This article addresses the advance of the North-American managerialism and its reflections on the Brazilian public administration. More specifically, the focus lies on introducing management culture by means of the new system of costs, presented by the Federal Government as a way to support decision-making and effective allocation of public spending. The Brazilian Navy and Military Organizations Providing Services (MOPS) are immersed in this context that reproduces in an uncritical way management models and disregards aspects related to organizational culture. Therefore, the research aims to investigate how the cultural characteristics of a MOPS get close to or far from those required for adopting the variable cost method. The study was conducted through field research, with in-depth interviews. Subjects' speeches underwent content analysis and, in order to avoid a monolithic and simplified approach to organizational culture, they were grouped according to the multiparadigm approach proposed by Meyerson and Martin (1987). The results suggest that professionalism and creativity have been promoted within the organization. However, these characteristics, which are in line with the cult of excellence aligned to management, oppose some peculiarities of MOPS, such as observing hierarchy and discipline. Hierarchy and discipline hinder decentralization, delegation, and implementation of the result assessment and control culture. Finally, it is argued that a result control approach, in line with the management principles, shows up as not suited to MOPS, and there is a need to retrieve alternative rationality notions that observe local knowledge.
Public administration; Managerialism; Organizational culture; System of costs
