The use of data triangulation to define the model of professional competences for innovation in the Brazilian public sector

Abstract

Introduction. For the public sector to be innovative, it is necessary to have professionals with the skills to innovate and generate improvements in the provision of public services. Therefore, it is necessary to define and develop such competences in public servants using research techniques that generate quality and consistent results. Goals. Define the competences necessary for professionals working with innovation in the Brazilian public sector, based on data triangulation as a way to generate a more complete and consistent list from different sources of information. Methods. A descriptive, cross-sectional research with a mixed approach was carried out, the qualitative one with analysis of seven documents, 27 interviews and three focus groups with 14 participants in total, and the qualitative approach with the application of an electronic questionnaire with 674 participants to define and validate the necessary skills with triangulation of data. Data were subjected to thematic content analysis and descriptive and multivariate statistics. Results. 32 competencies to innovate were defined, all of which were identified in interviews, 25 in focus groups and 20 in documental research. All competencies had averages greater than 7, indicating the perception that they are necessary to innovate in the public sector, in addition to having factor loadings greater than 0.80, indicating the excellent quality of the items and internal consistency of 0.990, corroborating the quality of the data. generated by qualitative research. Conclusions. The use of triangulation allowed a more complete list and higher quality in the definition of competences for innovation, considering the advantages of the different collection techniques used, contributing to a greater validity of the results.