University education has sought greater professionalization of the administrative positions given the need to reconcile administrative, educational, academic and scientifi c management. Thus, this study aims to identify the management skills of the coordinators who lead Programs of Post-Graduation at Federal Institutions (IFES in Portuguese) in Rio Grande do Sul. We identify whether they have the characteristics that in theory are considered ideal for the position they play. For this, we used the theoretical model of Gary Yukl (1998). This model divides the profile of managerial skills into managing tasks and relationships. A questionnaire was constructed based on this theory and it was validated through exploratory factor analysis. We examined the total number of postgraduate courses in Rio Grande do Sul. The questionnaire was send to 261 coordinators, obtaining 163 responses, just 161of which were considered valid for analysis. The statistical analysis between the area of knowledge and managerial competence profile demonstrated that the areas with a more rational expertise are more related to the constructs that lead to labor management and/ or performing tasks. While areas with more subjective characteristics, such as Humanities, showed the strongest relationship with the constructs of interpersonal relations. However, the tests about the relationship between universities and the profile of skills identifi ed specific characteristics between relationship management and administration work.
Management; Post-graduate; Teachers and administrators; Universities