Knowledge management for the development of Cuba
Summary:
In the present work, a study is made of the economic-cultural conditions and the possibilities that Cuban organizations have, as a model to be followed by Latin American countries, for the involvement of Knowledge Management (CG), not only in the middle of a high competitiveness and uncertainty to which the economies are currently subject, but in the face of the need for sustainability and the development of new products and services to satisfy the needs of the whole society and in this way that national productions obtain a participation in international markets. This also establishes the concepts related to KM and denotes the importance that organizations have for a good management of information resources today.At the end of the study, the conclusion was reached that it is possible to implement QA practices in Cuba, due to the high qualification of human resources; But for this, a culture for continuous learning and an environment of shared vision and knowledge must be fostered and motivated.
INTRODUCTION
The current scientific-technical revolution and globalization of economies that is taking place in today's world, together with its high competitiveness and uncertainty, have led to the rise of knowledge, as a decisive emerging factor for success and differentiator between wealth and wealth. Poverty, which has brought with it the emergence of a new discipline to be captured, distributed and used by the entire organization, Knowledge Management (GC.)
Although GC seems to be a recent activity, it has always been a decisive factor for the survival of men since ancient times, which at present has reached its peak due to the characteristics of the current social-economic environment. At present, small and medium-sized companies with a reduced workforce and a high level of qualification are displacing, as a trend, the traditional large companies with abundant manpower, generally low-skilled, so that the qualification of personnel is It becomes the main advantage of companies, to the point that the main factor in measuring the value of organizations today is intellectual capital (their human resources, their relationship with customers and their organizational structures.) The main objective of this work is to demonstrate that with the quality of Cuban human resources (human capital), together with the infrastructure that is being created derived from the computerization policies of society, and a cultural change in the Cuban business environment, can carry out Knowledge Management policies, in order to achieve sustainable development.
The current environment and general aspects of Knowledge Management.
There are many objections to the theories that advocate a change in the paradigm of business organization. For what reasons is the traditional model not suitable for the new century? The answer is simple: the environment has changed.
This environment is characterized, mainly, by six phenomena. Which are:
• Speed at which changes occur;
• Ease of access to information;
• New products and services;
• globalization of the economy;
• new markets, new competitors and
• old production schemes no longer work.
This new environment has resulted in: environments being complex, global, uncertain with high speed of change; They demand ever faster response times, professional "stress" (80% of the time dedicated to information gathering and only 20% to its analysis) and increased risk in decision-making. Therefore the traditional business model has changed a lot and many of the procedures are outdated. The objective of organizations continues to be the search for a competitive advantage, understood as such, superiority or improvement over another, determined by how they are perceived by their customers. In today's environment, production capacity is no longer a competitive advantage. Under these circumstances,learning faster than competitors may be the only sustainable competitive advantage over time. So the world is on the doorstep of a "new economic era" or the "knowledge economy" where the globalization of markets, the spread of information technologies and the dismantling of hierarchies born in the middle of the century Lastly, they are its essential features because its main sources of wealth are knowledge and communications, as opposed to the traditional ones: land, work and capital. And it is not so much an evolutionary process, but a true revolution, since everything is happening at the same time. This "economy" is based on the production and application of knowledge, it is the economy of globalization, the Internet and biology; of globalization,because the market is the world; of the Internet, because it is the global medium that allows the revolution in information technology and biology, because around this science the greatest achievements of humanity will take place in the coming decades.
It is difficult to think that an organization that intends to consider knowledge as one of its central resources does not have some executive role that aims to coordinate, deploy and monitor knowledge resources and projects around a medium / long-term analysis. that allows for measurable results. This one who has the task of carrying out the organizational learning and the knowledge management process, is the Knowledge Manager or Knowledge Manager (CKO, for its acronym in English of Chief Knowledge Officer). Earl points out that the CKO "is in charge of initiating, promoting and coordinating Knowledge Management programs." So if the importance of this character is not understood, it is impossible to carry out the introduction of these practices.
Factors that are creating the necessary infrastructure for the introduction of Knowledge Management in the Cuban business environment.
Currently, there are several factors in Cuba that promote the application of knowledge management techniques, depending on the social and economic development in which the country is engaged. Among which the following stand out:
• the System of Science and Technological Innovation;
• Business Improvement;
• The Cuban Society's Computerization Strategy
• the National Information Policy and
• Audiovisual programs.
Although each of these factors affects entities differently, its action on them has positive practical implications even in the short term. Furthermore, the coordinated and harmonious action of these elements determine that the perspective of Cuban organizations for the successful use of knowledge management is real and beneficial. Unlike other countries, this does not depend solely on the forces of the market, but Cuban society acts consciously and takes the necessary measures to make it so, in search of the objective of efficiency and competitiveness of the national economy. The application of these elements will make more and more Cuban economic entities have adequate conditions to use knowledge management.
