Evaluation of performance and management in the company copextel cuba

The capacities and potential of the men who direct the resources in the organizations have a decisive influence on their success or failure.

Considering that there is a relationship between management and performance and starting from the Hypothesis that "A better managerial profiles, better performance", this paper proposes as its Main Objective: "To determine how management influences performance in five selected divisions of the company COPEXTEL ”.

evaluation-of-performance-and-of-management-in-the-company-copextel-cuba

Development

Corporación COPEXTEL, SA is a mercantile company incorporated in the Republic of Cuba, which is primarily dedicated to the commercialization of technological systems related to IT, Telecommunications, Refrigeration and Air Conditioning, Hospitality Equipment, for the generation of energy by alternative methods, and other businesses of a similar nature.

Given its great diversity, it is organized following a divisional structure by business lines. The management of the company since its creation endowed each of the Divisions with great autonomy, hence the results of each of them can be measured independently, both from the point of view of the results and the financial situation. By derivation, the General Managers (called in the document “center cadres” indistinctly) of each structure enjoy relative independence for decision-making, within the framework of the policies established by the Corporation.

To carry out this work, managers and workers from 5 Divisions of COPEXTEL, SA were surveyed. In these Divisions, both the Division Managers and their Boards of Directors function similarly to the cadres, centers and management bodies of any Cuban company, for which reason The results of this study are considered to be comparable to studies carried out in any entity with a corporate purpose similar to that of COPEXTEL.

Given the diversity of the company's portfolio of products and services, the Divisions that were selected were those that presented the most similarities in their operation, so that it was not necessary to introduce corrections associated with the market or the type of activity under consideration. Therefore, 5 Technical Services Divisions of Havana were chosen, whose total turnover at the end of October of the year of study was of the order of 14 million pesos, and employed among the 5, 647 workers.

The selected divisions provide technical warranty, maintenance, repair, assembly and commissioning services for the technologies marketed by the company, (climate, gastronomy, office automation and household appliances, among others), for which reason they have been classified as Comprehensive Technical Services (STI).

Starting from a territorial strategy to bring the service closer to the final customer, these divisions are located in different areas of the city, each grouping several municipalities; the names they receive, in most cases, identify the area or territory of the city in which they are located: STI North, STI South, STI East, STI West. Only the ST Ingenieros division provides national services.

The surveys were applied to 49 workers, distributed as follows:

The five General Managers of each of the Divisions. Three members of the Boards of Directors of each of the Divisions. Three workers of each of the Divisions. Three Vice Presidents of the Corporation, each of whom were surveyed in in relation to the 5 Managers of the Divisions involved.

As a survey, a selection of managerial skills and cadre profiles was used, which was based on previous research carried out at the Faculty of Economics of the University of Havana. Each Manager was asked to fill it out considering their role as a manager, and the rest of the groups surveyed were asked more or less the same questions but in relation to the central table of the organization to which they belonged. Additionally, the results of the surveys were compared with the assessment given by a group of recognized Cuban experts in the field (See relation in the Annex) in reference to the following skills:

one	Self-assessment of potential as a manager
two	Prestige and authority
3	Interpersonal communication
4	Control
5	Facilitate change in the organization
6	Future vision
7	Form teams and work in teams
8	Delegate
9	Attention to subordinates
10	Results of the work
eleven	Planning
12	Leadership

Additionally, the opinion of bosses and subordinates was requested, regarding the following aspects:

one	Your perception of your leadership character in the organization.
two	Main feature that characterizes it
3	Most critical problem facing a manager
4	Main reason for failure in office.
5	Fundamental activity on a typical work day.
6	Most important skill to be successful.
7	Extent to which skills must be innate.
8	Influence of the environment on skill development.
9	Ideal training to be a good manager.
10	Most important aspect for a manager.
eleven	Aspect that most affects the development of work.

To measure the performance of the structures, two groups of selected indicators were used, which are officially managed by the Corporation. These two groups are made up of economic and financial indicators, both results and situation, and indicators of effectiveness in the specific activity of each one, in this case indicators of technical services. The selection was as follows:

Financial Economic Indicators:

Net sales

Selling weight expense

Profit margin

Collection Cycle

Inventory rotation cycle

Liquidity

Solvency

Economic profitability

Monthly productivity per worker

Specific Indicators:

% of reports pending response

Customer Response Time.

Solution Time.

Technical Service Cycle.

Percentage of Return during the guarantee of the Technical Service.

