Change in our society has become one of the most daily activities for our organizations, however the challenge is enormous and the competitive advantage lies in knowledge. This article examines the concepts related to Information and Knowledge Management towards the achievement of Organizational Learning and its close relationship with the change in the organizations that develop in the so-called “Knowledge Society”.
Key words: Change, Information Management, Knowledge Management, Organizational Learning.
change-management-and-organizational-learning-1Introduction.
At the dawn of this new century, organizations develop more and more with a clear tendency towards combining principles and ways of doing business. Production processes, commercial actions, financial planning and other factors are similar in other companies, whether or not they belong to the same sector or the same country. Currently, and for this reason, it is possible for one organization to implement a management system that is operating successfully in another, simply by making some adaptation modifications.
The challenge for all areas of the company is in the production or marketing processes, in the financial aspects and, of course, in the results that are to be obtained. But, who carries out all these actions, and who makes possible the increase in the number of businesses, in the market share, in the reduction of costs and in so many other activities relevant to the success of the company? The answer points to the work team that makes up the organization: its people. The strength that sustains the company is found in people, in their integration systems, their capabilities, their
degree of personal and organizational commitment, and something very important: in its KNOWLEDGE, the company does not own this intangible resource, as it is totally personal.
It is the time to intelligently manage information and knowledge; characteristic of a "Post-Industrial Society, Information Society, Knowledge Society", as defined by various authors; where knowledge is the “limiting resource”, not the land, nor the materials
bonuses, not even capital. Have this one and you have everything. Rather than defining the society in which we live, the transcendental thing would be to adapt to an environment where the knowledge of the personnel is the greatest distinctive capacity of an organization.
The change in the organization is a process that, in a certain way, has been imposed by the environment, it has had to develop tools, methods and ways to act and adapt to a changing environment in search of competitiveness in the market. The modern organization faces a new change, a New Economy, that of the intangibles; where information and knowledge are key words. Intangible assets offer the organization a competitive advantage, since it is an element that distinguishes it from the competition. As you know how to manage these assets based on achieving organizational intelligence, you will be able to achieve efficiency and effectiveness in decision making and thus be competitive.
Information and knowledge management have shown that it is possible, thanks to information and communication technologies (ICT), to put at the service of the organization: the information necessary to make decisions and develop the production process, and the knowledge of people; in such a way that the organization is intelligent and achieves learning based on the fulfillment of its strategic objectives.
Organizational learning influences the process of change in the organization. When it manages to be intelligent, intangibles are efficiently managed and the organization is considered as a very complex living system, in which information and knowledge are the resources that help develop change towards individual and organizational learning.
In this research, aspects related to information as a resource in the organization and its management towards organizational change will be addressed. The management of information and knowledge as tools towards achieving organizational learning and favoring the process of change. The case of The Cuban Oil Company CUPET, which has a knowledge management strategy that favors organizational change, will be analyzed. In addition, the final reflections and the bibliography consulted are made explicit.
Change - Organizational Learning.
Management in modern organization has become very complex. The systemic nature of its functions and processes, Human Capital, technologies, information and other elements have influenced that the organization constantly needs a process of change; which has been treated since past times. This new century has greatly revolutionized the process of change globally and within the organization. The Management of Information, Knowledge and Organizational Learning are disciplines or approaches that are in development and provide significant results in the competitiveness of the organization against environmental changes and in its efficient and effective management, using intangible resources. Many have been the prestigious authors who have predicted a future of great changes for organizations.Some defend and treasure information, others manage knowledge, and there is talk of achieving not only personal but organizational learning, very few organizations have truly achieved it, it is necessary to face a process of total change within the way of thinking of an organization.
The change in the organization.
Doing different things, for the human being is something everyday, it can be involuntary, and even relaxing. Let's analyze then what happens when an organization tries to do different things, that is to say to face the change. This process is very complex and necessary to face the environment and adapt to it. The agents of change (administrators, consultants, members of the company…) are in charge
if carried out in organizations, they may face resistance to change by both the organization and the staff.
