Government Consulting Program to Encourage Knowledge Sharing between Nonprofit Social Service Agencies in South Korea

Nonprofit social service agencies in South Korea have dramatically improved their service quality in the last few decades. However, with increasing competition among nonprofit social service agencies, quality differences among nonprofits have remained unresolved and in many cases increased. The Korean government has implemented the Quality Management Program to decrease disparities among nonprofit social service agencies. This study explores the impact the consulting program has on high and low performing agencies and provides insight into knowledge sharing. This exploratory qualitative study is comprised of semi-structured interviews with 18 leaders from high and 4 leaders from low-performing nonprofit social service. The results showed that the program fosters mutual growth between high and low-performing agencies and improves the evaluation results of the low-performing agencies. Leaders of low performing agencies indicated that consulting was helpful but participating in the mandatary program was shameful. Structural barriers at the low performing agencies, limited time-frames, and non-voluntary participation were found to be limitations in improving consulting outcomes. Addressing these limitations would facilitate the development of a voluntary knowledge sharing culture among nonprofit agencies. This article discusses the limitations and implications for future research and practice in developing knowledge in social work.