General Results on Management Skills

The results of the surveys related to the assessment that the tables of the Comprehensive Technical Services of COPEXTEL give to each of the selected managerial skills, show that they generally give less weight to almost all the skills in relation to the weight that the experts give them, measured this from the average of the scores of all the tables, as shown below:

It must be remembered that the 12 skills described in the table are:

one	Self-assessment of potential as a manager
two	Prestige and authority
3	Interpersonal communication
4	Control
5	Facilitate change in the organization
6	Future vision
7	Form teams and work in teams
8	Delegate
9	Attention to subordinates
10	Results of the work
eleven	Planning
12	Leadership

It can be noted as significant detail, the valuation so low that the tables give three aspects that the experts value with their maximum score. These aspects are the ability to facilitate change, planning, and work results. It was also significant to note that in the thesis work carried out on a group of managers from the Office of the Historian of Havana, there was also a significant gap between the profile of the experts and that of those managers, in which case the pattern was formed by 22 elements, of which in 21 there was a lower assessment by these leaders in relation to the experts.

At an individual level, it is appreciated how only the Manager of Technical Engineering Services values most of the aspects equal to or above the experts, considering it the only one with the lowest evaluation of planning. The rest of the Managers gave valuations in almost all aspects below what the experts consider the optimal profile.

It was also analyzed which of the aspects were evaluated with the lowest score by the largest number of tables surveyed, resulting in the fact that most of them, regardless of the score given, give less importance than experts to factors such as:

one	Self-assessment of potential as a manager
5	Facilitate change in the organization
8	Delegate
10	Results of the work
eleven	Planning

All the center cadres surveyed are considered leaders of the organization they lead, and this is perceived by both their work team, the workers who were surveyed, and the bosses to whom they are subordinate.

Two of the 5 respondents consider that the trait that most characterizes it is teamwork, however only one of them is seconded by a part of the respondents, this being the case of STI Este where workers also considered this as their trait distinctive, this not being the opinion of the members of the Board of Directors or their Heads, who rated it lower for its organizational capacity. In the rest of the respondents, the diversity of the answers given by all the groups casts doubt on the true capacity of the bosses to self-evaluate and understand for sure their true abilities, or at least, the image they project of them. in their close environment.

Lack of leadership (3) and excess controls (2) are reported as the most critical problems facing managers, according to their own assessment. However, also in this aspect there is a difference of criteria when these responses are crossed with the opinion of subordinates and bosses. Of those who answered that lack of leadership was their most critical problem (ST Ingenieros, STI Norte and STI Este), none of the other respondents on the same answer agreed with this statement, with meeting time being the most critical problem. in 14 of the 27 possible answers between subordinates, members of the Board of Directors and Chiefs. Obviously, those who answered that the most critical problem was the meetings, had a greater number of coincidence with the crossover surveys,reason why it can be inferred that the excess of reunionism in the managers is a problem that seriously affects the work of their subordinates and their bosses.

The same occurs when investigating the main cause for which a manager fails. In this case 4 of the 5 center cadres claimed that the lack of leadership is the fundamental cause, only STI North considers that the main reason why it could fail is not to dominate the activity it directs. Also in this case there is an evident contradiction between what the bosses perceive and what their close surroundings perceive. In the case of ST Engineers, none of the cross-over surveys agreed that lack of leadership was the cause of a possible failure. The same is true for STI East and STI West. The only coincidences, quite few by the way (2 in each case) that occur, are those that argue the non-mastery of the specific activity for STI North and the lack of leadership for STI South,However, in the case of the north, three other colleagues believe that the true cause is not working as a team, which incidentally is the one that is most repeated in the rest of the Divisions. In general, while the bosses consider that lack of leadership is the fundamental cause for which they could fail, their subordinates and counterparts, as well as their superiors, consider that the most frequent is not mastering the specific activity and not working. team up.they consider that the most frequent is not mastering the specific activity and not working in a team.they consider that the most frequent is not mastering the specific activity and not working in a team.

Four of the 5 tables considered that the fundamental activity in a typical work day is meetings, however, only the manager of the Northern STI was seconded by his subordinates, while in the rest the responses are dissimilar, repeating only with greater incidence the to Solve Problems and plan activities.

There is a greater dispersion in the opinions about which is the most important skill to be successful, with leadership being repeated as an important skill in only two cases, and in only one of them there is a coincidence with the near field according to the surveys (STI Este). Only in the Northern STI are leadership skills considered to be highly innate, a situation that both bosses and subordinates agree on. In the rest of the respondents, the innate character of this ability is given a low average importance, however in the Eastern STI all the respondents except the boss considered that the leadership skills are fundamentally innate.

