Racionalidades em tensão: novo olhar sobre a gestão de pessoas em organizações militares

Abstract

The trend of voluntary attrition among enlisted military personnel has altered the staffing structure of the Brazilian Air Force (FAB), forming the central problem addressed in this thesis. In addition, active-duty members who choose to remain in service demonstrate lower professional qualifications, which directly impact the institution’s administrative continuity and its ability to achieve its strategic vision, anchored in retaining qualified and committed personnel. The literature highlights the tension between the guiding logic of institutional identity and the rationalities through which the identity of military professionals operates. However, studies on the subject predominantly focus on the career trajectory of officers and the quantification of their results. For this reason, the central question of this study revolved around how evaded military personnel and current members at the FAB's operational level interpret the attrition trend from the perspective of rationalities. Given this, the general objective was to understand what influences the attrition of career military personnel at operational levels. To this end, this research adopted an organizational case study method within an FAB school and, complementarily, a biographical method, focusing on the voices of the actors themselves regarding the phenomenon. The qualitative methodology, grounded in a multi-paradigmatic approach, integrated elements of the critical perspective with interpretive understanding. The critical discourse analysis of the institution revealed its commitment to a more humanized direction, representing a historic step in its trajectory. This positioning shows that, by recognizing the need to adopt a people-centered approach, the FAB has evolved in its management practices and aligned itself with contemporary organizational demands. However, this progress is only the beginning of a process that requires continuity and consistency, given that reflection without action constitutes mere verbalism. From the perspective of the actors' narratives, the research reveals a professional military identity characterized by individuals with highly developed technical, cognitive, and behavioral competencies. This identity, conceptualized as a protagonist identity, transcends the traditional view of the soldier as merely instrumental. In this context, when individuals are not legitimized by the institution they chose to join, profiles of threatened, complacent, and ruptured continuity emerge. Therefore, the dissonance between institutional discourse and the narratives of military personnel reveals a silent tension. This tension arises from the perception that the institution fails to recognize them as professionals, neglecting their identities. For this reason, the research challenges the dominant thesis supporting current military socialization and management practices, which are based on the premise that individuals must shed their personal identities upon entering the institution to align unilaterally with its organizational identity. The proposed antithesis argues that, in the contemporary context, both the organization and the individuals influence each other in a reciprocal and relational dynamic. To achieve an integrated management model, the research proposes a substantive restructuring of the institution’s management processes, focusing on the pillars of “knowing, developing, and recognizing” its primary asset — people.