Management of Cooperatives, Complex and Plural Organizations
The Graduate Program in Management of Cooperatives, Complex and Plural Organizations – PPGCOOP is a professional master’s degree. It is the only graduate program in Cooperative Management in Brazil and Latin America, so there is no similar program at the same level of qualification (stricto sensu).
The PPGCOOP offers a professional master’s degree and enables students to develop their entrepreneurial managerial capacity, provide internal or external consultancy, exercise management functions, and teach in schools and higher education institutions in Management and Cooperativism.
CAPES (Coordination of Improvement of Higher Education Personnel), a foundation linked to the Ministry of Education that regulates stricto sensu post-graduate programs in Brazil, granted concept 4 to PPGCOOP in its first evaluation, which occurred in 2017 (Official Letter # 299/2018-CECOL/GAB/PR/CAPES). This evaluation is quadrennial, and its scale ranges from 1 to 5 for master’s programs, where concepts 4 and 5 are considered standards of excellence. However, obtaining concept 4 in a program’s first evaluation is not common, which gives the PPGCOOP great credibility and affirmation of quality in teaching and research. Therefore, this concept is maintained today.
Cooperativism, Complex and Plural Organizations
In Brazil, and Paraná specifically, Cooperatives play a crucial role in economic and social development. Operating in 7 different business segments – agriculture and cattle raising, consumption, credit, infrastructure, health, labor, production of goods, services, and transportation – consequently, cooperatives are aligned with the strategic areas and purposes of PUCPR. On the other hand, cooperatives are characterized, in addition to being associative entities, as complex and plural organizations.
A complex organization is constantly affected by variables that may conflict or be unpredictable for its operation. Usually, but not necessarily, these organizations operate in different markets, with many stakeholders with diverse interests and extensively and intricate designed organizational structures. They operate in an environment far from equilibrium, on the verge of chaos, and demand constant energy inputs to survive. Examples of complex organizations are cooperatives, hospitals, universities, or even private or public organizations that have complex characteristics in their operations, relationships with stakeholders, and work structure.
Plural organizations are the ones that lie between the public and the private but are strongly characterized also by their intentions and performance, competing with private organizations. The plural sector is NOT a midpoint between the private and the public. The concept of the third sector often needs to be clarified. Henry Mintzberg1 suggests the term “plural” as the best way to consider the intentions, actions, and purposes of this other sector (public, private, and “third sector”).
1MINTZBERG, H. Rebalancing Society. Berrett-Koehler Publishers. Oakland. 2015
OBJECTIVES
The PPGCOOP, through its research lines, has specific objectives:
- a) Qualify human resources for the exercise of executive functions in the senior management of cooperatives, hospitals, universities, NGOs, OSIPs, and other organizations that are characterized by the focus of the Program’s studies, encouraging strategic development and a proactive attitude in search of new knowledge;
- b) Train the student to use research methods and management technologies in organizational activities and projects;
- c) Develop research that provides an understanding of cooperative and plural organizations as an economic and social organizational form;
- d) Interact with the local and international academic community whose object of study is the organizations that are characterized by the focus of the Program’s studies;
- e) Support the management of organizations and individuals whose main interest is sustainable and strategic cooperation;
- f) Develop research for a better understanding of the socioeconomic dynamics of organizations that are characterized by the focus of the Program’s studies and their impacts on the reality surrounding them;
- g) Contribute to complex problem-solving and real organizations characterized by the Program study focus.
HISTORY
Teaching about cooperativism has been part of the University for more than ten years; in addition to the regular undergraduate courses at the Business School, PUCPR has offered specialization and extension courses in Cooperative Management, as well as in-company projects since 2005. The development of the Postgraduate Program in Management of Cooperatives, Complex and Plural Organizations – PPGCOOP/PUCPR – was an effort to give continuity to PUCPR’s pedagogical plan at the undergraduate and graduate levels. It was also born from the Cooperatives’ support through OCEPAR (Organization of Cooperatives of Paraná) and the National Service of Cooperativism Learning – SESCOOP/PR. This partnership approximates the research topics to the cooperative universe’s main demands, accentuating the course’s professional character. Furthermore, it is worth mentioning that this partnership is also a significant incentive to hold professional and academic events, narrowing the dialogue between professional and University realities.
