The changing nature of leadership in public organizations has been particularly important in the development of the new public service, according to Denhardt (2012, p. 262). Practical public managers, who seek greater commitment to values, focus on public service, empowerment, shared leadership, pragmatic increments and dedication to the public service, consequently reflecting a business model that makes the public service different through the promotion of dignity and value of the new public service.

With the initial awakening of the characteristics of the practical public manager, this research was developed in a federal autarchy, to the occupants of a commissioned function of executive manager and customer service manager. This public was selected because it performs management activities in the various administrative and service areas that exist in the Brazilian territory, with needs and characteristics that need to be considered in training carried out by this autarchy and that was shown in this research.

The problem identified by this research was what the contributions of distance management training are expressed by the managers of the autarchy around their competences required for the performance of their duties. The importance attributed to each of the two distance courses analyzed on the development of management competencies within the researched individuals was investigated. Furthermore, it was intended to measure how far each distance course in specific contributed, effectively, to the development of these management competencies. It was concluded that the impact of the two distance courses would be measured on the importance of these courses to the development of management competencies and how, in fact, under the perception of the respondents, these courses contributed to the development of these competencies. This perspective (considering the effects of the impact of training on the development of professional competencies) can be considered relatively innovative since little instructional technology refers to the later development and expression of the competences, especially those of management level. The theoretical perspective assumed in this research is based on Elnaga and Imran (2013) and Alfandi (2016).

This problem guided the general objective of evaluating the effectiveness of distance management training in light of the skills required from autarchy managers through self-evaluation measures and variables that predict training results.

The social relevance of the proposed study is to evaluate the educational actions aimed at the training of managers, which may favor the evolution of distance courses, allowing the increase of the quality of the services provided by the autarchy. Regarding the organizational relevance, the research can contribute to improving the TD&E (training, development and performance improvement) actions of this autarchy, making it possible the rationalization of public resources and the improvement of services provided to the Brazilian population, as well as encouraging the increase of the evaluation culture of the courses to distance promoted by it.

The authors Aguinis and Kraiger (2009) present a literature review on the benefits of training and development of people and teams, organizations and society. They bring a review of assessment needs and training projects. They point out that there is documentary evidence that training activities have a positive impact on the performance of individuals and teams.

In Brazil, the review of human resource management by Meneses, Coelho Junior, Ferreira, Paschoal, and Silva Filho (2014, p. 129) is marked by theoretical-empirical studies aimed at describing certain facets - the management of human resources functions, such as training, development and education, from the perception of diverse audiences sampled in a non-probabilistic way in one organization at a time.

Considering such revisionary researches, it is perceived that human learning at work has a plurality of concepts and definitions, in which the concept of Abbad and Borges-Andrade (2014, p. 244) was adopted in this study, which maintains that learning "is a psychological process understood as the changes that occur in the behavior of the individual as a function of the relationship of the individual with the environment and not only changes resulting solely from maturation."

By observing the importance of the transfer of learning at work with the use of knowledge, skills and attitudes (KSAs), in terms of effectiveness in the performance of the trained competence, there are factors to be explained, according to Noe, Clarke, and Klein (2014), to know: 1. whether the evaluation of the transfer takes place sometime after the training or if it is soon after the training, 2. if the evaluation of the transfer is a result of the perception of the trainees themselves or of their peers; 3. if the concept of transference is operationalized as an application in the work of what was learned by the individual or in terms of performance effectiveness of the trained competence.

According to Kraiger and Cavanagh (2015), this is a systematic process managed by organizations, with constant changes in the knowledge, skills, and attitudes of their occupants. This process occurs through 1. management of the education system (as a process), 2. conducting a needs assessment training to define the content of the training, 3. training project, 4. provision of training, 5. management of the transfer of the training back to work, and 6. assessment of the impact of the training and review of the education system based on these data.

Training is considered an activity materialized by different rhythms, with different visions, implemented according to various ends and regulated by the dynamics of economic competition, according to Alfandi (2016). As an institutionalized service, training is structured on labor activity, being a transcendent object that has covered the societies, contingencies, political systems, and economic conditions.

Training has always been a mandatory means to promote the qualification of the workers needed for each management logic. Malvezzi (2015) emphasizes that throughout its historical trajectory, training has faced several types of challenges that only served to enrich it and allowed it to evolve, integrated around work performance and the emancipation of the individual as a human being and not a mere human resource in organizations.

When observing the e-learning (electronic learning), object of this research, it is perceived that it is a modality usually turned to the learning of adults. In Brazil, e-learning is being adopted in education, in qualification and professional training programs, and incorporate education (Abbad, 2007).

When considering the necessary e-learning and viable its use for the management capacities in the structure of the selected autarchy, the assessment of the teaching-learning process also needs to be weighed.

