Casos de Ensino/ Gest o: Competências do Gestor Público e o Medalh o - Um Conto e um Caso de Ensino

The present teaching case aims to promote reflection on public manager abilities proposed in the new National Academic Guidelines (NAG) for undergraduate courses in public administration. Starting with the timeless tale by Machado de Assis, the Medallion (Teoria do Medalh o), the case encourages students to engage in a debate on the relevance of skills to public managers in opposition to the recipe for a medallion referred to in the story. The authors use the tale’s core elements in order to reconstruct a narrative context of the reality of an undergraduate public administration student. The case is supported by Machado's irony and the advice from a father to his son regarding the qualities and skills that would achieve prestige and social mobility once you give up the exercise of reflection, empowerment and engagement. At the end of the narrative, students are asked to confront the limitations of the Labor of the Medallion argument within the context of each ability necessary for public management.