About the Postgraduate Business Administration Program

• Program Background

  The Postgraduate Program in Administration (PPGA) was established in 2007, following a recommendation from CAPES (Coordination for the Improvement of Higher Education Personnel in Brazil). This achievement was the result of the efforts of a group of selected professors from the University of Southern Santa Catarina (UniSul), who were active within the institution. This was complemented by investments made in training and directing towards scientific research, in addition to teaching and extension activities. Gradually and steadily, the Program gained maturity and established itself as a reference in the Institution and in the regional area it serves, achieving a distinguished position among other programs operating in the State.

  UniSul aims to maintain and strengthen its Stricto Sensu Postgraduate Courses, including the Master’s and Doctoral programs in Administration. These programs contribute positively to the training of professionals, both in terms of qualifying teachers to work in higher education and in meeting the demanding market needs for more qualified professionals in the state’s diverse and advanced economy, the sixth largest in the country, with the highest HDI among Brazilian states.

  The PPGA at UniSul focuses on the Concentration Area of PERFORMANCE AND INNOVATION OF ORGANIZATIONS, which aligns with the profile of the faculty, market demands, and the University’s Institutional Development Plan (PDI).

  Since 2012, the PPGA has implemented Resolution 03, dated 12/17/2012, which defines the policy for the accreditation and re-accreditation of PPGA FACULTY MEMBERS, with well-defined criteria, making this practice more objective and transparent for the restructuring of the faculty when necessary. This Resolution has also become a guiding reference for the group of professors who make up the Program. It includes criteria for the accreditation of collaborating professors from the Institution, the transition from collaborating professor to permanent professor, and the maintenance and/or de-accreditation of permanent professors. At the beginning of each year, a re-accreditation process is conducted for the program’s permanent professors, following the Resolution. Resolution 03/2012 is currently being reviewed and updated by an internal PPGA committee and will undergo approval procedures.

  Renewal of the Faculty involves strategies for accrediting newly qualified doctorates, who join the UniSul teaching staff, as well as the potential integration of postdoctoral scholars in PPGA through external selection processes. Once these options are exhausted, a call for external faculty hiring is issued.

  Electronic Journal of Strategy & Business (REEN)

  The Program also features the Electronic Journal of Strategy & Business (REEN), which was initiated in 2008 and is indexed in the Spell database. The REEN has an Editorial Board comprising renowned researchers from various countries, is published four times a year, and follows an editorial policy aligned with the Good Practices of Scientific Publishing of the National Association of Post-Graduate Studies and Research in Administration (ANPAD). Over the past years, several improvements have been implemented in the Journal, primarily aiming at its internationalization. The REEN is part of the Emerging Sources Citation Index of the Web of Science – Thomson Reuters. Its classification in Stratum A3 demonstrates that the efforts and improvements implemented are yielding results.

• Mission

  Qualification of high-level professionals and researchers (Stricto Sensu) in the field of Administration, competent and committed citizens to the development of science, with an impact on the performance and innovation of organizations and contributing to the improvement of people’s lives and society.

• Objectives

  The Postgraduate Program in Administration at UNISUL (PPGA/UNISUL) has the general objective of training educators and researchers focused on high-level educational and professional action, as well as the production of knowledge in the field of Administration through research that can contribute to the qualification of the private, public, and third-sector organizational universe. The aim is to train entrepreneurial and innovative administrators who add value to the institutions and companies where they operate.

  The Program prioritizes proficiency in theories, methods, and techniques for organizational performance, whether from the perspective of innovative and strategic processes or from the perspective of operational performance evaluation. The focus, therefore, is on training highly qualified personnel for teaching, research, and professional work in organizations. In this regard, the course intends to develop in master’s students the potential to understand the complexity inherent in contexts of change characteristic of this new era, as well as to develop the ability to formulate and develop strategies to enable organizations to achieve the best performance in their areas of operation; to generate scientific and technological knowledge and professional praxis; to develop basic and applied research; to enhance innovations in pedagogical and research methodologies; to disseminate the acquired knowledge through the training of personnel and scientific publications; to qualify professionals for the management of organizations; to maintain a critical spirit and test theories, methods, and research techniques; to deepen knowledge in areas of concentration and research lines; to develop and disseminate good academic practices with ethics and solidarity; to form research groups and consolidate them through scientific production in the Program’s research lines, both nationally and internationally; to follow the guidelines of the Coordination for the Improvement of Higher Education Personnel (CAPES) and other regulatory bodies of stricto sensu activities, while maintaining university autonomy.

  Clearly, the “performance” qualification leads the program to have a more applied sciences-oriented vision within the organizational reality of the country, without straying from advanced theories in terms of innovation and strategy of organizations. As the innovation process becomes one of the most relevant elements for measuring organizational performance, the area of concentration has incorporated this dimension as one of the foundations of the Program. Thus, the area of concentration of the PPGA is named Performance and Innovation of Organizations.

• Major Area

  The Master’s in Administration program focuses on the area of concentration in Performance and Innovation of Organizations, reflecting the vocation and history of the master’s program and indicating the area of knowledge, the contours of specialty in knowledge production, and student training.

