solution found on following url
http://securityblog.gr/3229/cannot-copypaste-on-kali-and-vmware-workstation-12/
1. uninstall vmware-tools (if installed)
$ sudo /usr/bin/vmware-uninstall-tools.pl
2. Install VM Tools
$ sudo apt-get install open-vm-tools
$ sudo apt-get install open-vm-tools-desktop
3. restart Kali
$ sudo init 6
