Research use and Knowledge mobilisation in third sector organisations involved in health care provision

Abstract

Third sector organisations (TSOs) provide health care in the UK's NHS and other health systems. One of their perceived strengths is distinctive knowledge of the communities with which they work but little is known about the knowledge TSOs possess, how it is developed and used, and how this relates to research-based knowledge. The objective of this PhD is to explore how and why third sector organisations use research and other kinds of knowledge in their work. Scientific Realism (Pawson, 2013) was used to develop causal mechanisms and contexts, in the form of programme theory, to explore the processes of knowledge use. A scoping review, a pilot of a survey tool, and two case studies were used to develop programme theory and to address the research questions. I found that in the healthcare TSOs studied, knowledge encompasses tacit as well as explicit knowledge. Explicit knowledge (“know-that”) tends to be used to prove to external organisations the effectiveness of the TSO or to support organisational development; tacit knowledge (“know-how”) is used by the staff to support clients and users of services to develop knowledge of ‘what works for me’. This tacit knowledge is the distinctive knowledge that TSOs possess. It is mobilised through formal and informal relational processes. I found staff personalised knowledge to individual service-users based on individual and organisational values, implicitly integrating different kinds of knowledge in order to contribute to the benefit and flourishing of all. These findings have implications for TSOs, service commissioners, researchers, and research funders. We need to pay attention to how values influence knowledge use and enable the distinctive knowledge of TSOs to be put into practice.