THE TEMPORAL DIMENSION OF COLLECTIVE LEARNING PROCESS IN THE PUBLIC SECTOR: A BRAZILIAN CASE STUDY

THE TEMPORAL DIMENSION OF COLLECTIVE LEARNING PROCESS IN THE PUBLIC SECTOR: A BRAZILIAN CASE STUDY

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Abstract

The discussion about how learning happens in organizations has intensified in recent decades. Perhaps this debate is most intense in the public sector, given the transformations called for by society.  Thus, the construction of the collective learning process over time constitutes an important aspect that can broaden the understanding of this phenomenon, which is the central aim of this paper. To this end, we chose to conduct a qualitative case study related to the experience undergone by the State of Pernambuco in a public policy proposition called "Pact for Education", which has been noteworthy because of the results obtained.

1. Introduction

The debate over the transformations promoted in public sector due to the incorporation of management mechanisms applied to private sector around the world is recent. Indeed, public administration (PA) has been dominated for nearly a century by the ideas established from the tradition of Weberian bureaucracy.

According to Pollitt (2007), only in the last two decades different perspectives have been developed, giving more prominence to New Public Management (NPM). This perspective emphasizes the process of measurement and evaluation of outcomes, focusing on performance in the delivery of public services.

More recently, the perspective of New Public Governance (NPG) has become more evident, recognizing the plural nature of the state, as an alternative discourse to the previous, and the complexity of the development and implementation of public policies, influenced by contextual conditions and by inter-organizational relations (Osborne, 2006).

The changes occurring in public sector encourage studies on the adjacent organizational and social phenomena, focusing on this sector. This is a great potential area to be explored in the field of learning studies directed at government entities in their different spheres.

In this paper, learning is viewed through a social perspective (Brandi; Elkjaer, 2011), which stresses the importance of the concepts of experience and reflection (inquiry). Learning happens through transactional processes between the socialized individuals and their social context interpreted in a relationship between 'subject' and 'worlds'.

Considering this, a question about how entities can convert individual learning in collective learning arises. For a better understanding of this process, it is necessary to study how the passing of time affects learning. Based on this, this paper aims to discuss how collective learning processes are built over time in the public sector, enabling the learning of the actors and the collective reflective thinking in public organizations.

The main contribution of this paper is to understand the process of collective learning over time in the management of a public policy. In this sense, the relevance of the study to try to conceive learning as a collective endeavor is evident. For the government it is an opportunity to understand how strategists are learning so as to enable the creation of support mechanisms in the development of their knowledge.

To achieve the proposed aim, a qualitative case study was conducted. The methodology is consistent with the proposal made, especially by the feature observed in the study object. According to Stake (1995, p. 11), “the case study is the study of the particularity and complexity of a single case, coming to understand its activity within important circumstances”. Merriam (2009, p. 40) points out that “a case study is an in-depth description and analysis of a bounded system”. Thus, there is the understanding that a single case study can be represented by an innovative policy, since it is set as something specific, complex and running.

The public policy, "Pact for Education", implemented at the subnational level within the State of Pernambuco, Brazil, is used as a case. This is a poor region and had the worst national educational outcomes of educational achievement in the country, in terms of school-leaving.  After years of operation of this policy, this indicator fell significantly, resulting in this school system becoming one of the most attractive in the country.  The process of popular participation in the development of the initiatives by government enabled the this transformation, which was recently awarded United Nations Public Service Award (UNPSA), creating an increased interest in understanding this phenomenon.

2. The social learning perspective

Attempts to understand the learning phenomenon have given rise to different views. Studies on learning at the individual level are flawed because they cannot explain the transfer of knowledge in the organizational context (Brandi; Elkjaer, 2011). Thus, it was decided to consider in the current paper learning from a non-dualistic view in which individual and organization are mutually constructed.

Towards this, Dewey (1933[1986]) points out that learning begins by reflective thinking, which must be ordered and continuous, allowing a constant re-evaluation of the available data for the sequencing of ideas. This notion is based on concepts such as interaction, experience and reflection, which then became the base the further studies on the theme of learning.

The concepts of experience and inquiry designed by Dewey and the concepts of social worlds/arenas and conditional matrix, presented by Strauss, served as the foundation for the work of Bente Elkjaer (2004). For her, it is possible to draw up a “third way”, a synthesis of views on individual and collective learning.

Elkjaer (2004) proposes the concept of social learning as a non-dualistic view, understanding the interconnection between individual and organization. This vision has enabled the understanding of learning as a product, from the combination of the skills and knowledge acquired by individuals, and as a process, as a result of participation in communities of practice. Learning is accomplished in this design through transactional processes between individuals and their social context.

To Elkjaer (2004), time and space, understood as history and context are inseparable and form the debate on interaction and transaction in the relationship between individual and environment as an integrated unit of analysis. Time enables the recognition of this dynamism in relationships of individuals with their physical and social environment. The importance of the temporal dimension to learning is explored in the next section.

3. The importance of the temporal dimension for learning

The activities of public sector organizations have undergone profound transformations in the face of the challenges of social and economic conditions experienced in this century. Thus, the need to introduce a mindset oriented to a learning process for these organizations.