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Research on patient safety campaigns has mostly concentrated on large-scale multi-organisation efforts, yet locally led improvement is increasingly promoted. The purpose of this paper is to characterise the design and implementation of an internal patient safety campaign at a large acute National Health Service hospital trust with a view to understanding how to optimise such campaigns.

The authors conducted a qualitative study of a campaign that sought to achieve 12 patient safety goals. The authors interviewed 19 managers and 45 frontline staff, supplemented by 56 hours of non-participant observation. Data analysis was based on the constant comparative method.

The campaign was motivated by senior managers’ commitment to patient safety improvement, a series of serious untoward incidents, and a history of campaign-style initiatives at the trust. While the campaign succeeded in generating enthusiasm and focus among managers and some frontline staff, it encountered three challenges. First, though many staff at the sharp end were aware of the campaign, their knowledge, and acceptance of its content, rationale, and relevance for distinct clinical areas were variable. Second, the mechanisms of change, albeit effective in creating focus, may have been too limited. Third, many saw the tempo of the campaign as too rapid. Overall, the campaign enjoyed some success in raising the profile of patient safety. However, its ability to promote change was mixed, and progress was difficult to evidence because of lack of reliable measurement.

The study shows that single-organisation campaigns may help in raising the profile of patient safety. The authors offer important lessons for the successful running of such campaigns.

The aim of this current study is to investigate the effects of knowledge management capabilities – knowledge infrastructure capability and knowledge processing capability – on organizational agility and business performance. This study also examines organizational agility as an underlying mechanism between knowledge management capabilities and business performance relationship.

The data were collected from one hundred and sixty-nine organizations. Partial least squared (PLS)–based structural equation modeling (SEM) technique was employed to test the study hypotheses. The analysis was performed in WarpPLS 6.0 software.

Results revealed that both dimensions of knowledge management capabilities positively influence organizational agility and business performance. In addition to the direct effect, knowledge management capabilities also have an indirect effect on business performance mediated through organizational agility.

This study attempts to develop an integrated framework to conceptualize a capability–capacity–performance relationship, where it suggests that knowledge management capabilities are important organization-level capabilities which facilitate organizations to develop necessary capacities i.e. organizational agility to successfully perform business activities.

The findings help the managers to understand the contribution of knowledge management capabilities towards business performance. The findings imply that business performance can be enhanced by development of a culture - enabled by a knowledge-oriented structure and technology – that encourages knowledge sharing among employees because when employees are not sharing information, they are prone to repeating the same mistakes which they and other people have already committed. Likewise, strategies such as mentoring cross training, business process empowerment and technical training programs allow employees to gain business knowledge and foster organizational agility.

Novelty of this study is to develop and empirically test an integrated framework of a capability–capacity–performance relationship. It suggests that knowledge management capabilities (firm capability) enable organizations to develop organizational agility (firm capacity) which in turn enhances performance.