Fabio Vizeu

Análise institucional de práticas formais de estratégia

This theoretical essay addresses the issue of business strategy formal practices institutionalization. It was adopted an institutional analysis perspective in order to observe how normative mechanisms are utilized by signifi cant social agents for the dissemination and institutionalizationof formal strategic practices in organizations. Formal business management practices were defi ned as all the managerial tools and concepts that are formally instituted in managerial practices as belonging to the process of elaborating and visualizing business strategy. In this sense, we highlight the strategic planning process disseminated from the nineteen seventies onwards, as the most representative model of the diffusion and institutionalization of this type of organizational practice. We conclude our essay by raising issues that are relevant for the study and practice in the field of strategy in organizations concerning the relationship between theory and practice, based on the institutional analysis perspective.

Por uma crítica ao conceito de desenvolvimento sustentável

This paper critically assesses the concept of sustainable development. It articulates arguments that challenge the dominant view of the concept by exposing its ideological essence, which falsely represents the possibility of reconciling capitalism and solutions to the ecological crisis. The methodological basis for this reflection draws upon the critical perspective of the Frankfurt School. The paper discusses major contradictions of the concept in the capitalist system, and argues about the impossibility of reconciling an alleged ecologically responsible practice with the logics and aims of such system.

Ação comunicativa e estudos organizacionais

Theory of communicative action (TCA) has been an important reference for social studies, especially for allowing a better understanding of the socialization and individuation processes in modernity. Also in the area of organizational research, the adoption of TCA has been growing. However, its understanding is hindered by the great complexity and abstraction involved in TCA. Thus, the present article analyses the main elements of the Habermas’ action theory for organizational research, in order to allow the visualization of its contributions to the area. A critical approach is proposed to instrumental rationality, to the issue of the rational reconstruction of the speaking act, and to the idea of systematically distorted communication. Finally, new guidelines and perspectives have been proposed.

Uma aproximação entre liderança transformacional e Teoria da Ação Comunicativa

Desde o trabalho seminal de Burns (1978) sobre lideranca transformacional, muitos autores defendem que lideres sao bem-sucedidos se nao se comportam como gerentes. Longe de representar um argumento sem base teorica, defende-se que o modelo de lideranca transformacional pode ser considerado a partir do ponto de vista de teorias sociais mais complexas como a Teoria da Acao Comunicativa, de Habermas. Essa e a proposta deste trabalho, que, considerando a dicotomia entre a acao estrategica e a acao comunicativa, observou os fundamentos ontologicos para a diferenciacao entre gerentes e lideres transformacionais. Nesse sentido, reconhecemos que a Teoria da Acao Comunicativa prove analise critica da lideranca transformacional, pois permite uma melhor compreensao de alguns de seus elementos, ao mesmo tempo que questiona outros, provendo um entendimento menos ingenuo sobre o fenomeno da lideranca, tal qual aquele apresentado pela visao gerencialista nos estudos da lideranca. Uma dessas contribuicoes e a concepcao da lideranca transformacional como um fenomeno contextualizado pela liberdade do discurso, propiciando a acao comunicativa a partir de mecanismos organizacionais que sao livres de constrangimentos a interacao comunicativa, permitindo reciprocidade entre os agentes da lideranca.

Rural heritage of early brazilian industrialists: its impact on managerial orientation

The understanding of modern management in peripheral countries does not take into account research into their historical background that has come a different route from the Anglo-Saxons. In this study we shall be analyzing the case of Brazil, where the modernization process has been marked by a unique colonial heritage. The central hypothesis is that strengthening of the farming system that was inherited from the colonial period was a decisive factor when the country fell behind the social, political and economic modernization processes that were taking place at that time in other parts of the world. We set out with the premise that the persistence of rural logic in social and political spheres in republican Brazil was a determining factor for the configuration of industrial management with traits that were characteristic of patrimonialist societies. These are: (a) opting for protectionism based on political influence and privileges extended to the businessman, which characterizes relationships among the economic elite in Brazil; and (b) the subordination of formal authority and the technical competence of the professional manager to patriarchal personalist logic, which favors family ties and personal loyalty.