Organizations are obliged to develop in an environment in which change is constant, favorable and unfavorable changes to the company and that cannot be modified, it will only be able to act or adapt, depending on achieving competition. For this reason, change must be planned, which means preparing the organization or most of it to adapt to significant changes in its goals and direction. A planned change is not easy, cheap, or painless. Workers need to change their customs or repeal paradigms, new rules and procedures will be developed; But there are three reasons, according to Stoner (1990), to undertake this planned change:
- Changes in the environment threaten the survival of the organization: The organization needs to have constant contact with the environment, to satisfy the customer and achieve competitiveness. Changes in the environment offer new opportunities to prosper: If the organization is able to take advantage of these changes in its favor, it would achieve competitiveness The organization's structure is delaying its adaptation to changes in the environment: The organization needs a structure that favors change to strategically adapt to the changing environment.
There are many factors in the organization that act to keep change in a state of equilibrium: the forces that oppose change are those that support stability or the status quo. In this regard, Kurt Lewin (1951) established a model according to the theory of the "force field", in which it shows that all behavior is the result of a balance between the driving forces and the restraining forces, the former exert pressure in one direction and the second ones in the opposite direction. An increase in driving forces could increase performance, but it could also
intensify the restraining forces, as shown in the following figure:
The natural tendency of every human person is to exert pressure, if we want a change, however the equally natural tendency of the person receiving it is to react against pressure, that is why this author's model reminds us of the need to seek multiple causes of behavior and not a single cause, according to the figure the forces of change would go to the highest level of performance and for this it is necessary to take into account the degree of pressure of each cause (the arrows indicate the level of pressure of each force), the forces can be of many types and the behavior or performance can be of an individual, a group or an organization. Organizations have forces that prevent performance from falling too low and forces that prevent it from increasing too much, which means there is a balance. So,Planned change programs aim to eliminate or weaken restraining forces and to create or strengthen the driving forces that exist in organizations.
Restrictive forces (forces tending to maintain the status quo) are of special interest since they represent potential sources of resistance to planned change. If managers can change these forces or direct their fundamental interests, they have the best opportunity to effect any planned change, we could group these sources of resistance into three general classes: organizational culture, individual interests, and perceptions of organizational and strategic goals. These sources of resistance are generally not found with the naked eye in the organization as they constitute intangible and subjective elements. Let's carry out an analysis, using an iceberg as a simile (as shown in the figure below):in which the formal aspects of the organization are manifested with the naked eye within it (they constitute the top) and to a greater degree the informal or intangible aspects would be below the surface, the latter generally being the sources of resistance to change.
These informal aspects are generally seen in the culture of the organization, which is one of the barriers or sources resistant to change, as a result of which the culture in an organization is the set of important principles, norms, values and beliefs that members share. Of the same. This culture is very difficult to change, because even sometimes the agents of change themselves do not analyze that it is necessary to change paradigms or ways of seeing the organization. To promote and plan change, it is necessary to develop an organizational culture towards it, influencing all these aspects that are below the surface of the organization, how to achieve it: it is the most complex.
Personal interests always influence the process of change, since it is very logical for staff to ask themselves what they gain and what they lose with the novelty, it must be taken into account when making a change that the working conditions are satisfactory, that the staff feel recognized, job security, decreased layoffs and other factors that concern staff. Likewise, it is essential that the perceptions and organizational goals are shared by all the members of the organization and in this factor information plays a leading role, for example, sometimes employees do not understand the need for a new goal because they do not have the same goal. information that their managers have and in other cases employees can resist change because they detect information that their managers do not have.
v The process of change.
Lewin has been a classic author when talking about change in the organization, he proposes to follow three steps: unfreezing the status quo, moving towards a new state, and refreezing the new change to make it permanent.
- Defrost: is to make the need for change so visible that the individual, group or company can easily see and accept it. Change involves appointing a prepared change agent, who will lead individuals, groups or the organization as a whole through of process. During this process, the change agent promotes new values, attitudes and behaviors through the process of identification and internalization. Members of the organization identify with the values, attitudes and behavior of the agent, internalizing them once they notice their effectiveness in performance. Refreezing: means to put in place the new behavioral pattern through support or reinforcement mechanisms, so that it becomes the current norm.
The process of change is very complex and it is influenced by various factors within the organization, and it must be addressed at all levels, functions and actions within it. For this reason, the planned change must not only be carried out by an agent, but must be a work philosophy of all members of the company.
Countless issues in the organization relate to change and developing them means fostering it and preparing people to face and develop it. Innovation is an example of this, we mentioned earlier that change refers to making things different. Innovation is a more specialized kind of change, it is a new idea to start or improve a product, process, or service. So all innovations involve change, but not all changes necessarily generate new ideas and lead to significant improvement. We would be relating the change directly applied to the results of the organization, so developing forms or ways to promote innovation directly influences the perception of change.
