MANAGERIAL EXCELLENCE IN BRAZILIAN RESEARCH INSTITUTES AND CENTERS: THE EXPERIENCE OF ‘EXCELLENCE IN TECHNOLOGICAL RESEARCH PROGRAM’

Abstract

Managerial excellence programs have diffused around the world, extending its philosophyand guidelines beyond the industry. The interest of different organizations aboutorganizational assessment processes is because of the development of American and European Business Excellence Models (BEMs). In Brazil, the BEM of the National Quality Award (PNQ) has been spreading as a reference for the establishment of  programs for excellence awards in several society areas. In the last decades, Brazilian research and technology organizations (RTOs), especially those of public nature, have faced intense pressure to generate resources to ensure its maintenance and survival. This has required a strategic vision of these organizations, as to obtain benefits from the  interactions they establish with other organizations in the innovation systems. RTOs have been compelled to improve their responsiveness and planning their activities on the basis of consistent strategic guidelines. Evidently, the management mechanisms are of great importance to  achieve the goals set. This article aims to present the movement for excellence in management of Brazilian RTOs, led by Brazilian Association of Technological Research Institutions (ABIPTI) and embodied in the Excellence in Technological Research Program (PEPT). We have adopted references that: i) enable to describe and analyse of the evolution of  Quality in contemporary society, taking as benchmarks the American and Japanese production archetypes, ii) enable to understand the creation and development of major quality awards, including the Brazilian, and iii) help to perceive the changes in the scientific and technological research. Besides the literature review, we examined some documents relating to PEPT Program, which allowed a better understanding of the context of its  creation, the role of ABIPTI in this process and the choice of PNQ as the model to guide the change in management systems of the associated RTOs. One of the main considerations of this paper is that the PEPT Program has had difficulties in spreading the “management excellence” in RTOs and one reason for this is the difficulty encountered by them to  internalize management processes in their structures, as BEM/PNQ.