EVALUATION OF MANAGEMENT DEVELOPMENT PROGRAMS AT THE UNIVERSITY OF CAMPINAS (UNICAMP)/BRAZIL FROM 2004/2017

Abstract

This article aims to explore and discuss the perceptions of different administrative and management staff  who took part in Corporate Education Programs between 2004 and 2017 at the University of Campinas (UNICAMP)/Brazil, including the contributions of these participants to the modernization of management and professional services at the university. Seeking to explore the motivations and contexts behind each program over the period under study, this research was undertaken combining quantitative and qualitative elements through: documentary analysis around the history, context and strategies for administrative staff’s professional development programs at the university over 2004-2017; a questionnaire for the programs’ participants; and interviews with the designers of the programs and with the university’s senior management. To ground this study, we also employed the concepts of ‘Corporate Education’ proposed by Éboli et al. (2010), Allen and McGee (2005), and Meister (1999), and of ‘Outcome Evaluation’ in light of Kirkpatrick and Kirkpatrick (2013), all widely used in the design of administrative staff’s professional development programs. Findings from this exploratory case study show identified different concepts of corporate education in the guidelines and actions planned for the programs, including some weaknesses, especially in relation to the monitoring and to the effective evaluation of these program’s results. However, even though some expected planning stages were not carried out in the case of these programs, we believe that such programs were an important milestone for the professionalization of the participant administrative staff, contributing to the promotion of modernization of the university’s management in the period under study.