Knowledge as a critical success factor in the Finnish social and health-care reform

The social and health-care reform in Finland is a major governance reform and - together with aims to promote using of knowledge along with it - it opens a unique window to observe development of knowledge management in societal reforms and in renewing services. This article offers an overlook to the ambitious knowledge management goals set to the reform and to the new regions that are currently planning the implementation of the reform and knowledge management in practice. It focuses on the needs, interests and barriers related to knowledge management as they appear in the regions. Building this kind of overall view is of high relevance in Finland while the implementation phase of the reform is beginning. The findings are useful to the international audience too when it comes to using knowledge in governance reforms and in multi-actor social and health-care models.