EDITORIAL

A Tribute to those who help us to build the field of Administration in Brazil

Scientific journals, conferences of the National Association of Post-Graduation and Research in Administration (ANPAD), as well as other important conferences in Brazil and abroad are essential for the social construction of knowledge and for building our field of study. In the work of producing excellent research, promoting academic debates and dedicating to educate people, there are those who we - as researchers and graduate professors - consider fundamental in the field of Administration in Brazil. They are indispensable professors and colleagues, and true friends.

In this editorial, we have dedicated a section to express our gratitude to two professionals who retired from the institution in 2016, but who will fortunately and undoubtedly, be with us for a long time - Prof. Dr. Carlos Osmar Bertero and Prof. Dr. Maria Ester de Freitas.

Carlos Osmar Bertero, Professor and former director of FGV EAESP, President of ANPAD, Head of Department, Editor for the Journal of Business Administration from FGV EAESP (RAE), researcher and author. Beyond the several other titles and roles obtained and performed in his outstanding career, Professor Bertero has contributed with his wisdom and friendship during the last 40 years or more for the construction of the field of administration.

Maria Ester de Freitas, Professor, Head of Department of FGV EAESP, researcher, author, friend, educator - among those she taught, are now recognized researchers and professors.

In order to express our recognition in the best way possible, we invited colleagues who bring a deep knowledge about our honorees. So, we entrust this task to Professor Maria José Tonelli, who served as Deputy Director of FGV EAESP for many years and is current editor of RAE; and to Rafael Alcadipani, Professor at the Department of General Administration and Human Resources FGV EAESP.

Recognizing the importance of these two distinguished scholars, Cadernos EBAPE.BR goes beyond being a journal open to critical studies, to high quality debate and to the democratic expression of ideas. We want to encourage others to follow these professionals’ example, which guides us to improve continuously as professors, researchers, citizens, educators.

It is a happy coincidence that this issue offers articles about organizational culture in creative industries, in organizations linked to religion, football and on the theme of solidarity economy, as well as bringing an article addressing the history of the Administration Field in Brazil and the role of Business Schools. Coincidence because Prof. Bertero and Prof. Maria Ester are among the first authors in Brazil to address the issue of organizational culture, writing books and numerous essential articles on this subject since the 90s. Both reflected on the publication of articles, and the quality of research - in Administration and historical analysis - on the construction of our field of study, issues that are important to us all, and which are also addressed within this edition of Caderons EBAPE.BR.

We hope you enjoy the articles of this issue and the messages to honor Professors Bertero and Maria Ester who we invite to remain close, contributing to the field.

We wish you a pleasant read

TRIBUTE

The lessons of Inspiring Teachers: Carlos Osmar Bertero and Maria Ester de Freitas

Maria José Tonelli

Fundação Getulio Vargas / Escola de Administração de Empresas de São Paulo, São Paulo - SP, Brazil

Rafael Alcadipani

Fundação Getulio Vargas / Escola de Administração de Empresas de São Paulo, São Paulo - SP, Brazil

The Brazilian academia in Administration, officially established with ANPAD in 1976, has grown because of the pioneering work of many professors and researchers from various fields, in various institutions throughout Brazil (FACHIN, 2006). Certainly, we would have much to say about the role played by different explorers and inventive professors, people ahead of their time. In this short message, in particular, we pay tribute to Carlos Osmar Bertero and Maria Ester de Freitas, both professors at FGV EAESP for a long period of time, retirees of the institution in 2016 and, fortunately, not going far from the texts and writing. Each, in their own way and as few others, have contributed to teaching and research in the field of Administration in Brazil.

The history of Administration teaching in Brazil is based on spreading of American management models after the war, as shown by Professor Bertero (2006) in Ensino e Pesquisa em Administração, a brief but extremely useful work for understanding the major events that have marked this process in Brazil. Professor Bertero not only wrote about but actively participated in this history, participating in the creation of ANPAD where he served as President on different occasions. In 2016, together with Prof. Tania Fischer, he celebrated 50 years in this important institution. Bertero was present in numerous debates on teaching and research in business administration in Brazil. Within FGV EAESP, the institution where he worked throughout his life, he held academic and administrative roles that supported the development of the academic field in Administration. As editor of the journal RAE, role that Bertero took on at different times, he wrote editorials that are living memory of those days, as well as numerous articles. His education includes a Degree in Philosophy from USP (University of São Paulo), an MBA from Michigan State University and a PhD in Business from Cornell University where he was supervised by Prof. Bill Starbuck, one of the most fruitful scholars in our field in the US. Bertero brings strong analytical thinking, an exceptional memory, a unique British humor and is strongly grounded on the facts. This last feature is what makes all of us to look to Professor Bertero for advice when we need practical suggestions for complex issues. Bertero is a great observer of everyday life, microsociology and the great events of the economy and national and international policy.