According to the studies of Bloom, Hastings, and Madaus (1983), the evaluation of the teaching-learning process presents three types of functions: diagnostic (analytical), formative (controlling) and summative (classificatory). The summative evaluation that is the object of this research, according to Borges-Andrade (2006, p. 344), "is the process of planning, obtaining and analyzing information in order to provide useful inputs to decide on the adoption or rejection of a program or event isolated from TD&E, thought as an instructional system."

In the scientific literature, two models of training evaluation are pointed out. Kirkpatrick (1976) suggests four levels of evaluation: 1. reactions; 2. learning; 3. performance in the position; 4. results. The Hamblin model (1978) subdivides the results item, with the following presentation: 1. reactions; 2. learning; 3. performance in the position; 4. organizational change; and 5. final value.

The more contemporary models mix training results with environment variables. In this line, CIRO (Warr, Bird, & Rackham, 1970), CIPP 48 (Stufflebeam, 1978), MAIS (Borges-Andrade, 1982) and IMPACT (Abbad, 1999; Abbad, 2014) can be cited.

The Integrated Impact Assessment of Training (IMPACT), elaborated by Abbad (1999) and revised in 2014, based on the MAIS of Borges-Andrade (1982), was the model chosen in this study as a variable training impact criterion (in amplitude), also encompassing context variables of learning support. The IMPACT Model consists of ten components: 1. external environment; 2. support; 3. needs; 4. customer characteristics; 5. training characteristics; 6. reactions; 7. learning; 8. impact of training on the job; 9. change in the organization; and 10. final value. The first seven components are predictive variables of the impact of training at work.

The amplitude impact assessment contains items related to the frequency of use of learning, improvement of the quality of task performance, reduction of errors in the execution of the task and items that evaluate the impact of training on the motivation and self-efficacy of the trained professional. The in-depth impact assessment has items drawn from the instructional objectives (transformed into expected performance objectives) specific to each training.

In addition to the training impact assessment, it is necessary to conceptualize the learning support variable, which is one of the critical factors for the effective use of training in the work environment.

According to Coelho Jr. (2004, p. 56), support for learning is an evaluation of psychosocial support (peers, peers and bosses) for learning and applying new skills in the work environment, acquired not only through previously planned training (induced learning), but also by learning in unstructured or unintentional organizational situations (natural learning).

For Abbad et al. (2012, p. 247), learning support is "evaluated in terms of stimulating the organizational environment to new spontaneous learning at work through contact with more experienced people, self-learning or imitation behavior" and deals with dimensions of support as creating positive expectations about the benefits of learning and its application, providing feedback, and disseminating information about competent performance.

When dealing with competences, it is opportune to start the theoretical basis from the contributions of McClelland (1973) and Boyatzis (1982), since they are considered the forerunners in this theme. They depart from the American school and propose competences as inputs, that is, the qualities required for the exercise of a position, related only to the set of KSAs.

Sandberg (1996) criticizes the traditional concept of competences, where it understands that the development of competences must be understood based on organizational practices, focusing its analysis on the enrichment of experiences and experiences (interpretative approach).

Due to the importance of such concept of competences, it is observed that in the literature there are many definitions of respect. To identify differences and convergences in the technical use of such concept, Campos (2015) carried out a systematic analysis in the specialized scientific literature.

In this analysis, Campos (2015) identified three dimensions along the concept of competences around attributes underlying the dimension of knowledge, skills, and attitudes. This concept of competences is an observable performance in the dimension of behaviors and results; performance in the dimension of excellence and recognition.

Campos (2015, p. 34) points out that:

The concept of competence expresses individual attributes depending on the context, which vary according to the situation (unforeseen, changes) and with the work to be performed. For this reason, evaluating only facts or isolated occurrences of human work performance and results are inadequate and inadequate methodological strategies for the measurement of human competences. Also, the concept of competence includes standards and reference values adopted by a particular social unit (organization, team, other people) to judge whether a given performance is competent and whether or not the result of that performance is an indicator of success.

In this research, competence, as conceptualized by Carbone (2009), is considered a set of synergetic combinations of knowledge, skills, and attitudes expressed by professional performance within an organizational context, which adds value to people and organizations.

For Brandão, Borges-Andrade, Freitas, and Vieira (2010) management skills are a category that has attracted growing interest from theorists, organizations, and researchers, perhaps because of the supposition that they exert considerable influence on the performance of work teams, and therefore on organizational outcomes. Despite the efforts that have been made, mainly in the theoretical field, to explain the nature of management competence, many questions remain unanswered, lacking research to investigate antecedents and consequent of the expression of competences at work, wherein this research variable is contemplated.

In light of the brief theoretical background presented, it is intended to fix the work on the impact of training, support to learning and skills, wherein the next section, the methodological procedures of this research are presented.

