ISSUE 1
PRESENTATION
SILVIO POPADIUK
MANAGERIALISM AND LIFESTYLES OF EXECUTIVES
LEONARDO TONON and CARMEM LIGIA IOCHINS GRISCI
ABSTRACT
The lifestyles of the liquid-modern society (Bauman, 2001, 2007) are associated with performance indicators linked to short-term and obsolescence, which are aligned with managerialism (Gaulejac, 2007). Such kind of management, composed essentially by ideological characteristics, takes advantage of the discourses linked to efficiency and effectiveness to create a false neutrality of management in the workplace. The managerialism also becomes important to expand the several different precepts that go beyond companies, contributing to make other ambits of life be produced in the patterns defined by management. In this context, it is important to devote attention to the executives, since they are characterized as icons of the (re)production of lifestyles (Tanure et al., 2007; Gaulejac, 2007; Boltanski & Chiapelo, 2009). Considering that, the following question emerged: what are the possible influences of the managerialism present in the production of executives’ lifestyles? Hence, the objective to understand which elements of the managerialism promote the (re)production of executives’ lifestyles was brought up. In order to do so, the life story approach was adopted. The life stories of two executives – whose elaboration was based on the conduct of in-depth interviews and whose analyses were done in the light of relevant literature – allow the observation of a set of elements that foster the (re)production of the executives’ lifestyles. These elements are the glamorization of the executive world; the constant pressure experienced at work daily; the depersonalization of the worker, who is evaluated based on indexes and results; and the relationship with the family, closely achieved by the logic of management. By producing an individual who finds him/herself seduced by the glamour, managerialism presents its facet of production machine and social control, since its resulting styles are lifestyles and not only a portion of life. This feature, to a certain extent, instills characteristics and compensatory feelings that mask the suffering or even the power and domination mechanisms that exist in such managerial stream.
KEYWORDS: Managerialism. Subjectivity. Lifestyles. Executives. Contemporaneity.
THE IDENTITY DYNAMICS OF PEOPLE WITH DISABILITIES: A STUDY IN BRAZIL AND IN THE UNITED STATES
LILIAN BARROS MOREIRA, MÔNICA CARVALHO ALVES CAPPELLE and MARIA NIVALDA DE CARVALHO-FREITAS
ABSTRACT
Diversity is a very complex and controversial issue. It embraces the so-called “minorities”, not in numerical terms but in terms of power. The groups that compose the minorities are the black, the disabled, women and the indigenous, among others. Although there are advances in this discussion, including in the legislation field, there are still gaps when it comes to employment for these minorities. For this paper, we chose, among the minorities, people with disabilities (PWDs), because according to the International Labor Organization (2010), they represent 10% of the world’s population, among which approximately 72% are at the working age. The objective of this paper was to understand the identity dynamics of PWDs inserted in work organizations, located in Brazil and in the United States. To this end, we elaborated a theoretical framework mainly based on the identity from a sociological approach by Dubar (2005). We opted for an exploratory and qualitative research, based on an interpretive approach. The techniques of data collection used were semi-structured interviews and documentary research. Interviews were conducted with twelve PWDs in Brazil and eight in the United States, men and women. The interviews were recorded, transcribed and analyzed through content analysis. In both countries the jobs of the interviewed PWDs appeared as an important tool to give meaning to their lives. Moreover, one of the main obstacles faced by the interviewed PWD with regard to employment was the disability itself. Thus, it was possible to notice a conflict between who they are and whom they think they should be in order to work. It was observed that the individual’s identity is a result of the movements of construction and reconstruction of his or her (many) identities and that one cannot identify oneself only with one’s eyes; instead, they need to see through someone else’s eyes.
KEYWORDS: Identity. Identity dynamics. People with disabilities. Work. Organization.
ENTREPRENEURIAL SOCIAL NETWORKS TO OBTAIN RESOURCES AND ORGANIZATIONAL LEGITIMACY: MULTIPLE CASES STUDY WITH SOCIAL ENTREPRENEURS
RÚBIA OLIVEIRA CORRÊA and RIVANDA MEIRA TEIXEIRA
ABSTRACT
Also named as social networking, entrepreneurial social networks discuss relations with other organizations, business groups and people who help entrepreneurs to create enterprises. The general objective of this study is to analyze how social entrepreneurs use their social networks or relationships to get resources and organizational legitimacy during the conception phase of their business. This paper particularly intends to identify social ties as defined by Granovetter (1973), to point out the resources mobilized through social networks according to the classification proposed by Brush, Greene and Hart (2001), and to verify social organizations legitimacy criteria based on Atack’s (1999) typology. This study has a qualitative approach and is exploratory and descriptive in nature. The research strategy adopted was of multiple case study. Evidences were collected through semi-structured interviews with three social entrepreneurs. The dialogues were recorded and subsequently transcribed. The interview content was analyzed adopting the content analysis technique. After analyzing the cases, it was observed in the entrepreneurs’ social networks both weak and strong ties. The latter were basically family, friends and professional colleagues. With regard to weak ties, public and private companies and donors/individual collaborators were cited. The strong ties, in particular, encouraged virtually all types of resources needed for the conception of the social organizations analyzed. Weak ties, on the other hand, promoted a good portion of the physical resources required for the analyzed organizations. It was also possible to observe that social networks contributed to legitimize the social organizations analyzed. It was verified how participative they were with respect to promotion of formal procedural legitimacy. However, entrepreneurs still could have enhanced this source of resources, taking better advantage within the substantive-purposeful legitimacy, fostering the promotion of mechanisms to motivate and attract volunteers, developing criteria to measure the effectiveness of promoted activities or taking advantage of the intellectual capital of their networks by encouraging collective decision-making.
KEYWORDS: Social entrepreneurship. Social networks. Ties. Resources. Organizational legitimacy.
ORGANIZATIONAL RARE EVENTS: WHAT ARE THEY AND HOW TO INVESTIGATE THEM?
ANDRÉ LUIS SILVA, MÁRCIA DE FREITAS DUARTE and FLÁVIA PLUTARCO
ABSTRACT
Organizational rare events have been a relatively neglected stream of research in the organizational context, either by conceptual and/or methodological reasons. This article presents a definition for the term rare events in the organizational context and suggests a research strategy to investigate them. For this purpose, we used the unusual aspects that emerged on the last day of activities of Cine Belas Artes, in São Paulo, Brazil, which was forced to leave the property it held since its inauguration in 1943. Through an exploratory qualitative research perspective, we concluded that an organizational rare event is an occurrence that has historical character, which generates propagation in media and social mobilization due to its emotional relevance to those involved in the situation. From this definition, three guiding questions arose, forming a research strategy to investigate such events. In the theoretical dimension, this research enables us to understand that although an accidental event may be rare, this does not indicate that all rare events are per se accidental, since the unpredictability inherent to the aspects that distinguish accidents do not necessarily characterize rare events. Regarding the practice of research, this study draws attention to the many aspects involved in setting an organizational rare event, which was revealed as a complex phenomenon, whose origin and rarity of assimilation can take many forms. Therefore, it is important to note that the results of this study indicate that the research approach to unusual events do not admit simplistic methodological choices and understanding by researchers. Above all, the main point is to have the sense that organizational rare events create the challenge, for both organizations and researchers who investigate them, to develop alternative ways to perceive them in their nature and peculiarities, even if the results are contingent to a particular context, time and situation.
KEYWORDS: Cine Belas Artes. Organizational rare events. Research strategy. Organizational studies. Qualitative research.
VOLUNTEERS MOTIVATION: PROPOSAL OF THEORETICAL MODEL
CARLOS EDUARDO CAVALCANTE, WASHINGTON JOSÉ DE SOUZA and ANDERSON LUIZ REZENDE MÓL
ABSTRACT
The present study proposes a structural model to identify the reasons why individuals become volunteers. The empirical space was the Pastoral da Criança – social action agency of the National Conference of Bishops of Brazil (CNBB) – a community-based institution that has its work based on Christian values like solidarity and the sharing of knowledge. The theoretical framework discusses the various concepts of volunteering presented by the foreign authors Wilson (2000); Clary, Snyder and Ridge (1992); Bussell and Forbes (2002); Cnaan, Handy and Wadsworth (1996) and Penner (2002); and by the authors Figueiredo (2005); Souza Lima and Marques (2008); Sampaio (2004); Souza and Carvalho (2006); Piccoli (2009) and Vervloet (2009) in the Brazilian context. The main theoretical references for the construction of the tested model was based on studies by Mostyn (1983) and the studies conducted by Carvalho e Souza (2006); Souza, Medeiros and Fernandes (2006); Souza et al. (2009, 2010) and Cavalcante et al. (2011a, 2011b, 2011c, 2011d). Data collection was done through a survey with 21 indicators, in two visits to cities from the Diocese of Pesqueira, Pernambuco. The first data collection occurred in the period between May 30 and June 3, 2011, in Buique/PE and the second collection happened in Pesqueira/PE, in St. Joseph Seminary, in the period between July 6 and July 8, 2011. Seven hundred twenty questionnaires were collected. The sample was divided into two parts. Exploratory Factor Analysis was applied to the first part and Confirmatory Factor Analysis – structural equation modeling – to the second half. The examination of the results achieved by the expectations enables the conclusion for validity and reliability of the proposed model. Therefore, the motivation of volunteers for Pastoral da Criança can be explained by a set of interactions among the five attributes tested: Altruistic, Affectionate, Amiable, Adjusted and Wise.
KEYWORDS: Volunteer work. Motivation in volunteer work. NGO management. Motivation. Third sector.
COOPERATION IN THE CLUSTER OF SANTA RITA DO SAPUCAÍ
ANA ROSA DE SOUSA, MOZAR JOSÉ DE BRITO, PAULO JOSÉ SILVA and UAJARÁ PESSOA ARAÚJO
ABSTRACT
In this paper we present the main results of a research that investigated the explanatory constructs of cooperation among the firms belonging to the Local Production Arrangement (LPA) located in Santa Rita do Sapucaí City, Minas Gerais State. Firstly, some aspects about the genesis, development and contemporary configuration of that arrangement are pointed out. Subsequently, we propose a theoretical and methodological framework that worked as a reference to provide the explanations of the relationships between the constructs of cooperation, trust and benefits, among others. Two multivariate techniques were applied to test and validate this proposal: the factor analysis and the polynomial regression. The research results showed correlations that suggest the positive perceptions of managers regarding the governance of the production arrangement, as well as the benefits from cooperation. In the managers’ perception, the benefits generate individual and collective advantages for the firms surveyed. Finally, the results contradict some formulations of the theoretical-methodological framework used to explain the relationships of trust built up among the firms operating in the same territory. The results also suggest that the LPA in Santa Rita could be a good example of the relevance of two institutional elements: governance (in this case, the Union of the Electrical and Electronic Equipment Industry of Vale da Eletrônica – SINDIVEL – and the local government), and the mediation of educational entities which provide the qualification of the labor force and play the role of business incubators as well. It seems appropriate to attribute the LPA setting up and even its development to the role played by these entities, combined with the actions of the visionary people who were in charge of their management. Like any other research, this study has its limitations. Among others, is the cross-section of the data setting. While the study admits the relevance of taking into account the historical dynamic, it presents a punctual analysis.
KEYWORDS: Cooperation. Trust. Local cluster. Governance. Santa Rita do Sapucaí.
