Gestor, eu? Do “sacrifício” à realização de um projeto coletivo de universidade pública federal: implicações da aprendizagem de competências gerenciais

Abstract

Professors who join the federal higher education public service as provided for in art. 2 of Law Nr. 12.772/ 2012 carry out teaching, research, and extension activities, and managerial ones, such as leadership, coordination, and advisory roles. However, this law does not include parameters for professor’s adequate training so, even without experience in the management area professor-managers, become responsible for the academic and administrative functioning of doctoral and master’s courses of Brazilian public stricto sensu postgraduation programs – PPGss. Thus, although untrained specifically on how to coordinate PPGs professors become managers in a centennial federal higher education institution – a federal HEI. This study aimed at identifying how a professor learns to be a manager and develops managerial competencies while working at a stricto sensu Graduate Program in a federal Higher Education Institution - FHEI. Therefore, professors' conceptions about managerial competence resulting from their daily work practice were configured, their managerial learning processes were identified, theoretical and practical implications of the results were pointed out, and guidelines to support PPGss professor-manager’s training and development T&D, as well. In this qualitative interpretative study field research empirical data were collected through documentary research and semi-structured scripted individual interviews amongst twelve professors responsible for PPGss coordination. Phenomenografic approach guided the collected data hermeneutical analysis generating six descriptive categories to reveal their competencies and managerial learning processes developed during lived daily practise that resulted in evolving conceptions. The outcomes indicate that the PPGs professor-manager accomplishes their administrative activities based on previous experience, profession attributed meaning and previous management (in)experience. In this competency development process, they learn informally by solving managerial perceived problems, consulting most experienced colleagues, participating in PPGs meetings and on his own initiative by reading rules and regulations that are pertinent to the internal academic and administrative system and external evaluation systems. While solving problems and attending PPGs meetings, professors interact and obtain recognition for their accomplished work from other FHEI instances and external assessment too. Through acting and reflecting on their taken actions, interviewed professor-managers learn to be a PPG manager, a PPG member and learn their own managerial activities, including that to cope with scarce working resources. Reflecting on the learning competencies processes which were evidenced in the results achieved by their PPGss, they recognize the competencies that still need to be developed. Developing managerial competencies within daily lived practice generates new conceptions about the meaning of being a competent manager, what the required competencies are for accomplishing the managerial function and the ones required for beginners in PPG management, and also the minimum training and ways the beginner would learn them. Thus, by learning informally and in a contextual way, acting and reflecting, individually and collectively, interviewed professor–managers develop their PPG management capacity and give meaning to the management work they´d accomplish. Although recognizing it as necessary, management role is still experienced by them as a dilemma in their professional scholar career. So managerial activities adopted meanings such as “sacrificing of research and teaching activities”, “form of retribution” and “participating in a collective project of public university". Conceptually, a social learning process built on lived daily interactions within an organizational context it was evidenced from which conceptions that effectively guide their actions are generated under a relational procedural logic that recognizes a continuous tension dynamics competing for resources and power at the examined FHEI. Therefore, solving problems and reflecting on the solutions and actions they´d taken, professor-managers develop technical competencies, political capacity, and attitudes, without a specific management knowledge, replacing it by the knowledge generated within their previous individual, professional and life experiences. A kind of knowledge belonging to the emerging manager concept. In this way the rationalistic approach of competences was expanded, and questions were raised to deepen research and propose guidelines for pertinent managerial qualification to the reality of this federal HEI.