Worker and Manager Judgements About Factors that Facilitate Knowledge Sharing: Insights from the Brazilian Glass Segment

Abstract

Purpose: This study aims to assess factors of the tacit knowledge in the glass sector. Its focus is based on the managerial and worker perspectives about better knowledge sharing on the shop floor. Design/Methodology/Approach: The methodology applied was based on a comprehensive literature review about operation management, knowledge sharing and knowledge management assessment. A review of works relating these topics to the glass and foundry segments was also realized considering documents selected from the Web of Science (1997–2018). The field research work was conducted in the Brazilian glass sector, and the data collecting procedure used was a survey applied to 110 employees selected from the hot glass production line. An exploratory data analysis was performed to capture the employees’ and managers’ perceptions about the studied knowledge sharing factors. Research Questions: The study aims to answer the following research questions: What are the factors for a production system to align people, processes and knowledge? How to assess such factors? What is the importance of these factors in the production managers and workers’ opinion? Findings: The results evidence that, in accordance with the employees’ perceptions, the important factors for the KS are: conversation among the operators and study of work instruction. But it was evidenced that, in accordance with the managers’ perceptions the important factors are: registration in the work instruction and study of work instruction. Research Limitations/Implications: This study was limited to the shop floor context and focused on the blue-collar workers’ perception. The proposed approach can also be applied in other departments or organizations, even considering different cultures, worker groups or production sectors. Practical Implications: The findings support evidences to promote knowledge sharing through the shop floor context in the glass segment, which has a strong dependency on worker tacit knowledge. The work is also aligned with current research gaps identified on the literature. Originality/Value: This paper contributes to increase the understanding of KS to support managers’ actions on practical implications and its implementation process.