Knowledge management: an exploratory study in the satellite launching vehicle project

Summary form only given as follows. The search for the full use of the knowledge of individuals, who work in an organization, has deserved continuous references in the scientific literature. This is due to the fact that the organizations have become aware of the importance of how to manage the knowledge and, especially, how to develop strategies to transform it into collective knowledge. In order to enlarge its competitiveness, quality, and effectiveness, internally and externally, an organization must use the intelligence and the knowledge of each one of their collaborators, in other words, the organizations should use knowledge management. In these terms this research, through empiric and exploratory methods, intends to be, in the perception of the individuals analyzed, the beginning of an investigation of knowledge management in a military research organization. Therefore, the VLS project (satellite launch vehicle) was taken as a reference. The VLS project is developed by the Institute of Aeronautics and Space (IAE) in the Aerospace Technical Center (CTA), organ integrated to the Aeronautical Command. However, in Brazil, there is still no registration of such a research, that creates the interest and the motivation to investigate the real applicability of knowledge management in a military institution.