RCAAP Repository

ABSTRACT Purpose: The aim of this study is to analyze the relationship between meaning of work and organizational socialization labor context for migrant workers evaluation. Originality/value: Due to the increasing number of world migrations, there is a need for research on migrants and their relation to the variables that involve organizational practices. The perception of work for migrant workers refers to the characteristics of the tasks and the way work is organized and the integration and adaptation of the individual to the environment, contributing to the attribution of meaning to work. Design/methodology/approach: A quantitative survey was conducted by applying a questionnaire to Senegalese, Bengalese and Haitian workers who recently arrived in Brazil. Findings: The results show the variables that lead migrants to give meaning to their work, as well as their perception about the socialization process and the context conditions. It was also demonstrated that organizational socialization partially mediates the relation between meaning of work and the perception of precarious work context for these workers. The results contribute to demonstrate the importance of organizational socialization in labor contexts that absorb migrant workers, as well as the relationship between the elaboration of the meaning of work and the perception of precarious work.

ABSTRACT Purpose: The paper is driven by the following question: how do interest group narratives contribute to the dialogue between the perspective of strategy as a practice and the stakeholder theory? The objective is to analyze the changes, permanent and tensions in the narratives of the stakeholders, seen the strategic practices, in the context of mining. Originality/value: Strategy as a social practice concerns the relationships between organizations, individuals and society in search of coexistence. This study establishes a dialogue between strategy as a social practice and the political perspective of the stakeholders, considering that they interact in networks, seeking the creation of value from mutuality. Design/methodology/approach: Field research was conducted in a qualitative and longitudinal approach. Data collection used to document research techniques in notes and videos of public hearings, newspaper research and interviews. Findings: The results show narrative interactions of six interest groups: entrepreneurial organizations, public authority, education, environment, residents of the area of implantation and the productive sector. The result suggests a relevant role of relational tensions as elements that restrict and enable changes and permanent and indicate the dynamic nature of intra and intergroup interactions of stakeholders. The proposed theoretical dialogue extends the field of strategic studies, in a postmodern dimension, by establishing a dialogue with the political side of stakeholder action as an alternative to the traditional functionalist perspective in the field.

ABSTRACT Purpose: To explore the meaning of work, analyzing and comparing how it is experienced by workers who are subject to different employment relationships. Originality/value: The research is important because it advances in the discussion about the flexibilization of labor relations and its impact on how professionals experience and attribute meaning to their work. In addition, we found a gap in empirical research relating to the meaning of work and different types of employment relationships. Design/methodology/approach: We conducted qualitative and exploratory research with professors from the same higher education institution that work under different employment relationships. Forty-five professors participated in the study, whose reports were submitted to discourse analysis. Findings: Initially, the results reinforced the six categories proposed by Morin (2001): work that 1. generates results; 2. is intrinsically satisfactory; 3. morally acceptable; 4. source of satisfactory relationships; 5. guarantees security and autonomy, and 6. keeps the person occupied. In addition, three new categories associated with the professors' work have been identified: "work as a calling", "work as identity construction", and "work as a masochistic practice". Our results point to the complexity of maintaining professionals working side by side but under different employment relationships. Resentment, anguish, and frustration were some of the feelings that we consider to be associated with this reality, and represent a challenge to be faced by organizations.

ABSTRACT Purpose: This research aimed to identify and analyze the antecedents of work engagement through job demands and resources of the higher education professors in Brazil. Originality/value: First findings of engagement, job resources and demands regarding Brazilian professors sample. This dissertation contributes to the reflection of their situation and the conditions of their jobs. Design/methodology/approach: This study used a quantitative approach by means of applying an online questionnaire composed of identification questions and two scales. The sample comprised 506 professors belonging to all federative units of the country. Data collected from the questionnaire was analyzed through descriptive statistics, analysis of variance and t-test. Findings: The main findings show that professors, in general, have medium levels of engagement, but it is very close to the limit that can affect their health. The qualitative demands are the most expressive in the working life of these professionals and the work resources (task execution) were those that obtained the highest average among all resources, followed by the social ones. In general, professors from private institutions perceive job demands and resources more favorably than those who work in public institutions.