BUSINESS INCUBATORS AS VECTORS TO THE PROMOTION OF CLEAN TECHNOLOGIES IN SMALL FIRMS: LIMITS AND POSSIBILITIES
SERGIO AZEVEDO FONSECA
ABSTRACT
This paper reports the results of a study that sought to reflect, based on two cases, upon opportunities and challenges, possibilities and limits, for the insertion of small business ventures – new ventures and micro and small enterprises – in the productive field that became known, especially after the Rio Conference 92, as green economy. The search for clean technologies has become a great challenge and at the same time, a great business opportunity. The possibilities were opened up for large companies, able to mobilize the necessary resources for this transition. The limits were evident for small businesses. Evidence has been pointing out the necessity of developing instruments, particularly on public policies, able to offer support to small businesses so that they can overcome their limits. The focus of the study was precisely on this point: the experience of two incubators, one American and another Brazilian, specialized in supporting small businesses oriented to the markets of clean technologies. Qualitative in the method and with exploratory purposes, the research was designed as a multiple case study (based on two cases), having the documentary research as strategy for data collection. Supported by the literature of environmental management (with emphasis on small businesses with clean technologies) and business incubators (with greater emphasis on the typology of incubators), the research revealed a large gap between the realities of the two countries, either in numbers of incubators within the field of clean technologies, or in the mobilization of institutional actors who act in support of these incubators. Based on the two case studies it was possible to identify a single strategic affinity between the two incubators and a set of dichotomous elements, both strategically and in terms of management. In view of these findings, as conclusions of the paper, some suggestions are pointed out for the Brazilian movement of incubators in the will to incorporate environmental elements into their strategies and their management systems.
KEYWORDS: Business incubators. Micro and small firms. Clean technologies. Environmental management. Clean technology incubators.
EVALUATION OF LOGISTIC PERFORMANCE INDEXES OF BRAZIL IN THE INTERNATIONAL TRADE
ROSANE NUNES DE FARIA, CAIO SILVESTRE DE SOUZA and JOSÉ GERALDO VIDAL VIEIRA
ABSTRACT
The importance of efficient logistics for trade growth is widely acknowledged. Literature has shown that better logistics performance is strongly associated with trade expansion, export diversification, ability to attract foreign direct investments, and economic growth. On the other hand, international trade represents a challenge to logistic operations in transporting and storing products. High logistic costs and low quality of services may be considered obstacles to international trade. This research aims to assess Brazil’s Logistics Performance Index (LPI) in relation to its major competitors in international trade. The international trade data was collected from SECEX and COMTRADE, while the LPI was provided by the World Bank. Statistical techniques such as cluster analysis and multiple comparison tests of means have been applied to analyze the data. After using LPI index for the 39 competitors, it has been observed that Brazil occupies the 26th position in the rank of performers, behind South Africa, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia. The top performers are in general the leading exporters and importers worldwide (Germany, U.S.A., Japan and the Netherlands). Furthermore, they are the strongest competitors of Brazil in international trade. Thus, the competitiveness of Brazilian domestic firms depends crucially on a dynamic and competitive internal logistic environment in order to stand up to these countries. The results also indicate the bureaucracy as a major obstacle to the logistic performance of the country. The dimension Timeliness of Brazil is very close to the High Logistics Performance Group (HLPG) while Customs is very close to the Low Logistics Performance Group (LLPG). Although Brazil has failed in its customs operations, there seems to be more credibility in Brazilian dealings. The main contribution of this paper is to reveal logistical aspects in which Brazil has shown large inefficiencies. The difference among the logistic performance indexs also appears to be relevant to governments to address their new public policies and also to highlight the logistic obstacles of the Brazilian international trade.
KEYWORDS: International trade. Logistic performance indexes. Cluster analysis. Logistic. Customs clearance.
issue 2
PRESENTATION
SILVIO POPADIUK
LEARNING PROCESSES: A STUDY ON THREE RESTAURANTS OF AN ETHNIC GERMAN BUSINESS, CUISINE AND CULTURE CLUB
JORGE FLAVIO FERREIRA and ARILDA SCHMIDT GODOY
ABSTRACT
The numerous, ongoing and profound changes taking place in society and in the business arena impact on direct and indirect workers, in the sense that, each time more, they have learning demands to show updated skills in their daily work. In this investigation prevails the understanding that organizational learning occurs by means of individual learning in organizational environments, understood from the perspective of learning as a social process. This research explored the organizational learning processes present in the organizational space of three restaurants in the city of São Paulo. A basic question guides the research reported here: how do people who work in restaurants have learned and keep learning the necessary working practices to operate the business? Upon this question, two objectives were set: 1. identify how workers, back and front of house, have learned and learn the necessary everyday practice for this type of organization; 2. describe the individual and collective processes through which these social actors have learned the duties of their jobs. The research conducted in international databases and national journals of administration, focusing on organizational learning within restaurants, in the period 1995-2013, shows that the issue has received little attention to the type of organization proposed here. The qualitative case study was used, and a descriptive and interpretive approach was adopted, complemented by the life stories of the kitchen and dining room staff. The textual analysis allowed the identification of a set of eight categories revealing the learning processes: learning in stages; learning from mistakes, success and feedback; learning by repetition, memory, past experience and analogy; learning by perception and by the use of the senses; learning from the expertise and experience of others; learning from the steps, rhythm and rotation; learning through conflict, stress and work pressure; learning from the values and self-motivation. Such processes have been described and articulated with results presented in international and Brazilian studies that have covered the topic.
KEYWORDS: Organizational learning. Restaurants. Qualitative case study. Life history. Interpretative paradigm.
ORGANIZATIONAL CITIZENSHIP BEHAVIOR: CHARACTERIZATION OF INTERNATIONAL SCIENTIFIC PRODUCTION IN THE PERIOD 2002-2012
VÍVIAN FLORES COSTA and TAÍS DE ANDRADE
ABSTRACT
This bibliometric study aims to present a characterization of international research on Organizational Citizenship Behavior (OCB), from the analysis of articles published in the period from 2002 to 2012, in major international journals in the areas of Management and Psychology. The choice of literature analyzed is considered one of the key points to the bibliometric analysis, so the selection criteria involved the cataloguing by Journal Citation Report (JCR). For each of the areas searched – Management and Applied Psychology – the three journals with the highest impact factors (FI) were selected, and the three most significant journals common to both areas were elected. Next, the choice of keywords was made, which characterizes a first filter to select the articles. Then, the pre-selected texts were fully read and nine were dropped from the initial set of 157 articles, since it was evident that they dealt with issues not related to the specific approach of the OCB. Thereby, 148 articles constituted the core of the analysis, and they were, in a third moment, analyzed based on a script developed specifically for this study. Through this analysis, the importance of the OCB was made clear, since there is a significant number of investigations on the topic and a growth in production, mainly in the years 2010 and 2011. It was possible to see the predominance of empirical articles, having as object the analysis of individuals. Regarding the method, there was a higher incidence of quantitative research (survey), and the models of Williams and Anderson (1991) and Podsakoff, Mackenzie, Moorman, and Fetter (1990) have been the most widely used. The OCB was associated mainly with Organizational Justice and Leadership. However, it was also found out that most articles, by using descriptive and quantitative research, did not deepen analyses that would provide better understanding on the subject, suggesting the need for the expansion of studies. As for the limits of the study, scope can be cited. Therefore, in order to expand this research, a survey of national studies is suggested.
KEYWORDS: Organizational Citizenship Behavior. Bibliometric Study. International Scientific Production. Management. Psychology.
ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT OF HUMAN RESOURCES AND LEVEL OF EMPLOYEES’ ENGAGEMENT IN ORGANIZATIONS
JOSE ALBERTO CAMARGO, LARA BARTOCCI LIBONI and JORGE HENRIQUE CALDEIRA DE OLIVEIRA
ABSTRACT
The aim of this article is to suggest indicators to make a connection between the engagement of employees and the management of environmental projects undertaken in organizations. The indicators developed are intended to measure the level of commitment of employees to the organizations when they promote projects related to environmental management. It is, therefore, a theoretical and empirical study. In the future, such indicators may propose a scale that helps to understand the effectiveness of these environmental projects by engaging employees in the organization, from its planning to its implementation and results. It is hoped that the contributions are useful for researchers so they can propose new studies that can improve the indicators hereby presented, and that they allow other studies to apply these indicators in public or private organizations.
KEYWORDS: Employees. Environmental Project Management. Green HRM. Sustainability. Indicators.
DEPOSITED REMEMBRANCE: THE CONSTRUCTION OF AN ORGANIZATIONAL MEMORY AT THE EXTINCT BANCO DA LAVOURA (BANLAVOURA) DE MINAS GERAIS
DENIS ALVES PERDIGÃO, AMON NARCISO DE BARROS, ALEXANDRE DE PÁDUA CARRIERI and SUÉLEN RODRIGUES MIRANDA
ABSTRACT
This paper discusses the construction of organizational memory based on the analysis of the video Memória do Tempo produced in 1960 by BanLavoura de Minas Gerais. The video was produced to celebrate the 35th anniversary of the organization. As part of the action that we here call “an exercise of futurology”, documents and objects were locked with the video in an urn created for this purpose, which was opened in the year 2000, forty years after its closing. The organizational discourse registered in the movie was analyzed and so were the interviews that we conducted with BanLavoura’s former employees. The research relied on current debates founded in literature that focus on organizational identity and the construction of organizational memory. Based on those references, we discussed the intentionality that permeates the construction of certain record on memory and history, which seeks to represent the past of the organization. The result shows that organization managers intended to preserve the history and the memory of the organization, but not the complete history or any memory. Organization managers were not interested in registering failures or organizational weaknesses, or in building a history based on employees’ accounts, since they barely appear in the analyzed material. They wanted to bring to light things that could project a certain organizational identity and memories of how the past happened. Thus, memory becomes a subject of dispute and is actively constructed to help shape the way the organization is remembered. Only then, it could help to build a good organizational image before the workers and society. Although the studied bank no longer exists and therefore no longer harbors a community of “lavourenses”, this paper allows reflections on similar efforts in preserving (and constructing) a memory made by other organizations.
KEYWORDS: Organizational memory. Memory construction. History. Memory artifacts. BanLavoura.
PROPOSAL FOR AN ANALYTICAL FRAMEWORK FOR THE STRATEGIC PROCESS – THE CASE OF A PUBLIC UNIVERSITY
FERNANDO ANTÔNIO COLARES PALÁCIOS
ABSTRACT
The issue of capturing the dynamics of how strategic events occur and of identifying external and internal factors involved in their organization has been mobilizing researchers of the field for years. The objective of this paper is to present an analytical framework proposal on strategic process at a public university, in this case, the design and implementation of the Institutional Educational Project (IEP) of a new campus. From an analytical point of view, proceed from a less linear approach to a more interpretative strategy, in which its shaping occurs through social interaction, considering the beliefs and common interpretations of organizational members. Specifically, we intended to know how certain strategies emerge and the conjectural aspects which influence the prioritization and decision-making processes of its implementers. The proposal is based on the theories of Structure and Social Change (on the sociological field), and on the procedural and practical perspectives (on the organizational field). The scheme was built, implemented and validated during the implementation of a new university campus through qualitative research, using the case study methodology. This paper presents the preparation stage of the scheme. By undertaking a theoretical and methodological search that is able to subsidize descriptions and explanations of a dynamic process of creating and implementing strategies in a public university, we intended to find a way to comprehend the strategic phenomenon in an integrated manner, and not in a compartmentalized manner, as observed in many studies. Through the scheme, it was possible to realize the practical actions of the agents and their influence over the strategic process and how the way events develop can influence the practices of the strategists. It was possible to sense that agents in public universities use the power of their expertise to build a context favorable to their interests, even if this means significant changes in the IEP. For the organizational analyst, the blueprint is able to define levels of analysis in an integrated manner, temporally delimit the actions and outline methodological procedures.
