The aim of this article is to identify the managerial competencies in FIHE (Federal Institutions of Higher Education). The theoretical framework focuses on the evolution of FIHE , the challenges facing public managers and possible actions in a changing context and managerial competencies. This is a qualitative and exploratory study that sought to raise the perception of a group of managers concerning the managerial competenciesof technical and administrative servers for three FIHE in the northeast of Brazil: the Federal University of Paraíba (UFPB), the Federal University of Pernambuco (UFPE) and the Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte (UFRN). The sample included twenty-one public managers in the areas of human resources, finance, accounting and security who work at these institutions. The data collection method was the focus group, whose sessions were audio recorded and transcribed. The reports were analyzed in a comprehensive interpretation. The research findings advance the understanding of managerial competencies within the FIHE under study, and enabled the identification of four groups of managerial competencies:cognitive, functional, behavioral and political. These results may encourage discussions among FIHE concerning the development of the skills required of servers, particularly managers, in their professional practice, which can assist in the implementation of guidelines for FIHE and establish a development policy for public managers to mobilize competencies and enable the development of institutional skills. From the exploratory study, we intend to conduct a quantitative survey to assess the level of the domain of competenciesas well as the encouragement level of these Federal Institutions of Higher Education for the development of managerial competencies.
Competencies; Public managers; Development of competencies; Federal institutions of higher education