Professor performance in various courses and projects within the Marist Group, of which PUCPR is part, has enabled the development of research and expertise in managing complex and plural organizations. Besides PUCPR, the Marist Group comprises the Marcellin Champagnat Hospital, the Cajuru Hospital, the Marist Center for the Defense of Children, FTD, The Champagnat School, the Marist Social School (8 free schools), and the Marist School Network (19 schools).
The PPGCOOP offers 25 openings each year. The first selection process for admission to the program took place in December 2013.
PPGCOOP has two main lines of research that must be followed in the master’s thesis projects, with the student choosing the research line better aligned with the topics addressed:
Research Area 1 | Cooperativism and Associations
This research area covers cooperatives’ organizational functions (Finance, People Management, Strategy, Marketing, and Operations).
It also works with the social responsibility requirements of organizations, one of the cooperative’s pillars. It addresses the legal and structural particularities of cooperativism in its various branches, the creation of cooperatives, philosophy, and cooperative education as a doctrine. It also works on economic and social aspects, investigating cooperatives’ regional and local influences in society, their conflicts, and their management complexity. In the same way, this line of research focuses on the so-called plural organizations, which can occur in the form of associations, NGOs, OSIPs, and other names and structures of non-profit organizations of public and social interest.
This area is structured in three thematic cores.
- Thematic core 1 – Strategy and Governance
- Thematic core 2 – Legal Aspects of Associative and Plural Organizations
- Thematic core 3 – Innovation and Competitiveness
Research Group 2 | Complex Organizations
The study of organizational management through the lens of complexity, respecting the idiosyncrasies of different types of organizations, primarily cooperatives, hospitals, and universities. The scope includes new ways of managing and working, organizational and team learning, strategy and strategy implementation, and an analysis of practices that emanate from corporate and market values.
This line is structured in two thematic cores:
- Thematic core 1 – Associations and complexity
- Thematic core 2 – Strategy and Complexity
International integration
PPGCOOP, through the PUCPR Business School, has several international agreements that allow its students to participate in their research, be co-advised, and even pursue disciplines at universities abroad.
Moreover, students can make an international technical visit every year, which is equivalent to and offers the same number of credits as a discipline upon presentation of an activity established by the advisor. Missions have already been conducted to France, Spain, Germany, and the Netherlands, and visits to countries in Europe, Asia, and North America are being planned. These technical visits allow students to learn about the reality and particularities of co-operatives and Co-operative Society Management worldwide.
Another international initiative is the International Credit Co-operative Seminar, which has been taking place since the program’s inception. It is always organized in the second semester and is attended by an international speaker from the credit co-operative market, executives and directors of Brazilian co-operatives, and executives from the central bank as well as private ones.
Co-operative Movement: The Value of the Brand
Description: Co-operatives are organizations with a singular form of governance, operations, and, mainly, purposes, which include sustainability (economic, social, and environmental). The social responsibility is extended beyond its members, encompassing the entire environment in which it operates, including its customers, suppliers, and other stakeholders. Thus, co-operatives are more humanized organizations and with more “noble” purposes than traditional companies, based on the assumption that they do not aim for profit, but the development and financial well-being of the community that encompasses them. In this context, the main objective of this research project is to determine whether the diverse stakeholders of co-operatives perceive the value of buying from or doing business with a co-operative. The secondary objectives comprise identifying the target population’s knowledge of the project about co-operatives and their purposes, and determining which of the aspects that characterize them are considered important to the point of differentiating their products or services from those of traditional companies. The stakeholders for data collection are consumers in general, wholesalers/distributors, retailers, and suppliers. Initially, the research will be restricted to the state of Paraná, but the aim is to subsequently extend it to the entire country.
