PRODUCTION IN WORK AND ORGANIZATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY AT ANPEPP SYMPOSIA

ABSTRACT.

This article aims to analyze the production related to the Work and Organizational Psychology subarea reported in the Symposia of the National Association of Research and Postgraduate Studies in Psychology (known in Brazil as Associação Nacional de Pesquisa e Pós-Graduação em Psicologia - ANPEPP), a privileged locus of discussions about the current construction and the future challenges of research in Psychology in Brazil. An analysis of the reports of the Working Groups registered in the 18 editions of the ANPEPP Symposia (1988 to 2018) was carried out. From 677 works, 61 were analyzed for describing in their propositions theoretical and methodological issues related to the universe of work and organizations. The results indicate that, since the first symposium, the Working Groups in Work and Organizational Psychology have discussed the fragility at the undergraduate and postgraduate levels, which would unfold in the reduced knowledge production and challenges for professional insertion. Subsequently, the issue of interdisciplinarity and theoretical-methodological foundations came into focus; more recently, the need for the internationalization of scientific production has taken the lead role in discussions. As a closure, the limitations that the methodological strategy imposed before the wealth of the consulted material are indicated. Further studies may deepen the qualitative analysis of the referred production, revealing different characteristics of the subfields.

Keywords:
Work and organizational psychology; knowledge production; ANPEPP

RESUMO.

Este artigo objetiva analisar a produção referente à subárea psicologia do trabalho e organizacional relatada nos Simpósios da Associação Nacional de Pesquisa e Pós-graduação em Psicologia (ANPEPP), locus privilegiado de discussões sobre a construção presente e os desafios futuros da pesquisa em psicologia no Brasil. Realizou-se a análise dos relatórios dos Grupos de Trabalho inscritos nas 18 edições dos Simpósios da ANPEPP (1988 a 2018); do total de 677 trabalhos, 61 foram analisados por descreverem em suas proposições questões teórico-metodológicas relativas ao universo do trabalho e das organizações. Os resultados indicam que, desde os primeiros simpósios, os Grupos de Trabalho em Psicologia do Trabalho e Organizacional tematizaram discussões sobre a fragilidade da formação para a área, em nível de graduação e pós-graduação, o que se desdobraria na restrita produção de conhecimento e desafios para a inserção profissional. Posteriormente, a questão da interdisciplinaridade e dos fundamentos teórico-metodológicos entraram em foco; mais recentemente, a necessidade da internacionalização da produção científica assumiu o protagonismo das discussões. Como encerramento, são indicadas as limitações que a estratégia metodológica impôs diante da riqueza do material consultado. Novos estudos poderão aprofundar a análise qualitativa da produção referida, revelando características diferenciais dos subcampos.

Palavras-chave:
Psicologia do trabalho e organizacional; produção do conhecimento; ANPEPP

RESUMEN.

Este artículo tiene como objetivo analizar la producción referente a la subárea de Psicología del Trabajo y de la Organización informada en los Simposios de la Asociación Nacional de Investigación y Estudios de Posgrado en Psicología (ANPEPP), un lugar privilegiado de discusiones sobre la construcción actual y los desafíos futuros de la investigación en Psicología en Brasil. Análisis de los informes de los Grupos de Trabajo registrados en las 18 ediciones de los Simposios ANPEPP (1988 a 2018). De un total de 677 obras, 61 fueron analizadas para describir en sus propuestas cuestiones teóricas y metodológicas relacionadas con el universo del trabajo y las organizaciones. Los resultados indican que, desde los primeros simposios, los Grupos de Trabajo en Psicología Ocupacional y Organizacional tuvieron discusiones sobre la fragilidad en la educación de pregrado y posgrado, que se desarrollaría en la producción restringida de conocimiento y desafíos para la inserción profesional. Posteriormente, se enfoco el tema de la interdisciplinariedad y los fundamentos teórico-metodológicos. Más recientemente, la necesidad de internacionalización de la producción científica ha tomado la delantera en las discusiones. En conclusión, se indican las limitaciones que la estrategia metodológica impuso a la riqueza del material consultado. Otros estudios pueden profundizar el análisis cualitativo de la producción referida, revelando características diferenciales de los subcampos.

Palabras clave:
Psicología ocupacional y organizacional; producción del conocimiento; ANPEPP

Introduction

Against the backdrop of transformations in work relationships, this article originates from the interest in understanding the articulation of knowledge production in the Work and Organizational Psychology (WOP) subarea with the issues emerging from the Brazilian reality in the field of work and organizations. Fostered in the context of Subjectivity and Work Interinstutional Laboratory (LIST) discussions, the network of exchanges among researchers, the approach adopted was the analysis of the production reported in the Working Groups (WGs) of the Symposia of the Associação Nacional de Pesquisa e Pós-graduação em Psicologia (ANPEPP).

