Relação entre estrutura organizacional e capacidades dinâmicas: um estudo de caso de pequenas e médias empresas em rede

Abstract

The importance of resources to integrate the strategy to the company's operations flow, point out the organizational structure as a critical factor for the creation and support of dynamic capabilities, which are determinant for the success of an organization. This study aimed to verify how the organizational structure influences the creation and support of dynamic capabilities in SMEs that belong to a cooperation network. The operationalization of the research took place through the following specific objectives: to understand how SMEs belonging to the Redefort Cooperation Network; are structured and what are the sustaining elements of the functional and operational dynamics of these companies; describe and analyze how the process of creating and sustaining the dynamic capabilities of SMEs belonging to the Redefort Cooperation Network takes place; analyze the existing relationships between organizational structures and dynamic capacity of SMEs belonging to the Redefort Cooperation Network. The study is classified, in terms of nature, as applied research; as for the approach, as qualitative, conducted by the technique of content analysis proposed by Bardin (2006); as to the objectives and purposes, as exploratory; regarding technical means and procedures, such as a case study. The results point to a relationship between organizational structure and dynamic capabilities. It was noticed that changes in organizational structure are driven by strategic decisions, which are generally associated with changes in external and internal conditions that SMEs face. When managers identify such changes, the organization is on the verge of changing its strategy and also its organizational structure to adapt to the market. The organizational structure presents itself as an alternative to circumvent the problem of contingent changes, thus establishing new configurations and actions to be adopted within this new reality expectation, via dynamic capabilities. Briefly, this relationship between organizational structure and dynamic capabilities is expressed in the following variables perceived in the research: management systems and tools, and team expertise (degree of specialization); delegation, decentralization and coordination capacities, the degree of decentralization; the ability to communicate, the degree of formalization and the ability to reconfigure. The thesis' contributions lie in the fact that this study involves management theory and practice, and points to an interesting relationship between organizational structure and dynamic capabilities, contributing a new look to studies involving these two theoretical constructs and raising more questions to be addressed. Therefore, it is suggested for future studies: to involve, in the research, not only the managers, but the other collaborators of the different departments of the SMEs; work in other lines of business, and other networks of cooperation to verify if the same relational dynamics perceived here occur; mathematically measuring the capabilities and degrees that relate organizational structures and dynamic capabilities, offering the academy structural equations or scales for this; also involve, in the research, some external agents, such as users, partners, suppliers of the studied organizational structures.