Social Innovation and Innovativeness in Brazilian Co-operatives
Description: Capacity for innovation has become vital for the achievement of the objectives of public and private economic agents in the current environment characterized by accelerating technological advances, interaction in networks, and growing diversity in demands. The formulation of strategies and policies to stimulate innovation depends on an understanding of the factors that support the capacity to innovate in dynamic environments, mainly the capacity to generate innovations that produce broad social impacts. However, many intrinsic aspects and qualitative dimensions of the internal dynamics of innovative practice in different organizational forms and the growing diversity in innovation typologies are not captured by traditional innovation indicators. Therefore, it is difficult to define adequate criteria for assessing the results of economic and social development. This project is aimed at understanding the dynamics of the innovation process and analyzing co-operative societies, which have distinctive characteristics, by investigating the determinants of organizational innovativeness. The investigation will focus on the capacity to generate social innovations, and encompass both the internal aspects of the co-operative organization and the networks of interaction and knowledge exchange between the agents involved in the process.
Expertise Retrieval, Default Modeling, Measurement, and Analysis of Credit Risk in Agricultural Co-operatives
Description: Developing and applying models that seek to contribute to the understanding of credit default risk in Brazil is of great importance in the agricultural scenario, given the activity’s preponderance in the national economy and the importance of credit for funding and investments in the sector. The present research project focuses on two main objectives: i) to retrieve the expertise accumulated by Agroindustrial Co-operatives in the analysis and granting of credit, build an approval model that automatically replicates such expertise, and observe and shape opportunities for improvement in such models, and ii) to build a credit risk analysis model for assessing co-operatives. To this end, the project will include identification of the variables that monitor agricultural production and income volatilities, hedge instruments, credit default and recovery risk forecast and analysis, and risk measurement of agricultural credit portfolio in the co-operatives analyzed.
Determinants of Innovativeness and Its Impact on the Development of Innovations in Brazilian Co-operatives
Description: Organizational knowledge management and organizations’ ability to effectively apply internal and external knowledge to the creation of new processes, products, and services are essential to sustain competitiveness. Innovativeness, which is the propensity or capacity to innovate, or openness to the implementation of new ideas, is associated with aspects of organizational culture, effective management of internal and external knowledge flows, and the various tangible and intangible assets that support creation, development, and commercialization of competitive products and services. This project is aimed at contributing to the understanding of the dynamics of the innovation process, investigating the determinants of innovativeness and its impacts on the innovation results of Brazilian co-operatives, and encompassing both internal aspects and networks of interaction and knowledge exchange between the various agents involved in the process. The research strategy will include a survey of national co-operatives, with the population being defined in terms of size and sectorial and regional distribution. Analysis of the relative importance of the variables for the development of innovations through multivariate and network analyses will help analyze the barriers and facilitators to innovativeness and knowledge flows, and identify the benefits and limitations of the proposed approach based on the data obtained in that specific organizational context.
Multilevel Analysis of Training Effectiveness Indicators in Co-operative Societies
Description: The objective of this project is to analyze the effectiveness of training in co-operative societies from an integrated perspective of performance, affective, and financial indicators. For this purpose, data will be collected from the 220 co-operative societies of the state of Paraná that participated in training supported by SESCOOP/PR (National Service of Learning Cooperativism); it was justified by the significant investment from SESCOOP/PR in 2017 (40 million reais) and the lack of a model to demonstrate the results obtained for the co-operative and satisfaction of the social framework from such investments. The strategy of this research is characterized as mixed, using quantitative and qualitative methods that will allow the establishment of causal relationships between the variables, further explaining the identified relationships. Quantitative data will be analyzed using structural equation modeling because it is a more complex statistical technique, to explain the relationships between multiple variables. Qualitative data will be used as an underlying interest for increasing the explanatory capacity of variables by systematization of analysis categories. The theoretical-empirical framework is mainly based on Sitzmann & Weinhardt (2017), who established theoretical connections between the training evaluation criteria based on four evaluation taxonomies, giving rise to assumptions and antecedents that have not yet been tested and need to be examined and adjusted to the context of the co-operative movement. The main expected result is the development of a model that can measure the relationship between investment in training and development, not only to determine the financial return on investment but specially to balance personal and organizational expectations.