Given the diversity of responses regarding the influence of the environment on skill development, it was not possible to draw a decisive conclusion in this regard. Something similar occurs when inquiring about the ideal training to be a good manager. ST Ingenieros and STI Norte consider that they should be issues related to managerial skills, however their subordinates think that communication issues, on the other hand STI East and West think that they should be communication issues, however the subordinates of STI Este consider that they should Being managerial skills and those of the West specific aspects of the activity she directs. There are only coincidences in the case of STI Sur, which both bosses and subordinates consider should be subjects related to economic and financial analysis.

Finally, 3 of the 5 tables considered the most important aspect to direct those related to subordinates (motivate or develop skills in them), while the other two considered ethics and professionalism as the most important. The bosses, for their part, considered in the vast majority of cases that it is ethics and professionalism that characterizes them as bosses. In the case of subordinates, only in STI Sur did they consider that their boss is fundamentally characterized by ethics and professionalism, while the rest opted for motivation in the case of STI North and West, the externalization of points of view in the East, and in the case of ST Engineers, there was no consensus since all respondents felt differently among Motivar,good relations with subordinates and ethics and professionalism.

From the previous results, a synthetic indicator was then established on the degree of leadership and managerial skills of each central cadre. For this, the following aspects were considered:

Similarity of the leadership traits between the tables studied and the criteria of the experts, considering both the average score and the degree of correlation between the two sets, that is, the extent to which the experts agreed for each trait with what was reported by the tables.. The closer to the experts, the higher the score. Coincidence between the criteria of the central team and the members of the board of directors. The more the match, the more points. Match between the center box and the workers. The more the match, the more points. Match between the center box and the bosses. The more coincidence, the more points.

The mentioned coefficient is therefore obtained from the sum of all the points obtained in each factor of the previous relationship.

The result is shown below:

Division	Matching the experts	Coincidence with the management team.	Matching with workers	Coincidence with the Bosses	Leadership coefficient
ST Engineers	2.5	2.8	two	3.00	10.30
ST East	1.5	2.4	3	2.43	9.33
ST West	4	2.6	2.5	2.57	11.67
ST North	4.5	3	two	2.86	12.36
ST South	2.5	3.7	2.5	3.00	11.70

As can be seen, it is the North ST who obtained the highest number of points, that is, jointly, obtained the highest score due to the coincidence between their criteria and those of the experts and their closest environment. Note however as the second highest scoring, the STI South, having the lowest level of coincidence than the North, their direct reports and their bosses are better identified with their points of view.

Indicators of performance.

Below are the tables with the selected economic and financial indicators for each of the Divisions under study, and the results they showed at the end of October 2011 and 2012

2012
	ST Engineers	North St	St Sur	East St	St West
Net Sales (MMP)	3.07	2.72	1.89	2.71	3.51
Plan Compliance	1.16	1.02	0.94	0.98	1.06
Selling weight expense	0.12	0.12	0.16	0.10	0.12
Profit margin	0.18	0.28	0.32	0.21	0.38
Collection Cycle	64.21	168.79	43.44	64.18	86.70
Inventory rotation	127.96	37.36	22.72	30.06	29.13
Liquidity	1.49	1.39	5.67	1.97	2.06
Solvency	1.17	1.69	1.60	1.46	1.29
Economic profitability	0.15	0.19	0.41	0.18	0.34
Productivity (MP)	2.6	1.7	1.9	2.1	2.4

2011
	ST Engineers	North St	St Sur	East St	St West
Net Sales (MMP)	2.59	3.24	1.86	2.18	3.23
Plan Compliance	0.73	0.93	0.56	0.39	0.63
Selling weight expense	0.17	0.12	0.15	0.07	0.05
Profit margin	0.18	0.33	0.26	0.04	0.29
Collection Cycle	126.72	203.58	102.74	122.09	189.98
Inventory rotation	131.14	36.05	16.95	58.22	26.63
Liquidity	2.37	1.98	2.62	2.71	1.94
Solvency	1.53	1.47	3.10	1.25	1.62
Economic profitability	0.13	0.29	0.32	0.02	0.27
Productivity (MP)	2.1	1.9	1.6	1.5	2.1

Those indicators that offer above-average behavior have been highlighted in the table, to determine the best economic results in terms of economic efficiency indicators. With the aim of establishing a parameter that would bring the best comprehensive behaviors closer, the relative importance of each of these indicators was weighted, based on the objectives set by the Corporation itself. For example, a scale of 100 was established, divided as follows:

Plan Compliance	30
Selling weight expense	10
Profit margin	5
Collection Cycle	10
Inventory rotation cycle	10
Liquidity	5
Solvency	5
Economic profitability	10
Productivity	fifteen

Once this was done, the Divisions that had behaved above or below the average in the two years, depending on the type of indicator in question, were evaluated with the maximum score. This gives an idea of which have been the Divisions with the best comprehensive performance in the two years from the economic point of view, resulting in the following:

	ST Engineers	North St	St Sur	East St	St West
Comprehensive score 2012	65	twenty	Four. Five	35	80
Comprehensive score 2011	60	70	Four. Five	25	fifty
Average joint score of the two years	62.5	Four. Five	Four. Five	30	65

From the above, it can be deduced that the best economic performances are held by the ST Oeste and ST Ingenieros, while the worst is performed by the ST Este. In terms of dynamics, however, it can be seen that all except ST Norte are in 2012 in better condition than in 2011.

Finally, the analysis was complemented with the contribution that the technical services specific indicators had in the integral performance of each structure. It was then proceeded in the same way as with the economic indicators, that is, a scoring system was established that rewards the best performances in relation to the average, taking into account in the weighting, the relative importance that each of the indicators of has technical services in the objectives of the Corporation. So then, the relative importance of each one measured on a scale of 1 to 10, was as follows:

Indicator	Punctuation
Percentage of reports pending response	3
Customer Response Time (TRC)	two
Solution Time (TS)	two
Technical Service Cycle (CST)	one
Percentage of Return during ST (RG) guarantee	two

The values that each of these indicators had in the different Technical Services Divisions were as follows:

Reports received	10287	32045	34957	29003	41004
% Pending response	1.7%	0.7%	4.1%	4.1%	0.2%
Customer Response Time (TRC)	8.94	42.92	47.16	63.12	37.39
Solution Time (TS)	109.05	113.86	159.62	97.02	61.23
Technical Service Cycle (CST)	118.09	155.55	205.14	151.41	89.36
Percentage of Return during ST (RG) guarantee	0%	one%	8%	4%	0%

By applying the selected score to each of the Divisions, the best comprehensive performances were then obtained, ordered as follows:

Division	Punctuation
St West	10
ST Engineers	8
North St	5
East St	two
St Sur	0

It is therefore concluded that in terms of performance based on specific indicators of the effectiveness of technical services, STI Oeste and ST Ingenieros are the Divisions with the best performance.

Combining both results, we have then that the best comprehensive performance is the STI West, since its economic and financial indicators are the best, and the specific indicators of the activity of technical services as well. It is closely followed by the Engineering Services Division, also offering the best indicators in both groups.

Relationship of performance with managerial skills.

Once the synthetic indices that characterize, according to the selected criteria, the behaviors of the Divisions are obtained, both from the economic-financial perspective and from the specific perspective of the activity they carry out, it is then necessary to correlate these performances with the leadership coefficients that were calculated in the previous chapter.

In the graph shown below, the relationship between the integral performance of the Divisions, combining the economic and specific factors, with the general leadership coefficient calculated in the previous chapter, taking into account both skills, can be seen. directives indicated by the center squares, as well as by the characteristics of their style indicated by their environment:

As can be seen, only in 3 of the 5 cases, it can be inferred that there is a certain relationship between leadership and performance. Both STI North and STI South present totally opposite coefficients, that is, the valuation of their leadership is above the best performers, and yet their results are well below these.

In order to determine in which performance elements the characteristics of the executives and their management team impact the most, economic performance was first correlated with comprehensive leadership, and then specific performance with leadership itself. The results are interesting, as shown in the following graphs:

Specific indicators versus leadership.

Economic indicators versus leadership

Here we can qualify the previous conclusion. As can be seen from the comparison of both graphs, there is no strictly direct relationship between the specific performance indicators of technical services and leadership in organizations, however when performance is measured in terms of economic indicators, the relationship is made more evident.

The next step will then be to determine which of the factors that make up the calculated leadership coefficient is the one that most affects the good or bad performance of the organizational structures. Remember that the calculated index takes into account the coincidence of the closest bosses, that is, the members of your board of directors, workers in your area and their immediate bosses.