KEYWORDS: Strategy. Strategic process. Analytical scheme. Public university. Social construction.
HUMAN RESOURCE PRACTICES FOR DIVERSITY MANAGEMENT: THE INCLUSION OF INTELLECTUAL DISABILITIES IN A PUBLIC FEDERATION OF BRAZIL
NICOLE MACCALI, PAULA SUEMI SOUZA KUABARA, ADRIANA ROSELI WÜNSCH TAKAHASHI, KARINA DE DÉA ROGLIO e SAMANTHA DE TOLEDO MARTINS BOEHS
ABSTRACT
Diversity management has been a recently debated theme in management due to the legal and normative pressure that exist in several countries. In Brazil, this topic became evident after the promulgation of Law 8213/91, which included the obligation of public and private organizations to destine a percentage of their vacancies to people with disabilities. However, few organizations can meet the percentage demanded by law. In addition to the difficulties of finding these new employees, managers need to deal with the differences among the organizational actors, seeking social justice, as well as concern about the consequences of this interaction – which is not always harmonious. Adjustments are often necessary to avoid segregation and social exclusion in the work environment. Thus, the aim of this paper is to analyze the interface between diversity management in the inclusion of intellectually disabled people in the organizational context and the practices of Human Resources (HR) generated from this new reality. This issue was investigated in a case study at Sesi/PR and Senai/PR – Paraná/ Brazil, with a qualitative approach through interviews with a female manager, six employees, five intellectually disabled people active in the organization and one external collaborator – responsible for monitoring the insertion process of people with disabilities in the organization. Among the results, it was verified that the HR practices are essential to make the inclusion of disabled people effective and to make it render good results, and that these practices facilitate the management of diversity in the organization field. It was observed that the practices of human resources mentioned above were well structured at the beginning of the inclusion project, but require maintenance policies. Among the contributions of this paper, we highlight the realization of the relevance of human resource practices (recruitment, socialization and awareness, training) for the diversity management, pointing to the need of organizations to invest in diversity management so the inclusion of this population really occurs, going beyond law enforcement.
KEYWORDS: Diversity management. Human resources practices. Intellectual disability. Inclusion. Organization.
PAIRS TRADING IN THE BRAZILIAN STOCK MARKET: THE IMPACT OF DATA FREQUENCY
MARTIN PONTUSCHKA and MARCELO PERLIN
ABSTRACT
The pairs trading strategy is a popular method for trading financial assets. One of the reasons for such popularity is that the result of this type of operation depends solely on the relationship between the price of two assets, and not on the overall market condition. The possibility of spotting inefficiencies in assets pricing is what allows the investor to make consistent profits using a systematic method for trading financial contracts. Based on the opening of a long and short position, this statistical arbitrage strategy seeks to profit when the prices of both assets converge to their historical behavior. The objective of this paper is to analyze the performance of the pairs trading strategy for different frequencies of data in the Brazilian Stock Market. The study was based on Perlin (2009), which shows that market inefficiencies are higher for stock data sampled in higher frequency, in this case daily, weekly and monthly. The present research extends the range of frequencies to the intraday universe with stock prices sampled at 1, 5, 15, 30 and 60 minutes and daily. The period of the database starts from 1st January 2008 until 31st December 2011. The selection of stocks comprises the twenty assets with the highest number of contracts negotiated in the period. The methodology employed in this research uses training periods and periods of technical negotiations. In the training period, the selection of pairs for each stock is based on the lowest quadratic variation of their normalized prices. In the trading period, the strategy checks the performance of the previously defined trades. The results of the study, which compared the Sharpe ratios of the pairs trading strategy for the different frequency of the data, confirm the primary hypothesis that the higher sampling frequency, the higher evidence of market inefficiency.
KEYWORDS: Pairs trading. Market efficiency. High frequency data. Quantitative strategy. Statistical arbitrage.
PROPOSITION OF A METHOD TO EVALUATE THE MATURITY OF SCENARIO ANALYSIS INSIDE ORGANIZATIONS
NATHÁLIA MACÊDO DE MORAIS, SÉRGIO HENRIQUE ARRUDA CAVALCANTE FORTE, ODERLENE VIEIRA DE OLIVEIRA e MICHELLE DO CARMO SOBREIRA
ABSTRACT
Scenario studies are developed by governments and organizations as a way to foresee possibilities, in order to develop specific strategies. Yet, there is little research in this field to evaluate the effectiveness of these studies; usually we can only find in the specialized literature attributes designed to evaluate the document of the scenario introduction. A possible approach to evaluate scenario quality would be the distinction between content, namely the scenario as a product itself, and the process that supports its elaboration. This research aimed to come up with a method to evaluate the maturity of scenario planning inside organizations. To do so, the major components and subcomponents of the scenario planning that enable us to evaluate them were identified; the metrics that indicate the stages of organizational maturity in scenarios were defined, and the application of the method in a selected set of Brazilian organizations was put into practice. As a possible alternative to ground the proposed method, the Project Management Maturity Model (PMMM) was used. A multimethodological, qualitative and interpretative study was undertaken, with multiples procedures used to collect and analyze data, including: literature review, interviews with experts on strategic scenarios and use of content analysis technique. As a result, we obtained a proposal for the evaluation of scenario planning in organizations that considered the following steps: preparation, development, document production and utilization. To determine the stage reached in scenarios, the following stages were considered: inactivity, initiation, standardization, management and optimization, culminating in the following maturity levels: very poor, poor, regular, good, great and excellent. The application of this method with thirteen Brazilian organizations identified regular maturity, unveiling the predominance of this subject in the public sector, with the highest levels observed in national defense organizations. The study offers contributions to the academic and professional fields. For the first it adds new knowledge represented by the proposal for the evaluation of the scenario planning, while for the second it provides a methodology that allows the execution of diagnosis of scenario-based processes to the organizations and consultancies, as well as the proposition of actions directed to improve objectively identified gaps.
KEYWORDS: Scenarios. Strategy. Processes. Project management. Organizational maturity.
issue 3 - Fórum Especial Temático sobre inovação
PRESENTATION
SILVIO POPADIUK
DESAFIOS ORGANIZACIONAIS DO SÉCULO XXI: UMA INTRODUÇÃO AO FÓRUM SOBRE INOVAÇÃO, CAPACIDADES DINÂMICAS, CAPACIDADE DE ABSORÇÃO DO CONHECIMENTO E RELAÇÕES SIMBÓLICAS
THAIS ELAINE VICK, DENISE DEL PRÁ NETTO MACHADO, FERNANDO GOMES DE PAIVA JUNIOR and CLEBER CARVALHO DE CASTRO
RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN CONTEXTUAL FACTORS INTERNAL TO THE ORGANIZATIONS AND THE ADOPTION OF PROACTIVE AND REACTIVE STRATEGIES OF ECO-INNOVATIONS
MARLETE BEATRIZ MAÇANEIRO and SIEGLINDE KINDL DA CUNHA
ABSTRACT
This article is grounded in the theoretical framework of technological change or radical innovation, which is anchored in an evolutionary dynamics perspective. In this context, the study specifically tackles the strategies of eco-innovations, defined as innovations with an emphasis on sustainable development, resulting in its entire life cycle, in decreased environmental risk, pollution, and other negative impacts of resources use, when compared to the existing alternatives. The general objective was analyzing the relationships between contextual factors internal to organizations and the adoption of proactive and reactive strategies for eco-innovation, focusing on the sector of pulp, paper, and paper products. The methodological approach is quantitative, through cross-sectional survey with selfapplied questionnaires answered by 117 companies. For data analysis, inferential statistics by Pearson’s correlation coefficient and determination was used. The main results show that there was a significantly positive relationship between top management support, technological competence, and environmental formalization, by defining proactive eco-innovation strategies. This corroborates, to some extent, the existing theory that these factors drive proactive strategies in an effective way. With these results, it may be claimed that this study contributes to increase knowledge in the area of eco-innovation strategies, by defining the variables of constructs and tests of hypotheses, as well as it contributes both to the existing theory and to the management of eco-innovations in the organizations, having a potential to serve as a guide in providing an innovative approach to environmental management of companies in the sector and in other sectors. Its originality lies on the fact that it is a study specifically designed and applied in an empirical way, providing information on the management of eco-innovation, on drivers and effects, enabling detailed analyses, which are regarded as gaps in the literature.
KEYWORDS: Eco-innovation strategies. Top management support. Technological competence. Environmental formalization. Pulp and paper industry.
KNOWLEDGE MAP IN NANOTECHNOLOGY IN THE FOOD AND AGRICULTURE SECTOR
SIBELLY RESCH e MILTON CARLOS FARINA
ABSTRACT
Nanotechnology is regarded by many authors as the base for the next industrial revolution. The prefix “nano” is equivalent to 10-9 m. Manipulation at the nanometric level can modify properties such as color, conductivity, reactivity, melting point, among others, creating new applications for materials. It is seen as a multidisciplinary science with applications in distinct sectors, such as physics, chemistry, biology, materials, and information, among others. In Brazil, the policies of support to nanotechnologies started in 2001, and since 2007, nanotechnologies were identified as a strategic area for the Brazilian government, due to their innovation potential, market growth, and the benefits related to their use. The food and agriculture sector, object of this study, is among the areas that can be benefited from using nanotechnologies. Considering the importance of the sector for the Brazilian economy, this paper aims to identify and to describe the research that involves nanotechnology in the food and agriculture sector. To do this, an application through the software VOSviewer has been made by means of studies published in the database Scopus. To identify how investigations have evolved over time, the search was divided into three different periods: 2001-2005, 2006-2009 and 2010-2013. The results pointed out four trends: 1. use of the biosensors, especially for contamination detection; 2. use of active packaging, biodegradable and containing indicators of deterioration and contamination; 3. encapsulation for delivery of nutrients; and 4. risks and benefits, regulatory frameworks. The results may provide means to develop policies that support and promote nanotechnology to the food and agriculture sector, as well as to suggest research objects for identifying the current phase of these technologies in Brazil. The prospection made also contributes to identify business opportunities for Brazilian businessmen.
KEYWORDS: Nanotechnology. Food. Agriculture. Food and agriculture. VOSviewer.