Innovative people or organizations adapt quickly to change because they are always thinking about it and sometimes they are even much more than an agent of change, rather than promoting it within the organization, they think about solving a problem through change and this thinking. it is totally progressive and favorable to the organization. As it becomes more innovative, it will have fewer people resistant to change.
Another element that influences change is information. This resource is closely related to all the processes that take place in the organization, both internally and externally. As the organization knows how to manage its information, the change process will be favored, firstly because it requires constant interaction with the environment to know where, how and when to change, and also internally, a process of communication and fluidity of information. Analyzing this peculiar resource within the organization has become a challenge that must be assumed to influence and subsist in the environment.
Information as a resource.
Organizations are extremely complex systems and open to the environment. Peter Senge (1990) considers organization as a living system. Which is made up of people and tangible or intangible resources, integrated in a process towards specific objectives that constitute the raison d'être of the organization. This open system can only exist through the exchange of materials with its environment: it imports materials, transforms them through conversion processes, consumes part of the conversion products for internal maintenance, and exports the rest. These import-conversion-export processes constitute the raison d'être of the organization and the information constitutes a very important element. The following figure, our graphically this process:
The term system implies that each component activity of the system is independent in relation to each other of the same system and that this, as a whole, is identifiable independently of the related systems. The information resource is very peculiar throughout the process, as it is present in all organizational functions and in business subsystems. It is also the connecting element of the entire process. It is for this reason that it is considered an intangible and invaluable asset, which needs to be carefully managed and protected. To understand this perspective we need to take a closer look at the nature of the information and the different types of information that are needed for decision making.
When analyzing the GI it is necessary to evaluate the information as a resource, as a product and as an asset. Information as a resource is managed and used as inputs or inputs to processes. Since the other resources have a direct associated cost, they must produce a return on investment, they must provide added value to the product or process for which they are used, and their effective use requires a good organization to obtain the best benefit from it.
Contrary to most of the other resources, it is not consumed in production or ends with use, but rather it reproduces at a dizzying pace, it is intangible, which makes its handling a more delicate operation, it can be reduced (a job can be done summary), can be shared and tends to split, while that occurs the greater amount of information is possessed (when more specific topics are covered, the amount of information available to the individual is expanded more).
If information is considered as a resource, it is important that it be managed as such, even more so when it is considered strategic, since it means knowledge, control, being a powerful weapon in decision-making at any level, you can sell as many times as you like, and have a very peculiar life cycle (what has little value today may be very important in a few years and vice versa). Information as a product is marketed, sold and must produce profits or income for the organization; and it should be considered as an asset to the extent that the organization must be concerned with owning, managing and using it to achieve its goals and establish a competitive advantage.
The increasing complexity of the decision-making process, the pressure on the demand for urgent answers to complex problems, the specialization of user / client demand, has created an unprecedented situation and is creating an avid market for sophisticated GI systems. and programs capable of evaluating it. As for the manager, he must be an intuitive, fast, creative person, with an open mind to allow them to act quickly, practically and concretely when making decisions.
v Data-information-knowledge-learning (intelligence).
Although knowledge existed from the most remote eras of humanity, even today, in the Information Age or the "knowledge" era, the difficulty of defining and understanding it continues. Perhaps
Because, when thinking of people who possess knowledge, the association with owners of the information or data repositories is immediate, still generating conflicts around the essence of the meaning of the words "data", "information" and "knowledge", which are often used as
synonyms. Páez Urdaneta, in his definition, goes to the so-called Informational Pyramid, which we will return to for his great contribution in the conceptualization of this triad of concepts and the deep and graphic vision of the analysis.
Source: Dante, Ponjuán, Gloria. Information management in organizations. Principles, concepts and applications. Santiago de Chile, 1998.
As the figure shows, the Informational Pyramid is made up of four levels, in the form of a pyramid, which shows the relationship between the concepts towards the quality of the intelligence development process at the personal and organizational level. The representation of these four concepts in the pyramid implies a hierarchy defined by the variables quality vs. quantity.
According to the author, the data are iconic, symbolic (phonemic or numerical) or symbolic (linguistic, logical or mathematical) registers by means of which facts, concepts or instructions are represented. On the contrary, other authors express that the data itself is meaningless and useless.
This author proposes the concept of information as a subject associated with the definition of data. Likewise, when Páez Urdaneta talks about it, he refers to his information proposal as meaning and defines it as: Data or informational matter related or structured in a current or potentially significant way.
