Contenidos de aprendizaje profesional de ejecutivos del sector minorista.
| Autor | Lucena, Eduardo de Aquino |
I INTRODUCTION
Administration literature reveals that modern companies' success is increasingly dependent on their learning capabilities. Organizations cannot maintain themselves in practices established for long periods, but need to create new processes. The Organizational Learning field includes different standpoints concerning the purposes, the essence, the research methodologies employed and the effectiveness of interventions in organizations. A substantial number of academics and consultants provide a broad debate on these issues.
When commenting on the increase in research concerning Organizational Learning, Easterby-Smith, Crossan and Nicolini (2000) reveal that, although there has been interest about learning in organizations since the late 1950s, the biggest increase in studies concerning this field occurred from the late 1980s on. Fenwick (2008), after carrying out a review of literature on learning at work in nine prestigious journals in English, adds that empirical studies are contributing important details to enrich the field.
In the Organizational Learning field, different studies have contributed to a better understanding of the different aspects of the managers' learning phenomenon. We can mention, for example, the proposal of Elkjaer (2004, 2013), who, drawing on the work of the U.S. philosopher John Dewe, conceived organizational learning with a tendency towards pragmatism. Antonacopoulou (2006), when carrying out a survey of managers in the banking sector, deepened the understanding of the relationship between individual and organizational learning. Casey and Goldman (2010) created a model for the development of people's strategic thinking ability.
Recently, certain qualitative empirical studies on managers' learning were carried out in Brazil. Silva (2008) developed a theoretical essay so as to analyze the influence of social context on managers' learning. Silva and Silva (2011) studied 16 non-governmental organizations' managers to identify the role of reflection as a mediator of management learning. Leite (2011) carried out semi-structured interviews with seven general managers from retail banking agencies so as to understand how, through their experiences, they learn managerial functions. D'Amelio (2011) surveyed 15 managers from an urban infrastructure services company, to describe the managerial skills learning processes of people with various professional backgrounds. Reis (2011) used the method to investigate the role of reflection in the learning processes of seven managers who had taken strictu or lato sensu postgraduate courses.
The phenomenon of managers' learning includes a number of factors such as the process, the context (environment), the technologies and the contents learned. When reviewing literature on Organizational Learning, we observe that there is a gap concerning the detailed knowledge about what managers effectively learn in their work environments. So as to contribute to strengthening the knowledge base in this aspect, the question that guides this study is this: what do executives from small retailers learn at their workplaces?
The empirical segment of the study was carried out with owner-managers of independent companies (not franchises) and small companies from the clothing retail sector in the city of Florianopolis. The companies that make up the retail clothing sector contribute to the local economy, offering a significant number of jobs, and offer the textile industrial complex's final products. Despite the importance of the subject, there is currently little written material about Brazilian retail managers' learning.
This article may contribute to the strengthening of knowledge and follows suggestions made by others in various studies. Didier and Lucena (2008) suggest empirical studies on managers' learning. Mintzberg (2010, p. 16) states that "nowadays we find very few systematic studies of management ... overall there is little content on the managers' activities." Cope (2005) believes that there is a need for more research concerning the extent of the learning contents of entrepreneurs so as to deepen the knowledge on topics such as learning about the person himself, about the business and about the management of small businesses. Fenwick (2008) points out the need to examine in a more refined way the micro relationships between the elements of the learning processes in the individual and collective dimensions.
This knowledge will be useful so that professionals working in this economic segment may start to have an enhanced vision of how, in the workplace, retail managers' learning actually happens. Managers of small Brazilian companies may obtain guidance on various issues pertaining to their professional development by reading this document. Since we highlight the description of participants' perspectives, we believe that the study will help reduce the divide between the school of the representatives of Management Science and that of professionals in the business (SCHON, 1983). Furthermore, the study may support reflections by teachers from the business field and by professionals involved in developing small business executives concerning the adequacy of approaches and techniques used in their day to day work.
Including managers from various segments of modern economy, the need for learning also seems to encompass retail managers. The retail sector, which has high labor intensity, presents certain functions that require several years of training before they can be effectively dominated by the manager. Every day, he needs to communicate with a wide variety of people (ANGELO, 1997) and attract, with his company's products and services, a reasonable amount of consumers. Throughout his career, seeking to enable the success of his company, the retail administrator changes his working practices and assimilates new knowledge and skills.
Currently, many managers of small businesses from the retail sector count on the support of only a few professionals when carrying out their companies' administrative activities. Thus, in their everyday activities, they carry out operational and strategic tasks referring to various different management areas. In general, retail managers need to pay attention to different aspects of their stores, such as layout, hygiene and cleanliness, lighting, HVAC, presentation and prices of the goods, showcases, consumer visualization and internal and external signs. Often, those responsible for the company's top management are taken up by the task of dealing with operational problems.
In this section, we presented the question that guides this study. In the following section, we will discuss the theoretical foundations of this study. In the third section, we will describe the methodological procedures that were used and, in the fourth section, we will present the results achieved in the investigation. In the fifth section, we will promote discussion concerning the results that were reached and the theoretical framework that was used. Finally, in the sixth section, the article's final considerations will be made.
2 MANAGERS' LEARNING
Since the 1930s, various authors have carried out studies to understand aspects of managers' work. In this tradition of studies, we may highlight, among others, the contributions of Chester Barnard, Henry Mintzberg, Rosemary Stewart and John Kotter. More recently, Hales (2005), Tengblad (2002, 2006, 2012) and Mintzberg (2010), among others, have given continuity to discussions in this tradition of studies.
In his classic book, Barnard (1979, p. 213-214) points out that "Not all work carried out by the people who occupy executive positions is connected to executive functions." In certain situations, such as when the president (CEO) of a company personally carries out the sale of products and/or services to specific customers, executives engage in non-executive activities at their companies. To Barnard (1979, p. 219), executives have "relatively general skills involving general monitoring, understanding interest, flexibility, adjustment skills, prudence, courage etc.; and specific abilities based on particular skills or acquired techniques." According to the author, the first type of skill (relatively general) is more difficult to be developed, but the second type can be developed by training and education.
Mintzberg (2010, p. 61) proposes a model for understanding the work carried out by managers, in which "management occurs at three levels, from the conceptual to the concrete: that of information, that of people and directly to action." According to the author, two roles carried out by the manager personally refer to (i) structuring (modeling) work, focusing on work issues concerning his specific activities, and (ii) work scheduling, setting an agenda that allocates the time of the manager himself and of the people with whom he interacts on the job.
In 2009, Knud Illeris, renowned author from the learning field, edited the book Contemporary Theories of Learning: Learning Theorists--In Their Own Words, published in Portuguese in 2013 to "present an international selection of the most important contemporary authors on learning in a single volume," and, in his own words, to "offer a general impression of the continuous development and debate in this area" (ILLERIS, 2013, p. 7).
Danish professor Bente Elkjaer, author of one of the chapters of the mentioned book, has carried out his research based on certain concepts and ideas by the renowned American philosopher and educator John Dewey (1859-1952). To Elkjaer (2004, p. 424), in the learning process "research concerning the uncertain situation is the prerequisite for acquiring knowledge. Some may also say that the condition for learning is engaging in research and applying thought and reflection as tools in this effort." The author suggests that understanding the studies of John Dewey concerning notions of experience and reflective thinking may be...
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