Histórias de aprendizagem: um estudo de caso no setor de telecomunicações

Abstract

Inspired on the critical and constructivist perspectives (GUBA AND LINCOLN, 1994), this dissertation is a contribution to the development of organizational learning as an area of study, given that, especially in Brazil, this is still an incipient field. Focused on a case study in the telecommunications sector, it had as its goal to explore organizational learning as a competitive strategy in the scenario of economical globalization in which the country as a whole and the target organization in particular, the TELEMAR-Minas are inserted. For the TELEMAR-Minas, this insertion became a reality through the privatization of the companyalthough the learnings which did and do support this transition are way more remote. Being now exposed to the dynamics of the market, the former TELEMIG has now not only a new configuration, but a new strategic orientation. This dissertation is an unfolding of the works ofRodrigues (1991 e 1999). Its starting point is the acknowledgment that the old organizational paradigm, anchored on the bureaucratic ideal, has shown to be inadequate in the face of not only the multiplicity of elements interacting in the organizational setting today, but also in the face of the dynamism of such elements. In this context, the notion of organizational learning represents a concrete step in the construction of a new way of understanding, managing and experiencing not only the organizations, but also their inter-relations with their individuals and environment. It also allows us to deal with paradoxes, which are, in general, adistinguishing trace of the whole privatization process of the organization. At no time is this process simple or uniform. It represented a series of learning, at times, incremental single loop (ARGYRIS E SCHÖN, 1978) or adaptive (SENGE, 1990) , many times, transformational double loop (ARGYRIS AND SCHÖN, 1978) or generative (SENGE,1990). In a historical perspective, learning at the TELEMIG took place in a natural way, emerging, very often, as a trace of the organizations culture, which, traditionally, has always invested heavily on the development of its personnel. At the same time, organizational learning is associated to the changes which have occurred along the evolution of the organization, as two of its main marks witness, total quality and reengineering. From thesecond half of the 1990 decade on, the focus of this learning at the level of the organization, the groups, and the individuals switched to the acquisition of the so called new market competencies. Although they were of extreme relevance to the individuals, having evenplayed a major role, in some cases, in their survival in the organization, such learnings at the individual level were subordinated, in general, to the learning interests of the wholeorganization in its effort to strategically redirect itself to the market, breaking its long history as a telecommunications engineering company and becoming a telecommunications services company. This way, the emphasis on technology is replaced by the emphasis on business, as indicated in the theoretical-methodological framework in chapter three, figure 6. Thisframework guided the development of the research, summarizing and pointing out its underpinning rationale. From a macro-structural point of view, globalization and neoleberalism are the two major vectors, whose mutual interaction at the economical, political, and ideological levels resulted in the privatization of the telecommunications sector.Furthermore, based on Nevis et al.s (1985) and Dixon and Rosss (1999) models of organizational learning cycle, the framework stresses not only the relevance of the processes through which organizational learning is acquired, used and disseminated, but also the interrelationsamong such processes given that it is supported by these inter-relations that the learnings which substantiated the transition of the former TELEMIG to the market, this way making viable the development and maintenance of its new strategic focus, the business orientation, occurred. At last, this framework reflects the fact that the learning occurred, in general, relating to emergent strategies, a distinguishing trace of the learning style of the TELEMAR-Minas, functioned as an enhancing factor of the organizations competitivenessin its new scenario, the free market. In this work, data collection and analysis are aligned to the grounded theory approach (GLASER AND STRAUSS, 1967; STRAUSS AND CORBIN, 1990; 1994). Categorization was the main procedure used in the treatment of the data. For theanalyses of the learning processes on which this study focus, three learning histories (ROTH AND KLEINER, 1995) which make up independent but inter-related narratives were rebuilt. In the last chapter, the main findings of the research are summarized.