Founded in the 1980s, ANPEPP aims to bring together Brazilian postgraduate programs formally linked to higher education institutions to foster the training of professionals for research and postgraduate studies in Psychology (Associação Nacional de Pesquisa e Pós-graduação em Psicologia [ANPEPP], 2019). Since then, the Symposia have become a privileged locus for discussions about the current construction and future challenges of research in Psychology in Brazil. ANPEPP is constituted as “[...] a non-profit and non-partisan organization founded in 1983, during the XXXV Annual Meeting of the Brazilian Society for the Progress of Science, held in Belém, capital of Pará State” (ANPEPP, 2019). In 1988, the Association started organizing symposia as a way to aggregate discussions about research and training, with the meeting of almost all researchers in postgraduate programs in Psychology, according to ANPEPP (2019). The 1^st Symposium took place in Caruaru-PE.

In the 2^nd ANPEPP symposium, the WGs were created. Their purpose is the articulation among researchers of the thematic areas for interlocutions, exchanges and joint productions. It is a space to stimulate exchanges among researchers and professors of stricto sensu programs in Psychology. Since that edition, the WGs have become the benchmark for operationalizing the Symposia. In 1990, in the 3^rd Symposium, the biannual periodicity of the meetings was defined. The last edition analyzed in this research was the 17^th, based in Brasília-DF in 2018. Throughout the seventeen editions of the Symposia, the number of participants, as well as of WGs, grew dramatically, from 10 WGs in 1989 to 79 WGs at the XVII Symposium held in 2018, discussing the various subareas and themes of Psychology (ANPEPP, 2018). According to the institution itself, a WG is characterized by the “[...] formation of networks among researchers from different universities and regions of the country, as well as from abroad, to promote the investigation of themes and issues concerning the great field of Psychology” (ANPEPP, 2019). Each WG has to have a team with continuous production, an essential criterion for participation in the symposia.

From the edition of the event, a report of the discussions and referrals of the working group is prepared, which must constitute collaborative products, such as organizing books, dossiers, events, publishing articles, writing book chapters, formulating defense boards for scientific works, among others. The memory of most of the various activities of the symposia (conferences, round tables and WGs meetings) generated, throughout the 17 editions, texts by institutional, individual and collective authors, which are organized in collections fully available on the official website of the Association ( 2019), as well as on select pages of the editions of the events. As part of this acquis, there are summaries of the WGs from each of the symposia, material that records the reverberations of the group at that historic moment. From the reading and analysis of these writings, it is possible to map and problematize a large part of the knowledge production in Psychology in Brazilian postgraduate courses in the last decades. Commonly, in the symposium editions, the WGs discuss data from ongoing or recently completed research and their technical and bibliographic productions and establish joint research and production agendas. These interlocutions are represented in the group summaries published in the annals. From this context, this article aims to analyze the production of WGs, focusing on subarea Work and Organizational Psychology (WOP). The aim is to problematize the knowledge production of this subarea in Brazilian postgraduate courses, at the ANPEPP Symposia, from the first edition of the event, in 1988, to that of 2018. The analysis of these records is justified because they reflect the main mobilizing issues and tensioners in the last decades of this field of studies.

In this article, the nomenclature Work and Organizations Psychology - WOP (known in Brazil as Psicologia do Trabalho e das Organizações- PT&O) was adopted as described in the table of areas of knowledge of the Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico - CNPq). As a government agency, CNPq places itself as important guidance for the training of researchers because it has the task of promoting Brazilian scientific and technological research; therefore, we put it as a reference for such a choice. The exception for the use of WOP occurs when we redeem the terms used by the WGs. In this context, the name used will be that adopted by the Group based on the diversity of possibilities of perspectives and nomenclatures.

The relations between psychology and work in Brazil are diversified (Leão, 2012). Borges-Andrade and Zanelli (2014) state that these relationships are composed of fields that provide epistemological and methodological subsidies to each other and, in terms of nomenclature, can assume different compositions. These fields are Work Psychology (WP), which studies the human being and his activities in the work universe, Organizational Psychology (OP) and Organizational Behavior (OB), which focus on work actions in the context of organizations and their implications for the worker, the collective works and the organization itself. In this way, the use of the nomenclature Work and Organizations Psychology (WOP) or Organizations and Work Psychology (OWP) indicates which dimension is in evidence, Work or Organizations. Another direction for the relationship between psychology and work can be found under the name Work and Social Psychology (WSP). Proposing to redefine the WP, it was sought theoretical, critical and non-positivist supports from Social Psychology to understand and act on phenomena in the work world aiming at both its transformations and society (Leão, 2012).