CAPABILITIES, INNOVATION, AND OVERALL PERFORMANCE IN BRAZILIAN EXPORT FIRMS
JOSÉ EDNILSON DE OLIVEIRA CABRAL, ARNALDO FERNANDES MATOS COELHO, FILIPE JORGE FERNANDES COELHO and MARIA DA PENHA BRAGA COSTA
ABSTRACT
This article extends the current research on innovation by investigating the relationship between innovative capabilities and export firms’ overall performance. From the perspectives of the resource-based view (RBV) and dynamic capability, we examine the differential and interactive effects of exploration and exploitation capabilities in product innovation for external markets and overall performance (direct and mediated by a new product). In addition, we test the moderating effect of market dynamism and the controlling effect of firm size on these relationships. Hence, the main contribution of this article is developing and empirically testing an original model, by combining these constructs that address new relationships, in an emerging country. This model was tested with data from 498 Brazilian export firms, distributed throughout all Brazilian manufacturing sectors, by firm size, and in states. The analysis was made with application of the structural equation modeling (SEM). As a result, we found support for the assumptions that exploitation capabilities influence product innovation and overall performance, whereas exploration capabilities and their interaction to exploitation capabilities influence overall performance, but not product innovation. Additionally, the relationship between exploitation capabilities and overall performance is mediated by product innovation. Unlike hypothesized, market dynamism does not moderate the relationship between product innovation and overall performance. Furthermore, firm size works as a controlling variable in the relationships analyzed. Regarding the implications for theory, this study contributes to grasp that exploitation capabilities influences a firm’s overall performance, both directly and indirectly (via product innovation), and highlights the various direct and mediatory effects of innovation on overall performance. These insights show the importance of considering the role of mediating and moderating variables in theory and research models that address the determinants of overall performance to avoid overestimation of certain constructs. Finally, the paper provides original empirical support for the hypothesis of the interdependency of product innovations for external markets and overall performance.
KEYWORDS: Innovation. Export. Capabilities. Performance. Brazil.
THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN PRODUCTION STRATEGY AND TECHNOLOGICAL INNOVATION PRACTICE: A STUDY IN AN ALUMINUM MANUFACTURING COMPANY
MÁRCIA REGINA NEVES GUIMARÃES, FELIPE FERREIRA DE LARA and RAISSA OLIVEIRA PEROBA TRINDADE
ABSTRACT
Innovation has been regarded as crucial for organizations competing in dynamic environments. There is a close relationship between organizational strategies and organizational innovation practice. Regarding the competitive strategy, it is known that this may either stimulate or inhibit the practice. The production strategy, in turn, must be aligned with the competitive strategy and have a defined content (formed by competitive priorities and decision areas) in order to support the organization’s competitive position. In this context, this paper aims to analyze how technological innovation (product and process) fits into the content of the production strategy of an aluminum company in Sorocaba, São Paulo, Brazil. This is a descriptive and exploratory research, with a qualitative nature, which uses the case study as a method. The company analyzed in this research operates in metal, cement, power, steel, pulp, agribusiness and finance industries, besides investing in early-stage companies having a high growth potential. The business unit selected for the case study restricts its production to aluminum items, operating in the industries of transport, packaging, electrical, construction, and consumer goods. Among the key findings, it follows that, in this case, there is a greater incidence of process innovation than product innovation. As competitive priorities, there was an emphasis on flexibility and cost priorities. Innovation is not seen by the company as a competitive priority, however it was noticed that it often occurs in order to provide a better development of the priorities flexibility and cost. While some features related to decision areas make the practice of innovation easier, such as vertical integration, others (mainly organizational) might be improved to provide innovation with a better support.
KEYWORDS: Competitive strategy. Production strategy. Competitive priorities. Decision areas. Innovation.
ANALYSIS OF EMPIRICAL QUALITATIVE ARTICLES ON METHODS, TECHNIQUES, AND TOOLS FOR INNOVATION
GUSTAVO TOMAZ BUCHELE, PIERRY TEZA, GERTRUDES APARECIDA DANDOLINI and JOÃO ARTUR DE SOUZA
ABSTRACT
Innovation has been regarded as a crucial element to create long-term competitive advantage in companies. However, encouraging and supporting the innovation process still remains a challenge. In turn, the effective use of methods, techniques, and tools for innovation may be a significant factor to support the innovation management process, increasing its chances of success. Thus, this study consisted in a qualitative analysis of empirical articles related to diffusion and adoption of innovation methods, tools, and techniques. The articles analyzed herein were obtained through a systematic search conducted through 2 databases: Scopus and Web of Science. This systematic search consisted of 7 steps: identification of keywords; search in the databases; filtering of publications; standardization; classification of articles; inclusion of relevant publications; analysis of articles. As a result, we obtained a corpus with ten publications (nine fully available and 1 only as an abstract), where, initially, the main articles, authors, countries, and journals that have published more and the more frequently used keywords were identified. Later, through the analysis, an overview of the empirical qualitative investigations related to the theme was obtained, given the importance of MTF-I for the innovation process of companies. It is noteworthy that there are still few papers addressing this theme with the approach chosen in this research, and the results are not converging. There was a great diversity of methods, techniques, and tools for innovation used by the companies studied. Yet, we found that the use of MTF-I is significant to increase competitiveness and they are mainly used to solve problems in organizations. The need for further studies aimed to systematize decision making about the choice of an MTF-I for a particular organizational context was noticed. Thus, it is expected that this paper can serve as a basis for future research on the theme.
KEYWORDS: Innovation. Methods, techniques, and tools for innovation. MTF-I. Systematic survey. Qualitative methods.
SYMBOLIC RELATIONSHIPS AND MOTIVATION IN VOLUNTEER WORK
KÁSSIA DE AGUIAR SALAZAR, ALFREDO RODRIGUES LEITE DA SILVA and LETÍCIA DIAS FANTINEL
ABSTRACT
The purpose of this article is grasping the symbolic relationships that involve motivation in volunteer work. The locus of the empirical portion of this article is the Associação Voluntária da Apae (Avapae) in Venda Nova do Imigrante, Brazil. The article legitimizes the relevance of studying organizations through approaches focused on organizational symbolism (Morgan, Frost & Pondy, 1983; Gioia, 1986; Carrieri & Saraiva, 2007). This is done herein by recognizing the relationships between the social construction of volunteers’ reality (Berger & Luckmann, 1985) and their representations of motivation based on a subjectivity (Rey, 2005) connected to the particularities of volunteer work. Empirical data were collected by means of semi-structured interviews with 14 Avapae volunteers, a 3-month non-participant observation period at the volunteers’ workplace, and documentary analysis. Data were processed by using the content analysis technique. According to volunteers, work is related to the capacity of, through an embroidery, for instance, producing meanings, such as helping others, having fun, and changing the routine, among others. Motivation, observed through the meanings attached to volunteer work, is based on the feeling of being part of something or changing a way, in the sense of playing a significant role in relation to that social task (Palassi & Vervloet, 2011). The investigation showed the context of Avapae as complex, permeated by symbolism and multiple subjectivities, especially concerning the social constructions of people living in Venda Nova do Imigrante, in addition to the limits of the organization studied. ‘Venda-novenses’ emerged as a product and producer of the symbolism surrounding the motivation for volunteering. As a final contribution of this study, we argue that the ways to address volunteers’ motivation must consider the actions of these social agents and their insertion contexts in terms of the symbolic exchanges experienced within the organization and society as a whole, as it has been observed within the ‘venda-novense’ community.
KEYWORDS: Organizational symbolism. Motivation. Work. Volunteer. Subjectivity.
ANALYSIS OF PUBLICATIONS ON DYNAMIC CAPABILITIES BETWEEN 1992 AND 2012: DISCUSSIONS ON THE CONCEPTUAL EVOLUTION AND CONTRIBUTIONS BY THE MOST RENOWNED AUTHORS IN THE AREA
ANDRÉ LUÍS JANZKOVSKI CARDOSO and HEITOR TAKASHI KATO
ABSTRACT
Some elements of the dynamic capabilities approach emerge in several publications (Schumpeter, 1942; Penrose, 1959, Nelson & Winter, 1982, Prahalad & Hamel, 1990), but it is through Teece, Pisano and Schuen (1997) that this theme has attracted an increasing interest from scholars. The relevance of this issue has led researchers to consider dynamic capabilities as a robust new paradigm in the field of strategy, especially by proposing answers to the shortcomings of the resource-based view (RBV). The theoretical framework of dynamic capabilities has changed over time (Barreto, 2010) and it has, in addition to convergence, branches among its supporters, especially regarding the theoretical foundations and sources used in their various conceptions. The concept of dynamic capabilities as a source of competitive advantage has made studies on this topic proliferate over the last few years, however, this proliferation does not occur homogeneously nor in a consensual way that makes going deeper into the theme even more challenging. Thus, considering the major publications on dynamic capabilities between the years 1992 and 2012, this research introduces contributions from leading authors interested in developing the dynamic capabilities approach and discusses its conceptual evolution. This is a bibliometric study with data processing by using multidimensional scaling and network analysis. Qualitatively, the evolution of the approach is analyzed by considering the different concepts and theoretical-empirical claims made by authors based on their notoriety. The results indicate 1. evolution in terms of conceptual, theoretical, and empirical propositions; 2. increased citations of authors concerned with the theme; 3. diverse sources of publication having multidisciplinary approaches; and 4. multiple themes related to dynamic capabilities. Themes such as knowledge, skills, learning, value creation, manager’s capacity, strategic partnerships and alliances, and associations with dynamic capabilities broaden the debates on complex, absent, or obscure points of the previous theories, reinforcing their strong points as a way to expand the possibility of empirical evidence, somehow overcoming drawbacks of the previous theories.
KEYWORDS: Strategy. Dynamic capabilities. Notoriety. Bibliometric analysis. Network analysis.
ABSORPTIVE CAPACITY, ENVIRONMENTAL TURBULENCE, AND ORGANIZATIONAL PERFORMANCE: A STUDY IN RETAIL COMPANIES IN SANTA CATARINA, BRAZIL
GRAZIELE VENTURA KOERICH, ÉVERTON LUÍS PELLIZZARO DE LORENZI CANCELLIER and RAFAEL TEZZA
ABSTRACT
In increasingly dynamic and turbulent markets, organizations increasingly rely on external knowledge, a key resource in the core of organizational strategies, in order to promote innovation and improve their performance (Ireland, Hitt & Vaidyanath, 2002; Zollo, Reuer & Singh, 2002; Cassiman & Veugelers, 2006; Morgan & Berthon, 2008; Lichtenthaler, 2009). The absorptive capacity (Acap) translates itself as one of the learning key processes of organizations concerning knowledge identification, assimilation, and exploration in the environment (Cohen & Levinthal, 1989; Lane, Koka & Pathak, 2006). Although a considerable number of empirical studies have used Acap, a valid measure that incorporates these different dimensions have not been developed, yet (Wang & Ahmed, 2007). Lane et al. (2006) notice that most researchers typically measure Acap as mere proxies of R&D (e.g. Cohen & Levinthal, 1989), ignoring the variety of their dimensions and their implications for different organizational outcomes. However, few empirical studies have captured the multidimensional nature of Acap (Jansen, Van Den Bosch & Volberda, 2005). This study evaluates the effect of Acap on organizational performance under various environmental turbulence conditions. This is a descriptive study with a survey nature and a cross-sectional approach. The survey’s target population consisted in retail companies within the Grande Florianópolis region, having at least one year of uninterrupted activity. Data were collected through self-applied questionnaires that were answered by the main director of each company, whenever possible, otherwise by someone responsible for business. Moreover, various features of moderation, such as organizations’ age and size, are taken into account. The outcomes from 230 retail companies show that Acap has a positive effect on organizational performance. Regarding the moderating effect of environmental turbulence on Acap and the organizational performance indicators, it was found that, out of the 5 performance indicators analyzed, 3 confirmed the influence of environmental turbulence.
