Public policies and organizational studies: A theoretical articulation to analyze of the organizational forms of postgraduate programs at Federal University of Pelotas (Brazil)

Abstract

This article articulates approaches from the area of public policy analysis and the field of organizational studies to examine the unfolding of public policies in the area of higher education, in the management and governance of graduate programs in Brazil. The concepts of political belief (policy belief) and political narrative (policy narrative), articulated to the perspective of corporatization and dissemination of the company's discourse, as a theoretical framework for the analysis of the forms of organization of graduate programs, based on a case study at the Federal University of Pelotas (UFPel). Through interviews carried out with university managers and with researchers who held positions of coordination in graduate programs, it was possible to draw an overview of the forms of governance present in these programs. Evidence points to the predominance of a corporate governance logic in which actors start to work from the definition of goals and financial return as efficiency indicators.