Sistema Regional de Información
en línea para Revistas Científicas de América Latina,
el Caribe, España y Portugal

The study of organizational decisions, nowadays, shows a great diversity of epistemological, theoretical-conceptual and methodological approaches. However, few ideas have had an impact as profound and lasting in management thinking about decisions, as those related to bounded rationality. Introduced by Herbert Simon in the late 1940s, bounded rationality supposedly denies the underpinnings of full rationality and proposes a more “realistic” way to describe how choices are made by individuals in organizations. In spite of its progress, when compared to the full rationality model, does bounded rationality really mean a paradigm shift in the interpretation of management decision? This theoretical essay aims to demonstrate that the bounded rationality model does not break with the orthodox model of full rationality, as it is still far from addressing the effectively relevant aspects of managerial decisions, namely, its moral aspects. This study also presents and discuss some conceptual elements which could be useful to build a moral theory of rationality in order to demonstrate how an actual disruption with Simon´s rationality concept could be articulated and what would be the advances and benefits that such disruption could bring to the investigation of the decision-making processes in organizations.

This research was based on Internationalization as an organizational phenomenon in permanent theoretical and managerial developments. It aims to analyze the evolution of the concept of ‘internationalization’ through economic and behavioral schools. A literature review is pre­sented, discussing the schools that develop empirical studies and postulate analysis models on methods for internationalization of compa­nies in the world. Finally, the concept of born global is presented, considering the development of the internationalization phenomenon. The article depicts the paradigm shift in how the internationalization process is seen pragmatically and theoretically.

This study analyzes how organizational values and work values are shaped among operators in a call center, located in Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais, Brazil. The analysis in such a workplace, permeated by idiosyncrasies, was conducted by means of field research, descriptive, through quantitative and qualitative approaches, characterizing a methodological triangulation. Data from 399 questionnaires were addressed statis­tically and those from 22 interviews underwent the content analysis technique. As for the organizational values, a predominance of the value “compliance” was noticed, a fact that may be understood because this type of organization is recognized for observing predefined behavioral rules, attitudes, and models. Regarding work values, the results related to “stability” and “working achievement” stand out, since they are values involved in the search for security, acquired through a job, and for pleasure and personal and professional fulfillment, respectively. The study examined two constructs that have not been investigated together before and it also contributed to grasp peculiarities of the type of company addressed. In addition, triangulation allowed us to observe discrepancies between data collected by using differential techniques, something which encourages us to continue and extend the research, both concerning the themes focused and the contexts under analysis.

The aim of this essay is to discuss the epistemological field of the science of administration, using the contributions of the Political Administration, as a theoretical-epistemological and methodological basis to understand, in a critical and contextualized way, the abstract/conceptual (‘management’) and empirical (‘administration practices’) dimensions of public policies. In order to address the administration epistemologic problem, it is crucial to recognize that administration is a social ‘knowledge’ and ‘practice’ that is still not perceived as an autonomous field of knowledge. As for the methodological path, the study presents the conceptual issues supporting the epistemological and methodological basis of the Political Administration, which defends that the ‘management’ is its ‘scientific object’ and the ‘organization’ its privileged ‘object of study’. Subsequently, after broadening the understanding of the field of reflection and action of administration science, the authors establish a dialogue with other scientific fields, especially with Political Economy. Finally, the essay presents preliminary reflections on contributions that empirical studies in Political Administration can bring to understanding social relations of production, circulation and distribution in contemporary capitalism in terms of evaluation of public policies.

The method of Weberian understanding has been the subject of discussion and debate over time. However, specifically, empathic understanding is still little explored, especially in the study of Brazilian organizations. After searching on major databases and journals hosted on the website Periódicos CAPES, we found that there is little academic literature that follows the path of empathic understanding, specifically in the field of Organizational Studies in Brazil. Therefore, we seek to bring in this study some considerations about the rescue of empathic understanding for the research. Considering the approach of organizational aesthetics as a backdrop, the discussion articulates the epistemological foundations of empathic understanding proposed by Weber’s sociology. This recommends that studies in the field of Social Sciences are anchored primarily in understanding the meaning of individual action to understand why they act a certain way. Following the discussion, we reflect on the possible contributions that empathic understanding can bring to research, considering the idea of the researcher as a key to building the research corpus and the plausibility of knowledge obtained without necessarily undertaking the action. This article serves as a trigger for the development of other discussions about the possibilities of contribution of empathic understanding for the research in Organization Studies.