Method

All abstracts and reports of the WGs registered in all editions of the ANPEPP Symposia and available on the Association's website have been consulted and read. In all, 677 texts were analyzed. The delimitation of the WGs to the WOP subarea was carried out by the presence of the descriptors ‘work’, ‘workers’ and ‘organizations’ in the title of the abstract, or similar and work-related terms. Then, its objects and objectives were read, and those who signed their proposals on theoretical and methodological issues related to the work universe were selected. From the 677 abstracts registered at the Symposia and published on the Association's website, 62 were classified as linked to WOP. However, only 61 were analyzed, as one of these summaries was not available.

Why look at the knowledge production in WOP?

In a systematic review, Oliveira, Silva and Sticca (2018) evaluated and systematized articles in WOP published in Brazilian databases between 2010 and 2016, focusing on Psychology journals. The analysis criteria of the selected articles adopted the classification of areas of intervention and activities of the work psychologist proposed by Zanelli, Borges-Andrade and Bastos (2014). Despite adaptations made to this classification, the authors recognize that the methodology may have generated losses from some studies. Considering the number of publications per year, the authors detected variations, with the highest publication rate in 2012 (34 articles) and a decrease in 2015 (24 articles) and 2016 (22 articles). As for the theme, 52% of the articles in WOP present the theme of mental health at work. Even with the verification of production in WOP in all the journals consulted, they considered it to be of little significance when compared to the total production in Psychology, with no increase in publications over the years analyzed. As a hypothesis for such a result, they highlight the reduced expressiveness of the area in Psychology (Oliveira et al., 2018). Such considerations reinforce the importance of looking analytically at the academic-scientific studies discussed at ANPEPP and contribute to the ethical-political commitment to the making of Psychology. Besides, in this text, the perspective of those studies on the Work category is contributing to an understanding of Brazilian society, as well as its transformation is considered.

There is another aspect that should not be overlooked: the role of work in the construction of the worker's identity. To develop this dimension, we make use of Dejours contributions (2011), to whom, when working, human beings seek to impress their uniqueness on the organization of work through the mobilization of their subjectivity in the face of unforeseen circumstances inherent to the permanent gap between prescribed work and real work. The expression of this singularity will be given by the creation of operating modes directed to the prescribed and expected results of the work. When recognizing this dynamic, present in any work situation, Dejours (2011) emphasizes the importance of the dynamics of recognition, a social condition by which subjective mobilization can be accepted in work organizations. Focusing on the discussions in the field of Psychology aimed at the relationship among humans-work-organizations-society makes it evident how historically these actors and relationships have been continuously changing, gaining various meanings, from economic, social, political and subjective movements. Thus, this article argues that looking at knowledge production in WOP is looking at work itself as an essential psychological and social phenomenon.

Memories of the ANPEPP Symposia: a WOP clipping

Table 1 shows the details of the WGs related to WOP for each ANPEPP Symposium. In the first three editions, the event was annual; from the fourth, it became biannual. In the table below, it is possible to observe the numerical evolution of WGs focused on the field of work and organizations.

The 1^st ANPEPP symposium did not have the modality of working groups (WGs), which were created only in the following edition. In the 2^nd edition, from the 10 WGs, no group covered issues pertinent to the theme in focus. The 3^rd edition of the Symposium had the participation of five WGs. In these, questions about work were purposefully discussed in a single WG called ‘Studies of organization and work’, with coordination linked to the Pontifícia Universidade Católica (PUC-SP)¹. It became the first WG of the ANPEPP symposia to have the issues of the work world as a theme. The group, in its objectives, raised the concern about how the theme ‘organization and work’ was, until then, little treated at the postgraduate level, even highlighting the lack of programs specifically aimed at this subarea. As a referral, it committed itself, through the internal and external interlocutions to the group, to stimulate the academic production in this area (ANPEPP, 1990).