Benchmarking of Knowledge Management.
It is almost impossible to try to apply GC practices without first talking about Teleos. Teleos is a company that does GC benchmarking study and recognizes organizations that treat knowledge as an indispensable asset. They have developed a QA framework, which consists of representing eight dimensions, which are the visible drivers of knowledge-based companies. Each of these eight dimensions of knowledge representation was designed by a dozen knowledge processes and sub-processes. Taken together they form a company QA chart, which is an exact guide to identify those companies that see knowledge as their competitive differentiator of the 21st century economy.
Those eight dimensions are:
• Success in establishing a culture of business knowledge: Arthur Andersen, Buckman Laboratories, Hewlett-Packard, Skandia and the World Bank.
• Support from top management in Knowledge Management: Buckman Laboratories, General Electric, Hewlett-Packard, the World Bank and Xerox.
• The ability to develop knowledge-based products and services: Andersen Consulting, Arthur Andersen, General Electric, IBM and Nokia.
• Success in maximizing the value of the company's intellectual capital: Arthur Andersen, Cisco Systems, General Electric, Microsoft and Skandia.
• The effectiveness of creating an environment to share knowledge: BP Amoco, Buckman Laboratories, Cisco Systems, Hewlett-Packard and the World Bank.
• The success of establishing a culture of continuous learning: Buckman Laboratories, Cisco Systems, General Electric, Hewlett-Packard and Intel.
• The effectiveness of managing consumer knowledge to increase loyalty and value: Arthur Andersen, Buckman Laboratories, General Electric, 3M and Xerox.
• The ability to manage knowledge to generate value for shareholders: Cisco Systems, General Electric, Hewlett-Packard, Intel and Microsoft.
WHY KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT?
In recent years, technological innovation has played an important role in terms of economic growth, which has given rise to new models of theories called "endogenous" or of new growth.
What does endogenous growth mean?
Endogenous growth theory offers an optimistic view of industrialized countries and alternative forms of development without the need to depend on the exchange of goods. Traditional growth theories focus on marketing and see it as the engine of growth; but due to the decreasing growth of natural resources this has given rise to this new trend, it focuses on education, training and the development of new technologies for the world market, these resources far from having negative growth, present a positive growth since the more knowledge is used and the more it is learned, the more productive it will be.
Another possibility offered by this theory is that they are applied when you want to end the limited dependence on the exterior, that is, use the internal resources that a nation or state has in this case, education, training and the development of new technologies.
Could a country with scarce natural resources like Cuba achieve Endogenous Growth?
The endogenous growth school argues that poor countries fail to achieve high growth rates because they fail to generate or use new technological ideas to reap greater technological opportunities. In particular, Romer said that "the characteristic that increasingly differentiates one geographical area from another (city or country) was the quality of public institutions." The most successful areas will be those with the most competent and effective mechanisms to support collective interests, especially in the production of new ideas. In fact, it is said that the inability of poor countries to take off economically can be attributed to failed policies and weak institutions. But the author also adds another point:In many poor economies the depletion and degradation of natural resources - such as forests, fresh water, the fishing industry - contribute to instability and institutional breakdown. The scarcity of resources can cause social conflicts that end with the institutional and political environment necessary to produce and use new ideas and to absorb useful knowledge from the rest of the world, that is, the scarcity of resources has its most important effect on economies. developing not because it directly contracts economic growth, but because indirectly affects its innovation potential.The scarcity of resources can cause social conflicts that end with the institutional and political environment necessary to produce and use new ideas and to absorb useful knowledge from the rest of the world, that is, the scarcity of resources has its most important effect on economies. developing not because it directly contracts economic growth, but indirectly affects its innovation potential.The scarcity of resources can cause social conflicts that end with the institutional and political environment necessary to produce and use new ideas and to absorb useful knowledge from the rest of the world, that is, the scarcity of resources has its most important effect on economies. developing not because it directly contracts economic growth, but because indirectly affects its innovation potential.
These aforementioned factors that affect growth in poor countries do not directly affect Cuba, since the close relationship between the economic base and social effects was foreseen from the origins of the Revolution, in order to provide a solution to This dilemma, the campaign against illiteracy was created and other policies and programs were developed with the aim of eradicating social problems, so that no one is helpless without receiving the benefits of all these programs, which has brought about the consequence with a highly skilled workforce and infant mortality and literacy rates on par with that of first world countries.
