Advanced teaching of administration started in Brazil in the '50s, by means of agreements signed between the Brazilian and American governments, giving official status to the transfer of technology from American to Brazilian universities. Forty years afterwards, the theoretical support our schools are able to give to the professionals of administration do not respond to present necessities, due to significant changes occurred in the country's socio-economic framework, as well as to the evidence of its specific cultural traits. So, the renovation of said support is an urgent task, aiming especially at an institutional revitalization and a surmounting of the serious difficulties faced by the country. In such a process, research has fundamental important role and two basic directives are suggested for it: the historical reconstitution of the organizational phenomenon and the analysis of relevant cultural features, with a view at concurring to the formation of a strong theorical body of knowledge, a set of theories allowing for the understanding of the Brazilian organizational phenomenon and capable to support the conception and the operationalization of managerial models more adequate to the realities presented to the Brazilian administrator in his field of action.Histórico do ensino superior de administração no Brasil. Renovação do suporte teórico fornecido pelas atuais escolas de administração. Papel fundamental da pesquisa - duas linhas básicas: reconstituição histórica do fenômeno organizacional e análise dos elementos relevantes da cultura.