The influence of HR practices upon knowledge brokering in professional organizations for service improvement : addressing professional legitimacy & identity in healthcare

Drawing upon sociology of professions, our study extends insight into the specific HR practices that shape the microdynamics of knowledge‐sharing behaviors among professionals. Empirically, we examine the influence of Human Resource (HR) practices on enactment of a knowledge‐brokering role by doctors to drive service improvement in health care. Our study shows, first, HR practices influence professional identity, which is predicated on jurisdictional autonomy and client interest. Second, HR practices influence the legitimacy of any role and associated activities, with professionals valuing collegial leadership and evidence‐based practice. Our study highlights it is employee perceptions of the effect of HR practices upon their legitimacy and identity that shape their attitudes and behavior toward knowledge sharing. Thus, different HR practices have different effects on knowledge sharing. Further, the same HR practice may be perceived differently even within the same cadre of professionals, depending upon their relative status and career interests

Innovative work behaviour in knowledge-intensive public sector organizations: the case of supervisors in the Netherlands fire services

Studying innovative employee behaviours within knowledge-intensive public sector organizations (KIPSOs) might seem an odd thing to do given the lack of competitive pressures, the limited identification of the costs and benefits of innovative ideas and the lack of opportunities to incentivize employees financially. Nevertheless, KIPSOs require innovations to ensure long-term survival. To help achieve this goal, this paper explores the role of supervisors in supporting innovative work behaviour (IWB) by considering the unique challenges of KIPSOs and the conditions and characteristics of IWB in this context. Based on our rich qualitative data of a single case study in the Netherlands Fire Services, we demonstrate the ability of public-sector supervisors to engage employees in innovative behaviours. On the downside, implementation failures and a lack of radical innovation projects seem to be the result of loosely coupled bottom-up and top-down innovation projects and decentralization in the KIPSO which requires situational leadership that emphasizes networking activities and lobbying with public managers