The art of being together: a social constructionist perspective on dialogic methods in the organizational context

The purpose of this project is to understand, under a social constructionist approach, what are the meanings that external facilitators and organizational members (sponsors) working with dialogic methods place on themselves and their work. Dialogic methods, with the objective of engaging groups in flows of conversations to envisage and co-create their own future, are growing fast within organizations as a means to achieve collective change. Sharing constructionist ideas about the possibility of multiple realities and language as constitutive of such realities, dialogue has turned into a promising way for transformation, especially in a macro context of constant change and increasing complexity, where traditional structures, relationships and forms of work are questioned. Research on the topic has mostly focused on specific methods or applications, with few attempts to study it in a broader sense. Also, despite the fact that dialogic methods work on the assumption that realities are socially constructed, few studies approach the topic from a social constructionist perspective, as a research methodology per se. Thus, while most existing research aims at explaining whether or how particular methods meet particular results, my intention is to explore the meanings sustaining these new forms of organizational practice. Data was collected through semi-structured interviews with 25 people working with dialogic methods: 11 facilitators and 14 sponsors, from 8 different organizations in Brazil. Firstly, the research findings indicate several contextual elements that seem to sustain the choices for dialogic methods. Within this context, there does not seem to be a clear or specific demand for dialogic methods, but a set of different motivations, objectives and focuses, bringing about several contrasts in the way participants name, describe and explain their experiences with such methods, including tensions on power relations, knowledge creation, identity and communication. Secondly, some central ideas or images were identified within such contrasts, pointing at both directions: dialogic methods as opportunities for the creation of new organizational realities (with images of a ‘door’ or a ‘flow’, for instance, which suggest that dialogic methods may open up the access to other perspectives and the creation of new realities); and dialogic methods as new instrumental mechanisms that seem to reproduce the traditional and non-dialogical forms of work and relationship. The individualistic tradition and its tendency for rational schematism - pointed out by social constructionist scholars as strong traditions in our Western Culture - could be observed in some participants’ accounts with the image of dialogic methods as a ‘gym’, for instance, in which dialogical – and idealized –‘abilities’ could be taught and trained, turning dialogue into a tool, rather than a means for transformation. As a conclusion, I discuss what the implications of such taken-for-granted assumptions may be, and offer some insights into dialogue (and dialogic methods) as ‘the art of being together’.

The influence of materialism on consumption indebtedness in the context of low income consumers from the city of São Paulo

This research is in the domains of materialism, consumer vulnerability and consumption indebtedness, concepts frequently approached in the literature on consumer behavior, macro-marketing and economic psychology. The influence of materialism on consumer indebtedness is investigated within a context that is characterized by poverty and by factors that cause vulnerability, such as high interest rates, limited access to credit and to quality affordable goods. The objectives of this research are: to produce a materialism scale that is well adapted to its environment, characterizing materialism adequately for the population studied; to compare results obtained with results of other studies; and to measure the relationship between materialism, socio-demographic variables, attitude to debt and consumption indebtedness. The primary data used in the analyses were collected from field research carried out in August, 2005 that relied on a probabilistic household sample of 450 low income individuals who live in poor regions of the city of Sao Paulo. The materialism scale, adapted and translated into Portuguese from Richins (2004), proved to be very successful and encourages new work in the area. It was noted that younger adults tend to be more materialistic than older ones; that illiterate adults tend to be less materialistic than those who did literacy courses when they were already adults; and that gender, income and race are not associated with the materialism construct. Among the other results, a logistic regression model was developed in order to distinguish those individuals who have an installment plan payment booklet from those who do not, based on materialism, socio-demographic variables and purchasing and consumer habits. The proposed model confirms materialism as a behavioral variable useful for forecasting the probability of an individual getting into debt in order to consume, in some cases almost doubling the chance of occurrence of this event. Findings confirm the thesis that it is not only adverse economic factors that lead people to get into debt; and that the study of demand for credit for consumption purposes must, of necessity, include variables of a psychological nature. It is suggested that the low income materialistic consumer experiences feelings of powerlessness and exclusion because of the gap that exists between their possessions and their desires. Lines of conduct to combat this marginalization from the consumer society are drawn targeting marketing professionals, public policy makers and vulnerability researchers. Finally, the possibility of new studies involving the materialism construct, which is central to literature on consumer behavior, albeit little used in empirical studies in Brazil, are discussed.

