Liderança na administração pública: um estudo sobre seu papel na área da saúde em Minas Gerais no período 1999 a 2018

Abstract

The study discusses about administrative leadership in public management, focusing on the correlation between public administration models and the main groupings of classical leadership theories. The relevance of this study comes from the growing importance of the quality and agility of public services required by society, as well as the role of administrative leadership. Furthermore, it is observed that there are few studies of leadership in public administration, especially addressing the correlation between the exercise of leadership and the type of public management model adopted. The objective is “to identify the primordial characteristics that make up a possible model of leadership exercise more appropriate to the application of public administration models in health sector in the State of Minas Gerais, considering limitations and the need for modifications that signify the role of leaders, aiming to strengthen the quality of public services provided to the user and legal population ". For this, a qualitative descriptive research was carried out, using bibliographic research, document analysis, semi-structured interview with the use of some closed questions and content analysis. From the studied literature, correlated aspects were determined between public management models (Bureaucracy, New Public Management and New Public Governance) and the theoretical approaches of leadership (Traits, Behavioral and Contingency) that became an analysis category. The correlated points were: control of resources; leader profile; organizational context; team satisfaction; organizational strategy; autonomy for team organization. It was observed that the closest correlation was between the New Public Governance and the contingency approach. Regarding the bureaucratic model, it is the one that most hinders the exercise of leadership, while the New Public Management is the one that most facilitates. However, these data were not validated in the interviews, although most respondents stated that the management model influences leadership, leading to several assumptions. The first refers to the possibility that the models have not been fully implemented, with remnants of previous models. The second is that, in the health sector, a specific profile is predominant, which overlaps the approaches. This profile is like the characteristics of the area: decentralization, participation of those involved in decisions, promoting the emancipation of individuals, the possibility of bottom-up planning and valuing integrality. This seems to be the representation that had the best performance against the followers and that was most desired. The other hypothesis is that, whenever there is a period when the importance of public health is reinforced, understanding that the motivation of public servants it occurs mainly because of the “cause”, the leadership that is able to emphasize this moment and value the institutional mission is more successful. The last and strongest hypothesis alludes to the profile of the health secretary and his influence on other leaders. In this case, the characteristics of the health secretary are decisive for the form of exercising public leadership.