Transferindo práticas: construindo conhecimento arquitetural localmente

Prochno, Paulo

doi:10.1590/S0034-75902004000100005

Resumos

O artigo traz um estudo qualitativo dos processos organizacionais que deram suporte à transferência de conhecimento para uma nova fábrica, detalhando os maiores desafios que a organização teve de enfrentar durante seu primeiro ano de operações. Apesar do sucesso obtido na transferência de conhecimento individual para cada área em separado, a empresa enfrentou muitos desafios em sua aplicação, uma vez que não tinha desenvolvido o conhecimento arquitetural - relativo à junção e aplicação das várias bases individuais de conhecimento. Conhecimento este que teve de ser desenvolvido localmente por meio de mecanismos de experiência, negociação e sensemaking. O estudo ressalta a importância do conhecimento arquitetural, uma dimensão até agora não considerada nos estudos de transferência de conhecimento.

Transferência de conhecimento; aprendizado; América Latina; rotinas organizacionais; competências organizacionais

The paper brings a qualitative study on the organizational processes supporting knowledge transfer to a new automotive plant, detailing the major challenges that the organization had to face during its first year of operations. Although the company was quite successful at transferring component knowledge to each area individually, it faced many challenges in the application of this knowledge, because architectural knowledge was missing. This architectural knowledge had to be developed locally, through mechanisms of experience, negotiation and sensemaking. The case sheds new light into architectural knowledge, which is an important dimension in knowledge transfer to new settings that has not been considered in knowledge transfer studies.

Knowledge transfer; learning; Latin America; organizational routines; organizational competences

FÓRUM

Transferindo práticas: construindo conhecimento arquitetural localmente

Paulo Prochno

Ibmec

RESUMO

O artigo traz um estudo qualitativo dos processos organizacionais que deram suporte à transferência de conhecimento para uma nova fábrica, detalhando os maiores desafios que a organização teve de enfrentar durante seu primeiro ano de operações. Apesar do sucesso obtido na transferência de conhecimento individual para cada área em separado, a empresa enfrentou muitos desafios em sua aplicação, uma vez que não tinha desenvolvido o conhecimento arquitetural - relativo à junção e aplicação das várias bases individuais de conhecimento. Conhecimento este que teve de ser desenvolvido localmente por meio de mecanismos de experiência, negociação e sensemaking. O estudo ressalta a importância do conhecimento arquitetural, uma dimensão até agora não considerada nos estudos de transferência de conhecimento.

Palavras-chave: Transferência de conhecimento, aprendizado, América Latina, rotinas organizacionais, competências organizacionais.

ABSTRACT

The paper brings a qualitative study on the organizational processes supporting knowledge transfer to a new automotive plant, detailing the major challenges that the organization had to face during its first year of operations. Although the company was quite successful at transferring component knowledge to each area individually, it faced many challenges in the application of this knowledge, because architectural knowledge was missing. This architectural knowledge had to be developed locally, through mechanisms of experience, negotiation and sensemaking. The case sheds new light into architectural knowledge, which is an important dimension in knowledge transfer to new settings that has not been considered in knowledge transfer studies.

Key words: Knowledge transfer, learning, Latin America, organizational routines, organizational competences.

Texto completo disponível apenas em PDF.

Full text available only in PDF format.

Nota

O autor agradece a orientação de Yves Doz, Quy Huy, John Van Maanen e John Weeks, os comentários de Michael Yasiji e Nicola Dragonetti e a tradução de Tatiana Tinoco. Esse estudo teve apoio financeiro do programa de doutorado do INSEAD e do GE Fund.

Artigo recebido em 15.01.2003.

Aprovado em 15.10.2003.

Paulo Prochno

Professor adjunto das Faculdades Ibmec. Interesses de pesquisa em rotinas e habilidades organizacionais, transferência de conhecimento, aprendizagem organizacional e teoria das organizações. E-mail: paulo.prochno@ibmecrj.br Endereço: Av. Rio Branco, 108 17 andar, Rio de Janeiro RJ, 20040-001.

Traduzido por Tatiana Tinoco.

