A survey applied to 42 Colombian cooperatives representative of the sector, to evaluate their internal communication, established that their main problem is horizontal communication and secondly, the lack of two-way channels between leaders and their collaborators.
With a confidence level of 97% on the universe of Colombian cooperatives, the survey shows that a modernization of management models is necessary, given that the communication problems that appear have to do with functional structures, which in the business world have They have been abandoned to address administration by objectives and administration by processes, with flatter organizations and focused on service to users.
Horizontal communication problems are the origin of coordination difficulties that affect the organization's response times to the expectations of its customers, that is, they ultimately attack its competitiveness.
If the close assessment between the problems of downward communication and the lack of interactions that generate recognition is taken into account, it follows that Colombian cooperatives are still highly hierarchical, which may hinder the development of quality and quality programs at any given time. customer service.
In addition, communication problems in vertical processes generally generate high levels of uncertainty, which sooner or later provoke rumors and organizational climate problems.
An important aspect to take into account in this survey is that the communication problems presented by geographic insufficiencies were minimal, which, associated with the assessment obtained of technological obstacles, allows us to observe that it is a sector that is investing in technology and with This is taking important steps to solve communication problems that affect management.
However, beyond the solutions generated by the purchase of technological tools, it is notable that, in the background, the communication culture of leaders must be strengthened to ensure that communication is used as the strategic and competitive resource that it is today.
Communication, productivity and competitiveness
Communication as a strategic resource is one of the elements of contemporary management schools belonging to the information age.
The classic management schools, unaware of the value of customer service, never identified the value of information until quality schools successfully broke into world markets.
From this perspective, communication has been studied as a strategic resource, given that it impacts on the productivity of the organization, reducing costs, avoiding waste and generating productive synergies. On the other hand, it has had an impact on competitiveness by allowing the organization to adapt easily to the needs of each market.
In the survey applied to the cooperative sector, when faced with the question : In what percentage does communication affect your management problems? Most of the respondents answered that 100% and 80% second. Which said in clear words means that internal communication in the cooperative sector is the cause between 80 and 100% of management problems in this type of organization.
Which comparing it with the recent survey on internal communication in government entities, indicates that the government sector is modernizing its management schemes faster than the cooperative sector, given that in the aforementioned survey, government entities claim to have reduced their communication problems and point out how 80% of their management difficulties stem from internal communication problems, while in cooperatives, most of them managed to point out a 100% origin.
The same situation occurs when comparing the internal communication survey for the cooperative sector with the survey for Latin America, which includes private organizations from Mexico to Argentina and where they indicated that management problems originate from communication problems in 80%.
Today, strategic communications management reflects the updating of work models, where weak communication structures within the organization indicate the need for a rethinking of the management culture, towards the service culture and where Prime the customer as the organization's raison d'être.
Improving communications will allow the cooperative sector to increase its management dynamics, thereby increasing customer satisfaction and becoming more competitive.
On the other hand, improving top-down communication will allow these types of organizations to reduce uncertainty, increase employee satisfaction, and ultimately optimize the organizational climate.
Horizontal communication problems are the origin of coordination difficulties that affect the organization's response times in the face of customer expectations.