Volunteering is a growing social phenomenon in the current context and is presented as an alternative to the logic of capitalism in the management of civil society organizations. However, it is possible that there are contradictions in the action of the volunteer, whose human action may be mediated by behavioral factors underlying apparent behavior, not always considered noble, such as egoism. This theoretical essay aims to understand what is behind human action in the behavior of volunteers of civil society organizations (CSOs). Therefore, the theoretical arguments were built by pragmatic sociology, which seeks to find reasons for acting through symbolic mediations, to the detriment of behavioral psychology. It is argued that volunteers are endowed with rational and justifiable behavior by three pragmatic regimes developed by Laurent Thévenot and by the complementary concepts of Frédéric Vandenberghe; both argue that human actions are justifiable. The arguments presented theoretically, confirm that the behavioral factors of the volunteers, produce effects on the results of the CSOs. These effects include the low degree of involvement of the volunteers with the organizations, since the justifications for acting can be centered on world such as “fame” and “mercantile”, contributing to generate uneasiness among researchers about the possible inference of what lies behind human action.

This article discusses and reflects on the relevance of considering mediation as focus of analysis of heterogeneity in the Actor Network Theory (ANT) when it comes to organizational studies, comparing it with two paradigmatic perspectives much discussed today - simplification and complexity. Therefore, it initially deals with the modern paradigm crisis, showing the transition of this paradigm to the paradigm of complexity and places organizational studies in this new paradigm. Then, the study synthetically shows the historical path of heterogeneity, and then shows how this is conceptualized in ANT as an epistemological possibility to organizational studies. Finally, it highlights some considerations about mediation as focus of analysis of heterogeneity in ANT. The main argument is that from the heterogeneous analysis of the social, natural and technological factors interrelated in what ANT calls “actors networks”, it is possible to overcome, in organizational studies, the circularity in which the modern paradigms of simplification and complexity are inserted. This is because the heterogeneity, the way proposed in the context of simplification and complexity, consists mainly of static conceptions of reality and ANT, heterogeneity is primarily relational, it is the flow of collectives and the ways they behave, whether they are performing simple, complex, ordered or fluid activities. From these reflections, the article is based, epistemologically, on the heterogeneity assumptions of ANT as a lens of analysis relevant to understanding the organizational phenomena.

The present article aims to investigate the manifestations of the tension between substantive and instrumental rationalities in management of the Itapeba Ecovillage. It is an ex-post-facto qualitative research. We adopted ethnography as our methodological strategy. We applied participant observation at the Itapeba ecovillages between May and September 2011. We adopted the substantive approach to organizations as our theoretical basis. This work introduces in the Administration Science the study on a previously unpublished kind of organization, the ecovillages. The result of the analysis of the fieldwork point to the following conclusions: instrumental and substantive rationalities are not self excluding; the process of communication provides support to balance between self-imposed normativity of management with aspirations, values and self actualization of subjects; regular gatherings, decision making, conflict management, rituals celebrations and unplanned gatherings are all part of the interpersonal relationships universe of sustainable communities; the creation of spaces designed for decision making and exercise of political life that privilege substantive rationality do not imply the reduction of typical instrumental spaces such as technical and bureaucratic ones; to participate in decision processes, to have accesses to political and power instances and the possibility to affirm personal principles are essential to conciliate personal expectancies and organizational demands; ecovillages represent a synthesis between knowledge and action, between theory and practice, and are viable answers to the current civilization crisis.

This article aims to show that the concept of life-world (lebenswelt) in Jürgen Habermas, and the refutation of the dichotomy ‘fact’ v. ‘value’ in Hilary Putnam may account epistemologically for the evaluation process in social management, which consists of explicating facts, values and their respective meanings shared inter-subjectively. The article presents the Map of Public Goods and the Semantic Map of ENCIR (Expectations, Needs, Capabilities, Interests and Representations), which are instruments of evaluative experience, arguing on this instruments ability to communicatively explain the meanings/interpretations emanating from the life-world of Public Constituents. We argue with Habermas that life-world is an epistemological foundation of the evaluation procedures in social management that considers the dialogic relation between facts and values. With Putnam, we argue that these constituent elements are interwoven and subject to rational discussion. In this perspective, evaluative and communicative assessment processes must be built according to the capacities of the Public Constituents and co-produced by means of inclusive, dialogic and deliberative processes, validated inter-subjectively. This meets Habermas claims to truth, honesty/truthfulness and normative correction/legitimacy.

In the epistemology of administrative science, one of many important dimensions has been the different subfields of the study of administration. Perhaps the biggest, longest running ‘turf’ battle between these different areas of administrative knowledge is that between public and business administration. This is a controversy that goes back at least to Adam Smith, with his specific limitation of the role of ‘the sovereign’ (government, or public administration) to justice, defense, and public works. In limiting government to these areas, note that Smith was also implicitly asserting that these were market, or ‘invisible hand’ failures: areas where the pursuit of self-interest would not yield the good of society, the specific moral justification Smith identified for market exchange. Contemporary discussions of the relative role of market and state are generally framed in terms of the role of the State, with market provision the default option. We will argue that even discussions of the role of the State can best be assessed through the concept of market failure. The nine broad types of market failure discussed include institutions, public goods, monopoly, asymmetric information, externalities, substantive issues, principal/agent problems, irrationality, and the implications of ‘creative destruction’.