KEYWORDS: Absorptive capacity. Environmental turbulence. Organizational performance. Retail companies. Organizational knowledge.
issue 4
PRESENTATION
SILVIO POPADIUK
PRACTICING OPERATIONS MANAGEMENT IN A LABORATORY MANAGEMENT
ROBERTO PORTES RIBEIRO, ANTONIO CARLOS AIDAR SAUAIA, ADRIANA MAROTTI DE MELLO and ALVAIR SILVEIRA TORRES JÚNIOR
ABSTRACT
Describing models of operations management is not sufficient to illustrate its dynamism, complexity and importance. The lack of proper balance between theory and practice in education regarding operations management suggests the search for initiatives that provide a learning environment that integrates theory and practice. Thus, the objective is to verify the issues relating to operations management surveyed in the environment of laboratory management, the main factors affecting the choice of topics, and the potential of the laboratory management for the practice of operations management models. This study discusses the models of operations management related to the themes in operations strategy, supply chain management, quality management, maintenance, lean production, sustainability, management of processes and products, innovation, inventory management, production capacity, theory of constraints, planning and production control, production costs, design and measurement of work, enterprise resource planning/manufacturing resource planning (ERP/MRP), project portfolio and laboratory management supported by the conceptual tripod: simulator, business game and applied research. According to the classification proposed by Gonçalves (2007), we performed a descriptive analysis of the laboratory management, adopting the method of longitudinal case study, within a quantitative approach, in the perspective of a bibliometric survey. The data collected and analyzed correspond to nine years (2005-2013) driving laboratory management in a public university. The simulator used in laboratoy management enabled students to manage five variable explicitly operations, which facilitated 42% of research focused on these themes. Non-explicit variablesin the simulator were used in 58% of applied research, exploring 14 new themes, due to business game. However, there are variables not addressed in applied research that could be used in the environment of the laboratory management. The usefulness of the laboratory management to practice concepts of operations management was verified, indicating possible advances in the area of teaching and learning operations management with research on under-researched or non-researched topics in this environment of management education.
KEYWORDS: Operations management. Laboratory management. Learning. Business games. Simulator.
ORGANIZATIONAL COMMITMENT AND MANAGEMENT OF MATERIAL RESOURCES AND ASSETS AS A SOLIDARY ECONOMIC ENTERPRISE: A STUDY IN A RECYCLING COOPERATIVE
BRUNO DIEGO ALCANTARA CARDOZO, GERALDINO CARNEIRO DE ARAÚJO, CARLOS RODRIGUES DA SILVA e MARCO ANTONIO COSTA DA SILVA
ABSTRACT
The objective is to analyze the organizational commitment regarding material resources and assets of a recycling cooperative. Management of material resources and assets, which is generally a relevant and problematic issue to recycling cooperatives, may occur in a more rational manner, generating productivity gains, greater ability to control the outcome, improving the quality of decisions of the enterprise, and, consequently, the operational and financial results. An empirical, descriptive and qualitative research was made; a case study was chosen as technical procedure. The Cooperativa Recicla Paranaíba (Coorepa) was selected as the object of study because of its local notoriety, being the only cooperative in the state duly registered with the Organização das Cooperativas Brasileiras de Mato Grosso do Sul (OCB/MS), besides being creditable in the “Prêmio Santander Universidades” in 2011 , the latter awarded a hundred thousand reais to Coorepa. Data collection involved a triangulation of sources of evidence: direct observation, interviews and documents. For data processing, we used the content analysis. The results were organized according to the approaches of organizational behavior (affective, normative and instrumental). Coorepa faces many problems related to the management of their assets and material resources and, considering this perspective, it is necessary to establish rational and appropriate management methods, as well as small investments, preparation of simple mechanisms for management of material resources and assets. However, a key aspect to high-quality managing of material resources and assets is the commitment of its members. The conceptual model of organizational behavior analysis developed in this paper links the approaches of organizational behavior with major authors and categories of analysis, that allowed us to assess the levels of involvement of the Coorepa’s members as low in all three assessed approaches: emotional, instrumental and normative.
KEYWORDS: Organizational commitment. Recycling cooperative. Material resources management. Asset management. Tridimensional approach.
BRAZILIAN JEITINHO VERSUS CHINESE GUANXI: INVESTIGATING THEIR INFORMAL INFLUENCE ON INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
CLÁUDIO V. TORRES, SOLANGE ALFINITO, CÉSAR AUGUSTO DE SOUZA PINTO GALVÃO and BRUNA CHIE YIN TSE
ABSTRACT
The Brazilian jeitinho and the Chinese guanxi are considered indigenous forms of informal influence. The first can be described as behavior tactics aimed at resolving social problems. The latter is broadly described as achieving goals through the use of social networks. These influence processes were chosen because they are commonly used in business negotiations in Brazil and China. Thus, understanding their peculiarity is fundamental for the management of organizations involved in business in those two cultures. Therefore, we seek to determine whether such influence processes differ, as it is possible that a process said to be indigenous to a particular cultural context might be, in fact, also found elsewhere. To investigate their uniqueness and the relationship between them, two studies were carried out. In both studies, participants rated representativeness, typicality and positivity of social scenarios, besides completing a 21-item version of the Schwartz’s Portrait Value Survey and a scale regarding attitudes towards corruption. Data were analyzed by a series of mean difference tests and stepwise regressions, separately for each nation, and the results are presented by sample. There were two samples: university students’ sample (with 266 Brazilian and 220 Chinese) and managers’ sample (with 101 Singapore Chinese and 246 Brazilian). Brazil scored significantly higher on conservation and selfenhancement values when compared to China. Chinese respondents perceived the guanxi scenarios as more typical of what happens in China than the jeitinho scenarios, with a reverse pattern being observed for Brazilians. Although Brazilian respondents evaluated jeitinho less positively than Chinese respondents evaluated guanxi scenarios, but they also did perceive jeitinho as more positive than. For the managers’ samples, it was observed that Brazilians had a significantly lower score on attitudes toward business corruptibility when compared to Chinese managers. Stepwise regressions suggest that positivity is linked with business corruptibility for each respective scenario type by nation.
KEYWORDS: Cross-cultural management. Informal influence. Corruptibility. International business. Brazilian jeitinho.
THE SHARE OWNERSHIP CONCENTRATION IN BRAZIL: ANALYSIS OF THE IMPACT ON PERFORMANCE, VALUE AND RISK OF COMPANIES
THIAGO DE ÁVILA MARQUES, THAYSE MACHADO GUIMARÃES and FERNANDA MACIEL PEIXOTO
ABSTRACT
The structure of corporate governance in Brazil is highlighted by the strong concentration of share ownership rights and control by a shareholder or by a controlling group. The theory reveals the potential impacts of share ownership concentration on corporate performance through incentive-effect and entrenchment-effect. Initially, the existence of a controller tends to reduce agency costs incurred by the company and, therefore, it is beneficial. However, high levels of share ownership concentration may result in expropriation of minority shareholders. In addition to empirically verifying the effectiveness of a corporate governance mechanism for performance, this study sought to evaluate the extent to which ownership structure affects the risk and value of companies. Thus, the main purpose of this research was to investigate the relationship among the ownership and control structure, value, performance and risk of non-financial Brazilian companies listed on the BM&FBovespa between the years 2004 to 2012. This research is classified as descriptive and quantitative. It used secondary data collected from Economática® database, data from the Brazilian Securities Commission (Comissão de Valores Mobiliários – CVM), and data from BM& FBovespa website. Econometric procedures involved the use of the regression model with panel data. The results revealed a negative and statistically significant relationship between concentration of voting rights and market value (measured by Tobin’s Q), corroborating Claessens, Djankov, Fan and Lang (2002) and the entrenchment-effect. The performance variables (ROA and EBITDA) and risk (volatility of stock return) were notsignificantly affected, statistically, by share ownership concentration. Concerning the crisis dummies, especially the 2008’s financial crisis, the significance and negative sign in the specification value indicate that, in the occurrence of return crisis, the most concentrated structures penalize the firm value. About the models whose dependent variable was the risk, dummies alternated signal as the period, in other words, at the height of the crisis, the more concentrated companies presented higher volatility, but, after the critical crisis period, this same ownership and control structure reduced volatility.
KEYWORDS: Incentive-effect. Entrenchment-effect. Value. Performance. Risk.
DETERMINANTS OF ORGANIZATIONAL SLACK IN A COMPANY WITH DECENTRALIZED STRUCTURE
ILSE MARIA BEUREN e COSMO ROGÉRIO DE OLIVEIRA
ABSTRACT
The purpose of this study is to identify the determinants of organizational slack in a company with decentralized structure, with emphasis on howcontrollers in the business units (BU) affect the slack. A descriptive research, with quantitative approach, was conducted through a survey, using a survey instrument designed by Indjejikian and Matëjka (2006), which consists of two questionnaires, one for the manager and one for the controller of each BU. The company which is object of study presents decentralized structure in 45 BU, of which 32 answered the questionnaires. The survey results indicate that the performance targets, when the growth of the BU is caused by the increase in the sales and market share, sacrificing the return on investment in the short and medium term, are easier to reach and allow greater organizational slack than in more stable BU situations. Also, they indicate that the organizational slack is higher in environments characterized by higher information asymmetry between the holding and the BU managers, defined by the focus of the BU controller. Test results of the relationship between the variables focus of the BU controller and the organizational slack show that the controllers of the BU prioritize decision-making support in the BU over their responsibilities to the corporate management control system. The longer controllers operate at the BU, the greater is their dedication to their responsibilities related to BU management, to the detriment of focusing on the holding tasks. It is concluded that the relationship observed in this study between the level of organizational slack and the focus of the BU controllers is in keeping with that stated in the reference study. In general, the analysis results are aligned with the research of Indjejikian and Matëjka (2006), considered the limitations of comparison due to the sample differences.
KEYWORDS: Organizational slack. Controllers. Managers. Business Units. Decentralized structure.
MULTIDIMENSIONALITY OF PRODUCT PRICE IMAGE: A STUDY OF THE IMAGE PRICE OF APPAREL
DEONIR DE TONI, JOSÉ AFONSO MAZZON and GABRIEL SPERANDIO MILAN
ABSTRACT
Understanding how price images are formed by several publics, is an important element for targeting strategies of product placement in the market, as well as the communication compound to support more accurately the performance of product price. This research aimed, firstly, to identify, from a literature review, dimensions that can better explain how product price image can be formed and, secondly, to examine how these dimensions are configured as the mental image of a target population. Results suggest that product price image, construed as a multidimensional latent variable, can configured within six dimensions: functional, emotional, symbolic, of justice, axiomatic and social. These attributes, associated with the perceived value, depict their own benefit or the sacrifice related to the analyzed dimension. From the image configuration method (ICM), it was made possible to study how these dimensions are configured in a sample of 337 undergraduate students from the price of a “apparel or furnishings”, whose approximate sale price in stores were around R$ 500,00. Findings show 627 quotes from respondents, with 68% of them being related to perceived benefits. Furthermore, the most salient dimensions were the functional dimension (related to perceived quality), of justice (verified from cost versus benefit) and the symbolic (identified from status and luxury). For a better viewing of results, a graph and a table illustrate how the product price imaget can be configured to assist in better targeting of communication strategies and product pricing.
KEYWORDS: Product price image. Perceived value. Image configuration. Image multidimensionality. Image configuration method.