Bertero connected many young researchers who had the opportunity to socialize to research and work with him. He is a person who is open to learn from everyone. Like the dear professor Fernando Prestes Motta was the advisor of Maria Ester de Freitas, Bertero played this role for Flávio Carvalho de Vasconcellos, Miguel Pinto Caldas and Thomaz Wood Jr. and many others who still participate with innovative and provocative papers in the summits of the National Association of Post-Graduation and Research in Administration, ENANPADs.

Bertero continuously supported intriguing projects, such as “Produção Científica em Administração” or the construction of ‘management’ in Brazil (BERTERO, CALDAS and WOOD JR., 1999; ALCADIPANI and BERTERO, 2012). Always elegant, Bertero uses his knowledge to ground provocative ideas. Bertero’s character is formed by all these elements, inspiring to academia and to life. Many students say he is the “muse” of Organizational Studies and his grandchildren call him “grandpa-google”. Professor Bertero’s history is intertwined with the history of the construction of the academic field of Administration in Brazil.

Active in corporate education, Bertero has been present in undergraduate and graduate teaching, having served as advisor to at least 44 dissertations and 20 doctoral thesis throughout his career. He dedicated his career to teaching and research in the areas of Organizational Theory and Business Strategy. His articles reveal a prolific author who writes about various topics and approaches since the 1960s. For example, in 1967, in an article published in the journal RAE, the Professor was discussing the issue of underdevelopment and stagnation in Latin America and reflecting on theory of organizations in underdeveloped societies (the reflections on the theory of organizations are in the article “Teoria das Organizações em Sociedades Subdesenvolvidas”, which was republished in 1992).

Maria Ester de Freitas is a mixture of reason and emotion that really inspires people around her. During her masters at FGV EAESP she was advised by professor Bertero, but her academic life was disruptively changed by the contact with Fernando Prestes Motta, her doctorate advisor at the same institution. Although a philosopher with French-based training, as well as almost all scholars in the Brazilian Philosophy, Bertero always had his support in the American model of education, because of his masters and doctorate attended in the United States. Maria Ester, inspired by Prestes Motta, plunged into French-origin microsociology. Eugene Enriquez, with whom she studied in France on several occasions, has great influence on the academic contribution of Maria Ester.

Everyone knows Maria Ester, definitely one of the biggest names in Brazilian academy in Organizational Studies. She was also a pioneer in Brazil in research on Organizational Culture, Moral Harassment and Diversity. Maria Ester is pure passion when she writes, while her texts are distinguished by the clarity and accuracy of the message. Works such as “Viva a tese”, or ‘long live the thesis’ show - from the title - her way of living and building academia. For her, we are here to live what we study and study what we live. Maria Ester taught and innovated in subjects at undergraduate and graduate courses in Administration. She supervised over 10 masters dissertations and over 15 doctorate thesis. Her students are working all over Brazil teaching in leading institutions such as UNB (University of Brasilia), FGV EBAPE and UFRGS (Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul). Maria Ester always encouraged students to innovate and through her students’ work she managed to bring fundamental contributions to our field such as the debate on LGBT people in the workplace.

Although attached to the tradition of French social psychology, Maria Ester also knows the American academia in Administration, having attended part of her masters at New York University (NYU). In the article published in 1991, she rescues and critically discusses the concept of organizational culture based on American literature. That same year, the book “Cultura Organizacional: formação, tipologias e impacto” was published, which is a landmark in the history of Professor Maria Ester as well as in the history of Brazilian Organizational Studies. In her book Maria Ester brings a thorough review of all aspects of organizational culture, something unheard of in Brazil. In her work “Cultura Organizacional: identidade, sedução e carisma”, published in 1999, Professor Maria Ester develops a consistent criticism of the then “fad” of corporate culture.

