Estruturas de redes sociais em comunidades de práticas virtuais: estudo de caso na Gerdau

Abstract

The search for differentiation and for the development of competitive advantages resides on the ability of organizations to capitalize knowledge. Most of the times, these knowledge is embedded into the mind of employees, who are frequently geographically dispersed. In this context, communities of practice arise as a solution, providing knowledge sharing and building. The dissertation theme is social network structures in communities of practice. The main objective is to identify how the characteristics of the social network structures affect the development of communities of practice, having as an study object three of Gerdau’s communities of practice. In its theoretical foundation the study addresses issues such as social learning, communities of practice and social networks. With an exploratory character and a qualitative-quantitative nature, the case study used Social Networks Analysis, documentary analysis and semi-structured interviews, providing data triangulation. Among the research results are a set of constructs formed by: members interaction, engagement, formal roles, members profile, centralization and clusters. The identification of these constructs provides theoretical contribution, as the theme of communities of practice is still little explored in the light of social networks. Besides, research results show that the characteristics of the social network structures in communities of practice affects significantly it’s development and that analyzing communities of practice under the bias of the constructs allows the identification of action opportunities, contributing to its management and development.