A framework to support knowledge transfer in the service sector

This paper introduces a framework for analysing and supporting knowledge transfer in healthcare services. It argues that the individual is at the centre of the transfer process and, as such, needs to be catered-to within both teams and organisations. Within the healthcare sector, safety is critical, and the effective and efficient transfer of knowledge between healthcare professionals and patients can help to reduce the risks in the system. Furthermore, the authors hope that a clear understanding and accurate identification of the factors that impact the knowledge transfer process for individuals can have an impact on the knowledge transfer process in teams and organisations. The development of a suitable approach to support knowledge transfer for improved transfer of knowledge among these groups in the healthcare services is achieved using technology where appropriate, through the knowledge transfer framework which is presented

Reforming institutions for service delivery : a framework for development assistance with an application to the health, nutrition, and population portfolio

World Development Report 1997: The State in a Changing World (report no. 17300) argued that institutions-the rules of the game that govern production and exchange-shape a country's prospects for sustained market-led growth. The author provides an institutional framework for service delivery, an essential component of state capability. He applies this framework to an evaluation of Bank support for service delivery in the health, nutrition, and population sector. He argues for greater institutional pluralism in the ways the World Bank does business in infrastructure, rural, and social sectors, but cautions against making efficient service delivery an issue of"state versus market."The Bank and its clients face the challenge of fitting menus of"better practice"delivery options to maps of institutional reality. In the health, nutrition, and population sector, the Bank should (1) unbundle and categorize essential health and clinical services according to goods characteristics and (2) integrate country knowledge into operations through upstream assessments of state, political, and social institutions. Overall, the Bank has made progress toward a"goods characteristics"approach, particularly in infrastructure and some rural services-but it has lagged in the social sectors, where support remains largely technocratic. Cross-sector comparisons reveal four generations of support for service delivery. First-generation support focused mainly on physical implementation of projects. Second-generation interventions, which characterized most social service interventions, focused on improving the financial and organizational viability of implementing agencies through technical assistance. Third-generation support was marked by significant unbundling of service delivery activities and clearer links to goods characteristics. In irrigation (1982-94), telecommunications (1980s-present), and transport (1990s), the one-size-fits-all monopoly model gave way to a range of options based on greater private sector and citizen participation in delivery. These included leases, concessions, outsourcing, and contracting as well as building, operating, transfer, and turnover schemes. Fourth-generation interventions are works-in-progress and represent efforts to develop new governance arrangements that systematically combine competition, voice, and hierarchy in the design, delivery, and monitoring of Bank projects. The Bank has a poor track record building country knowledge of institutional endowments that affect service delivery. The author identifies concepts and tools valuable for sector specialists'operations.Enterprise Development&Reform,Public Health Promotion,Health Economics&Finance,Decentralization,Health Monitoring&Evaluation,Governance Indicators,Poverty Assessment,Environmental Economics&Policies,Health Monitoring&Evaluation,Health Economics&Finance

Knowledge management in the Moroccan public sector, concepts and application: Tax office as a case in point