The fruitful partnership of Maria Ester and Fernando Motta yielded several articles and books. “Vida Psíquica e Organizações”, a collection they organized together, discusses the subjectivity invariably present in organizations and reveals that Maria Ester, and Fernando Motta, found intriguing explanations for the complex world of organizations in psychoanalytical concepts.

Professor Maria Ester produced exciting and unconventional work as the reflective and participatory work on researchers in Antarctica (before the fire) and in partnership with her great friend Marcelo Dantas, organized the compilation “Diversidade Sexual e Trabalho”, foreseeing many of the current debates about diversity and generating social impact on a matter of extreme importance to Brazil. Maria Ester argues that retirement is not a “living death”, but a moment of important passage for us all. The way she deals with the topic should be an inspiration for everyone.

We did not have the intention here to provide a thorough debate about the work of Carlos Osmar Bertero and Maria Ester de Freitas. The idea is to highlight their contributions, so other researchers can benefit from their work. As already pointed out by Paes de Paula et al. (2010), the field of Brazilian Organizational Studies has a life of its own, deals with broad issues and has presented unique characteristics for decades. The work of these professors can inspire and warn young researchers on a diversity of issues, approaches, unlimited perspectives that are part of the field of ​​Organizational Studies since its very beginning. While building walls may be something quite popular nowadays, the production of these professors inspires to a different approach, emphasizing the importance of being free to think and have a wide and dynamic area of ​​Organizational Studies in Brazil.

Articles in this issue:

1. Possibilities of incorporating Norman Fairclough’s critical discourse analysis into the study of organizations, Everton Rodrigues da Silva and Carlos Alberto Gonçalves: the authors address the existence of an epistemological gap in work on discourse analysis applied to management. Their aim is to present alternatives in order to merge organizational studies and the critical discourse analysis (CDA) of Norman Fairclough, which understands organizations as ideological and discursive entities and exposes the relationship between ideology, hegemony and discourse.

2. The notion of culture in contemporary studies of Organizational Learning in Brazil: unfolding the network by using literary inscription, Bruno Luiz Américo, Fagner Carniel and Leticia Dias Fantinel: the article describes and analyzes how certain conceptions of culture have been addressed in the subject of Organizational Learning, which is embedded in the field of Organizational Learning and Knowledge Management. The authors used the notion of “literary inscription” as a methodological principle for the analysis of intellectual networks in national research on the process of knowledge acquisition in organizations.

3. Organizational Values and Work Values: a study with call center operators, Kely Cesar Martins de Paiva and Michele Regina Santana Dutra: the authors investigate the configuration of organizational and work values ​​presented by operators of a call center in Belo Horizonte (MG), which is an environment permeated by idiosyncrasies. The analysis was conducted through descriptive field research, with quantitative and qualitative approaches, featuring a methodological triangulation. The data collected in 399 questionnaires received statistical treatment; and data from 22 interviews were submitted to the technique of content analysis. Thus, there was a predominance of the value “compliance” within the organizational values. This can be explained by the fact that this type of organization is recognized by rewarding the respect of predefined rules, attitudes and behavior models.

4. Political risk and companies’ internationalization: a literature review, Luiz Paulo da Silva Costa and Ariane Cristina Roder Figueira: the article provides an analysis on how the national and international literature has explored variables that impact the perception of political risk within a company’s internationalization process. The discussion presents the identification of political, economic and socio-cultural variables that can be quantified in future studies and enable to establish a risk mitigation and achieving success in the internationalization process.

5. Background of undergraduate courses in administration in Brazil: the schools of commerce and the higher education courses in administration and finance, Amon Barros: the article shows a historical narrative about the development of Schools of Commerce and the graduate courses in Administration and Finance in Brazil. Through historical analysis, the author provides an overview of the educational structure established in the country in the period before the first graduate courses in Administration, created in 1952. As a conclusion of the study, the importance of knowing the institutions that pre-existed institutions of Higher Education in Administration is evidenced, as well as the importance of deepening the discussions on the transmission and production of knowledge in Administration in Brazil.

6. Corporate brand building from the corporate stories perspective: a Brazilian football teams study, Edson Roberto Scharf, Francisco Giovanni David Vieira, Richard Perassi Luiz de Souza and Edmiar Russi investigate the contents of corporate stories about Brazilian football clubs and how these stories are used to promote organizational image and brands related to the company.