ABSTRACT Purpose: This study aimed to analyze the degree to which the meaning of work, specifically the work centrality dimension, and the types of achievement goal orientations at work, predict professional fulfillment. Originality/value: The main contribution is to provide background for the identification of antecedents of a concept yet narrowly studied, which is professional fulfillment, signaling how counselors and organizations may facilitate the greater achievement of what is most valued in a career. We evidence the need to consider work an important sphere of life and to invest efforts in self-development to attain professional fulfillment. Design/methodology/approach: This is quantitative, survey-type research involving 140 people who have been working for at least 6 months. An online questionnaire was answered containing absolute and relative work centrality, achievement goal orientation at work and professional fulfillment scales, as well as socio-demographic questions. Data were analyzed using bivariate correlations and multiple regression analysis. Findings: Significant relationships of prediction were found between work centrality and professional fulfillment, as well as between one of the types of goal orientation and professional fulfillment. The results support two of the three predicted hypotheses, in addition to converging with previous research on the positive impacts of work centrality and the mastery approach orientation.

ABSTRACT Purpose: The purpose of the research is to understand how the organization can assign meaning to the emotional labor performed by salespeople in the experience store. For this, it was analyzed the sources of the meaning of the work in the process of managing the emotions realized by the salespeople. Originality/value: There are few studies in the international literature that proposed to articulate the meaning of work (Rosso, Dekas & Wrzesniewski, 2010) and management of emotions (Grandey, 2000) and there is no research about it on the national level. Based on this gap, the present research proposes that the meaning of work and management of emotions are intrinsically related in the management field, as a way of homogenizing behaviors and feelings related to work and organization. The originality of the research is to explain how organizations can establish mechanisms of meaning to work and contribute to processes of management of emotions with a more genuine character, and, consequently, how this subjective form of the work contributes to the construction of the brand experience in the sales environment. Design/methodology/approach: This is qualitative research that occurred in an experienced store located in the city of São Paulo. The methodological strategy was to enter the universe of work of the salespeople, through participant observation technique, with the purpose of understanding and explaining how the sources of the meaning of the work can contribute in the process of management of the emotions realized by the salespeople. The Hermeneutics was adopted for data analysis. Findings: The research presents that the sources of the meaning of work promoted by the organization, such as "authenticity", "self-efficacy", "belonging", "self-esteem", "sense of purpose" and "transcendence" mobilizes the salespeople's genuine emotions toward organizational goals.

ABSTRACT Purpose: This paper aims to understand the motivations involved in volunteer tourism activities and the meaning of the experience to the volunteers in a post-modern context. Originality/value: Volunteer tourism is a response to the socioeconomic transformations of the 21st century. It is related to the contemporary search for meaning in the spheres of life and work. In this sense, the study proposes a new reflexive approach to the work debate, integrating issues involving the mobilization of subjectivity and post-modern perspectives. Design/method/approach: This study is a qualitative investigation with results collected through semi-structured interviews. Content analysis was used to analyze the transcripts. Findings: The participants are individuals who travel abroad seeking a meaningful tourist experience. As consumers, they welcome life experiences that represent particular aspects of their own identity, while also looking for ways to lend added value to their careers and increase their employability. The volunteer tourism industry mobilizes the production and consumption of such subjectivities, which are related to the search for meaning in the post-modern era. Self-realization, intercultural encounters, and a different perspective on reality are some outcomes of this activity. The meaning of work is itself now a merchandising instrument.

ABSTRACT Purpose: This article is the result of an ethnographic study carried out in a settlement in the interior of Paraná, Brazil, which, from the perspective of the Social Learning Theory, aimed to understand how the learning of the productive baking activity of settled women occurs, serving as a path to a diversity of studies that seek to understand why certain practices emerge, institutionalize or are altered over time through an approach that sees them as a collective endeavor. Originality/value: In revealing the sense of the activity and participation of these women in the baking activity and their relation with learning in the enterprise, this study was justified for its contribution to the understanding of this learning, answering questions that can serve as reference to understand the reality of productive groups of this new economy. Design/methodology/approach: The proposals of Engeström (2009) and Nicolini (2009) formed a methodological package whose results showed the sense of activity as the search for an identity, the will to belong, factors generators of internal and external contradictions that extend the horizon of possibilities of the enterprise, leading to an expansionary cycle that causes the development of learning. Findings: The results revealed that in the system of activity, learning and participation are intrinsically related, associating the development of the group with participatory learning and the negotiation of meanings in the community in which it is inserted, linking past and future, individual and collective, new and existing knowledge, in a transformative movement of identities of the subjects and generator of a socially constructed knowledge.

