Práticas de gestão do conhecimento em arranjo produtivo local: o setor moveleiro de Arapongas - PR

Abstract

This work has as its objective to identify the Practices of Knowledge Management systemized in the industries of the Local Productive Arrangement of the furniture sector of Arapongas - PR. The proposed problem for the accomplishment of the research is: Which Practices of Knowledge Management are systemized in the industries of the Local Productive Arrangement of the furniture sector of Arapongas - PR? The theoric referential approached the following topics: definitions, characteristics and competitive advantages of the Local Productive Arrangement. It is followed by the theoretical basis with concepts and considerations about the Knowledge Management, and the seven dimensions of the knowledge management mentioned by Terra (2000) and to finish, it is approached twenty and six Practices of Knowledge Management identified in the literature. The inductive method was used in the research. The research was characterized as applied due to its nature; according to the problem as quantitative; according to the objectives as exploratory and according to the technician procedures as a survey. The instrument used in the collection of data was a questionnaire, divided in two parts: the block A consists of 41 questions that evaluate the context of the Knowledge Management; which were adapted from the research of Terra (2000), using the Likert scale. Block B approaches the Practices of Knowledge Management, which consist of 43 questions, adapted from the Leuch questionnaire (2006). The population of the study are the 28 biggest industries of the Furniture Sector Local Productive Arrangement of Arapongas, selected by the employees number, according to the classification and data provided by the Arapongas Furniture Industries Syndicate. Because of this, the collaborates responsible of production area, human resources, and information systems had been questioned. The return of 32 questionnaires had been obtained, from 25 different industries, from the following departments: ten production questionnaires, eight human resources, and fourteen information systems. The results present different phases of implantation and use of the Practices of Knowledge Management. Some of them, of the searched total, standout because of the biggest indexes of formal use, thus specified: Management of Trade Mark and Patents, Management of the Relationship with the Customers and the Normalization/Standardization. The other Practices of Knowledge Management are not systematized, with its utilization characterized by isolated form and not structuralized. It is possible to conclude that most of the industries of the Local Productive Arrangement are adapting themselves, gradually, with the Practices of Knowledge Management, what shows a change of concepts about the importance of the use of the knowledge as an indispensable strategical resource in the competitive environment. However, the industries are abdicating to usufruct the advantages that the interconnected and structured utilization that the Practices of Knowledge Management offer, providing adequate conditions of confrontation and handling of the adversities, face the situation of decurrent uncertainties of the competitiveness and the challenges that the technological advance represents in the enterprise world.