Cluster Mapping and the Development of Public Policies for Increasing Competitiveness and Regional Development
Description: Regional development is closely related to public policies and promotional actions conducted for the sectors and their clusters in each region. It requires research and studies with methodologies and concepts that guide public policymakers, thus reorienting economic policies, mainly at the regional level, so that there are macroeconomic conditions and development policies coherently geared toward clusters and their particularities. Objective: This research project is aimed at presenting an analysis of the main clusters found in each of the 39 microregions of Paraná State, their connection with their region’s economic performance, and the implication of this relationship with the definition of public policies for regional development. Method: Three distinct stages in the following order are proposed—First, we review the conceptual bases of the cluster approach, definition of clusters, different types of clusters, economic benefits that clusters provide, and factors that influence cluster performance. Second, we empirically identify the clusters present in each of the microregions of the state of Paraná using the Location Quotient (LQ), which is one of the main indicators of job concentration, and thus, fundamental to determine the cluster’s presence or existence. The data obtained by calculating the LQ consider the classes of the National Classification of Economic Activities (CNAE) 2.0, organized in decreasing order in a table, excluding classes that do not generate employment in the region, and using the RAIS database. Procedures will be carried out to exclude possible distortions of the values found, following their evolution over time, and the economic performance of the microregions analyzed based on the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) at current prices, of each microregion as disclosed by the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE). Finally, we investigate whether the clusters impact the economic development of a region, through a comparison of the density of the clusters, economic performance, and average Human Development Index of the municipalities of that microregion and the analysis of the importance of public development policies for these clusters.
Strategic Management and Co-operative Governance Description: The objective of this project is to promote investigations that describe the strategic process (preparation and implementation) in different areas of activity in co-operative organizations, to understand how the process is organized and examine the behavior of the main organizational variables that impact it in such organizations. The project also aims to identify, describe, and propose models of corporate governance, and their alignment with the Co-operatives strategic process.
Empowering Change Agents: Social Entrepreneurship and Innovation in the Citizen Sector (SE-HUB)
Description: The SE-HUB project, supported by the Erasmus + Program, involves the International Management Institute (University of Varna, Bulgaria), Social Youth Development, KANE (Greece), National Youth Council (Namibia), Word ‘n’ Sound Live Literature Company (South Africa), PUCPR (Brazil), and Universidad de Colima (Mexico). The project’s overall objective is to empower youth organizations in the European Union (EU) and Partner Countries (PCs) to raise awareness and develop skills for social ventures led by young people, and to apply socially innovative entrepreneurial approaches to nonprofit work for encouraging positive and lasting social change and improving the effectiveness of youth work. Its specific objectives are: 1. Build the capacity of the youth organizations in the EU and PCs to monitor and analyze their local socioeconomic contexts and needs for developing effective approaches to youth employment to support social entrepreneurship and innovation, and focus on priority areas; 2. Promote the exchange of good practices and peer learning in social entrepreneurship and social innovation in the nonprofit sector; 3. Develop training modules (Open Educational Resources) in social entrepreneurship and social innovation in the citizen sector, to support the work of young people in these domains; 4. Develop participating organizations’ capacities of integrating social entrepreneurship and social innovation training in the work with young people at the local level, using innovative and effective training and learning methods; 5. Establish sustainable hubs for social entrepreneurship, and promotion, training, and support for social innovation, and encourage the establishment of effective international networks and cooperation in this field; 6. Disseminate SE-HUB training resources and approaches in the EU, Latin America, and Africa; 7. Promote the EU approach to social inclusion, education, and training and entrepreneurship.
Corporate Finance
Description: Corporate Finance is related to the decision-making process of organizations from a financial perspective. The range of operations in this area of knowledge is quite broad, and can be segmented into three major decisions: a) Investment decision (what are the criteria to be observed in the long-term investment decision, which usually involve acquisition of fixed assets?); b) funding decision (which option is indicated to fund company’s assets: equity, debt, or a mix?); and c) Dividend decision (this includes decisions on the distribution and use of profits). This project seeks to contribute to the development of the area by conducting research on these three decisions with special emphasis on the practice observed in national companies. In this context, this project pays particular attention to co-operative organizations, which, despite their representativeness in terms of regional economic development, are still not sufficiently addressed in studies on Corporate Finance.
Legal Education of Small Social Co-operative Managers
Description: This entails voluntary action, linked to PPGCOOP research, together with TRILHAS Marist Social Incubator, with direct intervention in small social co-operatives; the purpose is to promote the legal training of its managers and other members, preparing them for the legal consequences of their entrepreneurial performance.