ABSTRACT Purpose: To reflect on the faces of loneliness within the contemporary work context contemplating it: 1. as affect that results from coexistence and social interaction; 2. as a symptom of unease at work, the result of managerial ideology; and 3. as a source of development, reinvigoration and formation for an individual. Originality/value: This study is relevant because it makes it possible for us to take a new look at loneliness within the work context as a resource to liberate the worker. Design/methodology/approach: This study is a theoretical essay, based on a review of the literature of various fields of knowledge (sociology, psychology, philosophy and administration), and is an interdisciplinary reflection on various currents of thought which discuss the faces of loneliness. Findings: We have found that loneliness in contemporary work can be seen as harmful, given the everyday violence within the organizational environment, work that has lost its meaning, a lack of solidarity among workers, or it can be seen as a necessary virtue for the development and emancipation of the subject. Even though this is seen by most studies as a negative phenomenon, it is not restricted to physical distance, and much less trying to escape from life. It can also be seen as the search to awaken something in oneself and repositioning of the values and culture inculcated by organizations.

ABSTRACT Purpose: To investigate a theoretical conceptual model for the intention of rotation, analyzing its relationship with well-being at work, psychological capital and intention of rotation. Originality/value: The study contributed to present unpublished aspects and an apparent gap in the theoretical revision of the national literature by the absence of research investigating the relations between psychological capital and intention of rotation. Design/methodology/approach: Research of empirical nature and quantitative approach. We tested four hypotheses regarding the interactions of the variables, using a self-completion questionnaire containing five validated and accurate Brazilian measures. Findings: The hypotheses were confirmed, indicating that teachers have a well-being at work composed of greater satisfactions with colleagues, managers and tasks, and minors with salaries and promotions, medium indexes of involvement with work and affective commitment to the university in which they worked, revealing a low intention of rotation. In the international literature, the concept of psychological capital arises, proposing us future investigations and creating a line of research in Brazil in the measurement of the moderating role of psychological capital in the relations between constructs of organizational behavior. It is essential that other professional categories be studied in the search for evidence about the use of psychological capital as a moderating variable in the relation between the objective dimensions of this study.

ABSTRACT Purpose: This study assesses the influence of the importance of work and of creative self-concept on meaningful work and the influence of meaningful work on the employability of unemployed people living in the Southeast region of the State of Pará, in Brazil, aiming at a new job. Originality/value: This study also contributes to the literature, offering three new valid and reliable measuring instruments for the following constructs: Creative self-concept, Importance of work and Meaningful work. Design/methodology/approach: The survey counts on the participation of 206 interviewees, and data were analyzed through confirmatory factorial analysis and structural equation modeling. Findings: The ten constructs used in the model showed convergent validity, discriminant validity, and adequate reliability. In structural modeling, all three possibilities were confirmed, so the creative self-concept and the importance of work explain 68% of the variance in meaningful work and, on its turn, meaningful work explains 67% of the variance in employability, in both cases, the explanatory power is great for the standards of behavioral sciences. This study makes a special contribution to address the importance of meaningful work in career counseling programs for unemployed people. It seems useful to point out a career orientation focused on meaningful work, aiming at increasing employability, as individuals with positive self-assessments are more likely to achieve a successful carrier based on personal effort. Nationally, such knowledge may foster public policy programs directed to unemployed people, focusing on their career.

ABSTRACT Purpose: To review the scientific production on organizational learning, which made use of the practice-based studies approach, concerning the production evolution, the author's profile, methodological characteristics, and correlated themes. Originality/value: Organizational learning presents gaps regarding contributions from other areas, such as Sociology. Practice Based Studies (PBS) have the sociological bias and the social space as a locus of learning processes and knowledge generation. No studies have been identified that review the national scientific production on organizational learning in the PBS context, reinforcing the potential contributions of this work. Design/methodology/approach: The research covered the papers available in Spell's database and in Capes Journals Portal, published until 2017, 42 in total. Those were systematically reviewed in a qualitative approach. Ucinet6 and NetDraw software were also used in the analysis. Findings: The publications are recent and focus on journals of national and international impact. The authorship is under responsibility of small groups, evidencing a partnership among the authors. The number of theoretical papers and the relevance of their contributions are significant. As for the empirical studies, there is a predominance of case study and interview. As to the themes, topics relevant to the PBS theoretical-methodological proposal are discussed. It was concluded that PBS, by taking the practices inserted in the context of organizations as a locus of learning study, reveal a potential to fill gaps in the traditional organizational learning perspective.