The proposed theoretical research model had as variables the criteria of training impacts in work both in depth and breadth, including verifying their effects on competences required from the managers of a certain Brazilian federal autarchy. It is expected that the greater the perceived influence (training impact in depth and breadth) there will be greater importance and contribution of the two courses evaluated against the competences required from such managers.

With the favorable perception of the influences of training in the work environment, more skills can be aggregated and related to the training and the professional day to day. It is already emphasized here that the measure of the breadth of competencies was built based on the competences established for the occupants of the executive manager and service manager of the selected autarchy, based on the management skills scale proposed by Brandão, Borges-Andrade, Freitas, and Vieira (2010). In this research, unlike Brandão et al. (2010), only self-evaluation measures were used.

The empirical model developed here (which has as variables the criterion of depth and amplitude of training impacts on the acquisition and expression of management competences in work) was conceived from variables contained in the IMPACT model (Abbad, 1999).

The following predictors were tested: 1. clientele profile, which contains the biographical and functional information regarding the participants of the two training sessions under analysis; 2. learning support (psychosocial support of colleagues and leadership to the application of new learning in work performance).

According to Abbad et al. (2012), learning support has been considered as the main predictor of the impact of training, since it assumes that the existence of an organizational context favorable to the use of new skills learned in training generates conditions for impact.

The impact was not measured only in the way traditional TD&E literature does, but also considered the outcome of each of the impacts reported on the development of management competences. It was considered the importance attributed to each training to the improvement of post-qualification work performance as well as how effectively, from the perspective of individuals, each of the two courses evaluated contributed to the improvement of this professional performance.

Therefore, it was verified, in this model, the relationship of personal, professional and learning support predictor variables along with the variables of the impact criterion of training in depth and amplitude on acquisition and expression of management competences with executive managers and managers of this autarchy.

To operationalize the empirical investigation of such theoretical variables, a single questionnaire was designed for such managers, considering all the items of each of the measures under study, duly grouped. This questionnaire also included demographic and functional information.

The theoretical hypothesized model was conceived based on the analysis of the literature described in the theoretical foundation. He considered that in a management and peer support environment, with the deep impact and breadth of management skills, there would be acquisition and expression (stages conceived here as equivalents of competency domain) of skills and knowledge acquired from these training in the work routine.

For a better visualization of the proposed research, the hypothesized theoretical model is presented in Figure 3.1.

Figure 3.1

The typification of this research had an applied, theoretical/empirical nature and a descriptive research delineation from a correlational perspective, analyzing the self - perceptions of the training impact, the learning support and the skills required from certain managers of a Brazilian federal autarchy. Being correlational this research, statistical indices were used to verify the possible influence among the identified variables with analysis of the questionnaire responses sent to the 104 executive managers and 1,506 service managers.

The scope was of the case, through the evaluation of two management capacities at a distance in the autarchy regarding the impact and the learning support, verifying if they promote the established management competencies.

The approach is classified as quantitative, since the data were obtained through indirect contact between the researcher and the situation of the study, with a cross-sectional data collection, cross-sectional (cross-sectional), since the data were collected at a given time, from July 2016 to August 2016, with no intention of tracing evolution or identifying changes over time (Churchill Junior, 1999, p. 66). It was done through the use of an electronic questionnaire - survey type in a field environment, applied to the executive managers and managers of distributed service of the autarchy in the Brazilian territory.

In this research, the primary data collected by the researcher were used, considering that descriptive research was carried out on the distance training required for the 104 executive managers and 1,506 service managers to generate hypotheses regarding the efficiency, effectiveness and effectiveness of these distance training models front the skills required to perform these functions in the autarchy, resulting in an intentional non-probabilistic sample, according to Creswell (2010), with managers participating in distance training from January/2013 to March/2016.

First, evidence of the internal validity of the questionnaire used focuses on the specific analysis of its underlying theoretical dimensions (learning support and training impact on breadth and depth). Subsequently, the final empirical models obtained were presented. Procedures involving the tabulation of data and calculations were performed using the SPSS program (Statistical Package for the Social Sciences).

The psychometric indicators obtained in the measures currently discussed were satisfactory and resemble the original measures (Coelho Junior, 2004; Pilati & Abbad, 2005). The data support evidence of internal validity in the measures used.