ADLER, P. S.; COLE, R. E. Designed for learning: A tale of two auto plants. Sloan Management Review, v. 34, n. 3, p. 85-94, 1993.
ARGOTE, L. Organizational learning: Creating, retaining and transferring knowledge. London: Kluwer Academic, 1999.
BALDWIN, C.; CLARK, K. B. Managing in an age of modularity. Harvard Business Review, v. 75, n. 5, p. 84-93, 1997.
BAUM, J. A.; INGRAM, P. Survival-enhancing learning in the Manhattan hotel industry. Management Science, v. 44, n. 7, p. 996-1016, 1998.
BRANNEN, M. Y.; LIKER, J. K.; FRUIN, W. M. Recontextualization and factory-to-factory knowledge transfer from Japan to the US: The case of NSK. In: LIKER, J. K.; FRUIN, W. M.; ADLER, P. S. (eeds.). Remade in America: Transplanting and transforming Japanese management systems. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998.
COHEN, W. M.; LEVINTHAL, D. A. Absorptive capacity: A new perspective on learning and innovation. Administrative Science Quarterly, v. 35, n. 1, p. 128-152, 1990.
DARR, E.; ARGOTE, L.; EPPLE, D. The acquisition, transfer and depreciation of knowledge in service organizations: Productivity in franchises. Management Science, v. 41, n. 11, p. 1750-1762, 1995.
EPPLE, D.; ARGOTE, L.; MURPHY, K. An empirical investigation of the microstructure of knowledge acquisition and transfer through learning by doing. Operations Research, v. 44, n. 1, p. 77-86, 1996.
FLIGSTEIN, N. The spread of the multi divisional form among large firms, 1919-1979. American Sociological Review, v. 50, p. 377-391, 1985.
FRUIN, W. M. Site-specific organization learning in international technology transfer: Example from Toshiba. In: LIKER, J. K.; FRUIN, W. M.; ADLER, P. S. (eds.). Remade in America: Tansplanting and transforming Japanese management systems. Oxford: Oxford University Press, p.232-255, 1998.
GALBRAITH, C. S. Transfering core manufacturing technologies in high technology firms. California Management Review, v. 32, n. 4, p. 56-70, 1990.
GLASER, B.; STRAUSS, A. The discovery of grounded theory. London: Wiedenfeld and Nicholson, 1967.
GRANT, R. Toward a knowledge-based theory of the firm. Strategic Management Journal, v. 17, Winter Special Issue, p. 109-122, 1996.
HENDERSON, R.; CLARK, K. B. Architectural innovation: The reconfiguration of existing product technologies and the failure of established firms. Administrative Science Quarterly, v. 35, n. 1, p. 9-30, 1990.
HENDERSON, R.; COCKBURN, I. Scale, scope and spillovers: The determinants of research productivity in drug discovery. The Rand Journal of Economics, v. 27, n. 1, p. 32-59, 1996.
HENDERSON, R.; COCKBURN, I. Measuring competence? Exploring firm effects in drug discovery. In: DOSI, G.; NELSON, R. R.; WINTER, S. (eds.). The nature and dynamics of organizational capabilities. Oxford: Oxford University Press, p.155-182, 2000.
KOGUT, B.; ZANDER, U. Knowledge of the firm, combinative capabilities and the replication of technology. Organization Science, v. 3, n. 3, p. 383397, 1992.
LIKER, J. K.; FRUIN, W. M.; ADLER, P. S. Bringing Japanese Management systems to the United States: Transplantation or transformation? In: LIKER, J. K.; FRUIN, W. M.; ADLER, P. S. (eds.). Remade in America: Transplanting and transforming Japanese management systems. Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. 3-35, 1998.
MORELAND, R. Transactive memory: Learning who knows what in work groups and organizations. In: THOMPSON, L.; LEVINE, J.; MESSICK, D. (eds.). Shared cognition in organizations. London: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 1999.
NONAKA, I. A dynamic theory of organizational knowledge creation. Organization Science, v. 5, n. 1, p. 14-37, 1994.
NONAKA, I.; TOYAMA, R.; NAGATA, I. A firm as a knowledge-creating entity: A new perspective on the theory of the firm. Industrial and Corporate Change, v. 9, n. 1, p. 1-20, 2000.
O'DELL, C.; GRAYSON JR, C. J. If only we knew what we know. New York: The Free Press, 1998
PETERSON, M.; PENG, T.; SMITH, P. Using expatriate supervisors to promote cross-border management practice transfer. In: LIKER, J. K.; FRUIN, W. M.; ADLER, P. S. (eds.). Remade in America: Transplanting and transforming Japanese management systems. Oxford: Oxford University Press, p.294-327, 1998.
ROGERS, E. M. Difussion of innovations. London : Free Press, 1995.
ROTHWELL, R. Some problems of technology transfer into industry: Examples from the textile machinery sector. IEEE Transactions on Engineering Management, v. 25, n. 1, p. 15-20, 1978.
SPENDER, J. C. Making knowledge the basis of a dynamic theory of the firm. Strategic Management Journal, v. 17, Winter Special Issue, p. 45-62, 1996.
STEWART, A. The ethnographer's method London: Sage, 1998.
SZULANSKI, G. Exploring internal stickiness: Impediments to the transfer of best practice within the firm. Strategic Management Journal, v. 17, Winter Special Issue, p. 27-43, 1996.
TOLBERT, P. S.; ZUCKER, L. G. Institutional sources of change in the formal structure of organizations: The diffusion of civil service reform, 1880-1935. Administrative Science Quarterly, v. 28, n. 1, p. 22-39, 1983.
WEGNER, D. Transactive memory: A contemporary analysis of the group mind. In: MULLEN, B.; GOETHALS, G. (eds.). Theories of group behavior. New York: Springer-Verlag, p.185-205, 1986.
WESTNEY, D. E. Organization theory perspectives on the cross-border transfer of organizational patterns. In: LIKER, J. K.; FRUIN, W. M.; ADLER, P. S. (eds.). Remade in America: Transplanting and transforming Japanese Management systems. Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. 385-408. 1998.
WINTER, S. The satisficing principle in capability learning. Strategic Management Journal, v. 21, n. 10-11, p. 981-96, 2000.
WINTER, S.; SZULANSKI, G. Replication as Strategy. Organization Science, v. 12, n. 6, p. 730-743, 2001.
ZANDER, U.; KOGUT, B. Knowledge and the speed of the transfer and imitation of organizational capabilities: An empirical test. Organization Science, v. 6, n. 1, p. 76-92, 1995.
ZIMMERMAN, M. B. Learning effects and the commercialization of new energy technologies: The case of nuclear power. The Rand Journal of Economics, v. 13, n. 2, p. 297-310, 1982.