Table 1
Characterization of ANPEPP Symposia

Edition	Year	Symposium location	Total of WGs	WOP WGs
1st	1988	Caruaru - PE	0	0
2nd	1989	Gramado - RS	10	0
3rd	1990	Águas de São Pedro - SP	05	01
4th	1992	Brasilia DF	13	02
5th	1994	Caxambu - MG	20	02
6th	1996	Rio de Janeiro - RJ	28	03
7th	1998	Gramado - RS	35	03
8th	2000	Serra Negra - SP	30	01
9th	2002	Águas de Lindóia - SP	32	02
10th	2004	Aracruz - ES	41	03
11th	2006	Florianópolis - SC	52	05
12th	2008	Natal, RN	54	06
13th	2010	Fortaleza - CE	61	06
14th	2012	Belo Horizonte - MG	65	06
15th	2014	Bento Gonçalves-RS	68	07
16th	2016	Maceió - AL	74	091
17th	2018	Brasilia - DF	79	07

• Source: The authors. Note ¹. Final report of one of the WGs was not available for consultation.

The 4^th ANPEPP symposium added 13 GTs, being two of them with a theme related to work processes: ‘Perspectives of the psychosociological approach’ (Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro - UFRJ), and the WG ‘Environment, functions and organizational behavior’ (Universidade de Brasília - UnB). The first group aimed to discuss social relations and psychosociological interventions in different contexts, including unemployment. The second group was an offshoot of the only WG on work from the 3rd edition. At this moment, at the same time in which the group´s maturity was testified, which was looking for strategies for its consolidation as scholars of ‘Organization and Work’, the question of Organizational Psychology, as they named it, still needed to structure itself, making itself present in the postgraduate programs (ANPEPP, 1992).

The 5^th ANPEPP's symposium was a moment in which 20 WGs participated, and two of them discussed the thematic work. The group ‘Work and subjectivity construction’ (Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul - UFRGS) proposed to resize the notions of work and subjectivity to emphasize the subjectivity modes of subjects in the dynamics of social relations. The second WG, ‘An Agenda for Organizational and Work Psychology (OWP)’ - (UnB), discussed at the symposium the panorama of OWP researches at that time, indicating the inexpressiveness of training for the area, as well as the few researchers and qualified teachers dedicated to this perspective, which would result in little dissemination of knowledge production in the area (ANPEPP, 1994).

On the 6^thSymposium, 28 WGs attended it, and 3 of them focused on the work. The two groups organized their debates on points that approach and distance themselves according to the perspective. In essence, a WG discussed the ‘Relationships among postgraduate, undergraduate, specialization and research in work psychology’ (UnB). At the same time, another WG addressed ‘Relations among postgraduate, undergraduate and research in organizational psychology’ (UnB). Another WG, called ‘Brazilian organizations: culture, change and measures’ (UnB), focused on theoretical discussions and practical experiences in the development and application of measurement instruments for organizational dimensions (ANPEPP, 1996).

The 7^thANPEPP meeting counted with the participation of 35 WGs; from them, three discussed the themes in the scope of what we are dealing with in this article. The group ‘Organizational behavior, individual, organizational processes and work contexts’ (UnB), concerning, in general, in addressing processes and phenomena present in labor relations, discussing since the constitution of a research agenda on commitment at work to the problematization of cultural aspects in a government organization. ‘Values ​​and organizational behavior’ (UnB) were the participants discussed their research on and crossed by the notion of value in organizations, public institutions and in contexts of unemployment, issues discussed from the point of view of social actors. Another WG was called ‘Subjectivity and work’ (UnB). Its analyzes were about perspectives of subjectivity in contexts of occupational health, work accidents and shared meanings and their impacts on health (ANPEPP, 1998).

At the time of the 8^th Symposium, 30 WGs met at the event, and from them, only one WG brought the work as a point of discussion. The WG ‘Methodological challenges of research in organizational and work psychology’ (shared coordination UnB / UFSC), analyzed, in that edition, experiences that they considered useful on the apprehension of individual and collective processes in the context of organizations and work (ANPEPP, 2000).

The 9^th edition of the Symposium had a total of 32 WGs, but only two WGs had work as a theme. One of them was called ‘Post graduation and research in Organizational and Work Psychology: strengthening ties with the Brazilian graduation’ (UFSC). The group rescued the formalization of the Brazilian Society of WOP, in the previous year, and proposed, as the final product of the event, to constitute didactic-academic material with foundations for the basic formation for the WOP area in graduation. The second WG, ‘Organizational culture and health at work’ (UnB), aimed to discuss the interrelationships between cultural factors of the organization and the health (physical and psychological) of the worker (ANPEPP, 2002).

