Banca de DEFESA: Tatiane Alves de Melo

LEADERSHIP, PEOPLE MANAGEMENT PRACTICES AND QUALITY OF LIFE IN TELEWORKING: PROPOSAL FOR A MEDIATION MODEL IN THE CONTEXT OF PUBLIC SERVICE

Leadership; People Management Practices; Quality of Life in Teleworking (QoLT); Remote Working; Public Service

The abrupt outlining of a global (post)pandemic scenario, which has cyclically emerged, has marked the (re)thinking of organizational dynamics and ways of working. Remote work in the context of the pandemic has become a strategic alternative for organizations, impacting, above all, the mental health and well-being of teleworkers. In this sense, the contributions of Positive Organizational Studies, aimed at seeking improvements in organizational environments, with a focus on virtues and positive emotions as drives of people and organizations’ potential, have prompted reflection on the quality of life in teleworking. Consequently, leadership has taken on a unique role in developing positive attitudes, articulating strategies, policies and practices to achieve effective organizational results. Despite the increase in the number of organizations that have adopted teleworking, there are still few studies investigating the antecedents and consequences of quality of life in teleworking (QoLT), especially in the context of the public service, constituting an important gap in the literature that this study sought to fill. Thus, using a multi-paradigmatic lens, the primary objective of this multi-method study was to propose a model for analyzing the relationships between leadership, people management (PM) practices and quality of life for civil servants in the context of teleworking, which has not yet been explored in the scientific literature. The locus of the research was the Rectorate and Campuses of a Federal Educational Institution. It is an autarchy linked to the Ministry of Education, which is part of the Federal Network of Professional, Scientific and Technological Education. The sample was made up of public servants (administrative technicians in education - TAEs - and managers of TAEs) working remotely. In order to achieve the proposed objectives, this thesis is structured in eight chapters, the first being the introduction and the last the conclusion. The other chapters are structured in the form of scientific articles, which are interdependent and complementary. Firstly, chapters 2, 3 and 4, using a qualitative approach and systematic reviews of the literature, outline the state of the art of the three studied variables, namely leadership, people management practices and QoLT, in order to map out research itineraries and propose agendas for further studies. A survey of scientific articles was carried out, with no time frame, using Scopus and Web of Science databases. In Chapter 5, the quantitative proposal was to identify the perceptions of civil servants in relation to the investigated variables. These perceptions were perceived by the sample and indicated the effectiveness of leadership, the urgency of (re)visiting and (re)designing PM practices, as well as their impact on teleworkers' QoLT. Chapter 6, with a quantitative approach, aimed to identify the relationship between the research variables. In this way, the presumed relationships in the analysed mediation model were significant, confirming all four researched hypotheses. The novelty of the tested mediation model was the greatest contribution, demonstrating the crucial role that people management practices play in the relationship between leadership and QoLT, i.e. people management practices partially mediate the relationship between leadership and QoLT. Chapter 7, which is qualitative in nature, was based on 43 semi-structured interviews with managers of administrative technicians in education (TAEs) in teleworking, identifying 8 thematic categories a posteriori. The managers' perceptions indicated the importance of the role of leadership and the role of PM practices in promoting QoLT. In this sense, it is necessary to (re)visit traditional people management practices and promote the career development of TAEs, towards an increasingly strategic, effective, humanized and evidence-based organizational management. As a theoretical contribution, this thesis has advanced on researches focusing on positive organizational behavior, especially in the yet unexplored model in the scientific literature, particularly within the context of teleworking in the public service. In terms of practical implications, this research produced a diagnosis through quantitative and qualitative methods, enabling a greater understanding of the studied phenomena, for public managers within the researched organization in relation to perceptions of leadership, people management practices and, especially, how they influence quality of life in the context of teleworking. A social contribution was also envisioned, since the promotion of healthier and more productive working environments, where well-being and quality of life play a leading role, can result in a higher quality of care and the provision of services to clients, citizens and society in general.