Sentidos da pós-graduação nos relatos de mestrandos em administração: uma análise a partir da psicodinâmica do trabalho

Abstract

Stricto sensu postgraduate studies in Brazil have been affected by the crisis in science, the commodification of knowledge, and the intensification of academic work, impacting educational processes and students' subjective experiences. In this context, postgraduate studies also function as an organization of academic work, marked by prescriptions, productivity requirements, and evaluations. Given this context, the overall objective of this dissertation is to understand the meanings constructed by master's students about their experiences in graduate programs in Business Administration at Federal Universities in Minas Gerais, through the Psychodynamics of Work, in a context permeated by crisis and the commodification of science. To achieve this proposal, we propose: a) to understand and describe the trajectory of master's students in Business Administration; b) to understand the meanings attributed to graduate studies by master's students in Business Administration; c) to understand the aspects of pleasure and suffering in the experiences of graduate students. This is a qualitative study conducted with master's students in Business Administration. Information was collected through semistructured interviews, conducted remotely, subsequently transcribed and analyzed in light of the Psychodynamics of Work. The results indicate that the postgraduate experience is lived amid expectations of recognition, belonging, and social mobility, alongside processes of work intensification, psychological distress, insecurity, and educational frustrations. Graduate school appears as a workspace in which individual accountability and the weakening of collective processes limit the possibilities for recognition, directly impacting the identity and health of the subjects. Furthermore, with the presence of relational mediations, institutional support, and possibilities for subjective mobilization, suffering can take on a creative character, allowing for the reframing of trajectories and meanings attributed to the graduate school experience. Thus, it can be concluded that graduate school is experienced simultaneously as a space for training and a work organization marked by tensions, in which the intensification of demands and the emphasis on academic productivity result in isolation, anxiety, and a naturalization of psychological suffering, often neglected in favor of implicit performance standards. However, students also find sources of pleasure through coping strategies, symbolic recognition among peers, and the meaning of their work.