A positividade da emoção na prática da pesquisa social em organizações

Um problema corrente na producao do conhecimento cientifico e o mito da racionalidade na pratica da pesquisa, pois, ainda que adote uma concepcao de homem concreto que age sobre o mundo, nao podemos deixar de considerar a dimensao da emocao, cuja mediacao e inevitavel. Nesse sentido, e preciso considerar a ideia da indissociabilidade entre razao e emocao no processo de conhecer. O presente trabalho traz a contribuicao da psicologia sociocultural e historica para o debate metodologico dos estudos organizacionais, particularmente quanto ao problema das concepcoes de homem e da producao do conhecimento na pesquisa social. O principal argumento, neste artigo, e o da positividade da emocao na pratica de pesquisa social. Apos a discussao teorica e conceitual, apresentamos o relato da experiencia de um dos autores, que desenvolveu uma pesquisa em um hospital psiquiatrico, revelando empiricamente a construcao do saber cientifico pela implicacao e emotividade do pesquisador.

A música que encanta, o discurso que aprisiona: a distorção comunicativa em uma loja de departamentos

This paper analyzes the systematically distorted management communication of a department store. The attention lies on the communication practices which pursue motivating and controlling the workers. These practices are regarded as a refined managerial resource for engendering in the workers a docile and subservient relation with the interests of maximizing economic outcomes. Methodologically, one used the speech act pragmatic approach, in order to evaluate the discursive forms by manipulating the validity criteria of these acts. The results reveal the dissimulated use of the language with contents reinforcing at competitiveness and aggressiveness.

Produtivismo acadêmico baseado em uma perspectiva habermasiana

This article argues that the issue of ethics in academic practice must receive the same attention dedicated to it in other professional practices. In fact, a difficulty faced in the debate concerning ethics in academic practice is the attitude of disregarding that the latter also consists in a social practice, conditioned by the same problems faced by contemporary society, especially in its economic dimension. Thus, this paper discusses Utilitarianism in academic practice, having Jurgen Habermas’s discursive ethics framework as a basis, and exploring some concerns about Brazilian academic productivism. Methodologically, the theoretical essay format is used as an argumentative procedure in order to build a less formal and more provocative text, instigating reflection and debate, within the scenario, on the indicated issues. Specifically, we notice the problem of quantitative appreciation of production without regard to the quality of academic work as an attempt to measure academic activity, as well as a lack of adequate reflection about the ethical and moral values encompassing the scientific and educational activity in Brazil. At last, to illustrate the perspective presented, we resort to hypothetical situations of academic practice, and make conjectures about four correlations between its pragmatic framework and ethical issues, taking into account the Habermasian construct of strategic action.

Revisitando a perspectiva de James MacGregor Burns: qual é a ideia por trás do conceito de liderança transformacional?

In Administration, leadership is linked to the interest in productive efficiency, assuming the capacity of leaders and subordinates to achieve organizational outcomes. However, leadership is an issue broader than what this conception can suppose. Understanding that this is the perspective adopted in the seminal text by Burns (1978) on transformational leadership, we propose in this study to revisit this work, in order to oppose its main arguments in relation to those made by transformational leadership authors in the field of Administration. To do this, we adopted the socio-historical analysis, as proposed by Stefani and Vizeu (2011), the first step of in-depth hermeneutics (THOMPSON, 2000), a method that aims to avoid the mistake of free interpretation of a work that is contextually situated. Thus, we conclude that the key point of transformational leadership, according to Burns, is the moral development issue and detachment in the utilitarian relationship between leader and subordinates. These two points are stressed throughout the text by means of the examples provided by the author, almost always related to the context of leadership in the political domain and that regarding social movements, where the ethical and moral issue is taken on a societal dimension.

Contribuições da Sociologia da Dádiva aos Estudos sobre Organizações Substantivas

O presente ensaio discute de que forma a sociologia da dadiva pode ser frutifera para o campo de estudos sobre organizacoes substantivas. A dadiva e a forma de circulacao de bens, cujo primeiro objetivo e (re)criar ou fortalecer os vinculos entre pessoas ou grupos. Partimos do pressuposto de que, condicionadas pela predominância do valor do vinculo entre seus membros, as organizacoes substantivas podem ser consideradas como um local privilegiado de manifestacao da troca-dadiva nas sociedades modernas. Isso se explica, principalmente, pelo fato de o calculo utilitario ser uma referencia inadequada para mediar a maioria das relacoes interpessoais nessas organizacoes. Nas consideracoes finais, esbocamos brevemente alguns pontos para uma agenda de pesquisa em organizacoes substantivas, calcada nos principios da sociologia da dadiva.