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’.

Autoavaliação institucional na dimensão do SINAES comunicação com a sociedade : estudo de múltiplos casos em instituições de ensino superior do Rio Grande do Norte

This study is about the institutional self-evaluation in Dimension 4, "Communication with Society", from the National System of Higher Education Evaluation SINAES, mandatory for all universities in Brazil. A multiple cases study was conducted with three institutions from Rio Grande do Norte, and the goal was to know how this evaluation is made, describing the concept for the evaluation of communication proposed by them, identifying controllers or emancipator aspects, categorizing methodological procedures and discussing the difficulties reported in the communication evaluation process. Coordinators of the institutions Evaluating Committees were interviewed and data categorized by means of qualitative content analysis. It was noted characteristics of the current controller, emancipator and hybrid designs in the three institutions for evaluation of communication, revealing the lack of a theoretical corpus that transits in accordance with the systemic perspective and epistemology of complexity from SINAES. It was found that the most frequently reported difficulties in the evaluation processes of communication are in the preparation stage, especially in the definition of indicators and tools and awareness work. The weakness in planning makes their own activities in the sector of communication become targets of assessment, forming goals poorly related with broader organizational goals. It was also concluded that the technical evaluation cannot override the issues associated with the broader issue of the complexity surrounding the assessment paradigm proposed by SINAES because contradictions and imperfections are part of the evaluation process and several references are current in the literature to support this view. Finally, it is said that objectives such as transparency and behavioral changes can rely on methodologies and techniques for research on the question of the construction of meaning

A gestão da comunicação e da informação nas empresas contemporâneas sob a ótica da responsabilidade social

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES)

Clima organizacional escolar: implicações para o desenvolvimento profissional docente

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES)

Cultura informacional voltada à inteligência competitiva organizacional no setor de calçados de São Paulo

Pós-graduação em Ciência da Informação - FFC

Gestão do comportamento informacional apoiada na cultura organizacional e em modelos mentais

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES)

A inteligência competitiva organizacional e os sistemas integrados de gestão ERP: um estudo nas indústrias calçadistas de Jaú

Pós-graduação em Ciência da Informação - FFC

Comunicação e relações de trabalho no contexto empresarial: a prática discursiva de um informativo organizacional

Este trabalho se insere no âmbito de pesquisas que se debruçam sobre a relação linguagem e trabalho, mais precisamente sobre as modernas formas de comunicação em ambientes organizacionais. Partindo-se do pressuposto de que as atividades de linguagem nesse ambiente possuem uma dimensão simbólica, voltada a gerar resultados positivos e estratégicos, elege-se investigar nesta pesquisa o funcionamento da prática discursiva materializada num informativo organizacional e as implicações simbólicas dessa prática para o cotidiano de trabalho na empresa. Esse informativo, assim como a empresa, aparece situado no contexto ideológico do Discurso da Qualidade Total, discurso que institui e justifica o que atualmente se tem denominado como gerência moderna. Para análise da prática discursiva do informativo, observam-se as atividades de produção, difusão e consumo a que aparece ligado, buscando-se depreender os discursos e as representações de sujeitos implicados nessas atividades. O estudo situa-se na linha da Análise do Discurso francesa e é desenvolvido segundo as noções teóricas de Prática discursiva e de Cenografia, propostas por Maingueneau (2008a).

Modelo de mudança organizacional: estudo de caso no setor de compras

O presente trabalho apresenta um modelo de mudança organizacional para melhorar o processo empresarial de compra de uma construtora, proveniente do sistema de comunicação entre o escritório central e suas obras, a fim de identificar as oportunidades e deficiências existentes no sistema, seja de ordem tecnológica e/ou gerencial. O mapeamento das informações permite detectar os percursos desnecessários que impossibilitam o sistema de comunicação funcionar de forma ágil e otimizada, bem como perceber as oportunidades de melhorias contínuas ao processo. O método de pesquisa se baseou no aperfeiçoamento de processos empresariais, que consiste na modelagem do processo citado, por meio da coleta de dados, análise de documentos, desenho de fluxos de informações existentes no modelo e discussão dos resultados. Para validação da aplicação do método, fez-se o estudo de caso único em uma construtora do subsetor edificações, o qual gerou fluxogramas do processo de compras atual e proposto como modelo de mudança organizacional.

