Tensão entre racionalidades: estudo de caso da Associação de Catadores de Materiais Recicláveis de Lavras (ACAMAR)

Abstract

The present work deals with a qualitative social research, carried out in an economical solidarity project of collectors of recyclable materials, in the city of Lavras, Minas Gerais. In general, it is indicated in the literature on cooperatives and associations that organizations of this type should be managed through a substantive and / or communicative rationality rather than an instrumental one. However, from the Rapid Participatory Emancipatory Diagnosis (DRPE), it was verified that the members of the Lavras Recyclers Association (ACAMAR) also have an instrumental rationality regarding common business. Therefore, the objective was to understand the tensions between the substantive and instrumental rationalities in the management of ACAMAR. The theoretical part of this research was based on the works of the first and second generation of theoretical-empirical studies on rationality in organizations. For data collection, documentary research, participant observation and semi-structured interviews were used. The analyzes, in turn, occurred in four moments, they are: analysis of each constituent element of substantive and instrumental action; mapping of prevailing indicators; identification of existing tensions; comprehension of the effects of tensions in daily organizational and management. The results showed that most of ACAMAR's administrative actions are subsidized both by substantive logic and instrumental logic, and therefore, the tensions between them are frequent in the daily life of the enterprise and in the management processes. It has also been shown that collectors deal with the tension in ACAMAR in two ways: they do nothing about it, insofar as they do not recognize its existence; or in recognizing their existence try to eliminate it, because they consider it undesirable. Therefore, because of the way in which tensions are faced by members, the internal environment of the Association is marked in spite of the traits of substantivity due to friction, apathy, dissatisfaction, a sense of human nonperformance and not improvement of productive success.