ABSTRACT Purpose: Diagnose and quantify the presenteeism and its relations with cooperation in the reality of a public research organization. Originality/value: This study is an initiative to face the current challenge of measuring presenteeism through inclusive approaches, providing actionable information about this behaviour and integrating multidisciplinary knowledge in order to understand the factors that influence it and the factors that are influenced by it, as well as how the presenteeism affects productivity at work. Design/methodology/approach: The study was conducted in a public research organization with the purpose of to diagnose the reality of the organization in terms of presenteeism and cooperation by using analytical methods. Findings: The following results were obtained: 1. metrics on the general levels of presenteeism and cooperation; 2. levels of presenteeism and cooperation in each of the studied team; 3. correlations between presenteeism and cooperation; and 4. possible influence factors in the levels of presenteeism and cooperation. In summary, when recognizing the interconnectivity between presenteeism and cooperation and the relevance of a strategic management of the human capital that considers its specificities and integrates its biunivocal and inversely proportional content, this study presents empirical evidence that supports the relation between both phenomena and validates ways to diagnose and quantify their impacts in the organization.

ABSTRACT Purpose: The aim of this article is to identify which factors encourage and/or discourage companies to operate as a network, based on the Technology, Innovation and Knowledge Firms Network (TIKFN). Originality/value: Few advances have been made in the literature to understand the technology-based firms’ cooperation networks (TBFs), which have different characteristics, especially in relation to levels of uncertainty and innovation. Design/methodology/approach: It was conducted a Study Case on this paper. Therefore, data were collected through documents, semi structured questionnaires and focal groups to assure data source triangulation. Additionally, data analysis consisted of networks structural analysis, regression analysis and content analysis by frequency and category. Findings: Among the observed results, it is noticeable that congruence of objectives, length of participation and network strengthening represent the encouraging factors for network operation. On the other hand, asymmetric interests, low actors’ engagement and lack of active management are the discouraging factors. In order to assure the credibility of this study, results were evaluated through two focal groups composed by the network managers and participants, thus increasing the authenticity of the study. Results can be considered relevant as they contribute to understand the behavior of technology companies in a network, whose characteristics differ from other interorganizational networks especially regarding uncertainty levels and access to resources and information.

ABSTRACT Purpose: Ethical issues have been a growing concern in Brazilian organizations. One of the variables that have been studied in this field is the Ethical climate. Victor and Cullen’s (1988) measure is the one most applied to address this phenomenon. This scale has been criticized because its structure has not been empirically supported and the need for update measures has been highlighted. As an answer to this critique, Arnaud (2010) proposed the Ethical climate index - the ECI. This measure uses Rest’s (1984) model of ethical decision-making as a background. The main goal of this work was to develop a Brazilian version of the ECI. Originality/value: The ECI does not yet have a Brazilian version. Design/methodology/approach: The first study presents the translated measure, an exploratory and confirmatory study of the factorial structure on a sample of 1,306 employees. In Study 2 (sample of 3,087 employees), we performed first and second order confirmatory analyses of the structure found in Study 1 in a different sample. Findings: The original model showed better goodness of fit in both studies. Additionally, relationships with ethical leadership and abusive leadership were identified. Overall, findings suggest the scale presents good psychometrical properties, presenting itself as a good measure to evaluate ethical climate.

ABSTRACT Purpose: The present study aims to understand how biopower is manifested in the organization of the Carnival of Olinda. For this, Carnival is studied as a complex organization, comprehending this concept beyond formal organizations, and power is studied under the Foucaultian perspective, which constitutes the theoretical lens of this investigation, allowing us to understand it even in its most diffuse manifestations, at the level of micro-practices, articulating the dimensions of security and wealth in the organization of the festivity. Originality/value: The notion of biopower in the management of big events shows itself to be a relevant theoretical construction, at a time when popular folksies have been increasingly permeated by business and tourism logics. The intensive use of public space requires technologies that allow freedom and entertainment while providing security and risk minimization to the patrimony and the population. The Carnival investigated has great media and touristic visibility, but it is little contemplated in the organizational studies. Design/methodology/approach: A Foucauldian Discourse Analysis was carried out on the journalistic coverage of four Carnivals in a 10-year interval (1986, 1996, 2006, 2016) in two local newspapers, the only ones circulating during throughout the study period. Findings: The results point to a growing market order, in which tourism and entertainment demands generate economic results for the city, while at the same time demanding a standardization, vigilance and loss prevention, resulting in a biopolitical production.