Inteligência competitiva organizacional: um modelo apoiado nos comportamentos de busca, compartilhamento e uso de informação e de TIC

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES)

A dupla face da bola: as estratégias de comunicação do Portal da Copa 2014 e o site De olho no cofre do portal UOL

Pós-graduação em Comunicação - FAAC

Memória organizacional, memória corporativa e memória institucional: discussões conceituais e terminológicas

The proposal of present paper is to present a conceptual and terminological discussion relative to the terms: organizational memory, corporate memory and institutional memory that is a subject still little studied and explored in the academic area. The study is theoretical focus and the research kind is bibliographical. As research sources were utilized: books, digital libraries of theses and dissertations in the scope of the country and CAPES Journals Portal. This study is in course and is part of doctorate research "Organizational memory and the knowledge bases constitution". As the partial results, observes that the question about "memory" is studied by different areas of knowledge: Psychology, Neurosciences, History and others; the concepts about organizational memory and corporate memory are studied by Administration and Information Systems areas; the concept of institutional memory is more studied by Business Communication area focusing the company history. Beyond that, observes the use of another term, social memory, utilized by Information Science and History areas.

Análise do clima organizacional na integração de duas empresas do setor varejista: identificando dificuldades e possibilidades de melhoria

In 2010 two retailers signed an association agreement to gain an advantage in the market, however this association has promoted many changes within the companies. So this study had the objective to analyze the organizational climate, in the integration of companies context, in order to early detect deficiencies that could pose risks to the process of integration. The results collected from the questionnaires revealed the perceptions and expectations of employees regarding the integration of companies and their level of satisfaction with the organization, in addition, the data obtained from interviews allowed us to understand and to find some causes to the level of satisfaction presented by employees. The results made possible to identify strengths as the company‟s image, points of failure in communication and training and dissatisfaction with the workload, then some actions were suggested with the intention to achieve greater engagement and commitment of employees and consequently contribute to the success of the Integration Program. The conclusion of this study is that the changes promoted by the integration of companies impacted in the organizational climate and increased employees dissatisfaction

Relações Eficazes: a importância da comunicação eficaz nas organizações

This project aims to study and verify the importance of effective communication in contemporary organizations, considering current factors such as globalization, new technologies and market competition that make companies be always updated. The choice of the theme is due to the necessity to know that it is important to have an integrated communication between the employees and the customers, so that the established functions in the organizations occur positively. In this context, we present the concept of management, communication and organizational culture, focusing on the integration of business communication. The importance of the employee was also a focus of the study, involving the positioning of organizations. In this context, the case study is placed, considering that companies are characterized by carefully reading the feedback and reformulating the communication, making it effective as “Grendene” has done. Opposing to those ideas is “Terra” company. Thus, the project defends the importance to work on the communication, so that it becomes effective. During the project ways and means to manage communication are shown, so that it recognizes this need and become efficient, benefiting organizations and their audiences

Construindo novas referências: a comunicação aliada à formação do público interno

This paper addresses the issue of internal communication, especially with regard to its function formative and not merely informative. The objective of the research is to analyze to what purposes the organizations use their internal communication, as well as the viewpoint of communication professionals about building character and training of these means. As exploratory research method was used with a questionnaire to communications professionals who work or have worked in the area of internal communication in organizations. The issues addressed were aimed at verifying whether the communication is commonly fostered with other goals besides informing, which the media more used and is performed in an integrated manner with other departments. It was concluded that, although the internal communication is used most often to inform and ensure a good organizational climate, communication professionals understand the necessity of its use for the formation of the internal public and try to use it for this purpose