Racionalidades em organizações não governamentais que lutam pelos direitos das mulheres na Paraíba

Abstract

In modern, market-centered society, individuals incorporate formal organizations as central in their lives, which leads them to become entangled in frustrations, making them incapable of emancipating themselves and seeking rewarding spaces that stimulate their potentials. I make this observation from the readings of "The New Science of Organizations", in which Guerreiro Ramos (1981) presents a new way of looking at formal organizations, starting from the idea that in these there may be another type that opposes the instrumental, it is about substantive rationality. However, Guerreiro Ramos (1981) did not show in practice how substantive rationality can happen in organizations and, therefore, in order to demonstrate how substantivity is operated in market companies, Serva (1996) provides a theoretical model that aims to operationalize the concepts presented by Guerreiro Ramos (1981). The theoretical and methodological choice of the present study is based on the application of this model, however, in a different context from the one studied by Serva (1996), I chose to investigate Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) that fight for women's rights in Paraíba. Thus, the general objective of the research was to identify in the daily life of NGOs that fight for the rights of women in Paraíba how the rationalities are presented in the organizational processes evidenced by Serva (1996): hierarchy and norms; values and objectives; control; division of labor and individual satisfaction. Therefore, I performed this research using a qualitative approach methodology, counting on the triangulation of the results through systematic nonparticipant observation, documental analysis and interviews, from a semi-structured script. As research findings, I found that the general degree of substantive rationality of the NGOs studied is medium, pointing to coexistence between the rationalities and, thus, implying that conflicts emerge inherent to the tensions in this daily administration process.