Knowledge Management as a strategy for Management by Competencies: proposal for a competence bank for the Library System at the Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte
knowledge management; management by competences; librarian competences;
university library; continuing education.
Contemporary society requires from individuals to acquire new knowledge, skills and attitudes that can be configured as a competitive differential in the organizations where they are inserted. In this scenario, it emerges management models with a focus on people's intellectual capacity, such as Knowledge Management (KM) and Management by Competencies (MbyC). This study is going to investigate the contribution of KM as a strategy for MbyC, in the context of the Library System (SISBI – in Portuguese language), of the Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte (UFRN). Therefore, it presents as general objective: to analyze the professional competences of SISBI librarians, in the light of KM. With the purpose of reaching the general objective, the following specific objectives were listed: a) to identify the librarians’ main professional competences; b) describe the professional competences that need to be developed; c) point out factors that support the development of professional competences and d) recommend the creation of a librarians’ competence bank for SISBI/UFRN. Therefore, the quadripolar method was used as a methodology, since it is an applied research, with a descriptive purpose, with an exploratory character and a qualitative approach, in the area of Information Science, whose data was collected through semi-structured interviews carried out with fifteen librarians with a coordination role or who previously performed such role. To interpret the collected data, Bardin's content analysis was used. Finally, through the results achieved, the research culminated in an intervention proposal that suggested the creation of a competence bank for SISBI/UFRN, which will enable the location of professional knowledge of librarians, constituting an important tool of KM for the aforementioned Library System, which can guide actions such as more assertive decision-making.