THE IMPORTANCE AND INCIDENCE OF CONFLICT MANAGEMENT AND THE USE OF COLLABORATIVE NEGOTIATION AS CURRICULAR COMPONENTS IN BRAZILIAN UNDERGRADUATE COURSES

Professional and technological education has been understood as an educational and investigative process for generating and adapting technical and technological solutions to social demands and regional, national and international development specificities. The growing globalization of production relationships causes changes in the workplace to occur at a much faster pace. Contemporary society can be defined as a liquid society - a term used by Zygmunt Bauman - whose fluid and fragile relations are an important characteristic. In this context, workplace relationships tend to become individualized and difficulties that arise are viewed as situations of conflict, and confrontation, where relationships are marked by the win-lose binomial. Numerous studies show that most workplace-related conflicts, difficulties and problems stem from the human inability to interact adequately and the tendency to face situations of conflict as situations of contention. In light of this reality, the curricular structures of courses aimed at professional education were studied, checking for insertions and the role of curricular disciplines that deal with and prepare professionals for negotiation and mediation practices, which are essential for them to properly carry out their role in the workplace, as well as achieve a level of well-being in this universe and fully build and live out their status as citizens. The methodology used was document analysis through a study of Pedagogical Course Designs involving technical and undergraduate courses from five Federal Institutes in Brazil, where the criterion for selecting the institutions in each of the five national regions (South, Southeast, Center-West, Northeast and North) was based on the highest number of students. The data analysis established categorizations for resolving the research problem. The results revealed the lack of curricular elements that would indicate the existence of any intentions of professional training involving the practice of collaborative negotiation and win-win management in the realm of conflict resolution.