Conflitos entre as racionalidades substantiva e instrumental nas práticas administrativas de gestores públicos de uma instituição federal de educação, ciência e tecnologia

Abstract

Decision-making in public administration depends on guiding principles such as effec tiveness (instrumental rationality) and public interest (substantive rationality) with which these principles are often in conflict but must move in the same direction. Based on the analysis framework of Santos and Serva (2013), we chose two categories that serve as “analysis lenses” for the perception of this conflict: “decision-making process” and “values and objectives”. These two processes complement each other when deci sion-making in any type of organization involves the analysis of individuals with a crit ical and reflective capacity, in addition to having their own desires and convictions. In this context, the question was how the conflict between these two rationalities mani fests itself in decision-making and in the face of the individual values and objectives of public managers at a federal institution of education, science and technology in the south of Brazil. The study intended to identify situations that promote conflict between the two rationalities in decision-making and in view of the values and objectives of public managers of this type of public institution. To achieve the main objective of the study, we sought to identify and analyze the elements of the two rationalities within the scope of the decision-making process of public managers of these institutions; de scribe the two rationalities in terms of the individual values and objectives of these managers and analyze whether the elements that cause conflict between these two rationalities are the same or whether there are others following the study by Santos and Serva (2013). Methodologically, the qualitative research was based on semi-struc tured interviews conducted via webconf. For data collection and analysis, the analysis framework of the study by Santos and Serva (2013) was used. The analysis of the interviews revealed that, within the scope of the decision-making process, the elements of the two rationalities are the same as those in the analysis framework, with the ex ception of the components “calculation”, “profitability” and “utility” in instrumental ra tionality and “authenticity ” and “ethical judgment” in substantive rationality. In the scope of individual values and objectives, all elements of the two rationalities were identified, except for the “autonomy” element of substantive rationality and “profitability” of instrumental rationality. Also, it was verified that the elements that promote conflict between the two rationalities are the same the studies by Santos and Serva (2013) with the exception of the elements “legitimacy” and “multiplicity of disconnected objec tives”. The proposed intervention is management training based on research findings 10 for those occupying managerial positions at a federal institution of education, science and technology in the south of Brazil, with the aim of stimulating their reflection and understanding of the elements of conflict between rationalities in administrative prac tices in everyday organizational life.