Entrepreneurial Action in Public School Managemen

Abstract

Research objective: Besides identifying actions developed by municipal public actors in the education department of a municipality
located in the south of Minas Gerais to fulfill the National Education Plan, this article seeks to explain and analyze them from
the theory of entrepreneurial action.
?eoretical framework: ?e study of entrepreneurial action seeks to fully understand an enterprise, its driving motives,
development, and actors involved. ?e entrepreneurial action can occur in different environments, being inherent to any process
modified by creativity despite not being an innovative concept and being present in school management in Brazil, its effectiveness
poses a challenge for the public managers. In the public sector, entrepreneurial action can be defined as a successful result of the
intertwining between public agents, organization, and society, resulting in new goods and services, or restructuring processes that
meet public demands. 

Methodology: ?e research has a qualitative approach, with explanatory objectives, becoming a case study. ?e goal of this
study is the education department of a municipality in the south of Minas Gerais, which stands out for the creative way in
which it manages its demands. ?e research actors are public workers assigned to the municipal education department. Data
collection took place through in-depth interviews and focus groups. Initially, a focus group carried out with four actors from the
municipal education department enabled to map out the potential entrepreneurial actions. A?erward, six in-depth interviews
collect thorough information about them. ?e data collected were analyzed by the methodological procedure of content analysis.
Results: Data analysis allowed us to identify four entrepreneurial actions linked to the service of students, parents/society, teachers,
management, also goals 4, 18, 19 of the PNE-2014/2024; being the creation of the service of attendance and support to the
inclusion, the young permaculturist fair, the time-activity regulation, and the outsourcing of school meals the ones identified.
The actions emerged from tensions in the institutional logic, being carried out by research actors mobilized in creating innovative
exchanges that led to improved management.
Originality: ?e entrepreneurial action investigation is a new topic with few studies developed in Brazil. Studying school
management from the entrepreneurial action perspective with all action steps detailed to understand how public managers
creatively and innovatively articulate to solve existing demands can help promote the already shaken public policy management
stigmatized by its inefficiency and improve the theoretical development of entrepreneurial action. ?erefore, this article provides
a new way of understanding public entrepreneurship through the study of entrepreneurial action, investigating the intertwining
of various actors and how it allows the creation and use of opportunities.
?eoretical and practical contributions: ?is study contributes to the field of social sciences, notably, to the study of public
administration, by highlighting the assumption of entrepreneurial action as an identifiable phenomenon in public institutions
that makes it possible to improve management. It also contributes by discussing the phenomenon of entrepreneurial action
and providing a theoretical framework for application in other studies. In terms of practical contributions, the identified
entrepreneurial actions demonstrate the public managers' search for effective, competent, innovative school management
committed to social results, being a phenomenon of extreme value for the Brazilian public administration. Besides, the use of
creativity, dialogue and innovation allows the public managers to bring about changes and improvements in facing the existing
tensions.