History has shown that resources by themselves are not capable of achieving synergistic growth, which is why one is often astonished when encountering countries that are so rich in natural resources and yet with levels of poverty and illiteracy at the height of the poorest in the world.
Yes, it was stated at the beginning of this article that knowledge, education and training have become the main source of wealth for this new economic era, and it is frequently asked: if Cuba has a highly qualified and educated workforce Why is the efficiency and productivity of your business system not in line with the intellectual quality of your Human Capital? (Surely you've asked yourself several times right?)
All this is because with the collapse of the socialist field and the globalization of the economy, suddenly the Cuban economy was left helpless and had to insert itself into a completely new business world, that is, to face a new business culture; with a customer focus and highly competitive where there is only one market, the world.
A new market with highly educated and abruptly changing clients, where learning faster than the competition is the only chance to survive, where teamwork is essential, so that knowledge is spread throughout the organization - this is where Management of Knowledge comes into play its most important role - so an environment must be created to optimize the use of knowledge that helps change the way people work and the way information is used and created, preventing experiences and knowledge remains in an individual and does not spread throughout the organization, thus avoiding the waste of knowledge and then it can be said that an intelligent organization is being built.
Endogenous Development or Growth in learning organizations must acquire this knowledge systemically and in this way that constitutes the key to change.
Among the main barriers that affect the economic development of underdeveloped countries and among them Cuba are: resistance to change, lack of good administration -in most cases-, slowness, inflexibility, insensitivity, lack of customer focus, observation with the activity rather than with the result, high indirect costs, growth management and what matters most, and our most unfaithful and treacherous companion that we have never been able to abandon: the bureaucracy.
The policies currently carried out in Cuba are creating the bases and infrastructure for the implementation of KM, an example of this is how business improvement does not explicitly deal with KM; But it does create the foundations for its implementation, although there is still a long way to go, since the most important and difficult part of all this is to create a continuous information and learning culture, in order to create the so-called intelligent organizations.
Smart organizations are those in which its members continually expand their capacity to create the results they truly want (they have a commitment), where new and expansive thought patterns are nurtured and fostered, where the collective aspiration is set freely and where the People are continually learning how to learn together, and these are the only ones that survive in the current economic age, so those are the ones that you have to learn from in order to truly achieve what you want.
A "new culture" is the only alternative.
The main obstacle that organizations face when introducing QA practices is, when they face the need that there is no organizational culture to share knowledge, nor a close organization-customer-supplier relationship (in most of the cases) which makes it impossible to manage your knowledge. And all this is due to the residual or erroneous thought of; "If knowledge is power, I should not share it with anyone because by sharing it others can appropriate it and I will no longer be essential"
In order to achieve this cultural change, workers must be motivated and incentivized; but how? .
On many occasions the concept of motivation is misinterpreted by managers, because there is a residual thought regarding this concept that they believe is nothing more than bringing employees together, so that someone with easy words and with some power to Conviction (not always sustainable) fills them or at least tries to fill them with positive thoughts, as if that were not enough, it is believed that this work is for a charismatic person or for an executive or for the general manager and not for a true leader. These are the mistakes that are made regarding this topic. It is also valid to point out that: not only money is a strong motivation for people; in fact, in some cases it is not even important. From economic theory,It should also be understood that not everyone is the same and that there are more dimensions than simple monetary compensation, so it must also be borne in mind that: Some people are driven by the desire to do their work for the sole pleasure of doing it. Well, in it they find proof that they can do what they want (SATISFACTION IN THE DUTY DONE); there are people who do everything humanly possible to be surrounded by friends, that makes them always want to be recognized by others, that is why they avoid taking sides and become accomplices of their "friends", in order not to lose their friendship (FRIENDSHIP FIRST); many are much more interested in the technical aspects of their work. For them,excellence comes before any other consideration and they do everything humanly possible to achieve it in every job they undertake (PERFECTIONISM.) Hence, a harmonious, friendly organizational climate, where respect, love and recognition of good work prevail, can motivate and incentivize workers more, commit them to good results and make them feel identified with their organization.
As shown above, almost all the conditions created for the application of GC in the Cuban business environment are already there; But the most difficult and most important task remains, which is cultural change, for which a policy must be drawn up that encourages and motivates to achieve this key factor, which is not an easy task, not even a few years; But if it is worth it to be able to face the great challenges of the “new economic era”, for which who is not prepared, and the invisible hand of our dear Adam Smith will judge it.