Fundamental Rights, Employability, and Co-operative Movement
Description: This project is along the research line “Socioeconomic Dynamics of Co-operatives”; it is dedicated to the study of the impacts of co-operatives in the promotion of fundamental rights, either by the State, based on the taxation generated, or by the presence of co-operatives in Brazilian municipalities, generating local and regional social consequences.
Preventive Advocacy and Extrajudicial Conflict Resolution Methods Applied to Co-operatives
Description: This project is along the research line “Strategic Management of Co-operatives” and is dedicated to the study of the application of the different areas of law to the judicial and extrajudicial solutions of labor legal conflicts. It would also cover legal risks and the use of preventive law as a management tool.
Sustainability in Specific Sectors: Governance, Processes, and Management
Description: This research project is aimed at analyzing actions and aspects of sustainability in specific sectors of the economy. The actions and aspects of interest are focused on SDGs, governance, eco-efficiency, eco-innovation, industry 4.0, innovation, technology, strategy, supply chains, logistics, reverse logistics, social responsibility, indicators, results, motivations, backgrounds, communities, mobility, strategies, stakeholder roles, and certifications. The main sectors analyzed in this project are co-operatives, educational institutions, industry, and services. The project brings together researchers and undergraduate and graduate students from Brazilian universities and abroad. Brazilian researchers are from universities such as PUCPR, IFPR, UFPR, UTFPR, and UNIDAVI; foreign researchers come from universities such as UNIFE (Ferrara, Italy), HAW (Hamburg, Germany), Roma Tre (Rome, Italy), and Gavle (Gavle, Sweden).
Cost Effectiveness in Health
Description: The general objective of the project is the integral development of research applied to cost-effectiveness analysis in the field of health, advocating the creation of solutions that promote improvement in healthcare quality and economic sustainability.
Social Management
Description: It includes research on cooperation relations and competition in organizations from the public, private, and third sectors. Its main objective is to contribute to the understanding of the management, governance, innovation, and performance of organizations and their relations in society in general.
Faculty
Alex Antonio Ferraresi
PhD in Business Administration from PPAD at FEA/USP. Main areas of interest: knowledge management, innovativeness, strategic innovation, and strategic marketing
Alex Sandro Quadros Weymer
PhD in Business Administration from the Pontifical Catholic University of Paraná, Curitiba, Brazil. Main areas of interest: people management and organizational behavior, organizational learning, and network analysis
Carlos Olavo Quandt
PhD in Urban and Regional Planning, 1993, from the University of California in Los Angeles, USA. Main areas of interest: knowledge economy and innovation. Research group: Knowledge and Innovation Information Management (GCI)
Eduardo Damião da Silva
PhD in Administration Sciences, 2001, from ESADE of Universidad Ramon Llull, Barcelona, Spain. Main areas of interest: business strategy, corporate strategy, scenario development, and strategic cost management. Research group: Strategic Administration (GPAE)
June Allison Westarb Cruz
PhD in Administration, 2012, from the Pontifical Catholic University of Paraná, Curitiba, Brazil. Main areas of interest: corporate finance, network analysis, and cost management. Research group: Knowledge and Innovation Information Management (ICG) and Decision Processes (PD)
Leila Andressa Dissenha
PhD in Law from the Pontifical Catholic University of Paraná, Curitiba, Brazil. Main areas of interest: legislation and law
Paulo Roberto Stoberl
PhD in Political Science from the Federal University of Paraná, 2019. He is currently a professor for the undergraduate and master’s degrees in Co-operative Society Management at the Business School of the Pontifical Catholic University of Paraná, as well as a professor at the Brazilian Academy of Constitutional Law and coordinator of the co-operative law sector at Araúz e Advogados Associados in Curitiba. He has experience in law, specifically co-operative law and co-operative movement, mainly acting on the following topics: co-operative movement, co-operatives, political representation, economic elite, and qualitative research using Deutungsmusteranalyse.
