Significado do trabalho para agentes de limpeza e coletores de Aracaju/SE

Abstract

The meaning of work is a construct studied since the 1980s in various sciences such as psychology, nursing, administration, economics, due to the great influence it has suffered and exercised, concomitantly, in the lives of individuals, organizations, society and culture in general. Besides this breadth and dynamism, it is a construct with multiple and sometimes contradictory facets, which can be evaluative (meaning work from the perception of how it should be) and descriptive (as it really is). The research about employees of on urban sanitation and solid waste collection still are few, and the existing were made with open instruments, due to the difficulty of data collection with people of elementary school. It had objective the understanding the meaning of work and its centrality to 358 street-sweeper and garbage collector outsourced from Aracaju / SE, from the survey and ranking of descriptive and evaluative factors. It had the Meaning of Work Inventory, validated in Brazil, as well as questions about the centrality of work and socio-demographic data. The sample consisted of male sex workers (92,2%) with elementary education (64.0%), married / stable (52.2%), 1 to 3 children (58.1%) in average: 33 years (DP = 9,60), 34.82 months for the company (DP = 42.52) and individual income of R$ 617,03 (DP = R$ 141,13). The data were subjected to parametric and non-parametric statistical analysis and presented results as: predominance of instrumental role in the work description (FD3 - Familiar and Personal Survival) and valuation (FV5 - Familiar and Personal Survival) of the meaning of work for the general sample (FD3 = 4.34 and = FV5 4.51) and for the subsample of street-sweeper (FD3 = 4,34 and FV5 = 4,53). Experience of justice in the workplace (FD2 = 3,36) lower than expected (FV2 = 4,59) for all participants. The centrality of work (11.7%) was lower than the centrality of the family (79.6%). It is believed that the sample, the changing world of work and the time gap between the research that originated the IST and this contributed to the inconsistency of a factor for the overall sample. The study ever deeper about meaning of work and its instruments, especially for those workers, which increasingly rely on the health and welfare of all living beings, enables more effective actions in organizational management and promotes improvements in quality life at work, on worker health, productivity and performance.