A relação entre confiança interpessoal e compartilhamento de conhecimento tácito

Empresas de negócios, que são constantemente pressionados por inovação, têm na criação de conhecimento organizacional a base para a estratégia de sobrevivência. Muito desse conhecimento acumulado é tácito, encarnado em indivíduos e incorporado pela organização, e que é de difícil articulação. A necessária justificativa de um novo conhecimento torna a sua criação um processo muito frágil. Indivíduos podem sentir-se ameaçados em compartilhar insights, intuição, novas ideias, know-how, habilidades específicas, diante de devastadores mecanismos de controle social como ridículo, difamação e opróbrio, ou pela possibilidade de mau uso de um conhecimento útil e valioso. Por outro lado, com a criança logo ao nascer, e derivado do narcisismo primário, emerge a confiança básica que acompanha o indivíduo ao longo de sua existência, e que, portanto, pode levá-lo a compartilhar seus achados. Esta pesquisa, um ensaio teórico, explorou a relação entre a confiança e compartilhamento de conhecimento tácito nas organizações. Com abordagem multidisciplinar, aderente ao pensamento complexo, incorporou referenciais teóricos advindos de trabalhos de neo-schumpeterianos (Teoria Evolucionária), da sociologia e da psicologia. O percurso metodológico contemplou a busca de artigos em base de dados, leitura de resumos de artigos, busca de autores consagrados na literatura, consulta de autores referenciados nos artigos, leitura e análise de trabalhos selecionados. Mediante análise de conteúdo, que busca identificar o que está sendo dito a respeito do tema, foram criadas as seguintes categorias de análise: inovação, poder, teoria de criação de conhecimento organizacional e confiança humana. Cada uma dessas categorias compôs um capítulo desta dissertação. Embora a escassez de pesquisas empíricas relacionadas ao tema, a análise de conteúdo dos artigos examinados permitiram concluir que a confiança interpessoal mantém relação de poder simétrico entre indivíduos e assim é capaz de acessar o conhecimento tácito enraizado na mente de indivíduos. Dessa forma, com a pesquisa aqui apresentada, espera-se ter contribuído para a literatura e práticas organizacionais relacionadas à gestão de conhecimento. Por fim, foram relatadas limitações no trabalho e sugestões para futuras pesquisas.

Responsabilidade social das empresas e valores humanos: um estudo sobre a atitude dos gestores brasileiros

In the last decades of the 21st century, Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) has become one of the most widely debated issues in business management, concerning researchers, politicians, managers and society at large. With multilateral implications in economic and social life, CSR refers, essentially, to the discussion about the boundaries of business intervention in society and the ethical limits that should regulate that intervention. It questions the impact of business practices in social well-being, the role left for corporations and for the State in attending to community needs, and which are, at last, the responsibilities that tie enterprises to society. In this research, CSR is approached from the perspective of its ethical foundations, based on the moral reasoning of the business manager, as a key organizational leader with relevant decision power. Specifically, the research aims to understand how the personal human value system and the ethical orientation of managers influence their attitude towards CSR, considering this attitude as an indicator of managerial behavior that translates into corporate performance. Theoretically, CSR concept is discussed and presented as a set of social commitments, based on a strict interpretation of its meaning. As to human values, its philosophical roots are briefly analyzed and Schwartz modern motivational theory is addressed as main reference for studying the personal value system of managers in this research. Concerning ethics, based on classical theory from moral philosophy, references are seek in John Stuart Mill¿s utilitarianism, Immanuel Kant¿s deontological absolutism, John Rawls¿s theory of justice and the ethics of virtue inspired by Aristotle¿s moral thoughts. Based on an extended literature review, research hypothesis are proposed as part of a theoretical model of analysis named Individual Attitude Towards Social Responsibility Model. In order to test the theory¿s empirical validity, it was conducted a field study with 252 Brazilian managers, mainly from the metropolitan areas of São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro. Results show that managerial attitude aligned with CSR principles is favored by conservative personal values, protectors of stability and centered on collective will, and by an ethical orientation based on egalitarianism as postulated by distributive justice principles. However, results also show that the influence of values and personal ethics on managerial attitude towards CSR only occur in managers younger than 30 years old. Findings and their meanings are discussed, as well as summarized in the Axiological and Ethical Determinants of Managers¿ Social Commitment Model. Finally, methodological limitations are evaluated and clues for further research are suggested.

The gay subject in business and its discursive formation: an exploration on power, knowledge and sexuality

Issues related to the reality of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) individuals are being incorporated into institutional and social discourses, and show the challenges that must be overcome towards citizenship. The inclusion of gay rights in the domain of institutions like the United Nations and the Brazilian Secretariat of Human Rights are a response to broader movements that places the gay subject as an important topic of debate in the social-political sphere. In this scenario, some institutions deserve close attention from researchers related to gay issues, the business environment being a good example. In this domain, diversity has become an important topic of debate between scholars, where the question of sexual identity in most cases does not appear. The literature that actually focuses on the theme is explored through approaches that are not able to break with universalisms and a normatized vocabulary. Therefore, this research explores discursive structures related to sexuality and examines the meanings construed throughout these structures as described by gay individuals working in business. Furthermore, it investigates patterns of discursive normative structures and consequential challenges faced by gay people in the working environment, and also complements the current debate both in the socio-political sphere and in academic reality on LGBT challenges. The Foucauldian notions of discourse, knowledge and power, and the main concepts of queer theory are incorporated to the analysis, as well as concepts related to the politics of post-colonial sexuality, subordination, and hegemonic forces, together with role of reflexivity in modernity and its impacts on secularized mental structures. The research design takes a phenomenological approach and bases its knowledge claim on a participatory perspective, where the sample chosen for data collection consisted of gay individuals working in the business environment, aiming at generate categories of meanings through the description of their experiences.