Pedro Guilherme Ribeiro Piccoli
PhD in Administration from the Pontifical Catholic University of Paraná, Curitiba, Brazil, with part of the doctorate being held at McGill University, Canada. Main areas of interest: credit risk, market risk, corporate finance, and asset pricing
Ubiratã Tortato
PhD in Production Engineering, 2006, from the Polytechnic School of the University of São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil. Main areas of interest: sustainability, sustainable chains, and logistics. Research group: Sustainability in Organizations (GPSO). Preferred topics in 2016: Eco-efficiency and sustainable universities
Vilmar Rodrigues Moreira
PhD in Business Administration from FGV-SP with emphasis on quantitative methods and information systems. Main areas of interest: decision-making, modeling and simulation, risk management, and information technology management
Courses
Quantitative Data Analysis
Descriptive and exploratory data analysis. Confidence intervals. Relationships between variables, correlation, and simple linear regression. Introduction to multivariate analysis—concepts and assumptions. Multiple linear regression. Factor analysis.
Legal Basis of the Co-operative Movement
Co-operative law. Constitutional law and co-operative principles. Consumer law and judicialization. Prevention of labor liabilities. Technology, law, and co-operatives. Property law, data protection, and co-operative implications. Corporate law applied to co-operatives. Statute workshop. Controversies surrounding the Co-operative Act. Legal view of compliance vis-à-vis co-operatives. International law and commercial relations. Arbitration and mediation in conflicts involving co-operatives. Occasional legal problems caused by a co-operative branch. Jurisprudential analysis.
Co-operative Movement
Contribute to the cognitive and social development of the master’s degree students. Address topics on the co-operative movement and cooperation structure, and draw comparisons with the co-operative society, as defined in Brazilian legislation. Analyze the co-operative movement (lato sensu), showing that it participates in the construction process. Support the development of scientific research in Co-operative Society Management, with Science of Administration as its main branch.
Marketing Strategies and Analysis
Fundamental marketing concepts. Market orientation. Corporate, business, and marketing strategies. Analysis of the market and its dimensions. Internal analysis of the company. Resource-based vision (RBV). Market segmentation and strategic positioning. Marketing plan: implementation and control.
Corporate Finance
Provide students with a critical view of the main theories that involve the short-term financial decision in companies;
Develop the ability to relate the short-term financial theories developed for commercial companies to the particularities of co-operative organizations;
Develop the capacity to criticize and contribute to the current literature on short-term corporate finance inside and outside co-operative organizations.
Short-Term Finance
Provide students with a critical view of the main theories that involve the short-term financial decision in companies;
Develop the ability to relate the short-term financial theories developed for commercial companies to the particularities of co-operative organizations;
Develop the capacity to criticize and contribute to the current literature on short-term corporate finance inside and outside co-operative organizations.
Supply Chain Management
Provide students with ways to relate the organization’s strategic objectives to their supply chain management needs.
Risk Management and Future Markets
Risks and uncertainties. Threats and opportunities. Types and sources of risks. Integrated and strategic management of corporate risks. Guidelines for risk management. Risk mapping. Risk matrix. Responses to risks. Sources of risks in the co-operative movement. Operational risk. Financial and credit risk. Market risk. Tools and methods: Risk in decision-making, scenarios, decision trees, simulation. Future and derivative markets: Concepts and definitions, leverage and risk in derivatives, types of derivatives and contracts—terms, future, swaps, and options. Agricultural future market. Agricultural derivatives.
Strategic People Management
The relationship between people management and strategy. People management processes and practices in co-operatives. Competency management and learning. Behavioral aspects in the individual, team, and organizational systems dimensions.
Strategic Management and Governance in Co-operatives
This deals with theory and research in strategy and corporate governance. It encompasses what is sometimes labeled as strategic content and process; it involves a critical review of a variety of approaches to research in strategy and governance. Several topics will be addressed by examination of theoretical and empirical studies directed toward the analysis of co-operative organizations. Due to the limited time for the program’s completion, we will not be able to delve into all topics. However, it is expected that students develop research on topics not discussed in depth.
