Continuous improvement programs as processes for organizational learning: a case study of a company / Os programas de melhoria contínua como processos de aprendizagem organizacional: o caso de uma indústria de produtos alimentícios

AUTOR(ES)
DATA DE PUBLICAÇÃO

2003

RESUMO

This study aimed to present the links between practices of quality and the process of organizational learning. The continuous improvement programs, intensively adopted by Brazilian organizations during last decades, were their main empirical reference. When it comes to the bibliography on the continuous improvement programs, we notice that important writers and academicians consider the organizational learning a superior stage of their internalization by the companies. To research on this possibility, considering classical authors of organizational learning issues, it was elaborated a set of indicators of the mentioned stage, such as: group learning, organizational memory construction, personal dominion, spiral of knowledge, mental models transformation and questioning shared assumptions and organizational actions agents. Through the triangulation technique, a multiple methodology, these indicators were applied in two Nestlé´s factories, located in the interior of São Paulo, which have implemented continuous improvement programs. The results demonstrated that the program levered positive changes in the managerial profile and in the commitment level of the staff with their work and their companies. However, analyzing the practices of knowledge generation and diffusion, it is perceived that the continuous improvement program levered the individual learning, besides having reached economically positive results, being the question of organizational learning a lot more subtle and difficult to measure. In this manner, this research found out that companies can implement continuous improvement practices or other quality programs, but they will only obtain success if they believe in their collaborators potential and give them opportunities to develop themselves and contribute to the organization as a whole.

ASSUNTO(S)

gestão do conhecimento continuous improvement treinamento de pessoal knowledge management aprendizagem organizacional learning organization

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