The Using of Process Management and Knowledge Management to Improve Decision-Making in the Process of Suppliers Evaluation in a Public Foundation
Supplier evaluation; Knowledge Management; Process Management; Decision-Making
Altough the existence of initiatives for process improvement in Public Administration yielded by the management remodeling ocurred in the 90's decade, typical features of the bureaucratic model such as the adoption of orthodox, functional and department-oriented structures summed up with a stiff decision process can still be observed and so organizational and cultural changes becomes a necessity for the machinery of government modernization. In this scenario, the Knowledge Management and the Process Management fields shows up as instruments that can help on the organizational improvement and contributes for the efficiency and effectiveness of public services executions. Thus, this research aims for an analisys of how joint process-and-knowleged management could contribute for the improvement of the decision making efforts during the suppliers evaluation process of an Public Fundation of the State of Minas Gerais. This process simultaneoulsy represents the feedbacking and the closure of the purchasing process as long as the outcomes of this evaluation will support supplier's selection and hence the materials and services acquisitions. As a theoretical base for this research it will be discussed the historical evolution of Public Administration as well as the purchasing process in public institutions showing the differences between the public and private approaches, the general aspects of public contracts and suppliers evaluations. In addition, concepts related to bussiness process management and knowledge management that supports the selection of tecquniques and tools in order to achieve the proposed goals are presented. The methodological path was designed based on a qualitative research using the strategy of "research-mation". Data acquisition will be performed by means of interviews, document analisys, focal groups and seminars. The collected data treatment will be based on content analysis.