Factors affecting the technical efficiency of production of the Brazilian banking system : a comparison of four statistical models in the context of data envelopment analysis

This paper uses an output oriented Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) measure of technical efficiency to assess the technical efficiencies of the Brazilian banking system. Four approaches to estimation are compared in order to assess the significance of factors affecting inefficiency. These are nonparametric Analysis of Covariance, maximum likelihood using a family of exponential distributions, maximum likelihood using a family of truncated normal distributions, and the normal Tobit model. The sole focus of the paper is on a combined measure of output and the data analyzed refers to the year 2001. The factors of interest in the analysis and likely to affect efficiency are bank nature (multiple and commercial), bank type (credit, business, bursary and retail), bank size (large, medium, small and micro), bank control (private and public), bank origin (domestic and foreign), and non-performing loans. The latter is a measure of bank risk. All quantitative variables, including non-performing loans, are measured on a per employee basis. The best fits to the data are provided by the exponential family and the nonparametric Analysis of Covariance. The significance of a factor however varies according to the model fit although it can be said that there is some agreements between the best models. A highly significant association in all models fitted is observed only for nonperforming loans. The nonparametric Analysis of Covariance is more consistent with the inefficiency median responses observed for the qualitative factors. The findings of the analysis reinforce the significant association of the level of bank inefficiency, measured by DEA residuals, with the risk of bank failure.

A administração vis-à-vis valores individuais e organizacionais

o presente estudo procura trazer ao saber administrativo uma nova perspectiva, ao evidenciar a natureza parcial e instrumental das teorias organizacionais até então desenvolvidas. Ao buscar introduzir a percepção dos valores no estudo da administração, procura-se fazê-lo sob a ótica dos indivíduos, enfatizando-se o seu ponto de vista. Neste ensaio, a administração é concebida como ciência social não neutra, que tem reproduzido, no ambiente organizacional, os valores do sistema. Na medida em que os diversos arcabouços teóricos se desenvolveram, variadas e cada vez mais complexas foram as formas por intermédio das quais as teorias organizacionais procuraram submeter os indivíduos às necessidades produtivas. Teria a administração se distanciado, tanto de sua razão de ser, o indivíduo, como das grandes discussões desse final de milênio. Ter-se-ia tornado técnica, direcionando-se para o atendimento das demandas organizacionais, entendendo o homem como mero agente produtivo. Para a compreensão dessa feição das teorias organizacionais, o presente estudo lança mão da Teoria Crítica, que é uma proposta de visão do meio social, transpondo seus pressupostos para o domínio organizacional, no intuito de evidenciar os valores das diversas teorias e a caracterização do homem que cada uma delas promoveu. Na busca do entendimento das dificuldades existentes para que outros valores sejam percebidos pela administração, já que no universo consciente os valores do sistema tornaram-se hegemônicos, recorre-se aos ensinamentos de Carl Gustav Jung e suas definições de inconsciente pessoal e coletivo. Em seguida, tratou-se de contextualizar e associar às idéias previamente desenvolvidas sobre valores e teorias organizacionais o universo no qual desenvolveuse a pesquisa de campo, as Forças Armadas Brasileiras. Por fim, a pesquisa de campo desenvolvida constituiu reforço do que, até então, tinha-se procurado deixar evidente: que as teorias organizacionais têm privilegiado outros valores, que não os do indivíduo, que existe outra forma de se ver a realidade, mais substantiva e que, embora a administração tenha-se esforçado, pelo menos ao nível do discurso, para atender às demandas básicas do indivíduo no contexto organizacional, não obteve êxito. A nova perspectiva de que trata o presente estudo refere-se ao entendimento de que existem outros valores, que não os organizacionais, que precisam ser percebidos pelo saber administrativo. Procura-se alertar o corpo teórico quanto ao papel social que incumbe à administração e propõe-se que ela se afaste da instrumentalidade e se aproxime da substantividade, visão de mundo sempre possível e tantas vezes negligenciada por ela e por outras ciências auto-denominadas sociais.

