Bureaucracy and public management: Ministry of Health analysis

• Main Authors: Luciana Assis Costa, Daniete Fernandes Rocha
• Format: Article
• Language: Portuguese
• Published: Universidade Federal de São Carlos 2018-09-01
• Series: Cadernos Brasileiros de Terapia Ocupacional
• Subjects: Health Policy; Bureaucracy; Health Service Management
• Online Access: http://www.cadernosdeterapiaocupacional.ufscar.br/index.php/cadernos/article/view/2151/1029

This article aims to an analysis of the level of bureaucratization of the Ministry of Health, based on its organizational structure, the composition and formation of the administrative staff, the forms of their recruitment and the career structure, in a way linked to the management capacity of the health policy. The study references are elements of the theoretical approach of New Weberian of bureaucracy and the ramifications of theories on public management. This is a descriptive cross-sectional qualitative study conducted in the 1990-2014 period. The data collection instruments were semi-structured interviews conducted with those who hold technical and technical/political position in the Ministry and in some administrative bodies, as well as research in documents. The results show that the implementation of the public service exams indicates an institutional advancement in the meritocratic sense, expressed in the increasing of the effective based staff in the Ministry of Health. However, the opening of exams dissociated from an increased investment in professional training and incentives for career employees, have not act in reducing the organizational instability of MS, given the high turnover of newly passed in the public exams and the permanence of a demobilized administrative staff. There were no advances in the adoption of internal cohesion mechanisms, such as the modernization of career plans, or the adoption of innovations in management.