Innovation and Entrepreneurship
Introduction to innovation and innovation management. Innovation strategies. Innovativeness. Competitive environment and learning. Management of ideas and creativity. Entrepreneurship and intra-entrepreneurship. Support systems for entrepreneurship. National and regional innovation systems; clusters, APLs (Local Productive Arrangements), and associativism. External links, markets, alliances, and cooperation. Implementation and diffusion of innovations: Integrated approach.
Innovation and Entrepreneurship
Introduction to innovation and innovation management. Innovation strategies. Innovativeness. Competitive environment and learning. Management of ideas and creativity. Entrepreneurship and intra-entrepreneurship. Support systems for entrepreneurship. National and regional innovation systems; clusters, APLs (Local Productive Arrangements), and associativism. External links, markets, alliances, and cooperation. Implementation and diffusion of innovations: Integrated approach.
Research Methodology
Nature of science and characteristics of the scientific method. Taxonomy of research types. Importance and stages of the research project. General guidelines for choosing the topic. Formulation of the research problem and definition of objectives. Construction of the theoretical-empirical basis. Choice of variables and development of questions or research hypotheses. Measurement, measurement scales, and construction of indicators. Development of data collection instruments. Data collection approaches. Validity and reliability. Population and sampling. Introduction to data analysis techniques. Writing research reports.
Qualitative Research Methods
The question of qualitative methods. Ethnography. Interviews. Discourse analysis. Focus groups. Observational methods. Document analysis.
Case studies. Action research. Analysis of qualitative data. Quality issues in research.
Seminars on Co-operatives
This is aimed at providing a space to the program’s professors to experiment by teaching new content that may eventually become definitive subjects. Depending on the content offered, the seminar may be classified as a core or elective subject, at the discretion of the collegiate.
More Information
Since 2011, PUCPR has engaged in a project called Excellence in Stricto Sensu that is aimed at internationalizing the institution’s programs to achieve maximum scores of 6 and 7 and to promote transdisciplinarity and innovation in different areas of knowledge, especially in its strategic areas. The PIBIC master program is one its greatest differentials (it allows talented students to attend both undergraduate and graduate stricto sensu programs and develop part of their research in a highly qualified foreign institution) as well as being in harmony with society and focusing on innovation.
The institution must also be constantly attentive to the changing needs of the society, with alignment/realignment to the CAPES criteria and oriented to develop internationally, having internationalization as its main guide in the search for quality in teaching and research.
Every graduate program must meet the criteria set by their corresponding committee; therefore, each program strategic planning and operating criteria needs to be done accordingly.
Criteria for each area need to be discussed within the program annually so that all necessary and appropriate corrective actions can be taken during the four-year period. Each program is committed to structuring and readjusting its strategic planning annually in search of excellence. In addition, the programs are encouraged to rethink their lines of research in order to adapt to the rapid changes that may occur in international and national scenarios.
This graduate program’s dynamism and flexibility must always meet quality criterion both in master’s and doctoral training and in the development of research and innovation, essentially aiming at the improvement of society. Thus, an annual review of each program strategic planning is requested that contains the topics below at a minimum:
- i. Mission and vision of the program;
- ii. Summarized annual opinion produced by an external evaluator; the annual evaluation by an external member is an institutional practice conducted since 2006, which allows for the annual performance of each program to be assessed according to the area criteria;
- iii. Strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and risks (preparation of a SWOT matrix showing external and internal factors) considering the goals for the current and next four years;
- iv. Goals (measurable objectives) established for the consolidation and development of strengths and improvement of weaknesses;
- v. Actions (processes) necessary to achieve the objectives, people in charge, and monitoring instruments; in this topic, the coordinator and the institution should get involved to consider resizing the faculty and the student body, criteria for accreditation/re-accreditation, infrastructure, selection process, strategies to increase fundraising, and citations and innovation, among other items;
- vi. Preliminary text of the program’s self-assessment describing the last four years containing at least the following information: stages of the self-assessment process; analysis of results and achievement of objectives; necessary actions for its consolidation and internationalization;
The IDP (Institutional Development Plan) document presents the strategic plans of all the programs aligned with the institutional planning, containing the Mission, Vision, SWOT Matrix, Canvas, and road map, and providing information on the needs and intentions of the programs for the 2017–2020 and 2021–2024 quadrennium of the CAPES evaluation.