THE MEDIATOR ROLE OF LEADER-MEMBER EXCHANGE IN THE EFFECT OF ORGANIZATIONAL KNOWLEDGE SHARING ON ORGANIZATIONAL BLINDNESS IN HEALTHCARE PROFESSIONALS: CHAIN HOSPITAL EXAMPLE

Abstract

The health sector is the primary sector that needs continuous development and high quality service in order to increase the physical and mental needs of people, the treatment methods of constantly diversifying diseases and to cope with the epidemics that shook all the countries of the world such as the Covid-19 pandemic. Hospitals, which are an important part of the health sector, are organizations in a matrix structure that include medical services, patient care services, preventive health services, hotel management and facility services, socio-psychological consultancy, administrative and financial transactions. Effective communication and information sharing ensure the success of this matrix structure. Failure to ensure the flow of information between departments in hospitals results in the failure to fulfill the needs of patients correctly and on time, and the implementation of independent practices by the members of the organization. This situation, which jeopardizes patient and employee safety, also causes a decrease in satisfaction. The aim of this study is to try to reveal the mediator role of leader-member interaction in the effect of organizational knowledge sharing on organizational blindness of 489 health workers working in different tasks of the chain hospital, with the method of structural equation modeling. The results of the study showed that the leader-member interaction has a mediating role between knowledge sharing and organizational blindness behavior. It has been determined that providing high quality leader-member interaction increases knowledge sharing and reduces organizational blindness.