Forty-one WGs, three of them focused on work, attended the 10^th Symposium. The WG ‘The occupation of the psychologist: an examination in the light of the WOP categories’ (Universidade Federal da Paraíba - UFPB), signaled the scientific-academic production that the Brazilian WOP had been accumulating on phenomena in the work world at a time that they affirmed to be of transition in its multiple dimensions. Thus, they proposed, from different theoretical perspectives generated in the WOP, to examine the dynamics of the psychologist's profession in Brazil, applying a systematic study of the area. The WG ‘Organizational culture and health at work’ (UnB) presented and discussed studies that articulated cultural values ​​as guides for organizational life and its implications in conditions of illness of the worker, including, in its extreme forms, such as stress at work, depression and burnout. In association, coping strategies used by affected individuals were also analyzed. The third WG, called ‘Ways of life, health and work’ (Universidade Federal da Paraíba - UFPB), in its research reports, marks the relationships among contexts and working conditions and processes of subjectification. The themes were, for example, the abandonment of the organizational culture in dismissed workers, precariousness and subjective impacts, among others (ANPEPP, 2004).

In the 11^th edition, the event received the registration of 52 WGs, and five of them had the universe of work as the object of studies. ‘The occupation of the psychologist: an examination in the light of the WOP categories’ (UFBA), assumed as a central objective at the meeting the planning of a research program, with the contributions used by WOP, about the Brazilian psychologist. It was an undertaking already signaled by the group in the previous edition and, in this one, specifically outlined with expectations to be discussed in the next edition of the Symposium. Another WG, called ‘Organizational culture and health at work’ (UnB/Universidade Católica de Brasília - UCB), highlighted the need to reevaluate organizational management policies and the need to reverse their priorities, starting to develop strategies from a positive psychological approach, promoting the well-being of workers, through preventive measures instead of corrective or remedial ones. As a result, they planned to advance in researching the group's central theme: organizational culture. ‘Ways of life, health and work’ (Universidade Estadual do Rio de Janeiro - UERJ), analyzed issues related to the formation of postgraduate researchers who articulate the central theme of the WG, in addition to collectively reflecting on the challenges and difficulties in the process orientation of dissertations and theses with work as an object. Another group was ‘Contemporary organizational processes and work’ (USP-SP). This WG set out to investigate everyday life and the ways that empower and constrain the ways of living, having work and organizational processes as a reference. In this context, unemployment, the tricks of the production of social exclusion, the self-management processes, the trajectories, among others, are gaining focus. The WG ‘Work, ergonomics and health’ (UnB), reflected on the knowledge production in the work-ergonomics-health articulation, deepening the theoretical-methodological debate about psychosocial phenomena in the relationship between work and health (ANPEPP, 2006).

The 12^th ANPEPP symposium registered 54 WGs; six addressed the work. ‘The occupation of the psychologist: an examination in the light of the WOP categories’ (UFBA/Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Norte - UFRN), fulfilling the planned at the previous symposium, it collected the research on the occupation of the psychologist and the data were, at that moment, in the stage of feeding and organizing in a database. Thus, the researchers planned possibilities for further analysis of the material collected, discussed proposals and initial elaborations of book chapters based on the analyzed data, which would compose a book while disseminating of the WG, in addition to outlining new actions. Another WG was ‘Organizational culture and health at work’ (Universidade Salgado de Oliveira - UNIVERSO). This discussion also continued with the previous symposium: research on organizational culture. Thus, the objectives of this meeting were to establish conceptual distinctions between health and well-being in organizations and, thus, to develop a model to be adopted as a theoretical reference structure for the future research of the group. The WG ‘Ways of life and work: the point of view of the activity’ (UERJ/Universidade Federal Fluminense - UFF), continued with the previously established objectives, that is, to analyze the training and scientific production in the area, in addition to establishing interlocutions between researchers and institutions, strengthening the existing ones. ‘Idleness, time and work’ (UNIFOR) was another group present. Its general objectives for the event were the investigation of representations and leisure practices in contemporary times and their reflexes in subjective production. In the ‘Contemporary organizational processes and work’ Group (USP-SP / UFSC), their discussions were, in continuity with the research agenda previously assumed, about everyday life and life at work and about organizational processes that enhance or constrain them. The group brought to the agenda the possible ethical and political implications of its investigations, as well as its results. The 6^th WG was ‘Work and health’ (UnB), which set itself the goal of planning a joint research that, when covering the public service, discussed about new forms of work organization and psychological violence in the context in question ( ANPEPP, 2008).