What differentiates the data from the information is the dynamics that enter organizations, formally or informally, and are susceptible to various interpretations. The meaning of the information depends on the utility that it incorporates and on the perception and need of the person who receives it.
In stating, Páez Urdaneta the concept of knowledge associates it with the information process as understanding, that is why he establishes it as: Informational structures that, when internalized, are integrated into symbolic relationship systems of the highest level and permanence.
In the case of intelligence or learning, he talks about information as an opportunity, and defines it: Knowledge structures that, being contextually relevant, allow the advantageous intervention of reality.
We would be speaking that there is a systemic relationship between the concepts, approached by this author, that is, a conceptual triad; It is precisely this relationship that evidences the creation of value as one progresses from "data" to "knowledge" and finally to learning or "intelligence". In this pyramid, knowledge plays a fundamental role, since it is linked to people, and it can be said that information is converted into knowledge once it is processed in the minds of individuals and knowledge becomes information once it is articulated and presented in the form of text, graphics, words, or other symbolic forms.
Information Management and Knowledge Management.
Information and knowledge are intangible resources that the organization has in its Intellectual Capital; which, managed efficiently, favor all organizational processes. We have already clarified the difference between information and knowledge, there is a close relationship between them, since information is the bridge between data and knowledge; and for it to enrich and develop, interaction with information is necessary.
In the framework of the development of information and communication technologies, Information Management (GI) has developed greatly, under the influence of software that facilitates digital exchange and, above all, the great authority of the Internet (network of networks).
Conceptualizing the GI, we could argue, according to Lourdes Pórtela, which is a process conceived as a system that links information, decision and action, and involves decision chains affected by various networks of relationships between actors that have different functions and interests associated with decisions and their impacts, which Go beyond the structuring of tangible assets at the present time to reveal their foreseeable future based on the peculiarities of intellectual capital.
Information Management Systems penetrate the three components of Intellectual Capital (relational, structural and human capital), becoming vehicles to facilitate their performance, if SGI managers and users think and act under the influence of an organizational culture and strategic thinking.
The GI is that process that is responsible for managing the information necessary for decision-making and a better functioning of the organization's processes, products and services. The correct GI knows, incorporates and links all types of data, from all areas of the organization and is related to all processes, from the generation of internal data and the selection and acquisition of documents to the organization of its use. Its function is to provide accurate information for decision-making, without worrying about other aspects related to learning. It has a more mechanistic, engineering vision, the human element is less important.
Knowledge Management is a phenomenon that depends on the training and knowledge of the individual, which is essential in the process of creating knowledge. Although the term can be very pretentious due to the scope of the concept of knowledge, it is really a new proposal with more scope than Information Management. Knowledge Management should be understood as the creation of an environment that facilitates the conversion of information into knowledge and, at the same time, this knowledge into new information as the only way to transmit knowledge to all members of the organization.
The Knowledge Management proposal is superior to Information Management, although this continues to be an essential element within organizations, in dynamic integration with Knowledge Management. Whether with this term, for many too comprehensive or with any other, Knowledge Management imposes new challenges for organizations of this millennium, but it is also a way for them to achieve adaptation and competitiveness.
Taking into account the elements discussed above, the complexity of the process of assimilation of knowledge by the elements of a given organization and much more, its capitalization and incorporation into its attributes, can be identified, which, based on an adequate Information Management System, leading to the need for the establishment of a Comprehensive Knowledge Management System that allows obtaining the expected results in the development of an organization or a given individual aimed at increasing its added value that allows greater competitiveness, is say that at all times the whole must be made greater than the sum of the parts, work on a true integration between individual and organizational knowledge;Only in this way could the necessary synergy leading to business success be achieved.
Managing Knowledge means identifying it, inventorying it, increasing it and exploiting it in a highly competitive capacity based on a combination between the interests of the organization and those of those who are carriers of knowledge, their human capital, both interests must be combined so that the vector As a result of their interrelation, they have a direction towards development and the greater their magnitude, the faster the desired competitive change will be obtained.
The main source of an organization's competitive advantage is the stock of knowledge it possesses. It is possible that an entire sector has similar or similar production technologies, in this case the competitive advantage appears from the (differentiated) capacity that it possesses of knowing how to use those assets rather than the fact of owning them. The main aspect of value in knowledge is its ability to solve problems, backed by its results and its level is given by the effectiveness of the given answer. However, this process that constitutes the true wealth of the organization is achieved over time, in order to materialize the knowledge and experiences, transferable and reproducible that could be considered as an essential vector of competitiveness and survival.
