OFICIAL Trabalho Dissertaçaõ.dta

Organizations must recognize and act on the factors that affect their performance, which requires the inclusion of people in improving their processes. Kaizen, a continuous improvement principle, encourages employees to use their knowledge to create better solutions. This knowledge, referred to as tacit, is strategic to be shared, through socialization, or articulated as explicit knowledge through externalization. The Kaizen of a department of a multinational metallurgical industry in the south of Santa Catarina, Brazil, has historically had an involvement rate lower than 50% established as a goal. Thus, the work proposed to analyze the effects of the socialization-externalization interface and to list the barriers that connect the understanding of these points to the current rate of involvement in continuous improvement. As a methodology, the literature review was followed by the application of a questionnaire, which served as a scale for an exploratory factor analysis to determine the validity of the model for the objectives outlined. Factorial verification confirmed the lack of application of meritocratic means, Ba context and management involvement. Furthermore, 3 organizational factors and 3 individual barriers to knowledge sharing were retained in the factorial model. In conclusion, it was shown that the current level of employee involvement in Kaizen contrasts significantly with the effects of the socialization-externalization interface and the barriers to knowledge sharing, which can guide the organization in reviewing strategies to encourage participation in Kaizen.

Palavras-chave: Knowledge Management, Knowledge Sharing, Tacit Knowledge, Continuous Improvement, Kaizen, Exploratory Factor Analysis.