This document presents an analysis of the way in which some concepts of the Elton Mayo School of Human Relations influenced the administration of the National Telecommunications Company of Colombia - Telecom, today restructured into the new organization called "Colombia Telecomunicaciones", for the achievement of its objectives within a new competitive environment and with new regulation in the telecommunications sector. Likewise, it is intended to take a critical look at the implications on personnel during the transition from the traditional monopoly company to an emerging one to adapt to the new conditions of the open market and competitiveness.
1. Introduction
Each era is marked by constant changes, where what was yesterday is far from being the same as today, however, the influence that some administrative approaches had and continue to have in the process of development and foundation of the current ones cannot be ignored. management systems.
This article will refer to the contributions made by Elton Mayo - School of Human Relations-, whose thesis emphasizes people, as an important part of organizations, contrary to the Classical Theory, where the important thing was the task (Taylor -scientific), organizational structure (Fayol-structuralist) and authority (Weber-Bureaucracy), compared to experience in a work environment such as the national telecommunications company.
To fulfill this purpose, initially a historical review of the main concepts of the Mayo theory is presented, later a description of the National Telecommunications Company, the regulation that forced its transformation, the transition to an emerging company and finally is made the way how the human beings of the organization interacted with the decisions that modified the organizational structure to satisfy the expectations of the national and international market with high standards of quality and service.
2. Historical overview of the school of human relations
2.1. Causes
The main causes that changed the postulates of the classical management theory and that facilitated the emergence of the Theory of Human Relationships were:
1. Need to humanize and democratize the administration, freeing it from the rigid and mechanistic concepts of classical theory.
2. The development of the so-called human sciences, especially Psychology and Sociology and their growing intellectual influence on their application to the industrial organization of the time.
3. The ideas of John Dewey's Pragmatic Philosophy and Kurt Lewin's Dynamic Psychology were essential for the humanistic contribution in administration.
4. The conclusions of the Hawthorne experiment, carried out between 1927 and 1932 under the coordination of Elton Mayo, considered the founder of the School of Human Relations.
2.2 Principles
Elton Mayo and his followers support the Theory of Human Relationships, with the results of the "Hawthorne Experiment" and the ideas of Psychology and Sociology that allowed to outline its basic principles:
- Integration and social behavior: production levels depend on social integration, the worker does not act in isolation, but as a member of a social group, in this way work is a group activity, the study showed that the individual's behavior is conditioned by norms or social standards. Social rewards and sanctions: it was found that workers who produced above or below the socially determined norm lost the affection and respect of their colleagues. Informal groups: they constitute the human organization of the company, which is often in opposition to the formal organization established by the management; they define their forms of rewards or sanctions, scale of values, beliefs and expectations. The content of the position:Mayo and his collaborators observed that job specialization did not guarantee efficiency and that workers frequently changed positions to avoid monotony. The emotional aspects: the study found that human relationships and cooperation are key to avoiding conflicts and maintaining primary groups. The supervisory style: managers must be able to treat their workers with dignity, understand, know how to communicate, be democratic and persuasive, with the basis that man is a social being.Managers must be able to treat their workers with dignity, understand, know how to communicate, be democratic and persuasive, with the basis that man is a social being.Managers must be able to treat their workers with dignity, understand, know how to communicate, be democratic and persuasive, with the basis that man is a social being.
2.3. Implications of the theory of human relations
The theory of Human Relations, contributed a new language and the bases for the Behavioral School to which the theories of various scholars such as: Kurt Lewin, Herbert Simon, Maslow, Skinner, McGregor were added, but their studies are not the subject of present writing, for which it does not delve into them; in general, the following concepts began to be handled:
Motivation:
All human behavior is motivated, in a psychological sense, it is the persistent tension that originates in the individual some form of behavior directed to the satisfaction of one or more needs.
Leadership:
It is the interpersonal influence exerted in a situation, oriented towards the achievement of one or more objectives through the process of human communication.
Communication:
It is the exchange of information between individuals, it constitutes one of the fundamental pillars of human experience and social organization.
Informal organization:
It is the set of interactions and relationships established by the various human elements of an organization, different from the formal one. This concept was disseminated by Rothlisberger and Dickson in their book on the Hawthorne experiment.
Group dynamics:
They are people who integrate with each other and perceive themselves as members of a group, the dynamics is the sum of interests of its members, it can be activated through stimuli to achieve greater rapprochement and learning. Kurt Lewin in his book "Dynamics of Personality" (1935) developed this concept extensively.
2.4 Criticism
Since the theory of human relations emerged as a philosophy of administration in 1932, administration scholars have launched severe criticisms against it, some of which are widely debated:
- Scientific validity Myopia of approaches Excessive concern for happiness Misunderstood sense of participation Short vision of group decision Generation of conflicts Opposition to individualism
2.5 Contributions
The contribution that this humanistic approach made to the administration is summarized in:
- Involve the human being for the first time as a fundamental element in an organization. Observe the organization as a social system. Propose that productivity is not a problem of engineering, but of group relations. To be the pioneers in the study of motivation, leadership, communication and informal groups.
3. "TELECOM" National Telecommunications Company
3.1. History
In 1947 the state created TELECOM, as a sole provider of telecommunications services and for 43 years it did so exclusively, in 1990 the government began opening the sector and issued the relevant regulations for the telecommunications service to be provided not only by the state, but also by other operators. In 2003 Telecom was liquidated by the government and transformed into the new "Colombia Telecomunicaciones", created as a State Commercial and Industrial company, organized as a joint stock company.