The empirical models obtained in this research are in agreement with the scientific literature on TD&E in demonstrating the importance of psychosocial support to learning in predicting the impact of training at work (Alfandi, 2016; Galanou, & Priporas, 2009). The variables of training impact, both in terms of amplitude, depth and competences presented acceptable results since the factors unit of work and immediate manager of the predictive variable of learning support demonstrated that it has a strong influence on the training results in the environment job. This is evidenced by the result of the unit work factor (β = 0.41) and the immediate management factor (β = 0.17) in the amplitude impact; in β = 0.36 in the immediate management factor of the impact in depth of the scale of importance and in β = 0.39 in the factor of the immediate manager and β = 0.18 of the factor lacking support of the scale of contribution of the course of strategic management. In the course of team management, we can see similar results, with β = 0.43 in the unit of work factor of the importance scale and the same unit work factor with β = 0.43 in the contribution scale. The variable criterion of the impact of training in amplitude on competences was measured as the manager of service, where the result of β = 0.36 was in the unit of work factor of importance scale and of β = 0.53 in the scale of contribution.

In fact, the work environment, represented here by the unit of a work factor, is extremely important to the impact of training actions, and must already be considered in the evaluation of learning needs (Yotamo, 2014). Galanou and Priporas (2009) also identified that training contributed to increased productivity and that the satisfaction level of the team was increased by the training evaluated by the authors. The impact of training on the job generates, in fact, effective contributions to the acquisition and mastery of professional skills of managers (D'Netto, Bakas, & Bordia, 2008).

Distance training is capable of impacting performance (Vargas, 2003). According to Joia and Costa (2007), it is important to note that there is no single model or formula to guarantee the success of corporate distance training programs. Each company and each training program is unique, with specific characteristics that must be observed, so that it is possible to adopt the correct strategies and achieve the desired goals.

Learning support is indispensable in this context since individuals can be the agents that provide or receive the support of colleagues and managers. The meeting with Coelho Junior and Borges-Andrade (2011) identified that support for learning predicts the impact, and this is capable of influencing the development of professional skills.

According to Abbad and Borges-Andrade (2014), Balarin et al. (2014), and Coelho Junior et al. (2005), the support for learning provided in the workplace usually refers to the opportunities for exposing ideas from each server; the time destined for the search of new ways of carrying out the work; the autonomy to argue about leadership demands; error tolerance when trying to apply new knowledge and skills; encouraging the search for new learning; and the availability of material, human, financial and/or informational resources sufficient for the application of new knowledge and skills. The reasons for this lack of support need to be understood qualitatively within this entity.

D'Netto, Bakas, and Bordia (2008) also found predictive relationships between line manager support and the opportunity to effectively use management development actions. The support of the high management level appeared as a strong predictor of the link with the strategy, the latter being the best variable predicting the effectiveness of management development.

None of the personal and professional variables contributed significantly to the empirical models. This result is curious, but it is in line with Abbad and Carvalho (2006) and Yotamo (2014), who also did not identify effects of variables of this nature (gender, age group, educational level, and public prediction of impact.

In summary, the results suggest the need to invest heavily in management actions to provide support for learning, since this support is capable of predicting the impact and influencing the domain of professional skills. By perceiving the organizational environment as sports, workers will be able to apply, in their routines, the skills acquired in a training situation.

The contributions and limitations of the research are presented, as well as a research agenda for continuity of studies on the impact of training in the work environment, since the expectation of finding in the managers' greater control of competences caused by the impact of the training in the work was validated, according to results and discussion presented.

It is salutary to consider the selected public, who at first has decision-making power in the organization, not depending on the environment rule to apply the knowledge received in training. However, the statistical regressions, performed and limited in the self-assessment of the research participants, support the need for workplace support to the executive manager and service manager of this autarchy to apply such knowledge.

The present research also allowed the expansion and diversification of samples in the investigations of training impact in the organizations, thus contributing to increase the generalization of the national research results of TD & E, as recommended by Coelho Junior and Abbad (2010).

Another no less important contribution is the scope of the research carried out, involving a target audience distributed in all Brazilian states - both in capitals and in countryside cities. With this unprecedented event, expectations have arisen, and new needs for training actions have arisen in the autarchy, which is in progress.

The verification of the effectiveness of management training in the light of the competences required from managers of this autarchy, as a general objective of this research, was reached in the specific audience of service manager, since it was possible to perform all the factorial analyzes and planned regressions in the sample of this type of manager.

A limitation identified but not impeding its validity and utility, since the elaboration of the research project, was the question of the research being only self-evaluating, disregarding the hetero evaluations, preventing comparisons regarding the effectiveness of the training and the convergence of the answers obtained.

The time interval for the completion of the evaluated training and the accomplishment of this research was also dispersed, averaging ten months, being the ideal to carry out an in-depth impact research before carrying out the specific course, to gauge expectations, another adjacent after the course finished, and another one after six months; thus having an effective evaluation of the impact of training in the work environment. Thus the research would have had a longitudinal rather a transverse cut.

According to the results presented and discussed, the following research agenda is proposed for future studies:

Evaluate the use of more than one research instrument, in addition to the electronic questionnaire. A mixed research approach could be adopted, avoiding the quantitative approach in these cases with restricted public and decision-making power in organizations.