Personal and organizational knowledge transfer: implications for worklife engagement

Although knowledge transfer (KT) in healthcare organizations is increasingly important, models have typically focused on the transfer of clinical knowledge. Despite numerous reports and studies on worklife issues for healthcare professionals, few recommendations have been implemented, and many of these professionals are unfamiliar with the reports. Using measures of knowledge transfer of quality of worklife information developed from a model of transfer of clinical knowledge, we tested the relationship between individual and organizational knowledge transfer among 769 nurses in hospitals across four provinces in Canada. We also examined a model that integrated these two knowledge transfer measures with burnout/engagement in the workplace. Our data supported a two factor structure for the measure of knowledge transfer involving a) individual perceptions of personal knowledge transfer activities and b) organizations' support for knowledge transfer. Data from structural equation modeling demonstrated the importance of knowledge transfer pertaining to quality of worklife to nurses' experience of energy, involvement, and efficacy that underlies the burnout/engagement construct.