Challenges of contemporary university management: presenteeism and its impacts on student development

Abstract

Presenteeism is a concept used to represent the fact that an individual is physically present in his or her working environment, but due to intrinsic problems, his concentration is not focused on the activity. Considering that the phenomenon of presenteeism has reached the classroom, especially after the advent of smartphones and social networks, this article aims to consolidate the aspects present in the university environment with the theory and to suggest an instrument for identification and measurement of presenteeism in the student community, in order to help in this challenge of contemporary university management. For that, a focus group was carried out with nine participants, between professors and students of a large higher education institution of Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais. Thus, it is observed that presenteeism is a problem that affects the student community today, and there are several factors that contribute to this attitude, which suggests that monitoring of the situation from the proposed instrument could represent significant learning gains, school performance and consequently better opportunities for this future professionals.