Productivity at Any Cost? Managerialism and Harassment at the University

Considering the importance of aspects of work organization and, primarily, management practices in addressing abusive relationships, this article aims to classify situations of harassment and moral violence reported by university professors, as well as to characterize the work context in which these incidents occurred. The research included 18 university professors from an institution in the Brazilian center-west who reported experiencing moral harassment, as indicated by their responses to item 31 of the Negative Acts Questionnaire (NAQ). To systematize situations of violence and harassment, the frequency of attacks was evaluated, as well as the frequency of responses to the NAQ items, the sociodemographic and occupational questionnaire and the Work Context Assessment Scale. The results point to a work context characterized by unfair practices and an intense work pace, fostering hostile and abusive relationships. For harassed professors, the university demands competitiveness (94%, n=17), and there is a lack of integration (83%, n=15), indicating a solitary experience that leads to individualism. Concerning moral harassment, 9 (50%) teachers were the target of slander and had their position disregarded monthly, weekly, or daily. Regarding situations that happened from time to time (violence), 10 (55,6%) teachers reported being constantly criticized in the service. It is concluded that the occurrences of moral violence are proof of the need to rethink the university environment, whose social ties have been snatched away by quantitative, metric, meritocratic logic, in disregard of the quality and meaning of what is done

Context (archaeology) · Harassment · Institution · Managerialism · Meaning (existential) · Meritocracy · Productivity · Work (physics) · Education and Work Dynamics · Occupational Health and Burnout · Workplace Violence and Bullying

• A cultura da performatividade e a avaliação da Pós-Graduação em Educação no Brasil

  Open Access•Antonio Flavio Barbosa Moreira, Antonio Flávio Moreira•Educação em Revista•2009

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