Datas de Publicação

Publicação nesta coleção
25 Jul 2011
Data do Fascículo
Mar 2004

Histórico

Aceito
15 Out 2003
Recebido
15 Jan 2003

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

[1] ADLER, P. S.; COLE, R. E. Designed for learning: A tale of two auto plants. Sloan Management Review, v. 34, n. 3, p. 85-94, 1993.

[2] ARGOTE, L. Organizational learning: Creating, retaining and transferring knowledge. London: Kluwer Academic, 1999.

[3] BALDWIN, C.; CLARK, K. B. Managing in an age of modularity. Harvard Business Review, v. 75, n. 5, p. 84-93, 1997.

[4] BAUM, J. A.; INGRAM, P. Survival-enhancing learning in the Manhattan hotel industry. Management Science, v. 44, n. 7, p. 996-1016, 1998.

[5] BRANNEN, M. Y.; LIKER, J. K.; FRUIN, W. M. Recontextualization and factory-to-factory knowledge transfer from Japan to the US: The case of NSK. In: LIKER, J. K.; FRUIN, W. M.; ADLER, P. S. (eeds.). Remade in America: Transplanting and transforming Japanese management systems. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998.

[6] COHEN, W. M.; LEVINTHAL, D. A. Absorptive capacity: A new perspective on learning and innovation. Administrative Science Quarterly, v. 35, n. 1, p. 128-152, 1990.

[7] DARR, E.; ARGOTE, L.; EPPLE, D. The acquisition, transfer and depreciation of knowledge in service organizations: Productivity in franchises. Management Science, v. 41, n. 11, p. 1750-1762, 1995.

[8] EPPLE, D.; ARGOTE, L.; MURPHY, K. An empirical investigation of the microstructure of knowledge acquisition and transfer through learning by doing. Operations Research, v. 44, n. 1, p. 77-86, 1996.

[9] FLIGSTEIN, N. The spread of the multi divisional form among large firms, 1919-1979. American Sociological Review, v. 50, p. 377-391, 1985.

[10] FRUIN, W. M. Site-specific organization learning in international technology transfer: Example from Toshiba. In: LIKER, J. K.; FRUIN, W. M.; ADLER, P. S. (eds.). Remade in America: Tansplanting and transforming Japanese management systems. Oxford: Oxford University Press, p.232-255, 1998.

[11] GALBRAITH, C. S. Transfering core manufacturing technologies in high technology firms. California Management Review, v. 32, n. 4, p. 56-70, 1990.

[12] GLASER, B.; STRAUSS, A. The discovery of grounded theory. London: Wiedenfeld and Nicholson, 1967.

[13] GRANT, R. Toward a knowledge-based theory of the firm. Strategic Management Journal, v. 17, Winter Special Issue, p. 109-122, 1996.

