Lina Eiko Nakata

IMPACTS OF TECHNOLOGIZATION AND GLOBALIZATION IN THE MANWORK RELATIONSHIP

Knowledge is becoming increasingly important in many contexts. Organizations are looking for new solutions in products and services management, because they deal with highly volatile environments in which they try to be competitive and improve performance; individuals recognize that knowledge is a leverage factor of their development, and their personal and professional achievement. This requires managing greater complexity and knowledge production. The aim of this theoretical essay is to identify and discuss the impact of competition, technologization and globalization in the man-work relationship. When discussing on technologization, we cannot deny that technologies have revolutionized the means of production and economic activities worldwide. As a result, we achieved very high levels of productivity and knowledge could be better profited. The technologization brought optimization at all productive levels, generating superior performance for the parties involved. Globalization is responsible for having created a unique context, as there is a single labor market, since any worker may be eligible to be active anywhere in the world, as well as any supplier can be able to do business with any company in the planet. The evolution of work organization has created paradoxes in the relationship between man and work. While many working conditions have been improved and apparently becoming less cruel to men, we see that individuals are increasingly suffering the negative consequences of their contact with work. Suffering is less visible and less physical, but more psychological and mental.

Comunidades de Práctica – una Innovación en la Gestión del Conocimiento

By supporting or institutionalizing Communities of Practice (CoP) of strategic relevance, organizations promote collective learning and organizational innovation. Aiming at analyzing how companies are dealing with the CoP, from the conception of the idea, implementation steps, difficulties, achievements and future challenges, this exploratory research was conducted at Elektro Eletricidade S.A., which configures the seventh largest distributor in Brazil, with a market share of 4% and a workforce of 5,205 employees. We conducted semi-structured interviews with those responsible for the project and analyzed documents (reports, projects, press news, etc.). The results showed that the success of each CoP is related to the degree of motivation of the participants and the role of facilitator responsible.