social work;knowledge;management;knowledge transfer;

Data

Language:	English
Year of publishing:	2020
Typology:	1.01 - Original Scientific Article
Organization:	UL EF - Faculty of Economics
UDC:	005.3:364-78(497.4)
COBISS:	54473475
ISSN:	1580-0466
Views:	324
Downloads:	107
Average score:	0 (0 votes)
Metadata:

Other data

Secondary language:	Slovenian
Secondary title:	Management znanja v socialnem delu
Secondary abstract:	V članku gradiva na sedanjih raziskavah o managementu znanja v okolju socialnega dela, da bi prikazala kako lahko management znanja organizacijam v okolju socialnega dela pomaga pri oblikovanju javnih politik in izboljša kakovost njihovih storitev. S povečevanjem znanja in ozaveščenosti o managementu znanja na področju socialnega dela, je najin cilj preučiti neposredno pozitivno povezavo med podporo managementa in spodbudami ter implementacijo znanja v praksi. Poleg tega, sva želela raziskati moderacijski učinek opolnomočenja zaposlenih na implementacijo znanja. Definirava in testirava več hipotez, da bi ugotovila kako podpora managementa, spodbude in opolnomočenje zaposlenih vplivajo na implementacijo znanja v okolju socialnega dela. Za preizkus hipotez, uporabiva moderacijsko regresijo na vzorcu 98 managerjev in zaposlenih v centrih za socialno delo v Sloveniji, ki so izpolnili vprašalnik, posebej pripravljen za potrebe študije. Rezultati raziskave potrdijo statistično značilno in pozitivno razmerje med podporo managementa in spodbudami ter implementacijo znanja. Opolnomočenje zaposlenih je moderator razmerja med spodbudami in implementacijo znanja, a velja izpostaviti, da je interakcijski učinek negativen. Rezultati študije prikažejo, da se najvišje stopnje implementacije znanja v praksi pojavijo, ko je tudi opolnomočenje zaposlenih visoko. V zaključku prispevka, obravnavava teoretične in praktične implikacije, ki izhajajo iz najine raziskave.
Secondary keywords:	socialno delo;znanje;management;prenos znanja;Slovenija;
Type (COBISS):	Article
Pages:	str. 383-414, 446
Volume:	ǂVol. ǂ22
Issue:	ǂno. ǂ3
Chronology:	2020
DOI:	10.15458/ebr107
ID:	12635980