O processo de institucionalização da profissão de administrador e os desafios para sua legitimação no contexto brasileiro

Abstract

This thesis asserts that the low legitimacy of the profession of manager in Brazil causes difficulties for a greater insertion and valorization of this professional and has repercussions on the social recognition of the profession. From an institutionalist perspective, legitimacy is assumed as a relevant concept for understanding modern social organizations forms and a prominent element for the institutionalization process of Management in Brazil. Despite the intense growth and popularization of the field in Brazil in recent decades, there are signs of a lower-than-expected participation of managers in higher positions in the hierarchy of organizations in the country. This study aims to analyze how the process of institutionalization of Management as a professional field takes place, identifying current and future challenges for its greater legitimacy in Brazil. The novelty and originality result from the articulation between Organizational Institutionalism and Sociology of Professions applied to the analysis of professional phenomena in the field of Management, with emphasis on legitimacy, which is an element that influences the consolidation of professions, affecting the insertion and valuation of that professional. This research has an exploratory and descriptive nature, with a qualitative approach. Data gathering was carried out through interviews and documentary research, with emphasis on the analysis of regulatory frameworks that relate to the model of professionalization of the Management field. To analyze the data, qualitative content analysis was used, complemented by the interpretive technique of legal hermeneutics. Professional Management in Brazil guides its institutionalization process based on the format of the strict sense professions as a model, based on the belief that such a structure, reproduced in the Brazilian Management Law, will enable greater social recognition, in order to offer managers better perspectives to carry out their social mobility projects. This perception represents a rational myth of a legal order. There are several factors that affect the legitimacy of the Management field in Brazil: the perception of low recognition and appreciation of the managers, which affect the insertion of those professionals; the inadequacy of its legislation; the low effectiveness of the actions developed by Management professional associations; and, the configuration of the Management activity. In conclusion, several challenges that bring the need to reassess the model of professionalization of Management in Brazil are discussed, highlighting the lack of greater articulation between different relevant actors, the fragmentation of the field, the emergence of new professional activities that can incorporate typical activities of Management, and changes in the political and economic order – driven by the market logic – which press for deregulation and flexibilization of the model of regulated professions. Among the contributions of this study, it is emphasized how rational legal myths exert isomorphic pressures on the structure of the field of Professional Management in Brazil, as well as their repercussions on various elements identified by this study, which affect the legitimacy of the field in the Brazilian context.