The 13^th Symposium hosted 61 WGs in total, six of them with the thematic work. The WG ‘People, work and organizations: interventions from Psychology’ (Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais - UFMG) discussed research projects to be carried out in the network of researchers, articulated with the theme ‘Affections and cognitions at work and in organizations’. ‘Organizational culture and health at work’ (UNIVERSO) in that edition of the event discussed the chapters of a book that was organized, in addition to elaborating a model of well-being in organizations to be used as a theoretical reference for research projects, at present and future, of those who were there. The WG ‘Ways of life and work: devices for training and producing knowledge in the synergy between pieces of knowledge’ (UERJ), highlighted in its arguments the importance of analyzing the issues arising from the cooperation between scientific knowledge and knowledge born from the experience of working subjects, thus feeding the knowledge production in the area. In the group ‘Idleness, time and work’ (UNIFOR), from a rescue of their scientific, academic exchanges and, consequently, of knowledge production, the participants outlined the possibility of organizing an international event, held in Brazil, about reflections permeated by the group. ‘Contemporary organizational processes and work’ (USP-SP / UFSC), another WG, at the event, where members discussed their findings of ongoing and concluded research, promoting exchanges and deepening the issues to which the WG has been close since the previous edition of the symposium: theoretical and methodological aspects of organizational processes. Finally, the WG ‘Work and health’ (UnB), once again focused on the theme of health at work, coming to outline the skeleton of a joint publication, a structure that was discussed in that edition of the meeting (ANPEPP, 2010).

In the 14^th edition, the Symposium received 65 WGs, six of which permeated the subject work. ‘Organizational culture and health at work’ (UnB), established strategies for the dissemination of the book completed in the previous edition, discussed partnerships and possible incentives for research outlined in an investigation agenda. The WG ‘Ways of life and work: the interdisciplinarity challenges in scientific production and dissemination’ (UFF), focused on the emerging challenges of interdisciplinarity and inter-knowledge in the thematic field of the group. ‘idleness, social time and work’(UNIFOR), outlined the planning of the international event already signaled in the previous edition of the symposium. In this regard, the group reported on the international partnerships established and formalized, including, with the participation of one of the members in a research group composed of researchers from European and Latin American universities. In the WG ‘Psychodynamics and Clinical Work’ (UnB), the researchers discussed and structured two publications for a specific editorial collection on the group's central theme: a book and a critical dictionary. The ‘Contemporary organizational processes and work’ WG (USP-SP), directed its efforts towards the internationalization of its interlocutions through the creation of a Latin American research agenda in Work Social Psychology and other actions. ‘Work and health’ (PUC-MG) was the fifth WG on work in this edition of the symposium. The group set out to broaden the internal debate on diversity and interdisciplinarity, besides proposing that future productions articulate undergraduate and postgraduate levels, both through research as an extension (ANPEPP, 2012).

In 2014, the ANPEPP symposia completed the 15^th editions, establishing themselves as a meeting place for WGs from all Brazilian psychologies. In this Symposium, 68 WGs registered, seven of which were on work. The WG ‘Organizational culture and health at work’ (PUC-Goiás), discussed the various chapters developed by the researchers to compose a book organized by the group. Besides, the search mechanisms for new partnerships and sources of funding for future research were outlined. ‘Ways of life and work: research, collaboration and commitment in psychology’ (UFF), discussed how concrete experiences in work situations had fostered group research; besides, efforts were also made to establish strategies to strengthen and develop cooperative exchange and training networks. In the group ‘Idleness, subjective time and work’ (UNIFOR) the researchers analyzed the exchanges and productions arising from the ‘III International Congress of Cultural Studies: idleness, leisure and free time in contemporary cultures’, an event in which the group invested a few years ago, since other editions of ANPEPP symposia. The WG ‘Psychodynamics and Clinical Work’ (UnB) established as objectives for the symposium the deepening of the theoretical-methodological debate of Brazilian studies on the relationships among work organization, suffering and mental health, considering historical and cultural aspects of the processes of subjectification. As a task, the group structured a book and constituted strategies to consolidate the Dialogue in Work Psychodynamics Magazine (Know is Brazil as Revista Diálogo em Psicodinâmica do Trabalho). Another group was ‘WOP in Brazil: epistemology, theories and methods’ (UFBA). This WG used the meeting to organize the production of reflective texts on epistemological, theoretical and methodological issues that would characterize the WOP area in Brazil, from which future paths to the area would be suggested, as well as its repositioning on the international scenery. The ‘Contemporary organizational processes and work’ WG (USP-SP) continued its studies on daily life and discussed some lines of research, such as unemployment, informality, self-management, among others. In addition, the feasibility of cooperation projects and international publications was also discussed. Finally, the group ‘Work and health’ (PUC-MG) held discussions on a multicentric research project with the central theme questioning what variables (social, organizational, personal, among others) are acting as moderators in the work-health relationships (ANPEPP, 2014).