DISTANCE EDUCATION FOCUS: A STUDY ON THE BRAZILIAN SCIENTIFIC PRODUCTION
MARIANA PAIVA DAMASCENO SILVA, MARLENE CATARINA DE OLIVEIRA LOPES MELO and CRISTIANA FERNANDES DE MUYLDER
ABSTRACT
Distance education (DE) has been revealed as a significant trend in the educational sphere, especially in higher education. The method is not new in the educational world, since the first records of its use were identified in 1728 through a correspondence course in the city of Boston, USA. However, the word in evidence at the height of DE today is the “interaction”, which is made possible by communication technologies, more and more fluent and effective. Today, there is even real-time interaction, provided by video conferencing, for example, though which people, spatially separated, attend a class synchronously. Thus, the educational institutions that offer it need to be aware on how best to act with respect to their students and organizational processes. The aim of this study was to analyze the scientific production in the field of administration on the topic of DE and to identify models of critical success factors developed in scientific articles in the area. To this end, the main concepts of DE were presented. All articles, which addressed issues related to distance education and which were available electronically, published in the annals of every event organized by the Brazilian Association of Graduate Studies and Research in Management (Anpad) and articles published in Brazilian journals in area of management with the highest score (A1, A2, B1 and B2) were identified and analyzed according to the classification Quali-Capes 2010, regardless of the time of publishing. In the end, there were 71 scientific papers, whose contents were classified according to the following criteria: distribution by journals/event, annual, nature of the analysis, approach, main techniques of data collection, bibliographic factor, and identification of the critical factors of success. These criteria were inspired by the work of Paiva, Oliveira and Melo (2008) and Riss and Grohmann (2011). It was noticed that DE is still seen as a “novelty” in the academia and is in need of research that seeks to enlighten the subterfuge of its process in order to minimize its failures and barriers and maximize positive results.
KEYWORDS: Distance education. Critical success factors. Quali-Capes Rating. Scientific production. Higher education.
ACCELERATED OBSOLESCENCE OF GADGETS AND ITS IMPACT ON PRODUCTION SUSTAINABILITY
ANTONIO CARLOS ZAMBON, ANA ESTELA ANTUNES DA SILVA, GISELE BUSICHIA BAIOCO, ANDRÉ LEON SAMPAIO GRADVOHL and PEDRO IVO GARCIA NUNES
ABSTRACT
The purpose of this paper is to present a critical study of waste generation associated with the consumption of gadgets, whose shortened life cycle causes rapid replacement and disposal. Its theoretical basis is the systemic approach, as proposed by the theory of system dynamics supported by conceptual modeling human thinking representation oriented model (Modelo Orientado à Representação do Pensamento Humano – Morph). The methodology employed is based on the Schumpeterian approach. Based on Morph, a conceptual model comprised of the main variables in the scenario of industrial production, in an environment of innovation and rapid product obsolescence was organized. In order to enable us to analyze the dynamics of these variables, this scenario was simulated using a piece of software, supported on system dynamics methodology, which recreated the dynamics of the market for production and product replacement. The inductive method was used to compose the conceptual model, based on a classical economic approach. Such approach allowed us to test e some assumptions by experimentation, after simulation. In this scope, we aim an empirical study on innovation scenario and an analysis of its dynamics, targeting future scenarios. The simulated model allowed the building of three scenarios and it was possible to observe that the lack of concern for the recycling of products not only impacts negatively the production factors, but it also deplees them. It also demonstrates that recycling these gadgets is beneficial for the maintenance of production factors and it does not affect the innovation achieved, producing a balance in the system. The findings in this study result in practical implications on a new interpretation regarding the creation of value by introducing innovation, considering the paradox of loss by the depletion of natural resources. Its theoretical contribution is to describe the scenario of innovation, enabling us to interact with variables and simulating different scenarios for a better understanding of the findings. The development of this research, based on variables of a theoretical model, is instructional and it aims to influence the forming of opinions, assisting, but not being the only instrument, decision-making in production.
KEYWORDS: Sustainability. System dynamics. Morph. Innovation. Technology.
issue 5
PRESENTATION
SILVIO POPADIUK
THE CRITICAL EPISTEMOLOGY OF THE CONCRETE AND THE MOMENTS OF THE RESEARCH: A PROPOSITION FOR ORGANIZATIONAL STUDIES
JOSÉ HENRIQUE DE FARIA
ABSTRACT
The aim of this study is to propose, from a critical epistemology of concrete – CEC approach, a methodological procedure that explicitly states the three fundamental phases of all research conducted within this epistemology. This is not a blueprint to be followed, but a reflection of researchers’ procedural actions, guiding them in their practice towards understanding it. The research does not take shape in an automatic, simple and direct manner. All the research involves distinct moments, although integrated in its process of accomplishment. Such moments can not to be reduced to the contacts or on the amount of times the researcher establishes relations with the object of his investigation. They also take into account the ways in which these relationships develop and are changed. They are, in fact, characteristically distinct and integrated moments of appropriation of the concrete by integrated thinking from the real. Every moment of the research consists of a set of interactive actions between the researcher and his/her object. There is no predefined succession of events in such a way that, from one moment to another, there is a natural, automatic and linear passage between those moments. The researcher evolves from one moment to another when he/she overcomes the limitations of each previous moment, but not in a linear manner,once there is no guarantee that, from the interactive actions between the researcher and his/her object, going back to the understanding of certain constituent elements of the previous phase is not needed. The proposition of these three research phases in a CEC approach for organizational studies suggests that all research, in this dimension, is a process that has the concrete as primacy and that the researchers’ relationships with the concrete is not direct, immediate, simple and definitive. It is necessary a two-way procedure between the researchers and the phenomenon that they are studying, so that they may learn it in its knowable totality and, therefore, in its dynamic and contradictory essence, and not only in its phenomenal appearance.
KEYWORDS: Critical epistemology of concrete. Moments of research. Organizational studies. Primacy of the real. Methodology.
DETERMINANTS OF COLLECTIVE COMPETENCE DEVELOPMENT IN HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT
JANDMARA DE OLIVEIRA LIMA and ANIELSON BARBOSA DA SILVA
ABSTRACT
This article aims to identify the critical factors for the development of collective competences of the public servants in the human resource management area from Universidade Federal of Campina Grande (UFCG). To provide a theoretically understanding the phenomenon, we held a review of the literature on the concept, process, and individual and organizational factors associated with the development of collective competences. The study, qualitative in nature, was carried out with managers and servers of the Department of Human Resources Management (DHRM) from UFCG, through the realization of interviews and focal groups. The analysis of the results allowed the identification of eight determinants of collective competences development. Some factors identified represent limitations to competence development in the collective level and others facilitate this process. The absence of team unity is a limiting factor in the development of collective competence due to the fragmentation of activities and the lack of integration between the coordinators. From the results of the study, the research brings a theoretical and practical contribution to the public sector context. In relation to theoretical contribution, the study brings together the main approaches on the subject that oriented the proposed categorization in the results, enabling a broader analysis of the conceptual aspects and allowing for a critical evaluation of the dissemination of the National Policy of Personal Development. As a practical contribution, the study presents elements that can support a management project by competences in the social context of the research, as well as in other public institutions. Both the barriers identified and the determining factors of the collective competences, as described in this paper, can be useful in planning the deployment of a management system by competences, not only focusing on the individual, but also worried about the collective environment. Although the study has been carried out in a specific context (DHRM), of a specific university (UFCG), we believe that the results of this research can also characterize other institutional contexts, in relation to historical, cultural and social trajectory that is marked by legal provisions which guide strategic and operational decisions of human resource management in Federal Institutions of Higher Education (FIHE).
KEYWORDS Collective competences. Critical factors. Public servants. Human resource management. Public sector.
DISCOURSES, ORGANIZATIVE PRACTICES AND GRAFFITI IN BELO HORIZONTE
GLAUCE CRISTINE FERREIRA SANTOS VIEGAS and LUIZ ALEX SILVA SARAIVA
ABSTRACT The city has traditionally been viewed in its administration under the functionalist perspective, to be understood as professional field or object of public administration and urban management. However, studies concerning cities in a nonfunctionalist perspective have become increasingly applicant mainly within a perspective which focuses on urban complexity and evokes the organized social life of oppressed individuals and groups in different social environments. In this article, we analyze discourses that guide organizational practices related to graffiti in Belo Horizonte (Brazil), which was done through a qualitative study based on discourse analysis. Apart from research in official documents on government actions to combat graffiti, individual in-depth interviews were conducted with nine subjects, among municipal administrators responsible for fighting against graffiti, civil society participants of the actions of municipal project, and representatives of graffiti from Belo Horizonte. Data analysis was performed by French discourse analysis, in which we sought to identify and analyze discursive aspects and elements following a script consisting of: 1. lexical selections; 2. semantic paths; 3. interdiscursivity; 4. major discourses; 5. linguistic reflection and refraction; 6. defended and fought ideological aspects; and 7. discursive positions in relation to the hegemonic discourses in society. Main results suggest that the city government both directs representations of the fight against graffiti and is pressed to face the phenomenon according to several approaches , by which prevail control instruments over the organizational practices of the city, and establishing socio-urban agents of strategic legitimation. We conclude that the public administration is re-signified by different social actors, in particular by the taggers, who adopt a kind of graffiti code of ethics, which antagonizes the city government program, the police conduct and the dominant thinking on the graffiti and taggers, manifesting their position through graffiti.
KEYWORDS: City. Organizational Practices. Discourse. Graffiti. Urban Management.
COMPARATIVE STUDY OF THE STATUS QUO BIAS AND RISK PROFILE OF FINANCIAL DECISIONS TAKEN BY STUDENTS OF GRADUATE COURSES
VALTER SAURIN, JOSÉ MANUEL JANEIRA VAREJÃO, NEWTON CARNEIRO AFFONSO DA COSTA JR. and WLADEMIR RIBEIRO PRATES
ABSTRACT
In the context of the financial management of an organization, there are behavioral patterns that can bias the decision-making process, making the financial manager unable to achieve his/her goal of maximizing value in activities related to financial decisions, particularly those related to investments. One of these biases is called status quo. According to Samuelson and Zeckhauser (1988), this bias indicates that individuals tend to maintain the current state of their portfolio and have difficulty in changing their financial position. This research examined whether there is a relationship between status quo bias, risk profile and quantitative skills in graduate studentsof economics, accounting, and management. For this purpose, a survey was conducted through questionnaires administered to 330 graduate students at the University of Porto (Portugal) and Federal University of Santa Catarina (Brazil). For the calculation and presentation of indicators that point to the presence of the status quo bias the methodology used was based on Samuelson and Zeckhauser (1988). In addition, a regression analysis was conducted to find a relationship between the risk profile of the participants and the status quo bias, including some control variables. The results showed that risk-seeker respondents seem to have been less affected by the status quo bias in their decisions, unlike the others. As for the participants who have studied behavioral finance in their undergraduate courses (a proxy for prior knowledge of the studied bias), it was found, on average, an increase of answers on alternatives to the status quo. However, the presence of the status quo bias was still dominant in the total responses. This shows that respondents who had studied behavioral finance opted for alternative options more than other respondents, but, even these individuals showed the status quo bias. Thus, we emphasize the importance of understanding the influence of behavioral biases in decision making, because these biases may impair important decisions within an organization.
KEYWORDS: Behavioral finance. Status quo bias. Risk aversion. Financial literacy. Endowment effect.
CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIP MANAGEMENT (CRM): STATE OF THE ART, BIBLIOMETRIC REVIEW OF HIGH-QUALITY BRAZILIAN PRODUCTION, INSTITUTIONALIZATION OF RESEARCH IN BRAZIL AND RESEARCH AGENDA
GISELA DEMO, NATASHA FOGAÇA, VALTER PONTE, THAIS FERNANDES and HUMBERTO CARDOSO
ABSTRACT
It is a consensus among the major authors in the field of customer relationship management (CRM), or relationship marketing, the importance of strategic management of relationships between organizations and their customers, especially within the context of increasingly aggressive competitiveness. Thus, this study aims to build an overview of studies on CRM, presenting the results of a bibliometric review that covers syntheses of the state of the art and of the the empirical studies produced in Brazilian high-quality journals (≥ Qualis Capes B1) in the 20012013 period to highlight the production in the new millennium. Such analysis allowed the design of a research agenda as well as the institutionalization of research on CRM in Brazil. The information extracted from the papers to be analyzed were: the name of the ournal, year of publication, the study characterization, home institutions of the authors and the most studied issues in the CRM theme. For the empirical studies, we added the nature of the study, the sector in which the researched industry is inserted in, its core business, data collection instruments used by researchers and the methods of data analysis performed. Fifty-two papers were found. Among journals, REAd, RAC and Faces are those with more papers on CRM and the University of Sao Paulo was the institution that led the publications in the analyzed period. CRM in the B2C (business-to-consumer) context and its related variables (e.g., satisfaction and loyalty) were the most discussed issues in the papers whose majority consisted of theoretical-empirical studies, quantitative in nature, and focusing on the private sector economy, especially in the banking and retail branches. The results indeed pointed to the strategic importance to organizations of studies on CRM, which was demonstrated by an increase in the interest of researchers on the subject, considering the creation of research groups of CRM in Brazil and its scientific, technical and advisory indicators of production from the database of the Lattes Platform.
KEYWORDS Customer relationship management (CRM). Bibliometric review. Brazilian production in the 2001-2013 period. Institutionalization of research on CRM in Brazil. Research agenda.
CAPABILITIES AND INNOVATION TRAJECTORIES OF BRAZILIAN COMPANIES
FERNANDA MACIEL REICHERT, GUILHERME FREITAS CAMBOIM and PAULO ANTÔNIO ZAWISLAK
ABSTRACT
Can all types of businesses afford to innovate? Do they need to? How does the process of innovation happen? What are the necessary characteristics to innovate? Do the industry sector and the technological level influence innovation? To answer these questions, one must consider innovation not as the simple creation of something new, but rather as an initiative to change in order to fill some market and knowledge gaps, and, therefore, to present results to companies. It is known that all companies have a technological base (a product and its process) as the object of its businesses (knowledge, internal management, and external transactions). And, therefore, companies will always consist of four basic functions, in a greater or lesser degree – development, operations, management and marketing. Innovation, therefore, emerges from one of these functions and, for each function, there is a correspondent innovation capability. Thus, the objective of this article is to identify the innovation capabilities of manufacturing Brazilian companies, and, with this, to present their innovation trajectories. To achieve the proposed objective, we used a database of a research project sample of 1326 manufacturing companies from Rio Grande do Sul. The project was developed in three phases: 1. development of a theoretical model of the firm’s innovation capability; 2. exploratory phase and; 3. data collection (survey) within companies of different manufacturing sectors in Rio Grande do Sul. Considering the sample main characteristics, we present a typical Brazilian firm: it is merely provider of industrial services, with low potential for innovation. Whether by branch of activity, in majority low or medium-low technological intensity, whether by its family management model focused in reducing costs and its innovation trajectory being restricted to maintaining quality control and to maximizingproduction.
KEYWORDS: Innovation. Innovation capabilities. Industry sectors. Innovation trajectories. Brazilian industry.
ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT SYSTEM IN VERDEGREEN HOTEL – JOÃO PESSOA/PB: A CASE STUDY UNDER THE PERSPECTIVE OF RESOURCE-BASED VIEW
CAMILA CRISTINA RODRIGUES SALGADO and CILIANA REGINA COLOMBO
ABSTRACT
The pressure for a new pattern of sustainable development has required of modern organizations the search for competitiveness, but respecting and considering environmental issues. In this sense, a tool that acts in the implementation of structured strategies is the environmental management system (EMS), which focuses on improving environmental performance. This improvement, in turn, can generate to the organizations many benefits, among which, obtaining competitive advantages, susceptible of measurement from different perspectives. One of these is the application of VRIO model, reasoned by the resource-based view (RBV), which considers that the heterogeneity among between companies occurs due to differences between their internal resources and capabilities. However, although some studies that evaluate the competitive potential of certain organizations have been found in the literature, such assessments are not performed on specific objects, like the EMS. Thus, the aim of this study was to evaluate the resources and capabilities (environmental strategies) of the EMS adopted by the Verdegreen Hotel, identifying which of these have the potential to generate competitive advantage. For this, this exploratory-descriptive casestudy used as data collection tools: a bibliographic survey, semi-structured interviews, documental research and direct observation. The interpretation of the results and the consolidation of information were conducted from a qualitative approach, using two techniques of data analysis, namely: content analysis and analysis through VRIO model. The results show that the hotel is quite structured in relation to their EMS, and it has benefits related to improvement of the management of environmental factors, to the strengthening of its image and to the gains in competitiveness. On the other hand, the main difficulties for the implementation of the system are related to employees and suppliers. With regard to environmental strategies adopted, of the 25 strategies identified, 10 showed the potential to generate competitive advantage.
KEYWORDS: Environmental management system. Competitive advantage. Resource-based view. VRIO model. Verdegreen Hotel.
ELABORATION OF A RESOURCE MAP AS A SUPPORT PROCESS TO THE DEVELOPMENT OF A NEW BUSINESS BASED ON THE INTERNET
JOSUÉ VITOR DE MEDEIROS JÚNIOR, MIGUEL EDUARDO MORENO AÑEZ, MANOEL VERAS DE SOUSA NETO and MARCELO HUGO DE MEDEIROS BEZERRA
ABSTRACT
The article aims to present a method to elaborate a resource map to support the planning of a new business based on the internet from the perception of its entrepreneur. The resulting resource map is a visual representation of the interrelationship between strategic resources, characterized according to the theoretical assumptions of the resource-based view (RBV), as well as the system dynamics that characterizes such representations by feedback loops, flows and accumulations, which are responsible for behaviors of systemic aspects, such as organizational performance. In relation to the methodology, the research is characterized as exploratory descriptive, a case study subtype. For data collection, questionnaires and interviews with the entrepreneur responsible for the business were used. The preparation method of the map was formed by the following steps: collection and selection of strategic resources of the company, definition of the flow of accumulation of resources and the relationships between them, identification of policies for resource development, incorporating financial variables and identification of the capabilities responsible for business development. The research fruited the identification and classification of startup’s strategic resources and verified how these resources are interrelated and how they impact the performance of the organization. The originality of this work comes from the construction of the resource map in a startup, assisting the entrepreneur to identify and exploit the initial strategic resources. In addition, it was analyzed how the entrepreneur’s decision-making impacts the company performance. The main contribution of this paper, the process of preparing the map, through a visual representation of nonlinear strategic resources, from the entrepreneur’s mental model, was depicted as a process of both learning and reflection about non experienced aspects of the business; although exposed to a logic of examining the consistency of the balance of the resource system, designed to generate sustainable competitive advantage.
KEYWORDS: Resource-based view. System dynamics. Resource Map. Strategic resources. Startup.
issue 6 - Fórum Especial Temático sobre a Construção do Percurso na Vida Laboral e suas Múltiplas Dimensões
APRESENTAÇÃO
SILVIO POPADIUK
INTRODUÇÃO AO FÓRUM ESPECIAL TEMÁTICO SOBRE A CONSTRUÇÃO DO PERCURSO NA VIDA LABORAL E SUAS MÚLTIPLAS DIMENSÕES
MARIA LUISA MENDES TEIXEIRA
MEANINGS OF WORK COMPREHENDED THROUGH MILESTONES IN PROSTITUTE WOMEN’S LIFE TRAJECTORIES
KÉSIA APARECIDA TEIXEIRA SILVA and MÔNICA CARVALHO ALVES CAPPELLE
ABSTRACT
Work, which was once seen only as a mean of survival and accumulation of wealth, has become one of the major dimensions of human life, causing individuals to be identified through the activities they perform. Thus, work took on a new meaning for individuals, since personal fulfillment is closely related to its recognition in society. Several studies have addressed work through the senses that workers attach to the activities they carry out, as the case of the present research that investigates the sense produced by a particular category, distant from formal professions: prostitutes. To that end, the objective is to capture the subjective senses produced by women working as prostitutes in nightclubs in the countryside of Minas Gerais. For this, it was sought, in the first place, to contextualize prostitution as a profession, unravel the life trajectory of participants and their insertion in this activity, and raise the subjective senses related to work in prostitution. Six prostitutes, who work in nightclubs, participated in the survey. The data collection was performed through an interview focusing specifically on a milestone in the professional trajectory of these women. The qualitative study based on the Qualitative Epistemology (Rey, 2005) was adopted and analyses were based on the comprehension of subjective sense. The author argues that between the thought and the language, lies the emotion, and, therefore,subjective senses cannot be always captured in the subject’s direct expressions. Finally, subjective senses related to work in prostitution were comprehended, relating to violence, abortion, abandonment, mistrust, prejudice, discrimination, humiliation, fear, insecurity and loneliness. The analysis of subjective senses of prostitutes regarding their work proved timely for the understanding of important aspects of the relationship between the research participants and the senses they ascribe to their work and made it possible to evidence that relations in the work environment are permeated by countless others which occur in other social environments of the subjects’ activity.
KEYWORDS: Work. Subjective senses. Female prostitutes. Gender relations. Prostitution.
RELATIONS BETWEEN ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURE AND AUTHENTICITY: THE AUTHENTIC LIVING IN THE ORGANIZATIONAL ENVIRONMENT
GERMANO GLUFKE REIS and MARCIA CARVALHO DE AZEVEDO
ABSTRACT
The possibility of living authentically at work is consistent with career prospects that have greater significance and meaning to people, in alignment with their values and aspirations. Authenticity, or authentic behavior, involves a way of living and expressing themselves that is consistent with beliefs and personal experiences. Adult interactions in society impose, however, limits to authentic behavior. Since the culture of an organization influences the behavior of its professionals, the objective of this study was to investigate the relationships between cultural types and authentic living of people in organizations. For this, a survey was carried out with a sample of 199 professionals working in different companies and hierarchical levels. Data collection was conducted through questionnaires applied to graduate and undergraduate courses in business administration. The survey results indicated that certain profiles of organizational culture (clan culture and innovative culture) are positively related to authenticity at work, tending to favor the expression of authenticity. Other profiles of organizational culture (results culture and hierarchical culture) are negatively related, and can inhibit the expression of authenticity. It was also observed that the position of leadership is associated with higher scores of authenticity at work, regardless of the type of organizational culture. The study offers a theoretical and empirical contribution by exploring the relationship between organizational culture and authenticity, placing the first as antecedent of latter. It also brings important considerations for organizations and managers indicating how certain firm characteristics may impact the authenticity of the people. It also proposes useful insights for professional in general, with regard to the identification of the types of companies that best align with their aspirations to authentic living at work. However, some limitations of this study should be remembered. A first aspect to mention is the composition of the sample, which could be expanded; in addition, the fact that the sample was not random, does not permit any generalization of the results obtained. Further studies could also test the combined and interactive action between cultural types and the mediating effect of personal characteristics.
