Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to investigate workplace learning among municipal officers in the high-learning-demanding organizational context of their work practice in the first year of mandate. Design/methodology/approach – A before-and-after quasi-experimental design was used to assess the effect of time of work practice on learning work requirements. Level of mastery of role-relevant knowledge, skills and attitudes (KSAs) was measured on three occasions (once before and twice after occurrence of work practice), with 126 participants. Associations have been tested between this learning and level of education, previous experience, use of learning strategies at work, population size of municipalities and participatory public planning. Findings – Findings suggest that the municipal officers showed learning of KSAs but no change in their attitude toward public administration. This learning has been positively associated to size of the municipalities, previous professional experience and learning strategies, especially regarding the cognitive strategy “intrinsic and extrinsic reflection”. A possible positive effect of the use of participatory planning on this learning could have been detected if measures were taken after 11 months. Research limitations/implications – The generalization of findings is limited, as data are restricted to the southern and southeastern regions of Brazil, in municipalities in which mayors belong to a given political party. Practical implications – The study brought useful information that may contribute to provide some clues, to municipal officers and their parties, on how to accelerate the required learning that should take place right after election. Social implications – The practical implications may be cautiously used in organizations in general. Originality/value – The feasibility of a longitudinal design to measure work-related learning was shown. Options for more comprehensive studies that may better define the phenomenon of workplace learning and identify its relationships with other variables have been demonstrated.

A gestão por competências tem merecido crescente atenção por parte de profissionais e acadêmicos desde seu surgimento. Sobre o setor público, percebe-se uma lacuna no que diz respeito a estudos teóricos ou empíricos que se refiram aos níveis estadual e municipal, e, do mesmo modo, no que se refere a seu primeiro escalão. O presente artigo relata a construção de um instrumento de medida para diagnóstico de competências de prefeitos(as) e secretários(as) municipais, realizada por meio de entrevistas com 17 pessoas exercendo o mandato, e sua validação com uma amostra de 455 outros sujeitos iniciando e concluindo mandatos. Os indicadores obtidos na análise fatorial sugerem a validade psicométrica do instrumento e a estrutura empírica está consistente com a teoria sobre competências.

ResumoNo mundo do trabalho, espera-se cada vez mais que os indivíduos sejam capazes de aprender a aprender e tomem a iniciativa de seu próprio aprendizado. Nesse contexto, cresce em importância a compreensão dos fatores individuais relacionados à aprendizagem. O presente relato descreve a adaptação e validação de um instrumento de medida de um desses fatores: as estratégias de aprendizagem no trabalho, entendidas como esforços empreendidos pelo indivíduo para realizar a aprendizagem. Partindo de uma escala já validada para o contexto de uma organização do setor bancário, utilizou-se uma amostra composta por 90 prefeitos(as) e 365 secretários(as) municipais, em virtude da intensa demanda por aprendizado que as condições de trabalho dessas pessoas ensejam. Os resultados da análise fatorial indicaram uma estrutura de cinco fatores (reflexão extrínseca e intrínseca, busca de ajuda em material escrito, busca de ajuda interpessoal, aplicação prática e reprodução) consistente com os resultados obtidos com outras amostras.Palavras-chave: estratégias de aprendizagem; aprendizagem no trabalho; setor público; prefeitos; medidas. AbstractValidation of a scale for learning strategies at work among mayors and municipals secretaries. At the workplace, individuals are increasingly expected to be able to learn how to learn and to take the initiative of their own learning process. In this context, understanding of individual factors related to learning gains in importance. This report describes the adaptation and validation of an instrument for the measurement of one of these factors, denominated learning strategies at work, understood as the efforts undertaken by the individual to carry out his or her own learning process in working contexts. Based on a scale already validated in a banking sector organization, the adapted measure was applied to a sample of 90 Mayors and 365 Municipal Secretaries, due to the huge learning demand imposed to them by their working conditions. Results of factor analysis indicated a five factor structure (extrinsic and intrinsic reflection, search for help in written material, search for interpersonal help, practical application and reproduction) that is consistent with the results obtained with other samples.

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