The role of manager: Perceptions from academic-managers of a Brazilian Federal University

Abstract

This research aimed to analyze how higher education teachers from a Brazilian federal university perceive the role of academic-manager. For this purpose, it was conducted an interpretive qualitative basic study, whose participants were academic-manager of Federal University of São Francisco Valley (Univasf). Data were collected through semistructured interviews and documentary analysis. Content analysis was adopted for processing data with the software Atlas Ti support. Based on data, it was identified the dimensions shared by them when refer to the academic-manager role (conventional facet), around which these subjects aggregate themselves and that characterized the role of academic-manager as a social category.  As well, it was possible to recognize the interpretations and individual meanings which constitute the idiosyncratic facet of academic manager role. Field research proved to be fruitful when approaching empirically the process of identification and categorization of social role, respectively coming from Theory of Identity and Theory of Social Identity, pointing complementarity between approaches traditionally opponents. By situating the issue of academic manager role at the Univasf, the research provided still knowledge about a reality that needs to be better investigated: the roles, activities, challenges with which masters and doctors in early career, crowded in federal universities, have to deal with.