Carreira e aprendizagem: um estudo com gestores públicos federais egressos da Escola Nacional de Administração Pública

Abstract

This research had the main objective of understanding how the career and learning of federal public managers, egressed in the Escola Nacional de Administração Pública (ENAP), are interpreted and experienced. It was focused the preparation at government school and the subsequent immersion into public career itself. The thesis proposal is that public managers experience the interconnection between career and learning as a phenomenon composed by objective and subjective dimensions, of which interpretations originate the multiple perceptions and meanings of the career and the about how the learning process is articulated. As ontological stance, reality was considered a result of human activities, existing with the construction and interpretation of the subjects within society, encompassing objective and subjective constitutions, and admitting this transition. Subjects are event authors and build meanings (CHIZZOTTI, 2006). As epistemological stance, the production of knowledge was considered socially constructed, and derives from the understanding of human social phenomena. The methodological procedures involved a qualitative approach, documentary research, field journal and interviews conducted with thirty-three public managers and another seven professional involved with the history of ENAP. Content analysis was performed. Key components of the career structure were identified: formal, extensive and complex role; formal role expectations for the learning of the public manager as modifier of context and problem solver; beginning and career progression associated with merit; breakthrough by promotion and progression; multiple locations allowed for conducting labor activities; and internal mobility. The preparation for a career within ENAP is connected to the governmental plans of each period and to the course offered within: a project under construction. From the viewpoint of public managers investigated, the career is about the implementation of a role that is embracing, complex and ambiguous; opportunities and difficulties for substantiating the continuous learning; the construction of relationship networks; the liberty and also entrapment of public managers. Regarding the preparation course given by ENAP, and with the entry into the career, the public managers perceived the occurrence of formal and informal learning, by social interactions and with reflections for problem solving. The interconnection revealed between career and learning allowed the finding a hybrid configuration for the career, based on the similarities with boundaryless career and protean conception, added to the traits of the traditional format. Based on the analysis of the objective and subjective dimensions, it became clear that experiencing the career is also facing the ambiguity and contradictions involving the prescribed and the individual and collective demands of public managers.