Dealing with knowledge is dealing with problems and their solutions, that is, with competencies. It is for this reason that KM cannot be limited only to the work carried out with human resources, it is necessary to create the conditions that allow them to perform, reflecting this in the organizational structures that manifest themselves in the form of encapsulated knowledge.
The true wealth and utility of GC is not in the massive distribution of documents or the exploitation of huge databases. Such activities often end up creating huge garbage dumps of information that are of no use to anyone. The true value is in people, in the possibility of sharing ideas and visions that are not documented. This tacit knowledge is very difficult to explain and we often only keep it in mind when we are faced with solving a certain problem. Sharing knowledge involves the act of recognizing who will use it and for what purpose, so if we want to share this type of knowledge, we must make the effort to think together.
Smart Organizations. Use organizational knowledge as a key to development.
Through individual learning and processes of capturing, structuring and transmitting corporate knowledge, we can come to speak of organizational learning. Organizational learning is the underlying approach that gives meaning and continuity to the process of creating value or intangibles. In short, learning is the key to making people and organizations smarter, memorizing and transforming information into knowledge. We can associate with this approach the concepts of “smart organizations”, “ learning organizations”.
The Intelligent Organization, according to Choo (1996), uses all the knowledge at its disposal, because it has organized it, in particular the information and knowledge that its own human resources have and integrates them with external information to constantly produce a descriptive table of the reality that surrounds you and with it decide based on the best performance. Organizational intelligence is not the sum of the intelligences of the individuals that make up the organization, it is the ability of an organization to create knowledge and use it to strategically adapt to its market.
When a series of people begin to work in groups, coordination problems usually occur at first, when time passes, the processes become more refined and the task gets better and better. This is organizational learning, learning together to solve problems with a certain effectiveness, organizational learning is the basis of good KM, and this is the basis for the generation of Intellectual Capital and organizational capacities.
KM is a dynamic function or a dynamic concept related to the direction or administration of a set of knowledge flows (external and internal, captured or created, explicit or tacit). For its part, learning is the process of transformation and incorporation of knowledge both personally, as a group or as a whole. Team learning is based on interpersonal observation processes and group sharing of their individual knowledge, for this it is essential to network and are therefore facilitating techniques of information and communications. Finally, intellectual capital is the measure of value created, it is a “fundamental variable” that allows us to explain the effectiveness of organizational learning and, in short, to evaluate the efficiency of knowledge management.
The Learning Organization constantly seeks to ensure that all staff members are learning and putting their full potential into practice. That is, the ability to understand complexity, to make commitments, to take responsibility, to seek continuous self-growth, to create synergies through teamwork.
Getting the organization to learn in a way that is intelligent is a challenge for our organizations, KM helps to achieve this: when staff efficiently reach the necessary information, they interact with knowledge and at the same time they are kept in a memory of the organization; It may be capable of being intelligent, since it has developed Intellectual Capital and works in this regard. But the achievement of learning goes beyond all this, there are intrinsic very subjective questions such as: individual learning does not guarantee organizational learning, there is no learning without change (this approach is blurred in traditional training programs, where the emphasis is on teaching and how to teach and not on what is taught and what is more important,if learning occurred as a result of teaching), to convert personal knowledge into organizational knowledge, as suggested by Nonaka and Takeuchi (1999), there needs to be an environment that facilitates dialogue, discussion, observation, imitation, practice and experimentation.
Peter Senge in his book The Fifth Discipline, during the past decade, launches the concept of organizations open to learning. This author focuses organizational learning on issues related to knowledge, how it is generated and disseminated. For this, it focuses the development of this activity towards five disciplines, which we propose its analysis, because they are totally adjustable to our organizations and because they are the basis of achieving an intelligent organization and must be directed and attended by all members of the organization.
v THE FIVE DISCIPLINES OF CONTINUOUS LEARNING
- Develop Personal Mastery (personal domain):
It consists of learning to recognize our true capacities and those of the people around us. Only if we know who we really are, what we want and what we are capable of doing, will we have the ability to identify ourselves with the vision of the organization, to propose creative solutions, and to accept the commitment to grow more and more together with the organization.