Knowledge is seen as an essential asset for public organizations. The loss of critical knowledge as a result of the increasing retirement of experienced human resources may pose a threat to the continuity of these organizations' operations, particularly since reforms in the public sector have transformed these entities into regulatory, evaluation, and control bodies. Therefore, these organizations rely largely on the mastery of these skills to achieve their goals. This study aims to evaluate, within the context of the public sector, the significance and problems of knowledge and, more importantly, to build and propose a conceptual framework for knowledge continuity management (KM) in these organizations. This framework defines the key processes and elements that support the implementation of this process in order to ensure the continuity of knowledge following the departure of experienced personnel. In this study, we tried to answer the question, "Does the General Directorate of Taxation have a knowledge management policy?”. We have thus circulated a poll to persons who now occupy or are pursuing leadership positions. The findings indicate consensus regarding the necessity of the knowledge management policy, especially in succession management, for guaranteeing the consistent delivery of public services. But they also illustrate the absence of a well-defined process of knowledge transfer, which leaves the field of activity in this regard wide open and demands a large intervention by the central services to better explain the concept to the various employees in charge of the management of human resources and the other services, as this process involves any person holding critical knowledge for the efficient operation of its service and for the installation of a knowledge management system. Keywords: knowledge management, public sector, retirement, tax department. JEL Classification : D80, L20, O15, 021. Paper type: Empirical researchKnowledge is seen as an essential asset for public organizations. The loss of critical knowledge as a result of the increasing retirement of experienced human resources may pose a threat to the continuity of these organizations' operations, particularly since reforms in the public sector have transformed these entities into regulatory, evaluation, and control bodies. Therefore, these organizations rely largely on the mastery of these skills to achieve their goals. This study aims to evaluate, within the context of the public sector, the significance and problems of knowledge and, more importantly, to build and propose a conceptual framework for knowledge continuity management (KM) in these organizations. This framework defines the key processes and elements that support the implementation of this process in order to ensure the continuity of knowledge following the departure of experienced personnel. In this study, we tried to answer the question, "Does the General Directorate of Taxation have a knowledge management policy?”. We have thus circulated a poll to persons who now occupy or are pursuing leadership positions. The findings indicate consensus regarding the necessity of the knowledge management policy, especially in succession management, for guaranteeing the consistent delivery of public services. But they also illustrate the absence of a well-defined process of knowledge transfer, which leaves the field of activity in this regard wide open and demands a large intervention by the central services to better explain the concept to the various employees in charge of the management of human resources and the other services, as this process involves any person holding critical knowledge for the efficient operation of its service and for the installation of a knowledge management system. Keywords: knowledge management, public sector, retirement, tax department. JEL Classification : D80, L20, O15, 021. Paper type: Empirical researc

Learning From Major Accidents: A Meta-Learning Perspective

Learning from the past is essential to improve safety and reliability in the chemical industry. In the context of Industry 4.0 and Industry 5.0, where Artificial Intelligence and IoT are expanding throughout every industrial sector, it is essential to determine if an artificial learner may exploit historical accident data to support a more efficient and sustainable learning framework. One important limitation of Machine Learning algorithms is their difficulty in generalizing over multiple tasks. In this context, the present study aims to investigate the issue of meta-learning and transfer learning, evaluating whether the knowledge extracted from a generic accident database could be used to predict the consequence of new, technology-specific accidents. To this end, a classi-fication algorithm is trained on a large and generic accident database to learn the relationship between accident features and consequence severity from a diverse pool of examples. Later, the acquired knowledge is transferred to another domain to predict the number of fatalities and injuries in new accidents. The methodology is eval-uated on a test case, where two classification algorithms are trained on a generic accident database (i.e., the Major Hazard Incident Data Service) and evaluated on a technology-specific, lower-quality database. The results suggest that automated algorithms can learn from historical data and transfer knowledge to predict the severity of different types of accidents. The findings indicate that the knowledge gained from previous tasks might be used to address new tasks. Therefore, the proposed approach reduces the need for new data and the cost of the analyses

Increasing innovative activity in the UK? Where now for government support for innovation and technology transfer?

In this Briefing Note, we present new evidence on the UK’s innovative performance and provide a summary of government business support programmes aimed at fostering innovative activity and technology transfer. Following recent reviews of policy in this area, there remain a number of such schemes in operation. We discuss the rationales for each, including the extent to which they overlap, and suggest some ways in which evidence on take-up and on effectiveness might be used to guide any future policy changes in this area

Public private partnership contract management failure in information technology service delivery: a qualitative inquiry into the South African Department of Labour ERP implementation project

