Mudança e a teoria ator-rede: Humanos e não-humanos em controvérsias na implementação de um Centro de Serviços Compartilhados

• Autor(a) principal: Pinto, Clovis Cerretto
• Data de Publicação: 2013
• Tipo de documento: Tese
• Idioma: por
• Título da fonte: Biblioteca Digital de Teses e Dissertações do Mackenzie
• Texto Completo: http://dspace.mackenzie.br/handle/10899/23215
• topic: teoria ator-rede; mudança; organizing; cartografia de controvérsias; centro de serviços compartilhados; actor-network theory; change; organizing; controversies cartography; Shared Services Center.; CNPQ::CIENCIAS SOCIAIS APLICADAS::ADMINISTRACAO

The challenge explored in this study is to address organizational change as flow. To do so,the Actor-Network Theory (ANT) was used, which is an approach querying traditional Sociology. This theory disregards the concept of society, instead viewing it as a collectif of human and non-human actors linked together in networks and endowed with agency. Its studies usually focus on technological topics, particularly those featuring IT systems and machines as non-human actors . However, other non-human aspects are also part of these collectifs and companies, such as corporate projects viewed as quasi-objects. One of the core concepts of the ANT is the translation of interests , in addition to urging the relevance of the controversy-based view for describing social dynamics. According to the ANT, the actors themselves have their own theories about events, with no need to explain them. Based on these remarks, the general purpose of the study was: to understand how non-human and human agency occurs and the agency of their association in non-technological change processes in a company in the light of the ANT. This study opted for process ontology through a post-structuralist approach. As a research strategy, it used a longitudinal case study conducted from April 2011 to July 2012 at Enterprise X, a pseudonym for a public utility service provider in São Paulo State, Brazil, where the Implementation of a Shared Services Center (SSC) was under way. During this process, the researcher had three identities that were ethically conflicting: manager of one of the administrative departments involved in the implementation of this Center; the project implementer and a researcher working towards a doctorate. The research project was approved by the company on these bases, grounded on ethical commitments to confidentiality. Participant observation was used to construct the data, together with focus groups, one-on-one interviews, audiovisual resources and documents, aiming a multivocal outcome, with data analysis through controversies cartography, supported by dynamic network software, actant diagrams, timelines and adapted mind maps. The description of the implementation of this SSC a translation of interests for cutting back on the administrative staff took place at three levels, on a larger to a smaller scale, over seventeen years at Company X. The controversies were mapped by topic, argument and the human / non-human actants involved, as well as the stances adopted,underscoring the non-human agency serving as mediators. Some controversies were closed, becoming black boxes, meaning fragile stabilizations that could be reopened at some future time. Others remained active, with the result that the SSC was not punctualized by the end of the research period. The main contributions of the study are related to understanding change as controversies constructed by network-actors that lead to organization when resolved (even partially), and the methodology used to address change as process.The study presents recommendations for subsequent research projects and for the business segment, with reflections and suggestions for understanding change in all its complexity, in addition to the episodic approach.