ABSTRACT Purpose: This study aims to analyze the parameters of the Quality of Working Life (QWL) evaluation in a public organization and the perception of the employees in relation to these factors. Originality/value: The article advances in the theoretical evaluation of QWL in a public context and expanding the presentation of parameters in the job environment. In practice, we present some behavior patterns in different groups of analysis. So, we deepen the understanding of assumptions and hypotheses already existing in theory and propose new ones regarding the standards of QWL. Design/methodology/approach: Ferreira’s (2011) model was taken as the basis for the development of empirical research. The method of this work is quantitative research, whose data collection was performed through the use of a questionnaire. The analysis of the data was performed mainly through the T and ANOVA tests. Findings: As the main results, it is possible to highlight the 9 factors obtained from the exploratory factorial analysis. In addition, there have been some different perceptions of groups of servers regarding these factors. From this, it is concluded that the evaluation of the QWL and its parameters is perceived differently between servers when they are grouped in groups with different characteristics.

ABSTRACT Purpose: Test the influence of cultural orientation to innovation on the number of innovations measured in Brazilian companies. Originality/value: The study uses an approach that has not yet been explored in the area, the multilevel analysis. Design/methodology/approach: Five cultural orientation factors for innovation were considered: Rituals and Stories; Innovation strategies; Symbols and Heroes; Autonomy; and Standards and Communication. Innovation has been subdivided into four types: product, service, technology, and administration. The study consisted of a sample of 345 individuals in 60 organizations. The relationship between variables was analyzed using both linear regression and multilevel modeling. Findings: The results of the regression analysis showed positive and negative relationships of all cultural factors with some kind of innovation. The multilevel analysis indicated a relationship between the two variables only in the factors Rituals and Stories and Symbols and Heroes, both at the individual level. The study indicates the existence of organizational culture characteristics that favor and inhibit innovation. In addition, the complexity of the subject and the consequent need for further studies are highlighted.

ABSTRACT Purpose: The objective of this study was to analyze the perspectives of correctional officers of the State of Rio Grande do Sul to understand the relationship between the components of workplace wellbeing and the incidence of Burnout Syndrome. Originality/value: Professionals in the area of public safety live daily with a plurality of feelings since they carry out social services in conditions assumed to produce high levels of stress. We recruited participants the Superintendency of Penitentiary Services of the State of Rio Grande do Sul (Susepe), a work environment, chosen to investigate the opposing faces of workplace wellbeing and Burnout Syndrome in the daily lives of penitentiary workers. Design/methodology/approach: We combined a descriptive survey design with a quantitative analytic approach. The sample was non-probabilistic, comprised of 433 respondents. Findings: The results indicated that workplace wellbeing is partially present in the daily life of the penitentiary workers, being that no work stress and Burnout Syndrome were evidenced. As for the correlations between the constructs, they all proved to be significant. The results revealed four significant associations between the levels of the workplace wellbeing and indicators of Burnout Syndrome.

ABSTRACT Purpose: The study seeks to contribute to the theoretical structure of cognitive dynamic capability. Originality/value: The study provides a review of the sources and characteristics of cognitive management capabilities, points out their specific dimensions of analysis, and explores the research possibilities associated with approaches such as strategic changes and the performance of the firm. Design/methodology/approach: This work uses the concept of mental models, understood as simplified knowledge structures or cognitive representations about the functioning of the business environment to expose the logical chain of theoretical reflections and formulation of propositions. Findings: The main contributions of this study are: 1. the reformulation of the concept of cognitive dynamic capability; 2. the inclusion of the concepts of controlled and automatic mental processing in the proposed model; 3. the inclusion of the variables experience, time, team confidence and complexity; and 4. the formulation of five propositions to support future research. We suggest an opportunity for research on the relationship between cognitive management capabilities and organizational dynamic capabilities, and their joint contribution to strategic changes in business models and firm performance.