This PhD research project investigated the failure of a Public Private Partnership (PPP) ICT service delivery project between the South African Department of Labour (DOL) and Siemens Information Services (SIS). The research investigated conditions contributing to management failure of the Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) Implementation project, which had the objective of improving the Department of Labour's service operations and the transfer of ERP technology competence to the DOL. An important objective of this research was to develop an understanding of the special challenges of PPP management in the context of emerging and developing countries. International organizations such as the IMF, World Bank and United Nations (UN) have been encouraging emerging and developing countries to adopt PPPs as vehicles for developing technology competence and improving public sector efficiency. However, little research has been conducted to discover whether these countries have the competencies to successfully implement and manage PPPs. The goal of this PhD study was to develop an understanding of factors and conditions influencing the DOL-SIS PPP failure in order to develop theory and approaches, which could help improve management practices in the area of contracting-out ICT service delivery in the public sector of the Republic of South Africa. The research was guided by an agency theory framework and utilised a multi-method approach to conduct three empirical investigations into the PPP institutional framework, project governance and public accountability aspects of the DOL-SIS project. Some important findings of this research are: (1) Robust institutional policies and governance mechanisms specific to PPPs for ICT service delivery are necessary but not sufficient to combat risks of failure; robust mechanisms for performance monitoring and penalties for shirking are also necessary. (2) Public sector managers need specialised knowledge and competence to effectively manage private partners in the execution of ICT PPP contracts; over dependence on the private partners can significantly increase the risk of project failure, and encourage opportunistic behaviour and shirking by the private partner. (3) Transparent project governance and public accountability mechanisms are necessary to maintaining public support and combating opportunistic behaviour of both private and public partners on a PPP ICT services project. The thesis comprises three empirical studies: Study 1 used an agency theory framework to interrogate the PPP institutional framework to understand its provisions for identifying and managing risk factors in ICT service delivery projects. Study 2 analysed data from interviews with stakeholders, the contract meeting minutes and other relevant documents, guided by the agency theory framework to develop an understanding of project governance challenges. Study 3 focused on identifying public accountability issues and used a critical discourse analysis methodology to interrogate the media discourse concerning the failure of the DOL-SIS ERP Implementation failure. Content analysis with the use of ATLAS/TI and automated tool was used to analyse all the relevant documents for the different studies. The general contribution of this PhD research is an explanatory theory illustrating how interactions among institutional conditions, governance mechanisms, knowledge and management competence deficits, and the behaviour of the PPP actors reinforced dysfunctional organisational conditions, which resulted in project failure. The theory is illustrated using a causal loop modelling technique and a set of five theoretical propositions clarifying the organizational knowledge and competence challenges, which the public sector managers faced, and the consequences of these affecting the success of the PPP project. This is an important contribution to literature on the use of PPPs for ICT service delivery not only in emerging and developing country contexts, but in developed contexts as well. Other contributions specific to the South African perspective are: (1) Study 1 revealed gaps in the institutional framework concerning the management of risks in ICT PPP projects. While South Africa has much experience with managing risks in the engineering and delivery of physical infrastructure, there is a comparable lack experience with managing ICT infrastructure implementation project risks. (2) Studies 1 and 2 reveal gaps in the governance and accountability mechanisms and practices which can be exploited with adverse consequences to the public interest. These studies also point to the importance of robust transparency and governance mechanisms, and high levels of management competence to the effective risk management of PPPs for ICT service delivery. (3) Study 3 reveals importance of the independent media in fostering debate, uncovering evidence, scrutinizing the activities of the actors in the DOL-SIS PPP and defending the public interest. The independent media played a critical role of agitating for public accountability when the DOL was reluctant to do so, and raising issues about SIS underperformance and pushing for public investigation into the governance of the DOL-SIS ERP Implementation project

National Innovation Network at the Crossroads – in Search of a New Support Formula for Proinnovative Services for Small and Medium Enterprises

Celem artykułu jest analiza jakościowa systemu wsparcia innowacyjnej przedsiębiorczości opartego na Krajowej Sieci Innowacji oferującej usługi proinnowacyjne dla małych i średnich przedsiębiorstw w Polsce. Formułowane wnioski oparte są na wynikach ogólnopolskich badań przeprowadzonych przez autora wśród firm sektora MŚP, będących zarówno beneficjentami usług KSI (ogółem zbadano 381 podmiotów), jak i firm niekorzystających wcześniej z tych usług (próba badawcza liczyła 1100 podmiotów). Podstawowe zastrzeżenia zgłaszane przez małych i średnich przedsiębiorców dotyczą pasywności tych ośrodków w budowaniu partnerskiej współpracy, zdolności do rozpoznania rzeczywistych potrzeb przedsiębiorstwa oraz umiejętności dostosowania oferty usług w odpowiedzi na rzeczywiste potrzeby przedsiębiorstw. W artykule zawarto rekomendacje zmian w systemie świadczenia usług proinnowacyjnych w ramach wsparcia publicznego oferowanego przez ośrodki Krajowej Sieci Innowacji w odniesieniu do „filozofii”, zakresu i instrumentów wsparcia