In the 16th ANPEPP symposium, 74 WGs were present. Nine of them dealt specifically with work dimensions. ‘Careers: information, guidance and counseling’ (USP-SP), as a new WG, discussed the creation of a joint agenda (national and international) for research and scientific production. Also, actions were taken to increase training at the master and the doctoral levels in the field of studies on career building and professional guidance. The WG ‘Organizational Culture and Health at Work’ (UnB), continued to organize a book on emerging topics in Psychology, bringing to the perspective chapters covering the knowledge production in WOP. Another group, called ‘Ways of life and work: ethical dimensions and scientific production’ (Universidade Federal do Espírito Santo - UFES), proposed to exercise the collective production of articles that recovered the history of concepts and authors about the central theme on ways of life and work from the strengthening and development of exchange networks and researchers and professionals training that involved the activity point of view. The WG ‘Idleness, time and work’ (UNIFOR) highlighted the need to discuss instruments for the qualification of the subjective experience of leisure; for this, it proposed a joint research project among researchers, in addition to the continuity of other actions they already carried out, such as scientific writing, participation in seminars, meetings and various forms of intercessions, among others. ‘Psychodynamics and clinical work’ (Universidade do Vale do Rio dos Sinos - UNISINOS) was another WG present at the event that aimed to build purposes and goals to expand the knowledge production in the field of psychodynamics and clinical work, deepening the theoretical-methodological debate, in addition to contributing to the consolidation of a scientific magazine that covers the work theme in a specific way. The WG ‘WOP: theoretical, methodological and professional aspects’ formally participated in the meeting, but the summary prepared by the group was not available in the electronic annals. ‘Work Psychosociology’ (UFMG) was a WG in its first participation in the symposium. Its objectives in the constitution of the WG and the meeting on this occasion itself was to explore possibilities for building subprojects in partnerships to, thus, expand exchanges and enrich knowledge production in the area, helping to consolidate existing partnerships. The ‘Contemporary organizational processes and work’ WG (UFSC) continued its studies, opening them up to include contexts of precariousness and labor outsourcing relations in Latin America, strengthening internationalization via joint projects. Finally, the WG ‘Work and health’ (UnB). In this edition, the group's central object was the discussion on the articulation of forms of conception, analysis and intervention in the field of health and psychosocial risks in work activities (ANPEPP, 2016).

The 17^thedition of the ANPEPP Symposium hosted 79 GTs, the largest number of participating groups so far; from these, seven working groups dealt with the thematic work. The WG ‘Careers: information, guidance and counseling’ (USP-SP) aimed to build a research agenda during the event with two main lines: measures in career and vocational guidance and dropout in higher education. Besides, they outlined a special edition of the Vocational Guidance Brazilian Magazine (known in Brazil as Revista Brasileira de Orientação Profissional - RBOP) for the next Symposium with the theme ‘Higher education’. The WG ‘Organizational culture and health at work’ (UnB) planned the development of projects and subprojects with the focus on the elaboration of a future book that compared versions of instruments on a specific topic in international literature, proposing a Brazilian version of it. The WG ‘Work design and its relationship with processes and organizational results’ (UnB) established strategies for the internationalization of its research on Work Design, in addition to presenting and discussing its studies and projects in progress and recently concluded. Another WG was ‘Ways of life and work: science, daily life and democracy’ (UFPB). At the event, the group continued to plan a book that discusses concepts and methods from WOP based on the analysis of some film productions. The group ‘Psychodynamics and Clinical Work’ (UNISINOS), discussed the book chapters produced pre-symposium, as well as the presentation of text summaries written by members of the WG and associated guests. In general, the deepening of the theoretical-methodological debate continued to permeate the dialogues, and possible directions of the collective gathered there. The ‘Work Psychosociology’ (UFMG) WG, in this edition, recorded the maintenance of the international character of the group with the participation of Latin American countries and the objective of expanding the collective's actions with RIPOT (Red Iberoamericana de Psicología Organizacional y del Trabajo), with bibliographic productions and insertions in other media (such as the internet) and/or radio). The members ‘Contemporary organizational processes and work’ WG (UFSC) participated in the launch of a book resulting from the work and commitment of the group. In addition, the outline of another publication on Social and Work Psychology, now Ibero-Latin American, came to be drawn on its deadlines, structure and participants. Finally, the ‘Work and health’ WG (UFRN) sought there, in continuity with the dialogues between some theoretical operators (Quality of Life at Work - QVT), to establish efforts for cooperation with researchers of Latin America WOP, and to strengthen and expand the international collaboration network (ANPEPP, 2018).

Final considerations

Searching in each edition of the symposium, each written document, each report, and each working group summary allowed us to substantiate some of our suspicions with data, and researchers dedicated to the WOP subarea.

