Utilização de sistemas de informação em programas e projetos de assistência social: uma análise da percepção de técnicos, operadores e gestores no município de Curitiba

Abstract

Public management has intensified efforts in implementing public policies for social development, emerging urgent and essential need of development of information systems, as defined in the National Social Assistance Policy. Studies indicate that a significant portion of the difficulties faced in the activities of management, planning, monitoring and evaluation of the actions of social protection policy, is directly related to the shortcomings of production, processing, storage and dissemination of information and knowledge generation. This research has the general objective of analyzing the use of information systems in the execution of programs and projects, in Curitiba, in the context of the perception of technicians, operators and managers of social assistance. It uses a qualitative methodological approach, is based on field research and analysis of texts. It is exploratory, aimed at providing greater familiarity with the problem. A questionnaire was used as a tool to gather information, prepared with predominantly closed questions. The choice of research participants occurred spontaneously, with the participation of technicians, educators and managers who work in the implementation of social programs. The literature shows that information systems are permeated by paradigms, concepts and lines of thought that bring failures, resistance from users, and other problems that can be minimized by the knowledge of alternatives, in particular: the interpretive paradigm, flexible and social; systems thinking, where interactions are the elements responsible for assigning the general characteristics of the system, and not its isolated parts; approaches "information ecology" and "socio-technical system", considering the fundamental role played by people and their relationship with information; the user Centered Design, "held that from the point of view of the user, thereby giving more emphasis on people than on technologies"; the Participatory Design (PD) software development, which emphasizes the design "with" the user, rather than "for" the user; organizations as networks of conversations, in which computers are essentially devices meant for communication instead of computation, and the "heart" of managerial activities is the use of language to coordinate actions. Questionnaire results indicate that information systems of the federal government are the most used, and states and municipalities try to develop, integrate / interconnect systems to reduce problems related to the design of the systems, training, involvement, political issues. The purposes observed is related to the improving the quality of services, decision making, legislation requirements, but there is a risk of information systems being absorbed in institutional bureaucracy, so disconnected with their purpose, suggesting a necessary work in capacity building / awareness and more research on the topic.