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Knowledge integration is the process of building shared mental models. The integration of the diverse knowledge of the health professions in shared mental models is a precondition for effective teamwork and team performance. As it is known that different groups of health care professionals often tend to work in isolation, the authors compared the perceptions of knowledge integration. It can be expected that based on this isolation, knowledge integration is assessed differently. The purpose of this paper is to test these differences in the perception of knowledge integration between the professional groups and to identify to what extent knowledge integration predicts perceptions of teamwork and team performance and to determine if teamwork has a mediating effect.

The study is a multi-center cross-sectional study with a descriptive-explorative design. Data were collected by means of a staff questionnaire for all health care professionals working in the rehabilitation clinics.

The results showed that there are significant differences in knowledge integration within interprofessional health care teams. Furthermore, it could be shown that knowledge integration is significantly related to patient-centered teamwork as well as to team performance. Mediation analysis revealed partial mediation of the effect of knowledge integration on team performance through teamwork.

In practice, the results of the study provide a valuable starting point for team development interventions.

This is the first study that explored knowledge integration in medical rehabilitation teams and its relation to patient-centered teamwork and team performance.

FOR the student who has to choose a field of study in which to learn and exercise his bibliographic skills Sociology affords an interesting and attractive challenge. Indeed, to understand his chosen profession it must necessarily be placed within its social context. Most students at some stage of their development reflect on the social problems that beset the human situation, and some, as the mass media would have us believe, are anxious to remould the “sorry scheme of things” as represented by the existing social structure.

Despite the well‐documented resistance to feminism and gender equality within universities, the profound implications for feminist academics have not received sufficient attention. In this paper the author aims to focus on the inauthentication of feminist academic work by powerful actors in higher education and the implications for feminist academic careers. The author illustrates through her professional experience at a UK medical school how the othering and exclusion of feminists, sustained through surveillance and power mechanisms of organisational life, can disrupt and interrupt feminist academic identity.

This is a reflective piece of work that attempts to illustrate the author's experiences of occupational segregation and marginalisation within a patriarchal and an emerging “entrepreneurial” academic department. The author attempts to represent her lived professional experiences as a feminist academic in a medical school, through the use of narrative and metaphors.

Drawing on notions of othering, interrupted and storied subjectivities, the author illustrates how gendered expectations and constructions of academic performance and success within patriarchal organisations can “make up” and “break up” the professional self and affect the nomadic nature of academic careers and identities.

This paper contributes to theory about workplace identities and practice of gender equality in academia.

The author illustrates how the intersections of identities (feminist, social scientist, woman) can shape personal stories, professional experiences and careers within universities. The author demonstrate how personal stories can uncover gender inequalities and challenge dominant paradigms of knowledge and research within a micro‐web of emotionality and power relations.

Discusses marketing problems associated with the introduction of new products that are often amenable to analysis and solution through using behavioural principles. Proposes that studies of innovation diffusion can therefore provide excellent case illustrations of the analytical power of associated consumer behaviour theory and the contribution that this theory makes to marketing decision making. Reports findings on the diffusion of a new ethical drug among doctors in Ireland. States that the importance of a highly trained and well‐informed salesforce cannot be overstressed.

The term “medical” will be interpreted broadly to include both basic and clinical sciences, related health fields, and some “medical” elements of biology and chemistry. A reference book is here defined as any book that is likely to be consulted for factual information more frequently than it will be picked up and read through in sequential order. Medical reference books have a place in public, school, college, and other non‐medical libraries as well as in the wide variety of medical libraries. All of these libraries will be considered in this column. A basic starting collection of medical material for a public library is outlined and described in an article by William and Virginia Beatty that appeared in the May, 1974, issue of American Libraries.

