Content area
Abstract
This study addresses the understudied topic of knowledge sharing in Chinese surgical teams. In this study, I take the position that a proper understanding of surgical team members' knowledge sharing attitudes and behaviors has to take into account relevant social, cultural, and historical trends, in addition to variables at the individual, team, and organizational levels. This study examines knowledge sharing in Chinese surgical teams from an interpretive-symbolist perspective.
This study uses a two-study design: a qualitative case study of 100 members from 27 surgical teams at two Chinese public hospitals and a survey study of 86 members from one Chinese public hospital. The qualitative case study draws on data from interviews, observation, hospital documents, and government agency policies. The case study describes, analyzes, and interprets knowledge sharing attitudes and behaviors of Chinese surgical team members. The findings suggested that Chinese surgical team members' knowledge sharing behaviors displayed a strong insider focus in most cases and some unique features in certain cases (e.g., listening-centered tendencies when sharing knowledge in public settings, and more active sharing of face-threatening knowledge in private settings). The findings not only highlighted the important roles played by certain Chinese national cultural traits, broad social and institutional forces in shaping Chinese surgical team members' knowledge sharing attitudes and behaviors but also emphasized the agency of surgical team members in creating and shaping their own environment through their knowledge sharing behaviors and the meanings they create for their own and others' knowledge sharing behaviors.
The survey study results revealed great attitudinal differences among Chinese surgeons, anesthesiologists, and Operating Room Nurses in their perceptions of intradisciplinary and interdisciplinary knowledge sharing and teamwork, as well as their views of surgical team leadership. Chinese surgical team members were found to concur in their perceptions of hospital climate and the importance of team knowledge sharing. A surgical team member's seniority was found to be related to his or her team communication climate. A surgical team member's job satisfaction was found to be significantly related to perceived intrateam communication, perceived communication climate perceptions, and teamwork style.