Therefore it is recommended: that a policy be created throughout the country that supports and rewards the sharing of knowledge; a process of cultural change and the organizational climate must be carried out; initiate actions to spread the subject through courses and events, where the University-Business relationship plays an important role; create an organization that is responsible for disseminating the topic and providing services that meet the needs of the business system; achieve the participation of all workers in business management (participatory management); Put aside the excess of bureaucracy and slowness that characterizes almost the entire business environment, which discourages those involved in the business process (workers, customers and suppliers), implement a process of continuous improvement and create a culture of:"Of the errors also learn."
For this we must take advantage of the quality of our educational institutions, the high qualification of our workforce, economic stability (despite the fact that we are a poor country), the proper functioning of our judiciary and our tax regulations and that we do not present serious street crime / robbery / riot problems.
I believe that we must not end without first setting an example that has served as the leader of endogenous growth today and is the case of Singapore. Singapore is a country that started out very poor and over time eradicated poverty. With an extension of 648 km² Currently with a population of approximately 4,300,419 million inhabitants and with an average annual GDP per capita of approximately US $ 27,800, in 1997 it became the 13 largest trading nation in the world and It became the most dynamic economy in the world after the United States. With all of the above, it can be said that Singapore already belongs to the first world.
How did you get to this level?
This nation has been one of the ones that has contributed the most to the formation of the "ASIAN VALUES" which has created an increasingly and stronger awareness that the inhabitants of Southeast Asia have to be able to do no matter how well, or even Better than those belonging to other cultures, which has caused an explosion of confidence in the region, this has contributed strongly to the existence of a national identity supported by quite solid values. This island managed to achieve this full development, not only economically, but politically, socially and spiritually, through a policy outlined by the government which proposed to reach this point by opening up to foreign investment, under the philosophy that it was going to bring technology, know how and new knowledge that they were going to make useful and acquired by society.But to receive these new technologies, it was necessary to be prepared and 34.8% of the public budget allocated to teaching for higher education was allocated, all this together with a clear conjugation of mutual interests between private companies, the government and poor, and the result is that this society has virtually eliminated poverty. They were so convinced of the importance that education had (and has) that on one occasion its highest leader was asked how much his government spent on education on his budget and he replied: “We spend 0% of our budget in education, but we invested 34.8 in it "8% of the public budget allocated to teaching for higher education all this together with a clear conjugation of mutual interests between private companies, the government and the poor, and the result is that this society has virtually eliminated poverty. They were so convinced of the importance that education had (and has) that on one occasion its highest leader was asked how much his government spent on education on his budget and he replied: “We spend 0% of our budget in education, but we invested 34.8 in it "8% of the public budget allocated to teaching for higher education all this together with a clear conjugation of mutual interests between private companies, the government and the poor, and the result is that this society has virtually eliminated poverty. They were so convinced of the importance that education had (and has) that on one occasion its highest leader was asked how much his government spent on education on his budget and he replied: “We spend 0% of our budget in education, but we invested 34.8 in it "They were so convinced of the importance that education had (and has) that on one occasion its highest leader was asked how much his government spent on education on his budget and he replied: “We spend 0% of our budget in education, but we invested 34.8 in it "They were so convinced of the importance that education had (and has) that on one occasion its highest leader was asked how much his government spent on education on his budget and he replied: “We spend 0% of our budget in education, but we invested 34.8 in it "
Bibliography
BUENO, E. "Intangible capital as a strategic key in current competition", Economic Studies Bulletin,. L3 (164): 207-229, August, 1998
BYE, P. Technology trajectories and strategies. International Journal of Technology Management, Special issue of the management of technological flows across industrial boundaries / P Bye, P. Chanaron 10 (1): 45-66, 1995
CLARK, P. Innovation in technology and organization, Routledge / P. Clark, YN Stauton. London, 1989. DEAN, N. MEYER. Computing in Management. N. Dean, Meyer, Mary E. Boone. Ed. Business Series. 1990
LEVITT, T. Marketing imagination / T. Levitt. The Free Press, New York.. 1991
NONAKA, I. The knowledge creating Company: how Japanese companies create the dynamics of innovation / I. Nonaka, H. Takeuchi. Oxford University Press, New York. 1995. 3128
NONAKA, I. A theory of organizational knowledge creation / I. Nonaka, H. Takeuchi and K. Umemoto. International Journal of Technology Management, Special Issue on unlearning and learning for technological innovation,. 11 (8): 833-845, 1996
PRICE, R. Technology and strategic advantage / R. Price. California Management Review,. 38 (3):. 38-56. Spring 1996.
REICH, ROBERT B. The Work of Nations / Robert B. Reich. Ed. Vegara.. 1993.
SVEIBY, K. What is knowledge management ?. http://www.sveiby.com.au. 1998
Download the original file