As can be seen in the previous graph, the only indicator whose behavior is related to performance is the coincidence of the managers with the criteria expressed by the experts. In other words, the closer the bosses get to the profile that experts in the country have determined as a rule, the better results they have in their work. There is only one marked exception, and this is the case of the North STI.

Analyzing the best performances, they can be characterized as follows:

Both STI Oeste and ST Integrales have central cadres who consider themselves leaders of their organization, and this is also recognized by both their subordinates and their bosses. Delegation capacity is the main feature of STI Oeste, while teamwork characterizes the head of ST Ingenieros. Although they are different traits in the classification, both have to do with the ability to adequately relate to the management team and a participatory management style. The main reason for being successful differs in one case and another, while for STI Oeste autonomy is the most important, for ST Ingenieros leadership is more. Both consider that managerial skills are not innate, and that the most important thing for a manager is knowing how to motivate her subordinates and allow them to develop skills.

The fact that the results obtained do not fully confirm the hypothesis, led the team members to analyze the possible causes, reaching the conclusion that the workers who work in these organizations have technical training, specialized in activity of technical services, so that the analysis of managerial skills and the performance of organizations are not familiar topics, only those referring to the economic and financial results of their divisions and the specific indicators of the technical service are managed by them..

It was also possible to verify that in the registration of the specific indicators of the activity, the statistics are not totally reliable due to ignorance of the computer tools that are used to effectively consolidate these indicators and that reflect the reality of these indicators.

From what was stated above, it can be summarized that given the particularities of the activity it would have been convenient to expand the sample of workers to be surveyed and prepare the surveys in a more correlated way between the different categories to be surveyed; This task is not possible to undertake due to time constraints.

Conclusions:

Four of the five managers surveyed gave ratings in almost all aspects below what the experts consider the optimal profile, which could infer a lack of preparation of the managers within the Corporation. In three of the five cases, it is possible to infer that there is a relationship between managerial profile and performance, which is why, despite the limitations of the study due to the sample size, it can validate the hypothesis at the beginning of this document. The analysis of the results allows verify the importance of the proper selection of the aspects to be included in the surveys and the representativeness of the selected sample, in order to obtain results, depending on the proposed objective.

Bibliographic references

Codina Jiménez Alexis (1999). What do managers do and what skills do they need? CETED. University of Havana. 16 p.Crosby, P. (1991): Leadership, the art of becoming a good manager, Editorial McGraw Hill.KOTTER, John P., What leaders do (ps. 22, 24 and 27), Gestión 2000, SA, Barcelona, 2000.KOUZES, James M., POSNER, Barry Z., Management of the XXI century (ps. 20, 24), Pearson Educación, SA, Madrid, 2000.SENGE, Peter, La Quinta Disciplina (p. 50), Granica, SA, Barcelona, 1995. Ministry of Higher Education (MES). A model for the preparation and improvement of the cadres and reservations in the context of the universalization of Higher Education. Havana Cuba; 2005. Mintzberg, H. The strategic process: concepts, contexts and cases. Editorial Prentic Hall Hispanoamericana; 1997.

SOLE ANNEX

ANNEX 10. CALCULATION OF THE EXPERT ARGUMENTATION COEFFICIENT:

	SOURCES OF ARGUMENTATION
EXPERTS	ET	I KNOW	SO	TAE	CB	CAC	FALLS OFF	Ka
Dr. Armando Cuesta Santos	0.18	0.37	0.05	0.05	0.05	0.05	0.05	0.8
Dr. Carlos Díaz	0.28	0.47	0.05	0.05	0.05	0.05	0.05	1.0
Dra. Ileana Díaz	0.28	0.47	0.05	0.05	0.05	0.05	0.05	1.0
Dr. Alcides López Labrada	0.28	0.47	0.05	0.05	0.05	0.05	0.05	1.0
Dr. Alexis Codina	0.28	0.47	0.05	0.05	0.05	0.05	0.05	1.0
Dra. María E. Delofeu Crespo	0.28	0.47	0.05	0.05	0.05	0.05	0.05	1.0
Dr. Rafael Alama	0.28	0.47	0.05	0.05	0.05	0.05	0.05	1.0
Dr. Orlando Godine	0.28	0.47	0.05	0.05	0.05	0.05	0.05	1.0
Msc Magalys González	0.28	0.47	0.05	0.05	0.05	0.05	0.05	1.0
Dr. Juan Triana Cordoví	0.18	0.47	0.05	0.05	0.05	0.05	0.05	0.8
Dr. Rosendo Morales	0.18	0.47	0.05	0.05	0.05	0.05	0.05	0.8