KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT PRACTICES: A CASE STUDY IN THE BRAZILIAN INDUSTRY

This paper discusses the rapid transformation of industries in southern Brazil, due to management methodologies and the phenomenon of economic globalization. The study investigates the Corporate University (CU), as a management tool embedded in organizational planning, in order to identify the degree of importance perceived by managers to adopt this practice. Management with tools, methods and processes consistent with the organizational level, creates conditions for market positioning and search anticipate societal changes or crises inserting useful knowledge for the right organizational level without wasted effort in data collection. Based on these arguments, the research seeks to present a review of the practices of knowledge management, especially the corporate university and organizational management. The knowledge as an organizational resource stood out over the past two decades, especially with the advent of the Knowledge-Based View (KBV), which show a mixture between the knowledge management and business efficiency. The structure of these processes, tools and / or methods consolidates incorporating these practices of knowledge management (KM), among others the practice of UC. This applicability is a decisive factor for the organization, because knowledge is a strategic tool that leads to the increase in benefits, for creating sustainable competitive advantages. Methodologically the study was descriptive in nature applied quantitative approach and data collection was done through online survey - Survey. The technique adopted was non-probabilistic sampling and for sample calculation, we applied the formula for infinite population. 3073 industries of southern Brazil and 659 employees in strategic, tactical and operational level were researched. The questionnaires were returned by respondents electronically. Among the responses, over half of the respondents 54.55% considered the UC practice important and 25.97% consider, according to the non-parametric statistical Kruskal-Wallis, very important no significant difference in the response of this practice of knowledge management among the strategic, tactical and operational groups. In this setting, it was concluded that the practice (UC) is pretty important for strategic development of industries in southern Brazil, as well as reveals the concern by industry in protecting the knowledge (technology watch) and ensure the right of marketing your products or process improvements.