Returning to the numbers, the 1^st ANPEPP Symposium, in 1989, had 10 WGs, none on work theme. In 2018, on the 17^th and last edition analyzed in this text, 79 WGs participated, from which 7 were discussing the work. The most representative year of groups addressing the theme we are dealing with here was the 16^th edition, in 2016, with 9 WGs. However, the variation among such numbers cannot be understood as significant, remaining at an average of 4 WGs on WOP throughout the history of the 17 symposia.

As for information on institutional ties and frequency of participation by working groups, the emblematic contribution stands out, in quantitative terms, from the University of Brasília (UnB) for knowledge production in the WOP subarea. With different groups discussing different perspectives on the work, researchers with ties to this university have coordinated WGs in all editions of ANPEPP since the creation of the modality, except for the III Symposium, in which there was no group discussing work. In the 1996 (VI Symposium) and 1998 (VII Symposium) editions, all the WGs on work (three Groups in each edition) were coordinated by researchers from UnB. However, the collectives deal with different themes.

In the discussion that delineates on the themes of knowledge production about WOP based on the propositions of these groups, it becomes possible to perceive some movements. Notes and concerns in tones of denunciation about the low knowledge production in the area permeated the first editions of the symposium, including with an outstanding look at the fragile or nonexistent data of the time regarding postgraduate programs addressing the subarea. Thus, efforts were made by the WGs to remedy this. Subsequently, graduation was included in this range of training concerns and, in equal measure, in the consequent use of efforts for the elaboration of materials, here, with the format of basic texts for use in classrooms of Psychology courses.

Concern about what they considered epistemological and formative fragility for WOP in undergraduate and postgraduate courses was never totally abandoned in the research agendas of ANPEPP groups, as it could be seen in the view made above. However, it marked more intensely the working groups up to the 8^th edition (2000). As developments, taken from efforts and interlocutions, the researchers increased the production and joint publication, producing articles, book chapters, book organizations, dossiers and other bibliographic productions aimed at the theoretical and technical support of the area.

In our understanding, the 8^thedition of the symposium (2000) was a watershed event due to the discussions on work from WGs. The focus on training remained, but the incorporation of new themes is identified. From the 8^th to the 10^th edition (beginning of the 2000s), ambitious research on the Brazilian psychologist was designed, with analyzes from different theoretical perspectives of WOP. The argument was about how WOP had accumulated knowledge about other professions but knew little about its own occupation. This research, which was completed and published years later (Bastos & Gondim, 2010), represents the changes in the look towards the WOP subarea in Brazil. If in the late 1980s (1^st and 2^nd editions) and throughout the 1990s (from the 3^rd to the 7^theditions), the attention was directed to the epistemic and methodological support of the area, from the 8^th edition (2000), the performance challenges have taken the lead role, as well as the subjective dynamics and interdisciplinarity. WOP interdisciplinarity has gone through discussions in the most recent editions, including with groups addressing the challenges it imposes on research and intervention in the area. With studies more focused on health and illness processes and their relationship with the categories and contexts of work, reflection based on inter-knowledge has become necessary. In response to this call, ANPEPP, in the 14^th edition (in 2012), established the challenges of interdisciplinarity as the central theme of the event.

Also, from the 8^th edition (2000), the objective of making conceptual distinctions, as well as elaborating models to be adopted as a theoretical reference structure for Brazilian research and interventions, became more recurrent in the groups. In some groups, there was also a concern with making adaptations and national versions of international instruments, being increased, in our reading, by the internationalization of interlocutions and productions in the WGs. However, we have demarcated that, in recent years, Brazilian policies for the expansion and consolidation of stricto sensu postgraduate courses, propagated in large part by the Coordination for the Improvement of Higher Education Personnel (known in Brazil as Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nìvel Superior - CAPES) have encouraged, even financially, partnerships between Brazilian and international institutions. In their propositions and actions, such policies encourage international insertion, including using it as one of the parameters to measure the excellence of a postgraduate program. Therefore, the concern with internationalization in the WGs speeches of the ANPEPP is convergent with the recent context of Brazilian postgraduate studies and not only in Psychology.

As a closure, we indicate the limitations that the need for clipping imposed us in the face of the wealth of the material consulted. Furthermore, we hope that, at another time, both we can return to the summaries and reports with new issues, and other researchers interested in the WOP subarea.

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Publication Dates

• Publication in this collection
  07 Dec 2020
• Date of issue
  2020

History

• Received
  21 June 2019
• Accepted
  06 Jan 2020