KEYWORDS: Organizational culture. Cultural types. Authenticity at work. Careers. Authentic behavior.
WELL-BEING AT WORK AND PERCEPTION OF CAREER SUCCESS AS ANTECEDENT FOR TURNOVER INTENTION
PAULA RODRIGUES AGAPITO, ANGELO POLIZZI FILHO and MIRLENE MARIA MATIAS SIQUEIRA
ABSTRACT
The aim of this study was to analyze, interpret and discuss the relationship between perceptions of career success, well-being at work and turnover intention of workers in Southeast Brazil. The study gathered 500 employees working in the state of Sao Paulo in non-governmental, public and private organizations. For data collection, an auto-filling questionnaire composed by five scales which measured the research variance. The work aimed to present, interpret and discuss the relations among variances, as well as to test hypotheses regarding the proposed conceptual model, by means of a transversal research in the quantitative approach. The collected data were analyzed by applying parametric statistical techniques (calculation of descriptive statistics: means, standard deviation, T test and correlations; multivariate statistic calculations; analysis of and stepwise multiple linear regression and test of normality of the variables, using the Kolmogorov-Smirnov test). Data treatment and analysis were performed by the statistical software Statistical Package for Social Sciences – SPSS version 18.0. The results showed that the dimensions of well-being at work have a strong and significant impact on turnover intention of professionals, while the perception of career success has contributed to low values in this impact, due to the shape of the hypothetical model. The research led us to conclude that the more the company is concerned with providing an exciting, interesting, and enthusiastic work environment, the fewer professionals consider leaving it.
KEYWORDS: Organizational behavior. Well-being at work. Perception of career success. Career. Turnover.
ORGANIZATION AND LEGAL ENVIRONMENT: THE SOCIAL CONSTRUCTION OF CIVIL IDENTITY REGISTRY IN BRAZIL
THAÍS GUALDA CARNEIRO AKIYAMA, VERONICA EBERLE DE ALMEIDA, LUCIANA GODRI and EDSON RONALDO GUARIDO FILHO
ABSTRACT
The purpose of this paper is to analyze how much the articulation of both private and public organizations influenced, by means of mobilizing resources and framing strategies, the process of social construction of the Federal Act n. 9.454/1997, which established the Civil Identity Registry in Brazil (RIC), from 1997 to 2011. The present work is based on the assumption that legal texts are open to interpretations regarding their applicability, reach and validity in organizational fields, resulting in different conceptions of legality. As such, we consider public and private organizations as engaged agents in politics of production and maintenance of legal meanings. Our research covers the period from 1997 to 2011, which comprehends the gap between the legal validity and the social effectiveness of the Federal Act n. 9.454/1997. We use longitudinal data based on documentary sources and sectional retrospective data based on semi-structured interviews. Thematic based qualitative content analysis was performed. We use a priori and emergent categories. The results show that both public and private organizations were engaged in the development of a shared interpretation of the law, although with different interests. Moreover, the findings revealed actions in conflict with institutionalized norms and contradictory to existent laws – but they were legitimized because of their adherence to a socially shared notion of legality. In conclusion, we argue that the notion of legitimacy and legality are intertwined through the shared meanings given to laws in an organizational field. As such, we contend the theoretical proximity between organizational institutionalism and sociology of law in order to consider the legal environment as partial content of the institutional context of organizations.
KEYWORDS: Legal environment. Social actors’ engagement. Legality. Framing. Civil Identity Registry.
TRAINING NEEDS: A PROPOSAL FOR A STRATEGIC EVALUATION IN THE CONTEXT OF JUNIOR BRAZILIAN ENTERPRISES
ELZIANE BOUZADA DIAS CAMPOS, GARDÊNIA DA SILVA ABBAD, ANDRESSA GONZALEZ AZEVEDO PINHEIRO SOARES MACEDO and NATÁLIA PIMENTA SILVA
ABSTRACT
The analysis of the literature points to be necessary to carry out empirical research based on the propositions and theoretical models of training needs assessment (TNA). There are no reports of training needs in the context of Junior Enterprises (JEs), organizations that contribute to the professional training of students in higher education. The research objective was to analyze the training needs of junior Brazilian entrepreneurs and identify the challenges and changes faced by JEs that can generate future demands for training. Two studies were carried out. Study I identified the training needs of a sample of junior entrepreneurs and was carried out in four steps: 1. design a TNA questionnaire of 43 items associated with scales of 11 points for domain and importance, 2. semantic validation, 3. use in a sample of 447 junior entrepreneurs from all over the country, and 4. analysis of data to identify priority training needs. Study II identified the challenges and changes experienced by the JEs that can generate future training needs for junior entrepreneurs and it involved the following steps: 1. design of semi-structured interview script, 2. individual interviews with a sample of 21 professionals and professors, 3. collective interviews with 34 junior entrepreneurs; and 4. analysis of data for categorization and description of challenges and changes. The findings of Study I indicate that the priority training needs refer to strategic JE management capacities and personal time management; and those of lower priority refer to effective communication and the ability to establish cooperative relationships. The results of Study II describe diverse challenges and changes, better specified by the sample of professionals and professors, and that can generate future training needs. It discusses the possibility to promote strategically developed training actions, involving the improvement of the activities and projects of the junior entrepreneurs, and the offering of top quality of products and services. This research contributes to the advancement of an integrated view between diagnostic and prognosis analyses of training needs, although within limited precision.
KEYWORDS: Training needs. Junior entrepreneurs. Competences. Context. Professional development.
WITHDRAWAL OF COOPERATION IN INTERORGANIZATIONAL NETWORKS: REFLECTIONS INSPIRED BY THE WEBERIAN SOCIAL ACTION
JOSE LINDENBERG JULIÃO XAVIER FILHO, FERNANDO GOMES DE PAIVA JÚNIOR and JANANN JOSLIN MEDEIROS
ABSTRACT
Studies of cooperation in interorganizational networks tend to focus on the reasons why organizations enter into cooperative relations and the development of metrics to evaluate their outcomes, with little theoretical or empirical attention being given to the reasons for withdrawal of cooperation. In this sense, the objective of the study is to describe the rationale underlying the reasons for the withdrawal by business leaders to maintain participation in interorganizational networks. To this end, a review of the topics of cooperation mechanisms and withdrawal of cooperation in interorganizational networks was carried, as well as of the reasons or types of rationality present in the social sphere decisions based on Weber’s typology of social action. The logic of this construction is to highlight the reasons mentioned by the national and international literature for the withdrawal and to provide a theoretical basis for understanding this type of rationality in decisions to withdraw cooperation. Content analysis was used for treatment of the corpus composed of articles published in events and national journals, dissertations, and theses, which resulted in 10 Brazilian empirical studies carried out between 2003 and 2013 dealing with the withdrawal of cooperation by members of interorganizational networks. To identify these studies, we consulted articles with respect to the withdrawal of cooperation included in the Brazilian portals for scientific journals scielo.org and Periódicos Capes. Results showed the presence of evaluative substantive rationality in addition to instrumental formal rationality in the reports of cooperation withdrawal in the studies consulted. In particular, cultural conflict or shock among members of interorganizational networks was found to be the major reason for the withdrawal of cooperation. These results point to the theoretical importance of including cultural studies among those already used, due to their relevance to the understanding of phenomena related to current management technologies, in order to provide theoretical and analytical support for comprehension of cooperation in interorganizational networks which emphasize a linear and prescriptive view, as for the rational and economic paradigma. In this sense, the study contributes to advancing the discussion about the withdrawal of cooperation in networks by addressing the urgency of new theoretical perspectives in regards to the theme of evaluative substantial rationality with a focus on cultural approach.
KEYWORDS: Interorganizational networks. Withdrawal of cooperation. Weberian social action. Evaluative substantial rationality. Cultural approach.
R&D COLLABORATIVE PRACTICES: A CASE STUDY IN THE BRAZILIAN SEMICONDUCTOR INDUSTRY
KADÍGIA FACCIN and ALSONES BALESTRIN
ABSTRACT
Recent studies point to the need of opening the R&D model for greater interaction, complementarity and cooperation with external actors. Thus, the environment of the company becomes an ecosystem of organic relationships among the various sources of knowledge that interact dynamically building up applied knowledge in the R&D process. The question that arises for this research is: which are the collaborative R&D practices and how do they occur in an industry with high technological complexity? In order tomake the research clearer, we aimed to investigate collaborative R&D projects within the Brazilian semiconductor industry. This paper investigates the structure of collaborative R&D projects in the semiconductor industry in Brazil, as well as unveils the most common collaborative practices among actors. For the field study, 21 projects in R&D, developed by Brazilian Design Houses from 2008 to 2013, were investigated. The study is a contextual approach to Brazilian projects, identifying the main actors, their most significant contributions, and forms of collaboration with their partners. The results show a series of collaborative practices in R&D projects. In the growing industry of national semiconductor, there is a diversity of interactions among suppliers, customers, universities and funding agencies, including foreign competitors. According to the study results, it seems possible to emphasize that in the Brazilian industry there is a broad set of fluid ties that move and shape quickly. It is also noteworthy that the government plays an important role in influencing innovation, based on the principle of interdependence, given the creation of dynamic mechanisms and by fostering public policies and governmental actions; especially those actions to stimulate innovation and interaction among actors, training and capacity building, development of international trade, encouraging fundraising, tax reduction, etc. Among the main collaborative practices, we find collaboration in R&D and managerial aspects, upstream co-creation and downstream in the supply chain, R&D raising funds, and technology acquisition.
KEYWORDS: Collaborative practices. Collaborative projects. R&D. Collaboration. Semiconductors.
EMPIRICAL ANALYSIS OF THE DETERMINANTS OF ENTRY IN THE BRAZILIAN CEMENT INDUSTRY
PRISCILLA YUNG MEDEIROS and DAVID CARLETTI LEVY
ABSTRACT
The cement industry is a classic example of a concentrated-homogeneous industry, where entry is difficult. Despite that, there was an increase in the number of entrants in the Brazilian cement industry in recent years. The purpose of the present work is to identify the main factors that impacted regional entry decisions in the Brazilian cement market from 2003 to 2012. Another purpose is to explore possible causes for the incumbents’ decision to accommodate new entry in these regions. Other studies that analyze the cement industry (Salvo, 2010; Miller & Osborne, 2014; Zeiden & Resende, 2010, 2009; La Cour & Møllgaard, 2003), have not been focused on entry. The present work adds to the academic literature the behavior of Brazilian firms in concentrated market structures by focusing on and analisis of the entry in these markets. The main considered factors are: consumption, consumption growth, transportation cost, number of active firms, number of plants, and regional characteristics, in the period from 2003 to 2012. A logit model is used to estimate the impact of these factors on the likelihood of entry and incumbents’ expansion. An exploratory analysis based on case discussion is also conducted on an attempt to explain the incumbents’ behavior. The results indicate that in addition to regional characteristics, a high level of consumption, and a low market concentration – measured by the number of active firms or the number of existing plants by region – are the conditions that most significantly favor entry. The incumbents’ expansion decision, on the other hand, is most strongly correlated with the potential for consumption growth, allowing entry to occur in the Brazilian regions with high levels of consumption but low levels of growth.
KEYWORDS: Entry strategies. Incumbent’s strategies. Cement industry. Spatial competition. Concentration.