7. Outsourcing in Brazil: old dilemmas and the need for a more including order, the author Marcia da Silva Costa proposes a critical discussion and analysis of the outsourcing phenomenon in contemporary organizations. In this study, this phenomenon is understood as part of the broader process of easing social and labor institutions that accompanied the dismantling of Fordism and has been responsible for fragmentation and casualization of labor markets in all industrialized countries. In light of the theses related to the crises of the wage society and of the flexible accumulation - which have references on the ideas of Fordist regulation school - the article argues that subcontracting or outsourcing - known in Brazil as terceirização - reinforces the relations of domination and social control over the labor force, lowering or removing rights historically achieved.

8. Human resource management in creative industries: the case of Brazilian animation studios, Marta Correa Machado and André Luiz Fischer: the authors aim to understand the management of people in the creative industries through the study of one of its segments, the animation studios. Starting from the concept of Chaston (2008) creative industry as the meeting between business and culture, the authors observed that the dilemma between artistic achievement and business objectives was also present in this segment. The article seeks a deeper understanding of how this dilemma is reflected in people management operation in these Brazilian studios. In order to conduct this work, the authors used qualitative research through case studies in four national production companies.

9. Attraction and retention of people for religious life in Catholic religious institutions: the importance of institutional features, Rosângela Cenci and Eliane Salete Filippim: the authors study how organizations are challenged to adapt and constantly update their structures and institutional boundaries so they can fulfill their purpose. In a context of pressure and loss of members in which religious institutions, particularly the Catholic Church, are involved, this study seeks to understand what can motivate or demotivate people to join, remain or leave religious institutions related to the Catholic Church. Guided by elements of institutional theory, the study analyzes the relationship between the institutional structure of religious institutions (IR) and their members will to join, remain or leave the organizations.

10. The Palmas’ paradox: analysis of social currency in the “neighborhood of the solidarity economy” Ariadne Scalfoni Rigo and Genauto Carvalho de França: the article presents a research to understand the flow of Palmas, the best known social currency used in Brazil in the territory where it is circulating, looking at the process of its gradual disuse. This study is motivated by the fact that different contexts and uses of social currencies nationally and internationally has brought scholars to work on understanding the specificities of each experience. In the case of Palmas, created by Banco Palmas in Fortaleza, a paradoxical situation is observed: after 15 years, its circulation has significantly decreased between the actors of the territory, while consumption in the neighborhood remains high.

REFERÊNCIAS

• ALCADIPANI, R.; BERTERO, C. O. Guerra Fria e o ensino do management no Brasil: o caso da FGV-EAESP. Revista de Administração de Empresas, v. 52, n. 3, p. 284-299, maio/jun. 2012.
• BERTERO, C. O. Subdesenvolvimento e estagnação na América Latina. Revista de Administração de Empresas, v. 7, n. 23, abr.-jun. 1967.
• BERTERO, C. O. Ensino e pesquisa em Administração. São Paulo: Thomson Learning, 2006.
• BERTERO, C. O.; CALDAS, M. P.; WOOD JR., T. Produção científica em Administração: provocações, insinuações e contribuições para o debate local. Revista de Administração Contemporânea, v. 3, n. 1, p. 147-178, jan./abr. 1999.
• FACHIN, R. C. Construindo uma associação científica: trinta anos da Anpad - memórias, registros, desafios. Porto Alegre: s.n., 2006.
• FREITAS, M. E. Cultura Organizacional: grandes temas em Debates. Revista de Administração de Empresas, v. 31, n. 3, p. 73-82, 1991.
• FREITAS, M. E. Cultura Organizacional: formação, tipologias e impacto. São Paulo: Editora Atlas, 1999.
• FREITAS, M. E. Cultura Organizacional: identidade, sedução e carisma? 1. ed. Rio de Janeiro: FGV, 1999.
• FREITAS, M. E.; DANTAS, M. Diversidade sexual e trabalho. São Paulo: Cengage, 2011.
• FREITAS, M. E.; MOTTA, F. C. P. Vida Psíquica e Organização.Rio de Janeiro: FGV , 2000.
• PAULA, A. P. P. et al. A tradição e a autonomia dos estudos organizacionais críticos no Brasil. Revista de Administração de Empresas, v. 50, n. 1, p. 10-23, 2010.

Publication Dates

• Publication in this collection
  Mar 2017