Conflicts in the social relations at work in the context of the new public management in the light of the work psychodynamics

Abstract

The text presents the results of a research whose objective was to understand the phenomenon of conflicts in social relations of work, in public organizations, in the context of the New Public Management, under the lenses of Work Psychodynamics. The literature review addresses: the types of public administration: patrimonial public administration, bureaucratic public administration, new public management; the theoretical lens of the Work Psychodynamics and its constituent dimensions; and conflicts in labor relations. Methodologically, a qualitative research was carried out, using narrative interviews with fourteen employees of the direct administration and indirect administration of a State of Northeast Brazil. The technique of the analysis of sense nuclei was used to understand the narratives. After transcribing and categorizing the interviews, the following topics were identified: work conditions, work organization, social work relations, fear, psychic burden, disease/health, suffering/pleasure and defense strategies. It was concluded that the conflicts originating from the subject-work relationship and the social, professional and affective relations that unfold in the contexts of work under the New Public Management, constitute a source of anxiety, tension, restlessness, fear and suffering, at the same time in which such context and relations are the stage of the emergence of dimensions associated with pleasure, such as appreciation, satisfaction, recognition, confirming that the constructs pleasure and suffering operate in the real of work in an interrelated way.

Keywords: Brazilian public administration. Conflicts. Psychodynamics of Work.