Knowledge Spiral: A Leadership-Level Assessment of Knowledge Practices in Makkah Health Cluster

Abstract

While Knowledge Management (KM) is critical for High-Reliability Organizations (HROs) like modern healthcare clusters, evaluative, leadership-focused research in the Saudi context remains scarce. This study provides a leadership-level assessment of KM effectiveness within Makkah Health Cluster (MHC), a key component of Saudi Arabia's Vision 2030 health sector transformation, to identify barriers hindering its contribution to organizational performance.

A qualitative study was conducted with 13 senior leaders at MHC. Data was collected through semi-structured interviews and subsequently analyzed using a quantitative content analysis approach. In this two-stage process, qualitative themes were first identified, then systematically coded and quantified to measure their prevalence and intensity across the leadership cohort. The Nonaka and Takeuchi SECI model served as the guiding theoretical framework.

The findings reveal a significant paradox: leaders universally acknowledge KM's strategic potential but perceive its current implementation as fragmented. A fragmented and non-integrated technological infrastructure of KM was the most significant barrier, identified in 92.3% of interviews. This was followed by a lack of incentives for knowledge sharing and insufficient organizational awareness (both identified in 76.9% of interviews). These foundational barriers have hindered the knowledge creation spiral, particularly impeding the Externalization (articulating tacit knowledge) and Combination (systematizing explicit knowledge) processes.

KM at MHC is in a state of unrealized potential. The study concludes that without a deliberate, top-down strategic intervention to build a cohesive governance framework, a unified technological platform, and a supportive organizational culture, KM will remain a collection of ad-hoc activities rather than a core driver of organizational performance and high reliability.

https://doi.org/10.24897/acn.64.68.202512240017