- Identify and develop our mental models:
Our ways of thinking or unconscious models (paradigms), sometimes restrict our vision of the world and the way we act. To discover them we must turn the mirror inside and discover all those concepts that govern us from within. Knowing and managing our models or paradigms will allow us to promote clear and effective forms of communication within the company that are a support for growth and not an obstacle.
- Boost Shared Vision:
The key to achieving a vision that becomes a source of inspiration and productivity for the company is that all members of the organization learn to discover in themselves the ability to create a personal vision that gives meaning to their life and work, that supports the central vision proposed by the leader. All personal visions are feeding the great vision of the organization, and each one feels in it an intimate connection that impels him to give his all to make it come true.
- To promote teamwork:
Creating and strengthening work teams is fundamentally focused on dialogue, on thinking together to have better ideas. Inside the groups there are countless unconscious relationships that determine the quality of the dialogue, such as: self-defense mechanisms, feelings of inferiority or superiority, desire to please the superior, etc. All these mechanisms work under patterns that we must learn to recognize and manage to recognize obstacles when they are about to appear, allowing the intelligence of the group to flourish at all times.
- Generate Systemic Thought:
This fifth discipline helps us think in terms of systems, since reality works based on global systems; For this it is necessary that we understand how the world around us works.
To reduce our degree of anxiety in relation to the complexity of the world, we are taught from an early age to isolate the elements that make up reality, always assigning a cause to each effect in more or less complex chains. For example, let's take the case of a child who throws a stone and breaks a glass. Why did the glass break? Many will answer that because a child threw a stone and everyone agrees with this explanation. This type of thinking is called "linear explanation or linear thinking." At one extreme we find the cause and at the opposite the effect.
The essence of the fifth discipline consists in a change of perspective of the situations that we live in order to identify the interrelationships instead of associating them with linear chains of cause and effect. You need to see the change processes that are generated, rather than the snapshots that are produced.
Leaders in a learning organization are designers, guides, and teachers; They are responsible for building an organization where people constantly expand their capacities to understand the complexity of reality, clarify personal and business vision and improve shared mental models. They are also responsible for designing better learning processes through which people can productively confront the critical issues or situations they face and develop mastery of the five disciplines. A leader is a person who participates in the organization shaping its future, who is able to inspire people around her, to do difficult things and to try new things, it simply means going forward. It's all that it meansand all human beings have the capacity to advance, many times we confuse leaders with people responsible for directing and to achieve learning in the organization, leaders are needed to promote this action within the organization, who do not necessarily have to occupy positions. just by being a member of the company; This does not mean that the leader ceases to be a leader and that his protagonist is not needed. This simply involves creating an organizational structure that values all the people that comprise it.it is enough just to be a member of the company; This does not mean that the leader ceases to be a leader and that his protagonist is not needed. This simply involves creating an organizational structure that values all the people that comprise it.it is enough just to be a member of the company; This does not mean that the leader ceases to be a leader and that his protagonist is not needed. This simply involves creating an organizational structure that values all the people that comprise it.
The organization must be aware that performing GC does not develop organizational learning, for this it must act on its Organizational Behavior, on its culture, the learning of organizations is not a technique or a programmable action, but arises from an attitude, a predisposition to critically analyze our actions and make sense of them. Organizational talent facilitates or inhibits learning. Learning to use the educational potential of organizations is looking for ways to make sense of the experience and better understand the market demands to respond to them. It will also avoid many costs in unproductive training and also many of the frustrations that traditional approaches inevitably lead to.Compulsory learning requires a systemic analysis based on overcoming difficulties and how to recognize threats and face new opportunities. The analysis of the five disciplines is a captivating invitation to review our way of thinking about the organization, its practice is deeply related to people, they are the most important and perfect format, in which knowledge is stored.
One of the issues that influence organizational change is that change processes are generally driven from above, taking the organization as the machine. In that scheme, everything starts at the top: when a new boss arrives, he tells the employee what is going to happen and then the employee changes. Some things change this way, but they are not profound changes. The change led from above generates some energy, but it is like a wave that dies on the beach, since it generates complacent attitudes by waiting for the initiative to always come from above. The true learning arises in the day to day, by the actions that people carry out and by the networks of relationships that they control. Still, learning depends on the level of commitment of people and the interpretations they make.
