DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION IN THE PUBLIC SERVICE: The experience of the Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte
Keywords: Public service; digital government; information and communication technologies; work
The changes brought about by the inclusion of new information and communication technologies in people's daily from the third industrial revolution reached several sectors in recent decades, including the Brazilian federal public administration. Based on the aforementioned technologies associated with the internet, the Federal Government of Brazil assumed, through the Digital Governance Policy, the commitment to transform the provision of public services and, as a consequence, it is inevitable that the work dynamics of public servants will change. Therefore, the transformations implemented by the Digital Government and their impact on the work of federal servants are the central object of this study. The starting question for the development of the research is “How does the process of digital transformation of the public service impact the work dynamics of federal servants?” The hypothesis supported is that the process of digitalization of technical services, in addition to having caused an intensification of the tasks performed by the servers, has demanded from these workers a certain versatility and quick adaptations to the new information and communication technologies, without them being receive training and adequate support from the bodies to which they are linked to deal with the changes. The objective of this study is to understand how the acceleration of the digital transformation of the Brazilian public service changed the work dynamics of the servers of federal educational institutions, considering the case of the Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte, Campus Central (Natal/RN), between the years 2016 and 2022. The research consists, therefore, of a case study to be developed in the referred institution. It starts from a qualitative approach and will use semi-structured interviews with university employees to obtain the primary data that will support the study. The support of secondary data is on account of the documentary examination (federal legislation and institutional plans), as well as a theoretical reference consistent with the subject under study. It is expected that, at the end of the research, the main changes caused by the digital transformation in the work performance of the studied municipality will be clear.