Mobile technology to give a resource-based knowledge management advantage to community health nurses in an emerging economies context

Adoption of social media-based knowledge-sharing behaviour and authentic leadership development: evidence from the educational sector of Pakistan during COVID-19

Purpose

This research paper aims to explore the influence of social media–based knowledge-sharing intentions (SMKI) on prospective authentic leadership development (ALD) to deal with the future crisis. In the existing literature, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, there is no significant empirical evidence to test the relationship between SMKI and ALD. Thus, this study contributes to the growing literature regarding the role of SMKIs, ALD, social media–based knowledge-sharing behavior (SMKB) and facilitating conditions (FCs). However, in this study, the authors developed a conceptual framework based on technology adoption and leadership theory. It was used to identify preservice educational leaders’ SMKIs and their effect on ALD to deal with an educational crisis during the COVID-19 pandemic. Furthermore, SMKIs are strengthening ALD, directly and indirectly, using SMKB and FCs.

Design/methodology/approach

In this study, the higher education students are considered preservice leaders who were enrolled in educational leadership and management programs. However, this study’s target population and sample are students enrolled in educational leadership and management programs. Therefore, higher education students are considered preservice educational leaders. Therefore, a multilevel questionnaire survey approach was adopted to collect data from preservice educational leaders (n = 451 at Time 1 and n = 398 at Time 2) enrolled in education departments in the selected universities in Pakistan. A total of 398 survey questionnaires were finalized with a return ratio of 89%. The partial least square structural equation modeling with SmartPLS 3.2.8 was used for the data analysis.

Findings

This research found that SMKIs are positively and significantly connected with ALD. This study also confirms that SMKB significantly and positively mediates the relationship between SMKIs and ALD. Therefore, this study concludes that preservice educational leaders were ready to adopt SMKB.

Practical implications

Social media–based knowledge sharing can be helpful to develop authentic leadership among preservice educational leaders during a crisis. Preservice educational leaders as authentic leaders can prove to be an asset in dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic crisis.

Originality/value

This research integrated the technology adoption model and leadership theory to provide empirical evidence of SMKIs’ direct and indirect influence on ALD through social media–based knowledge-sharing actual use behavior by preservice educational leaders during the COVID-19 pandemic. Moreover, the moderated mediating effect of the FCs was also studied in the relationship between SMKIs and actual user behavior as well as ALD.

A Novel Framework for Extracting Knowledge Management from Business Intelligence Log Files in Hospitals

This paper proposes a framework to extract knowledge-management elements from business systems in healthcare organizations. According to results of in-depth interviews with experts in the field, a framework is defined, and software was developed to generate log files. Following the application of the Bag of Words (BoW) method on log files of 455 days for feature extraction, the k-means algorithm was used to cluster the feature vectors. The framework was tested with queries for confirmation. The developed framework successfully clustered the generated reports at operational, tactical, and strategic levels to extract knowledge-management elements. This study provides evidence for the knowledge-management pyramid by finding that the generated reports are reviewed mostly at the operational level, then tactical, and then the least at the strategic level. Our framework has the potential to be used not only in the health sector, but also in banking, insurance, and other businesses using business intelligence, especially in accordance with the organization’s goals at operational, tactical, and strategic levels of the knowledge-management pyramid.

Research on Face Recognition and Privacy in China-Based on Social Cognition and Cultural Psychology

With the development of big data technology, the privacy concerns of face recognition have become the most critical social issue in the era of information sharing. Based on the perceived ease of use, perceived usefulness, social cognition, and cross-cultural aspects, this study analyses the privacy of face recognition and influencing factors. The study collected 518 questionnaires through the Internet, SPSS 25.0 was used to analyze the questionnaire data as well as evaluate the reliability of the data, and Cronbach’s alpha (α coefficient) was used to measure the data in this study. Our findings demonstrate that when users perceive the risk of their private information being disclosed through face recognition, they have greater privacy concerns. However, most users will still choose to provide personal information in exchange for the services and applications they need. Trust in technology and platforms can reduce users’ intention to put up guards against them. Users believe that face recognition platforms can create secure conditions for the use of face recognition technology, thus exhibiting a higher tendency to use such technology. Although perceived ease of use has no significant positive impact on the actual use of face recognition due to other external factors, such as accuracy and technology maturity, perceived usefulness still has a significant positive impact on the actual use of face recognition. These results enrich the literature on the application behavior of face recognition and play an important role in making better use of face recognition by social individuals, which not only facilitates their daily life but also does not disclose personal privacy information.

Health-care information technologies for dispersed knowledge management

Purpose

The health-care industry has multiple stakeholders, with knowledge dispersed among clinicians, experts and patients and their families. As the adoption of health-care information technologies (HITs) depends on multiple factors, this study aims to uncover the motivators for adopting them.

Design/methodology/approach

The study considers 391 respondents, representing the health-care sector, to evaluate the motivators for adopting HITs for better-dispersed knowledge management. The authors analyze the responses using exploratory factor analysis (EFA) to identify the actual structure of the factors, followed by confirmatory factor analysis (CFA).

Findings

EFA categorized the factors into four classes: quality management; information sharing; strategic governance; and available technological infrastructure. CFA revealed that the strategic governance factor is most predictive of successfully adopting HITs that model the normative pressure of Institutional theory in health-care organizations. These results indicate that, along with considerations of finances, care quality and infrastructure, effective government involvement and policy-making are important for successful HIT adoption.

Practical implications

Results reveal that stakeholders’ motivating factors for HIT adoption in a developed economy like the United Arab Emirates are based on considering HITs as a knowledge management mechanism. These factors may help other nations in HIT implementation and drive valuable innovations in the health-care sector. This research presents the implications for health-care professionals and stakeholders in relation to adopting HITs and their role in knowledge flow for efficient care.

Originality/value

HITs offer an affordable and convenient platform for collaboration among diverse teams in the health-care sector. Apart from this, it helps in facilitating an interactive platform for knowledge creation and transfer for the benefit of users and providers.

Mobile phone use and the welfare of community health nurses in Ghana: An analysis of unintended costs

The use of mobile phones is fast transforming the healthcare delivery landscape in Ghana. A substantial number of health facilities are now dependent on mobile phones to facilitate their work. Evidence of the use of mobile phones in Ghana's healthcare is however limited. In order to contribute to the evidence of the value of using mobile phones to promote healthcare, we interrogated and highlighted unexpected costs imposed on community health nurses who use their personal mobile phones for healthcare delivery in the country. Data for the study were derived from 598 completed questionnaires and extracts from focus group discussions with community health nurses who were sampled from three regions across the three main ecological zones of Ghana. The results show that over 90% of nurses bear the cost of paying for airtime, bundles and chargers used for work-related activities, yet less than 10% of them receive direct compensation. This costly burden has the potential to demotivate the nurses and threaten the country's progress towards the achievement of universal health coverage. More significantly, the data strongly suggest that physical distance, regional location and gender are the main factors triggering extra costs incurred by the nurses. We conclude that the use of personal mobile phones for healthcare delivery imposed huge financial burden on community health workers in Ghana. A suggested intervention to forestall negative consequences on performance is to offer incentive packages to nurses as a compensation for the financial and non-physical costs of using personal mobile phones for work-related activities.