It is necessary to alter this mechanical mentality of the organization and take the change processes also from below, does not mean that the change agent or the directors do not have to influence. The problem lies in the belief that the person at the top is the only one who can lead the process of change. The way to change that thought process is to expose its limitations. Let's reason a little. How can we order one person to change the values of another? That does not happen, it never happens. Human beings are autonomous and we cannot force someone to change their values. And when that happens, people tend to react the way they always did.So top management has to find a way to balance the change process with local teams from different sectors of the organization, adding only some coordination in the process.
The climate of trust is very important, it can promote more effective learning and above all joint learning, it is true that learning requires commitment, but skills are also needed, for this to happen, people must be self-aware of their thinking and continually question their assumptions. These types of skills need to be developed over time.
There is no formula for change in the organization, achieving organizational learning is a way of creating a structure that values all the people in the company. KM and information also favor the process. The organization needs creative people, who promote change, so the company must establish a favorable climate for organizational creativity and innovation, Kanteroffers tips to encourage creativity:
- Achieve acceptance of the change: Members of the organization must convince themselves that the change will benefit them and the company. Stimulate new ideas: To stimulate activity, they must be willing to listen to the suggestions of their subordinates, to implement the most promising ones or to communicate them to senior executives. Allow more interaction: A creative and tolerant atmosphere is favored if people have the opportunity to interact with members of their work groups and with those belonging to these units. Tolerating the process: Many new ideas are impractical and useless. Set clear goals and leave freedom to achieve them: The members of the organization must have a purpose and objective of their creativity. Offer recognition:By offering recognition in tangible forms such as bonuses or a salary increase, managers demonstrate that creative behavior is appreciated in an organization.
These prescriptions demonstrate that the conditions that favor creativity can be created, especially since the level of interaction between staff increases. Fostering creativity within the company is a complex process closely related to organizational culture, but it has been shown that it is not impossible.
Final thoughts.
Getting to develop organizational learning is a way of working in the organization in favor of constant adaptation to change, valuing people, with their knowledge, and the information that the organization needs.
The need for change has been implicit throughout this essay. “A casual reflection on change indicates that it covers almost all the concepts that are used in the literature on organizational behavior. Think of leadership, motivation, organizational environment, and roles. It is impossible to think about these and other concepts without researching about change. "
If environments were perfectly static, if employees' skills and abilities were always up-to-date and unable to deteriorate, and if tomorrow were exactly the same as today, organizational change would have little or no relevance to members of the organization. But the real world is turbulent, requiring organizations and their members to undergo dynamic change if they are to perform competitively.
The management of information and knowledge are tools, methods and ways to promote organizational learning towards the development of a culture towards spreading and developing internal change in response to external changes, it is more than evident to think that before starting to develop QA and information the company must be clear about its objectives and its vision and strategic action.
Bibliographic references:
- Stoner James. "Administration". Second part. Fifth edition. MONTH Edition. Peter Senge, (1992); "The Fifth Discipline". Granica, Barcelona. Quoted by Rivero Soleidy and Díaz Evelyn "GC is Decision Making. Design of a methodology." Diploma thesis. University of Pinar del Río.
- Quoted by Ponjuán Dante, Gloria. Information Management in Organizations: principles, concepts and applications / Gloria PD Chile CERAPI, 1998 Sanguino, R. 2003: Knowledge Management. Its importance as a strategic resource for the organization,
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Chiavenato. 3rd ed. Colombia: Mc Graw-Hill, 1994
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International Informatics in Education.Inforedu 2002.
- González Otaño G. and Rivero Amador S. "Theoretical Bases of GC in organizations". http://www.monografias.com/trabajos15/bases-teoricas/bases-teoricas.shtml.Meltzer Morton. F. "Information, Fundamental Resource of Management". Editorial Norma.
Colombia 1983. First edition in Spanish.
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Original text
- Training & Development Magazine. 2001. EspañaSanguino, R. 2003, in the article: Knowledge Management. Its importance as a strategic resource for the organization, http://www.5campus.org/leccion/km >..
- Stoner James. "Administration". Second part. Fifth edition
This concept was approached by Lourdes Portela, member of the Institute of Scientific Information and
Technological (IDICT), in his presentation: "Information Management Systems, cornerstone of the comprehensive Management Strategy. " INFO International Congress 2002, Cuba
Rosabeth Moss Kanter "The Changes Masters". Quoted by J. Stoner. "Administration". Second part. Fifth edition.
PS Goodman and LB Kurke, “Studies of Change in Organizations: A Status Report,” in PS Goodman (ed.), Change in Organizations (San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 1982), pp. 1-2.
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