LABOR AND HEALTH: A LOOK AT THE INCIDENCE OF THESE TOPICS IN UNDERGRADUATE BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION COURSES IN BRAZIL’S FEDERAL UNIVERSITIES

Abstract

This research aimed to verify the curricular content of undergraduate in Business Administration courses in Brazil’s Federal Institutions of Higher Education (FIHE) related to labor and health, focusing on the changes occurring in the world of labor and workers' pleasure-pain experiences. This is an interdisciplinary, national research study carried out in two stages. The first stage covered the institutions' websites and the second employed a research tool on the undergraduate Business Administration professors at these institutions. The data showed that business students are not ready to deal with the implications of the Health/Work dimensions, as shown in the Likert Scale results: ready enough (1%); ready (6%); reasonably ready (32%); somewhat ready (50%); and unready (10%). The survey data showed that undergraduate Business Administration courses address content related to work and health but in a limited, punctual, and dispersed manner. It was also shown that undergraduate Business Administration courses would benefit from devoting more time to listening to the Social Sciences for the improvement of managers’ qualifications. In general, it is believed that this research will contribute to the qualification of less alienated managers who may be better prepared to deal with the emblematic issues of the world of labor; also, it will foster discussion on the need to include a discipline in the curriculum aimed at developing future managers’ critical view of contemporary labor relations.