[14] HENDERSON, R.; CLARK, K. B. Architectural innovation: The reconfiguration of existing product technologies and the failure of established firms. Administrative Science Quarterly, v. 35, n. 1, p. 9-30, 1990.

[15] HENDERSON, R.; COCKBURN, I. Scale, scope and spillovers: The determinants of research productivity in drug discovery. The Rand Journal of Economics, v. 27, n. 1, p. 32-59, 1996.

[16] HENDERSON, R.; COCKBURN, I. Measuring competence? Exploring firm effects in drug discovery. In: DOSI, G.; NELSON, R. R.; WINTER, S. (eds.). The nature and dynamics of organizational capabilities. Oxford: Oxford University Press, p.155-182, 2000.

[17] KOGUT, B.; ZANDER, U. Knowledge of the firm, combinative capabilities and the replication of technology. Organization Science, v. 3, n. 3, p. 383397, 1992.

[18] LIKER, J. K.; FRUIN, W. M.; ADLER, P. S. Bringing Japanese Management systems to the United States: Transplantation or transformation? In: LIKER, J. K.; FRUIN, W. M.; ADLER, P. S. (eds.). Remade in America: Transplanting and transforming Japanese management systems. Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. 3-35, 1998.

[19] MORELAND, R. Transactive memory: Learning who knows what in work groups and organizations. In: THOMPSON, L.; LEVINE, J.; MESSICK, D. (eds.). Shared cognition in organizations. London: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 1999.

[20] NONAKA, I. A dynamic theory of organizational knowledge creation. Organization Science, v. 5, n. 1, p. 14-37, 1994.

[21] NONAKA, I.; TOYAMA, R.; NAGATA, I. A firm as a knowledge-creating entity: A new perspective on the theory of the firm. Industrial and Corporate Change, v. 9, n. 1, p. 1-20, 2000.

[22] O'DELL, C.; GRAYSON JR, C. J. If only we knew what we know. New York: The Free Press, 1998

[23] PETERSON, M.; PENG, T.; SMITH, P. Using expatriate supervisors to promote cross-border management practice transfer. In: LIKER, J. K.; FRUIN, W. M.; ADLER, P. S. (eds.). Remade in America: Transplanting and transforming Japanese management systems. Oxford: Oxford University Press, p.294-327, 1998.

[24] ROGERS, E. M. Difussion of innovations. London : Free Press, 1995.

[25] ROTHWELL, R. Some problems of technology transfer into industry: Examples from the textile machinery sector. IEEE Transactions on Engineering Management, v. 25, n. 1, p. 15-20, 1978.

[26] SPENDER, J. C. Making knowledge the basis of a dynamic theory of the firm. Strategic Management Journal, v. 17, Winter Special Issue, p. 45-62, 1996.

[27] STEWART, A. The ethnographer's method London: Sage, 1998.

[28] SZULANSKI, G. Exploring internal stickiness: Impediments to the transfer of best practice within the firm. Strategic Management Journal, v. 17, Winter Special Issue, p. 27-43, 1996.

[29] TOLBERT, P. S.; ZUCKER, L. G. Institutional sources of change in the formal structure of organizations: The diffusion of civil service reform, 1880-1935. Administrative Science Quarterly, v. 28, n. 1, p. 22-39, 1983.

[30] WEGNER, D. Transactive memory: A contemporary analysis of the group mind. In: MULLEN, B.; GOETHALS, G. (eds.). Theories of group behavior. New York: Springer-Verlag, p.185-205, 1986.

[31] WESTNEY, D. E. Organization theory perspectives on the cross-border transfer of organizational patterns. In: LIKER, J. K.; FRUIN, W. M.; ADLER, P. S. (eds.). Remade in America: Transplanting and transforming Japanese Management systems. Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. 385-408. 1998.

[32] WINTER, S. The satisficing principle in capability learning. Strategic Management Journal, v. 21, n. 10-11, p. 981-96, 2000.

[33] WINTER, S.; SZULANSKI, G. Replication as Strategy. Organization Science, v. 12, n. 6, p. 730-743, 2001.

[34] ZANDER, U.; KOGUT, B. Knowledge and the speed of the transfer and imitation of organizational capabilities: An empirical test. Organization Science, v. 6, n. 1, p. 76-92, 1995.

[35] ZIMMERMAN, M. B. Learning effects and the commercialization of new energy technologies: The case of nuclear power. The Rand Journal of Economics, v. 13, n. 2, p. 297-310, 1982.

Brasil

Brasil

Transferindo práticas: construindo conhecimento arquitetural localmente

Transferring practices: building architectural knowledge locally

Resumos

Datas de Publicação

Histórico