Isolated capital cities and misgovernance: theory and evidence

Motivated by a novel stylized fact { countries with isolated capital cities display worse quality of governance { we provide a framework of endogenous institutional choice based on the idea that elites are constrained by the threat of rebellion, and that this threat is rendered less e ective by distance from the seat of political power. In established democracies, the threat of insurgencies is not a binding constraint, and the model predicts no correlation between isolated capitals and misgovernance. In contrast, a correlation emerges in equilibrium in the case of autocracies. Causality runs both ways: broader power sharing (associated with better governance) means that any rents have to be shared more broadly, hence the elite has less of an incentive to protect its position by isolating the capital city; conversely, a more isolated capital city allows the elite to appropriate a larger share of output, so the costs of better governance for the elite, in terms of rents that would have to be shared, are larger. We show evidence that this pattern holds true robustly in the data. We also show that isolated capitals are associated with less power sharing, a larger income premium enjoyed by capital city inhabitants, and lower levels of military spending by ruling elites, as predicted by the theory.

Contributions to the Theory of Optimal Tests

This paper considers tests which maximize the weighted average power (WAP). The focus is on determining WAP tests subject to an uncountable number of equalities and/or inequalities. The unifying theory allows us to obtain tests with correct size, similar tests, and unbiased tests, among others. A WAP test may be randomized and its characterization is not always possible. We show how to approximate the power of the optimal test by sequences of nonrandomized tests. Two alternative approximations are considered. The rst approach considers a sequence of similar tests for an increasing number of boundary conditions. This discretization allows us to implement the WAP tests in practice. The second method nds a sequence of tests which approximate the WAP test uniformly. This approximation allows us to show that WAP similar tests are admissible. The theoretical framework is readily applicable to several econometric models, including the important class of the curved-exponential family. In this paper, we consider the instrumental variable model with heteroskedastic and autocorrelated errors (HAC-IV) and the nearly integrated regressor model. In both models, we nd WAP similar and (locally) unbiased tests which dominate other available tests.

Demand- side resistance to creative destruction in schumpeterian growth theory

The Schumpelerian model of endogeno~s growlh is generalized with lhe introduction of stochastic resislance. by agenls other Ihan producers. to lhe innovations which drive growth. This causes a queue to be formcd of innovations, alrcady discovered, bUI waiting to be adopled~ A slationary stochastic equilibrium (SSE) is obtained when the queue is stable~ It is shown that in the SSE, such resistance will always reduce lhe average growth iate hut it may increa~e wclfare in certain silualions. In an example, Ihis is when innovatiuns are small anti monopoly power great. The cont1icl hetween this welfare motive for resistance and those of rent-seeking innovalors.may well explain why growth rates differ.

Firms?: heterogeneity, organizations, power and trade

This paper develops a theory which investigates the two-way relationship between the internaI organization of the firm and market competition.We introduce heterogenous firms with internal hierarchies in a Knlgman (1980) monopolistic competition model of trade. The model simultanously determines firms' organizational choices anel heterogeneity across firms in size and proeluctivity.Ve show that intenlational trade, market size and the toughness of competition in international markets incluce a power struggle in firms which eventually leads to a reorganization of firms towards more decentralized corporate hierarchies.We show further that trade triggers produetivity growth through inter-firm reallocations towards more produetive firms in whieh CEOs have power in firms. At the same time, however trade- induced organizational changes towards fiattened corporate hierarchies lead to a softening of lnternat.ional competition which may contribute a eountervailing negative effect on seetoral productivity.

Toward a theory of international currency : a step further

We generalize the two-country, two-currency model of Matsuyama, Kiyotaki and Matsui to resolve two "shortcomings" in their approach. First, we endogenize prices and excb.ange rates. Second, we introduce monetary policy. We then use the model to address the following new questions: How does the fact that a currency circulates intemationally affect its purcb.asing power? Where does an intemational currency purcb.ase more? What are the effects on seignorage and welfare when a currency becomes intemational? How is policy affected by concems of currency substitution? How are national monetary policies connected, and what is the scope for international cooperation?

Bias and size effects of price-comparison search engines : theory and experimental evidence

We analyze the impact on consumer prices of the size and bias of price comparison search engines. In the context of a model related to Burdett and Judd (1983) and Varian (1980), we develop and test experimentally several theoretical predictions. The experimental results confirm the model’s predictions regarding the impact of the number of firms, and the type of bias of the search engine, but reject the model’s predictions regarding changes in the size of the index. The explanatory power of an econometric model for the price distributions is significantly improved when variables accounting for risk attitudes are introduced.