Team Psychological Safety and Knowledge Acquisition in Uganda Teaching Hospitals: The Moderating Effect of Reflection-in-action Team Learning Practices

PurposeFrontline teams are at the centre of lean transformations, but the teams also transform as they implement lean. This study examines these changes and seeks to understand how lean relates to team psychological safety and learning.Design/methodology/approachThis research setting is the Romanian division of a leading European energy company. The authors collected team-level audit and survey data, which the authors used to test the effect of lean implementation on team psychological safety and learning. The authors’ team-level data are complemented with qualitative interviews conducted with team members and headquarters leaders.FindingsThe results of the regression analyses show that leanness is positively associated with team psychological safety, which is in turn positively associated with learning. Thus, this research provides evidence that leanness – mediated by team psychological safety – increases team learning.Practical implicationsLean changes team dynamics and learning positively by ensuring and promoting an emotionally sound work environment with clear team structures, an appropriate level of autonomy, and strong leadership.Originality/valueThis paper contributes evidence of important psychological mechanisms that characterise team-level lean implementation. Particularly, the authors highlight how team psychological safety mediates the relationship between leanness and team learning.

In a changing work landscape, teamwork and team learning often represent strategies to engage ill-structured or sizable projects that require sophisticated solutions, which individual professionals alone may not be able to provide. Creating knowledge in teams implies that team members are acting jointly to generate new ideas and materialize these into artefacts or practices that can have instrumental value for the team’s work and learning. This chapter advances understanding of the epistemic nature of teamwork by university teachers. It does so by examining and further developing conceptualizations of collaborative knowledge creation and by examining empirically, discussing and illustrating the way knowledge is created in a team of teachers who worked collaboratively on curricular innovation over the period of an academic year. The chapter analyzes mechanisms of collaboratively generating new ideas and knowledge and teachers’ teamwork on shared knowledge artefacts – new curriculum elements, which serve both as focus of their epistemic inquiry and as mediating tools for improving and innovating their teaching. Dialogical action and jointly developed material, together with awareness of complexities and constant adjustment to team dynamics are recommendations for professionals engaging in team work. The chapter proposes a conceptual framework for knowledge creation in teams, and reflects on the importance of collaborative knowledge work in professional contexts where ill-structured problems require joint efforts and complex solutions.KeywordsTeamworkKnowledge creationInteractionShared artefactsAcademic teachersQualitative analysis

Purpose The purpose of this paper was to evaluate if the concept of team psychological safety, a key driver of team learning and originally studied in the West, can be applied in teams from different national cultures. The model originally validated for teams in the West is applied to teams in Thailand to evaluate its validity, and the views team members have on the antecedents of team psychological safety are analyzed. Design/methodology/approach The core of the sequential explanatory mixed method research was an experiment with nine teams from a single engineering organization (three teams from each the USA, France and Thailand). Team learning behaviors were analyzed from the conversations between team members. Team psychological safety was analyzed through a quantitative instrument and one-on-one structured interviews with each team member. Findings The results showed that the original model is confirmed for the teams from the USA and France but not confirmed for teams from Thailand. The thematic analysis of the one-on-one interviews highlights important differences between teams from the USA and France on the one hand and teams from Thailand on the other hand when it comes to the role of the team manager and the views that team members have on the diversity between them. Originality/value This research confirms that the concept of team psychological safety, and its impact on the way teams learn, needs to be adjusted if it is to be applied to teams in countries with national cultures different from those prevalent in the West. The implications are that researchers who develop theories in the social sciences field should evaluate how cultural differences impact their models, and that managers who implement learning and solutions should take national cultural differences into consideration.

Team knowledge sharing is a fundamental way of team knowledge creation. By taking knowledge sharing behavior as the analysis unit and integrating the constructs of team psychology safety and shared knowledge, a comprehensive model of product development team knowledge creation is constructed from a behavioral perspective, which is distinct to the exiting models. The model has the fallowing points: First, the team members’ individual traits, attitude toward, subject norms concerning, and perceived control of knowledge sharing behavior have direct effect on his knowledge sharing behaviors. Second, team psychology safety has positive effect on individual members’ knowledge sharing behaviors. Three, the tacitness of knowledge has negative effect on individual’s knowledge sharing behaviors. Fourth, individual members’ knowledge sharing behaviors have positive effect on the team knowledge creation. Fifth, team shared knowledge as a moderator between individual knowledge sharing and team-level knowledge creation can facilitate the transforming of individual knowledge to team knowledge.

This study aims to explore the influence of co-author network on team knowledge creation. Integrating the two traditional perspectives of network relationship and network structure, we examine the direct and interactive effects of tie stability and structural holes on team knowledge creation. Tracking scientific articles published by 111 scholars in the research field of human resource management from the top 8 American universities, we analyze scholars’ scientific co-author networks. The result indicates that tie stability changes the teams’ information processing modes and, when graphed, results in an inverted U-shape relationship between tie stability and team knowledge creation. Moreover, structural holes in co-author network are proved to be harmful to team knowledge sharing and diffusion, thereby impeding team knowledge creation. Also, tie stability and structural hole interactively influence team knowledge creation. When the number of structural hole is low in the co-author network, the graphical representation of the relationship between tie stability and team knowledge creation tends to be a more distinct U-shape.

