Knowledge Management in Public Administration: Brazil Versus Portugal.

The increasing globalization has originated profound changes in the factors that currently determine the competitiveness of companies, regions or even countries. The competitiveness is no longer measured only by the production process as it happened in the industrial age. Nowadays, the intangible assets gained dimension and are the major source of competitiveness. In the case of public administration obliged to manage scarce resources in complex political and social contexts, the management of these assets becomes more imperative. For example, the management of a university, a hospital or an autarchy has a set of specifics that if they are not safeguarded by formalized processes of knowledge management, they will have great difficulty in being optimized. When we analyse the current Brazilian and Portuguese situations of public administration, we find some studies that allow us to conclude that the practice of knowledge management in these Lusophone countries is little consistent and formalized. Many practices of knowledge management, implemented by agencies and public entities in Brazil and Portugal, are not aligned with the strategic guidance of the organization (vision, mission, strategic objectives, strategies and targets). Other public organizations do not also ensure the use of knowledge management to improve processes, products and services, placing themselves at the service of the citizen, their client. In the recent years, the interest of public managers by the practices of knowledge management has increased, however, effects of current management practices are not visible. The aim of this paper is to present an empirical research conducted in Portuguese and Brazilian public institutions. This research describes the results of the analysis of practices of knowledge management in several public institutions of the two countries. As a research tool, we used the same questionnaire adapted to the linguistic reality of each country's organizations. Considering the strong historical, cultural, social and economic links between Portugal and Brazil, we intend to explore the possibility of creating a model of knowledge management, adapted to public administration in the two countries. As a result of this research, four essential indicators of public service, supported in knowledge management are indicated: service focused on customer (citizen), transparency, traceability and image. In the sample analyzed, the survey results show that most Brazilian and Portuguese public organizations are in an early stage of implementation of most practices. As future work, we recommend an empirical study with a large sample of Brazilian and Portuguese public organizations to confirm or refute the results of this study and a study to investigate the causes of the low effectiveness of the practices of knowledge management in these organizations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]