Human values, teamwork design and knowledge management on the shop floor: a systematic literature review

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to identify the relationships between teamwork, knowledge management and human values, categorizing the studies focused in the interplay of these three variables, with a focus on their appliance to the industrial shop floor context. By doing so, this paper seeks to identify literature gaps to be explored in subsequent researches. The research method adopted was a systematic literature review from databases related to the teamwork, knowledge management and human values published in periodicals within the period comprehended between 2000 to 2015. Thirty-five open categories were initially identified in the interplay of the three variables, with the vast majority of them emphasizing the relationship between two of the three variables. Lately, these original categories converged to nine axial categories or different areas of research. As a main finding of the study, it was possible to identify one main gap in the literature, suggesting the development of new researches focused on investigating how team’ design and levels of autonomy impact the performance of team members’ knowledge management activities in different groups on which different values prevail.