Investigates the effects of policy change‐the Government New Contract (1990) – on the workload and lives of family doctors, using an open‐ended interview approach and numerical research adapted from it. Provides an account of 20 urban general practitioners′ perceptions of their stresses in general practice under the new 1990 contract. Uses an open‐ended, emic, interview approach in order to reflect the perspectives of the participants rather than the assumptions of the researcher. Considers some of the problems and assets of the methodology. Uncovered many stresses during the interviews but focuses on the main ones which involve the effects of the new contract on being “on call”; nightwork; administration and increased paperwork; financial problems; relationships; inherent practice stresses; and job satisfaction. Involves a quantitative component to the survey, which consisted of a postal questionnaire designed from the findings of the preliminary open‐ended interviews; and includes results from the questionnaire findings. Also notes some of the comments given in answer to two open‐ended questions on the form. The preliminary interviews and quantitative findings suggest that it is important to be aware of the effects of the new contract on the general practitioner′s life and work as it is perceived by the doctors themselves, for many feel it has affected their adaptability and may alter the balance between their stresses and their ability to do their job in the most satisfactory spirit for their patients, staff, the administration and their family and personal life.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate how professionals, like doctors, deal with their ignorance? Which strategies do they apply? How can the organization support activities that encourage dealing with ignorance in a positive way? The paper shows how ignorance can be managed in professional organizations like hospitals.

To explore this touchy subject, the research follows a sequential mixed method design. The advantage of combining research methods is the opportunity to explore an uninvestigated research field. In the first exploratory research sequence (empirical study 1) preliminary questions were defined by means of 43 qualitative semi-structured interviews with hospital physicians and literature analysis. The results of the qualitative content analysis also served as a starting point for the development of a Germany-wide online-questionnaire survey with more than 2,500 physicians (empirical study 2).

The results show that breaks, a lack of negative organizational constraints, collective learning, positive role models and intrinsic motivation have the highest impact on ignorance sharing of physicians in hospitals. In reverse, negative organizational constraints, distrust, a lack of intrinsic motivation and omitting the implementation of evidence-based insights in terms of collective learning have the highest impact on hiding ignorance. These findings help to manage ignorance in a positive way.

Physicians all over the world have to deal with incomplete information and ignorance in their daily work. Mostly, they have no time and/or resources to gather all relevant information before they make a diagnosis or administer a therapy. It is quite evident that scientific discourses on knowledge management and professions mostly emphasize the power of expertise and knowledge, whereas research on ignorance is currently more or less neglected. This paper is one of the first attempts to overcome this research gap.

The purpose of this paper is to suggest the usage of an approach based on sociological systems theory for exploring the (latent) functions of documents in organizations. The focus lies on the reconstruction of organizational knowledge practices required for the competent production and use of documents.

The argument is developed through a critical and integrating review of relevant literature as well as through the analysis of empirical data drawn from participant observation and ethnographic conversations in a multi-organizational, multi-site, and multi-event setting.

The essence of the paper is that a systems theoretical approach in the analysis of the production and use of documents in organizations yields new and startling insights into their (latent) functions for organizations compared to what document analysis and institutional ethnography can achieve.

The paper focuses on the contexts, situations, and the organizational knowledge practices necessary for the competent use of documents in organizations not on the document itself. Hence, it offers a more comprehensive understanding of the (latent) functions of documents for organizations compared to mere document analysis.

Analyses five major innovations in the flour milling industry and the variations in attitudes and adoption practices in group mills and individual plants. Advocates that it is important for research purposes that an industry is chosen in which technical innovation was high, and also where the total number of units in the country could be approached with regard to the very limited budget available for the research. The industry chosen was the flour milling industry. Discusses the choice of innovations and methodology. Sums up that much work still needs to be done with regard to sources of information and on the role of opinion leaders.

Claims that the consumer behaviour field, during the last two decades, has become both multinational and multidisciplinary. States that marketing with its consumer behaviour, has become the most import sub‐field, while significant contributions to its understanding have been made by economists, psychologists, sociologists and political scientists. Attempts to prove that integrating the field into comprehensive models has not been very successful thus far, by using a different track. Organizes into 9 sections and addresses, finally, the further development of consumer theory and research. Posits that the majority of studies on consumer behaviour have approached the subject matter at the individual, rather than the group, level. Summarizes that the ‘gospel’ preached is that of individual, proactive, foresightful choice ‐ which is compatible with rationalistic culture, stressing volition and personal responsibility by broadening the field of consumer behaviour