Análise das disfunções da organização burocrática e suas implicações para a Qualidade de Vida no Trabalho (QVT): o caso de uma unidade de segurança pública, em Mato Grosso do Sul, Brasil

O objetivo geral deste estudo consistiu em identificar as dimensões da burocracia e relacioná-las aos elementos de disfunção burocrática existentes em uma unidade da administração pública estadual, no âmbito da Criminalística, que influenciam a Qualidade de Vida no Trabalho (QVT), considerando as abordagens humanista e restritiva, no contexto da Coordenadoria Geral de Perícias (CGP), a partir da percepção dos servidores lotados nesta unidade da Segurança Pública. Utilizou-se a pesquisa descritiva por meio de uma abordagem qualitativa de estudo de caso, com amostra constituída por peritos criminais do Instituto de Criminalística "Hercílio Macellaro" (ICHM), lotados na Capital do Estado, Campo Grande - MS. O método de coleta de dados adotado para a constatação das disfunções burocráticas foi um questionário com assertivas fechadas de alternativas de múltipla escolha, cujo modelo de resposta compõe-se por quatro níveis de gradação (sempre, muitas vezes, poucas vezes, nunca), elaborado a partir do modelo de Maia e Pinto (2007). Em outro momento, foi aplicado o questionário apresentando questões que abordavam os elementos da QVT propostos por Werther e Davis (1983), adaptado para o presente estudo. Para este questionário, as questões foram apresentadas em escala polarizada de satisfação do tipo Likert, composta por cinco alternativas (discordo totalmente, discordo parcialmente, não concordo nem discordo, concordo parcialmente e concordo totalmente), caracterizando a opinião do participante. A interpretação dos dados permitiu analisar a existência de quatro elementos de disfunção burocrática: internalização das regras, excesso de formalismo, rotinas e registros, resistência às mudanças e exibição de sinais de autoridade. De uma lado, a abordagem humanista foi possível analisar que os respondentes da pesquisa evidenciam ruídos na comunicação, tanto vertical quanto horizontal, o que indica a necessidade de mais transparência e clareza possível dentro e entre as equipes nos departamentos e destes com os superiores hierárquicos, a fim de proporcionar maior entendimento entre todos os envolvidos e a eliminação de conflitos que possam ocorrer através de informações distorcidas. Por outro lado, a análise da abordagem restritiva sobre a QVT neste estudo permitiu observar a predominância da racionalidade instrumental no contexto organizacional do ICHM, uma vez que está voltada somente para atender a seus processos organizacionais fundamentados no binômio técnica versus produção. Pode-se, assim, considerar que o ICHM está fortemente ligado ao modelo de organização burocrática, exteriorizado por quatro níveis de disfunções burocráticas. Além disso, como pretexto pela busca da eficiência, eficácia e efetividade, a práxis organizacional do ICHM parece convergir para dois modelos de produção: fordista e taylorista, as quais reforçam a corrente restritiva da QVT, que parece confirmar a manutenção da coisificação do sujeito em relação ao objeto, isto é, quando se pensava que o ser orgânico pudesse desfrutar do desenvolvimento tecnológico alcançado em várias ciências, paradoxalmente, o que tem sido visto é o trabalho como um fim em si mesmo.

Defining student participation and empowerment in higher education

Customer participation has been studied for decades; however, it gained a postmodern perspective around the year 2000. Customers have become co-creators of personalized experiences, moving from the audience to the stage. In the educational context, students must take responsibility for their learning process and participate in the production of the service. This changing is providing opportunities and challenges for higher education institutions (HEIs) to redefine their relationship with stakeholders, especially with students. This study is based on the service dominant logic (SDL) perspective because students are assumed to take the role of co-creators of knowledge in the educational setting. The research uses adapted frameworks and concepts applied in organizational, knowledge-intensive business services (KIBS) and also medical studies to advance the understanding of value co-creation in the HEI context. The current study addresses a lack of research in the higher education context focusing on defining students’ participation and students’ empowerment in higher education context. An empirical investigation was developed with traditional schools in Brazil. This investigation allowed the description of the constructs in the specific context. The description of student participation in HEIs context reflects the relevance of three dimensions – information sharing, personal interaction and responsible behavior. In the Brazilian context, responsible behavior is the weakest dimension in the construct, because the responsibilities are unbalanced between students and professors. The main reasons identified for this unbalanced relation were cultural issues and local regulation. Student empowerment was described as composed by four dimensions – meaningfulness, competence, impact and choice; however, one of them – choice – was identified as the weakest dimension, facing cultural and bureaucratic barriers for implementation in the Brazilian educational context. Moreover, interviewees spontaneously cited the idea of trust in the faculty as an important antecedent of student participation that must be considered when analyzing student participation and empowerment mechanisms. An additional contribution was the proposal of a theory-based framework for understanding the service dominant logic perspective in the HEI context, in which student participation and student empowerment were explored as mechanisms leading to positive student behavior toward institution.