The performance of business managers in public agencies: organizational identification in the face of a business-oriented background

Abstract

Organizational identification is a recurring theme in the study of behavioral aspects in different organizations. This research aims to analyze the identification of civil servants of a federal University, who are managers graduated in business administration. Through the observation of official documents, and semi-structured interviews analyzed with the software Atlas TI 7.0, and participant observation, a case study was carried out in a Brazilian Higher Education Institution of the Federal Government. The study counted on the support of the Rector and the approval of the institution’s Ethics Committee. The analysis for organizational identification was carried out using the proposed model based on a map of identification and a map of frustration (KREINER and ASHORTH, 2004; ROCHA and SILVA, 2007). Stability, quality of life, training opportunities, the flexibility to propose new workflows and living together with resourceful persons contribute to organizational identification. On the other hand, political decisions, lack of work continuity, absence of defined procedures, career plan, lack of planning of actions, communication problems, bureaucracy, uneven workload and knowledge of specific legislation leads to frustration, under the context of the managerial rationality. Therefore, the identification process of these civil servants was ambivalent and their educational background in business administration was one of the factors that contributed most to this identification.

Keywords:
Organizational identification; Public administration; Business administration