  This area of concentration, under the perspectives of organizational performance and innovation, focuses on the study of administration as an analytical, systemic, and evolutionary process, based on established organizational theories and contemporary management methods/techniques. It involves the evaluation of organizational performance and the dynamics of innovations in their manifestations in technology, organizations, marketing, sustainability, and the social arena.

  Adopting an interdisciplinary and critical approach, the PPGA at UniSul defines its area of concentration without adherence to a particular model of interpretation of innovative organizations or performance metrics. It is understood that these research objects demand a complex, diversified activity, in which various components interact, creating a broad space for questions to be investigated, yet within defined lines.

• Research Lines

  In the Stricto Sensu framework, research lines express the specificity of the program/course’s knowledge production within its area of concentration. They are supported by the permanent faculty and researchers of the Program.

  The Master’s in Administration offers two main research lines:

  1. Performance and Management of Organizations: This line investigates organizational performance through the application and improvement of metrics and evaluations, whether standardized or not, compulsory or voluntary. It examines variations in the trajectories of organizations. It encompasses the analysis and evaluation, the episteme, and the diverse methodologies applied to organizational contexts, demonstrating results grounded in evaluative processes involving themes such as decision-making, competitiveness, operational and financial performance, including tangible and intangible assets like information and the explicit or tacit knowledge of the organization.

  2. Innovation, Sustainability, and Society: This line comprises epistemological, theoretical, and empirical investigations into economic and social factors and practices that represent different manifestations of management in innovation and its diffusion process in society.

  This interdisciplinary perspective allows for dialogic and interactive dimensions within society and organizations, with emphasis on fields of innovation and their developments in technology, organizational structure, marketing, sustainability, organizational culture, governance, and social innovation. These themes are addressed by faculty research projects and the course curriculum, all with active participation from the faculty of PPGA/Unisul.

• Student and Alumni Profile

  The composition of the profile of graduates from the PPGA/UNISUL is linked to actions in the area of concentration and research lines, and the development of a set of competencies that articulate knowledge, thought, and action. It is characterized by a combination of competencies focused on scientific research, management practices, and professional attitude.

  Graduates of the PPGA are equipped to engage in teaching and research and are well-prepared to: assess and plan the implementation of organizational innovation processes; identify, propose, select, and initiate more efficient and competitive processes; develop sustainable differentiations in response to transformations derived from modernity; monitor results obtained by organizations through performance evaluation tools and methods; provide feedback to processes based on performance evaluation; and research and coordinate activities and programs aimed at creative and entrepreneurial improvements.

  This implies mastery in conceptual knowledge, alongside research skills such as the ability to analyze contexts and value knowledge pursuit, as well as teaching skills such as relationship-building, planning capacity, and the ability to mediate knowledge appropriation through fostering communication skills, teamwork, presentation of work, and discussions during course and teaching internship activities.

  Naturally, for the Doctoral Course, established in 2019, the graduate profile will have a higher level of detail, offering more consistent training in research methods and theoretical depth, in addition to more frequent practice in writing articles as a result of scientific research.

• Disciplines

  Curriculum and Regulations in the process of updating for 2022-2.

  Research Methodology in Administration – 4 credits (60 hours)

  Epistemology of Research in Administration – 4 credits (60 hours)

  Dissertation Project Seminar (Master’s) – 4 credits (60 hours)

  Thesis Project Seminar (Doctorate) – 8 credits (120 hours)

  Qualitative Research in Administration – 4 credits (60 hours)

  Quantitative Research in Administration – 4 credits (60 hours)

  Advanced Scientific Research – 4 credits (60 hours)

  Science and Research – 2 credits (30 hours)

  Frontiers of Knowledge in Organizational Theory – 4 credits (60 hours)

  Multicriteria Structuring of Organizational Contexts – 4 credits (60 hours)

  Knowledge Management – 4 credits (60 hours)

  Evaluation and Analysis of Organizational Performance – 4 credits (60 hours)

  Financial Performance Evaluation – 4 credits (60 hours)

  Performance Marketing – 4 credits (60 hours)

  Knowledge Management – 4 credits (60 hours)

  Advanced Topics in Organizational Studies – 4 credits (60 hours)

  Structuring and Multicriteria Evaluation – 4 credits (60 hours)

  Innovation and Organizational Culture (elective) – 4 credits (60 hours)

  Circular Economy – 4 credits (60 hours)

  Technological Innovation and Organizational Environments – 4 credits (60 hours)

  Sustainable Development and ESG – 4 credits (60 hours)

  International Course: Sustainability: Converging Human, Natural, and Global Systems

  Innovation and Entrepreneurship – 2 credits (30 hours)

  Social Innovations – 4 credits (60 hours)

• Legal Support

  * Curriculum and Regulations in the process of updating for 2022-2.

  Regulations
  • Access the Internal Regulations of the PPGA here.

  Resolutions
  • Resolution ColPPGA 01/2019
  Pertains to the Doctoral thesis in article format in the Postgraduate Program in Administration at UniSul.

  • Resolution ColPPGA 01/2021
  Pertains to the Master’s dissertation and Doctoral thesis in article format in the Postgraduate Program in Administration at UniSul.

  Institutional Development Program
  • Access the UniSul PDI 2022/2026 here.

  CAPES Evaluation
  • Access the evaluation and normative documents of CAPES here.