Gestão ecológica da informação: um estudo aplicado à Pró-Reitoria de Graduação da Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Norte

Abstract

Information management (IM) has a prominent role in all types of organizations, including the higher education institutions. This highlighted role is derived from the perception of information as a strategical resource that resulted in significant changes in the informational behavior of the associates and in the structures of the organizations. Other factors contribute to the use of IM in universities, mainly when it is observed the growth and expansion of federal higher education institutions, especially due to the employment of the Plan of Restructuring and Expansion of Federal Universities (REUNI), that resulted in significant impacts on their demands, mostly in the management of the administrative activities and the overload of information. Such demands require that universities use tools that better manage searching, selecting, processing, storing, sharing and using information, highlighting practices of information management with more relevance. The problem’s context identified in the Undergraduate Program’s Office of the Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte (PROGRAD/UFRN) was to optimize the information management in the process of registering the incoming students utilizing the available electronic tool? This study is justified for the importance that PROGRAD/UFRN has in the institution when it comes to the number of users of its services, volume of processes, activities and documents processing through. Thus, the objective is to propose the optimization in the information management of a strategical process of PROGRAD/UFRN. The specific objectives are: a) identify research on models of IM applied to other HEI; b) characterizing the information management of PROGRAD/UFRN, with basis on the information ecological approach; c) mapping an existing strategical process in PROGRAD/UFRN with the purpose to optimize it. To fulfill such objectives a qualitative, descriptive and applied study was developed, having the research-action as a strategy. The study was divided in four phases: diagnosing the problem’s context, planning the study, intervention and evaluation. To acquire the data, it was conducted a literature review, documental analysis, structured surveys applied, semi-structured interviews, focal groups organized and performed the participant observation. The results obtained indicate that PROGRA/UFRN has been employing partially the principals of Information Ecology regarding the external environments, organizational and informational, thus the information management is not integrated yet. To optimize the information management in this institution it is necessary that the people are taken into account when it comes to productivity, the use and sharing of information. The intervention proposal was built in a collaborative, implemented and evaluated manner that subsidized a more consistent and broad proposition for its use. It is understood that the enhancement of the strategical process of registering incoming students in the institution, utilizing the available functionality in the academic system still faces some obstacles. Finally, it is recommended that other studies are continued for the research of tools that make it possible the information management in public organizations, such as UFRN, become a strategical resource to reach its complete mission and objectives.