Purpose – this article investigates the impact of knowledge acquisition on the leading knowledge management processes such as knowledge storage, application, and creation in higher education institutions. Research methodology – scientific literature review and hypotheses were used to develop the research model. The re-search data was collected from 202 academics from Lebanese higher education institutions. The structural questionnaire and structural equation modeling techniques were employed to test the research hypotheses. Findings – the findings confirmed the knowledge acquisition process’s leading role with the highest impact on knowl-edge creation and provided valuable insights for scientists in the knowledge acquisition field. Research limitations – this study’s results are primarily applicable in Lebanon and can’t be generalized to other coun-tries. Therefore, a further researcher should encompass diverse countries to generalize the findings on a global level. Practical implications – the results emphasize more attention for higher education institutions’ administration to focus on higher education institutions’ knowledge management cycle, particularly on the knowledge acquisition process. Originality/Value – in this study, the significant influence of knowledge acquisition on other knowledge management processes in the Lebanese higher education institutions has been revealed, as no prior research in Lebanon is found.

Purpose - The researcher investigates the extent to which knowledge sharing moderates the relationship between knowledge creation and business process re-engineering (BPR) outcomes of financial services offered by financial institutions in Uganda. Design/Methodology - The study adopted cross-sectional survey design to collect data at one point in time using self-administered questionnaire to examine the relationship between knowledge creation and business processes. The study at first used statistical package for social scientists to establish clusters among the surveyed financial services and later a model was derived using R programming software to test for knowledge creation and business process re-engineering performance outcomes. Findings - The study found a significant conditional effect of knowledge sharing on knowledge creation and business process re-engineering outcomes. Implying that investment in knowledge sharing creates awareness about the financial services outcomes of financial institutions using business process re-engineering to provide financial services. Originality - This study contributes to business process re-engineering literature by advancing the idea that BPR is an important economic resource that enhanced through instituting knowledge creation and sharing practices in a complex environment. Ideally, creating and sharing knowledge is one of the drivers of customer value, efficiency, and effectiveness of financial services in financial institutions. Practical Implications - Managers of financial institutions need to pay keen interest in managing business processes using relevant knowledge and transforming in new products, new processes, and new markets to boost business process re-engineering outcomes by building a strong knowledge creation system through training and development programs for senior managers.

Linking learning and knowledge creation to project success in Six Sigma projects: An empirical investigation

Researchers have identified team learning as an important predictor of team performance. In healthcare organizations, it is especially critical for care quality and hospital performance that teams engage in learning behaviors to reduce errors and improve service effectiveness. The main objective of this study is to examine the role of change-oriented leadership in the learning process and outcomes of healthcare teams. The sample comprises a total of 698 healthcare professionals working in 107 teams at different public hospitals throughout Spain. Members of teams were invited to participate voluntarily by completing an anonymous individual questionnaire. The results show a mediating effect of team learning on the relationship between change-oriented leadership and team performance and psychological safety and team performance. Our study contributes to the literature by investigating the role of change-oriented leadership in facilitating team learning behaviors. Moreover, this study advances our understanding of the mediators of the relationship between team leadership and outcomes by testing to assess whether specific change-oriented leader behaviors nurture psychological safety, team learning and, therefore, performance.

This article investigates when and how teams engage in team learning behaviours (TLB). More specifically, it looks into how different leadership styles facilitate TLB by influencing the social conditions that proceed them. 498 healthcare workers from 28 nursery teams filled out a questionnaire measuring the concepts leadership style, TLB, social cohesion and team psychological safety. Analysis was performed using structural equation modelling. The results of this cross-sectional study show that transformational leadership predicts TLB better then laissez-faire leadership, because transformational leadership is primarily related to team psychological safety and only secondarily to social cohesion while for laissez-faire leadership it works the other way around. Transformational leadership matters because it facilitates psychological safety in the team.

Despite the growing popularity of new product development across organizational boundaries, the processes, mechanisms, or dynamics that leverage performance in interorganizational (I-O) product development teams are not well understood. Such teams are staffed with individuals drawn from the partnering firms and are relied on to develop successful new products while at the same time enhancing mutual learning and reducing development time. However, these collaborations can encounter difficulties when partners from different corporate cultures and thought worlds must coordinate and depend on one another and often lead to disappointing performance. To facilitate collaboration, the creation of a safe, supportive, challenging, and engaging environment is particularly important for enabling productive collaborative I-O teamwork and is essential for learning and time efficient product development. This research develops and tests a model of proposed factors to increase both learning and time efficiency on I-O new product teams. It is argued that specific behaviors (caring), beliefs (psychological safety), task-related processes (shared problem solving), and governance mechanisms (clear management direction) create a positive climate that increases learning and time efficiency on I-O teams. Results of an empirical study of 50 collaborative new product development projects indicate that (1) shared problem solving and caring behavior support both learning and time efficiency on I-O teams, (2) team psychological safety is positively related to learning, (3) management direction is positively associated with time efficiency, and (4) shared problem solving is more strongly related to both performance dimensions than are the other factors. The factors supporting time efficiency are slightly different from those that foster learning. The relative importance of these factors also differs considerably for both performance aspects. Overall, this study contributes to a better understanding of the factors that facilitate a favorable environment for productive collaboration on I-O teams, which go beyond contracts or top-management supervision. Establishing such an environment can help to balance management concerns and promote the success of I-O teams. The significance of the results is elevated by the fragility of collaborative ventures and their potential for failure, when firms with different organizational cultures, thought worlds, objectives, and intentions increasingly decide to work across organizational boundaries for the development of new products.

This article is based on an international comparative social policy module held annually at Malmö University (Sweden) with partner universities from several countries. Our study examines the results of intra- and interpersonal dynamics among participants and lecturers, which we call "productive tension", in relation to overarching questions about knowledge acquisition and the importance of reflexivity and reflectivity in the learning process. Students and faculty create a "community of practice" (CoP) (Lave & Wenger 1991) that benefits from a continuous interactive environment and direct engagement. Our study uses a mixed method approach. The analysis considers qualitative data from interviews with the participating students and quantitative data from questionnaires. In this article, we focus on the productive tension inherent in the reflective and reflexive processes. Reflective and reflexive processes are identified that influence the students' experience of cross-border cooperation and their professional identity. Our study also demonstrates how the knowledge about "Social Work" as a profession can be broadened through international comparative teaching and learning. The main conclusion of this work is that reflective and reflexive learning processes in social work education enable participants to see and understand themselves from a broader perspective and strengthen their own professional identity.

Altruistic leadership and its role in reducing knowledge hiding: the mediating effects of team learning and knowledge culture

The general objective of this article is to measure and analyze the correlations that involve organizational learning, its antecedents, and consequences from the performance perspective, based on the perception of professors from public higher education institutions. In terms of objectives, the research method is classified as descriptive. As for the procedures, a survey was carried out, and the approach to the problem is quantitative. Data collection was carried out through a structured questionnaire. The research was based on the perception of 600 professors. The results highlight that the constructs of knowledge acquisition and transformation, organizational learning culture, and affective organizational commitment are significant and positive antecedents that influence learning at an organizational level. Additionally, the correlation between organizational learning and performance is significant and positive. We emphasize the elaboration of the proposed integrated model that considered the significant and positive correlations between organizational learning culture and team cohesion; team cohesion and affective organizational commitment; team cohesion and knowledge acquisition and transformation; and knowledge acquisition and transformation and organizational learning culture; organizational learning culture and affective organizational commitment; knowledge acquisition and transformation and affective organizational commitment. We concluded that the validation of the proposed integrated model is a contribution of research to science and social and administrative practice. However, the research substantiates aspects of the antecedents and consequences of organizational learning with contributions to managers and meets academic and social aspirations. Other variables could be tested, and other groups of respondents could be investigated.

Despite global emphasis on digital literacy for teachers, sub-Saharan Africa faces a critical evidence gap in assessing competency using standardized frameworks like the UNESCO ICT Competency Framework for Teachers (ICT-CFT). This cross-sectional study evaluated digital literacy across three competency levels—Knowledge Acquisition (KA), Knowledge Deepening (KD), and Knowledge Creation (KC)—among 532 student teachers from all 46 Ghanaian public Colleges of Education. Results revealed a tiered proficiency pattern: while participants demonstrated strong foundational skills (KA: M = 3.68), significant gaps persisted in pedagogical integration (KD: M = 3.09) and innovation (KC: M = 3.45). Academic level predicted competency (η2 = 0.097–0.364), with higher-level students outperforming beginners, while gender and program type had negligible effects. Cluster analysis categorized participants into High (47%), Moderate (51%), and Low (2%) proficiency groups. Major barriers included poor internet connectivity (M = 4.17) and financial constraints (M = 3.97), underscoring systemic challenges. To address these gaps, the study proposes: (1) infrastructure investments (e.g., subsidized internet access, campus Wi-Fi partnerships with telecom providers); (2) curriculum reforms integrating hands-on ICT modules focused on pedagogical application; (3) tiered professional development aligned with ICT-CFT benchmarks; and (4) policy advocacy to standardize digital competency certification for teachers. These recommendations aim to bridge the divide between foundational skills and classroom-ready integration, offering a scalable model for low-resource settings. By aligning Ghana’s teacher education with SDG 4 and national digital economy goals, this study contributes actionable insights for policymakers, institutions, and educators to foster twenty-first-century teaching competencies.