In April 2006, the government, through the auction process, sold 50% plus one share, to the Telefónica SA Group of Spain, with which it ceded control and management of the company, today it is called “Telefónica Telecom” and its management was left to position of the shareholders' meeting and the management team of Telefónica SA
3.2. Normativity
Laws 1900 and 1901 of 1990 opened telematic or value-added services.
Law 37 of 1993 regulates cellular telephony and the granting of licenses.
Law 142 of 1994 regulates home public services.
Resolution 86 of 1997 regulates the process of opening national and international long distance services and in 1998 access codes were assigned to competing operators
Decree 2123 of 1992 transforms Telecom de Establishment Público into an Industrial and Commercial Company of the State.
Decree 2542 of 1997 regulates the granting of licenses to operate basic public long distance switched telephony.
3.3 School of human relations and human aspects IN TELECOM.
This essay does not pretend to analyze all the variables involved in the liquidation of the company, but from the perspective of the school of Human Relations it analyzes its effects and influences on people; nor does it cover the new administrative approaches of modern companies; important topics to be covered in other writings.
As a consequence of the new regulation, as of 1991 several restructurings began, which sought the transformation of the organization for competitiveness, one of its changes was the legal nature that determined that the public servants of Telecom were official workers except for the managerial positions that would be occupied by public employees.
In 1995, Telecom had 6,800 workers, the first voluntary retirement plan occurred in April 1995, accepted by 3,300 officials, but followed by the hiring of 2,900 new employees, these were left under the regime of Law 100.
In April 2003, the company offered the second voluntary retirement plan, only aimed at former personnel entitled to the special pension scheme, 2,400 employees took advantage of the plan, leaving approximately 4,000 employees active.
The organization is analyzed with the factors of the school of Human Relations:
Human motivation:
During the transition from Telecom (1994 - 2003), the company initiated processes and training that strengthened the trust and development of the personnel, in order to prevent inefficiency, low quality in its products and customer service; Important progress was made, but the employees had a constant state of fear and mistrust, their learning to face the changes imposed by the environment was slow, they did not want to lose their job stability, all of which had a negative influence on the motivation of the staff, affecting their performance to respond assertively to customers who demanded efficiency, it was not possible to induce the required synergy towards responsible and conscious work, nor to generate constancy, total commitment and growth.
Group dynamics:
In Telecom this work began in 2001, groups called "Common Fronts" were formed throughout the country to solve the most serious problems facing the company, the experience produced individual growth, we worked with interdisciplinary teams stimulating the creative process with techniques for motivation and achievement orientation, innovative solutions to various problems were found, isolated efforts were observed; however, over time its initial dynamic was lost, as the culture of teamwork was not internalized.
Leadership:
Since 2000 with the new restructuring, important changes were generated in management styles, awareness was created about the practice of this ability to reinforce personal growth, therefore, within the action plans, each leader had to promote In a climate suitable for this experience, they were trained in the use of tools for solving problems, turning the process into a constant of the day to day, where the essential value was respect for difference, generating spaces for discussion and application of new strategies aimed at achieving organizational objectives; However, with the leadership exercised by some former managers not willing to change, serious obstacles were encountered, because they continued with the initial mental schemes.
Contradictions were observed in the interaction with the staff, related to coherence, the leaders and managers had to set an example and be clearly involved in the processes and promote credibility, otherwise, any development process with people is not valid or achieves his objectives.
Informal organization:
Official employees voluntarily joined one of the 3 existing unions: SITTELECOM with 60% of employees, ATT technicians with 25% and ASITEL professional association with 15%.
Within Telecom there were two antagonistic perspectives, the Company and the unions, with their significant differences in interpreting reality. Each block made its judgments valid or not, with or without criteria, and they were generalizing and interpreting their environment; On the one hand, the union as an informal organization had great influence over its members; On the other hand, the company was reactive to external demands, conditions that did not allow the harmonization of collective interests with individual ones, towards a single objective: the change of the organizational culture and the modernization of the company.
Communication: It
flowed widely at all levels of the company through different logistics media, magazines, weekly newsletters, intranet and videoconferences, with the aim of creating organizational culture, disseminating agendas and action plans, socializing and achieving institutional objectives, but expectations were not met because assertive communication was not generated, nor a healthy organizational climate, there was mistrust in the government and managers, skeptical thinking about any alternative that they proposed to reduce the staff was generalized.
In the union-company meetings, there were coercion strategies to achieve the objectives that each bloc wanted, the subdomain of language was applied, there were those long silences, which precede inconclusive conversations, no win-win agreements were obtained, each bloc He believed he was right and they culminated in actions that affected the workers and the interests of the organization and the community.
3.4. Reflections
The experience with the Telecom liquidation process leaves lessons for the management of human relations in the future.
Telecom was the largest state company sold in the country and its consequences are still reflected in different actors: workers who were compensated, pensioners, suppliers, teleassociates, managers, competition (local, long distance and mobile telephone operators), external economic organizations (World Bank, International Monetary Fund) and the government; each group has a different approach according to their interests, benefits or harms.
What accelerated the process of liquidation and subsequent sale of the company?
There are several factors that influenced the fate of TELECOM, despite efforts aimed at changing paradigms, on the one hand external variables, such as:
- The opening processes with the entry of new operators, the interests of neoliberal politics, the modernization of the state and the economic reform that determined the application of policies by the government, which did not have the will to protect any longer, one of the companies that had made the most profits in the past, on the contrary, approved the regulation that created the conditions to suffocate TELECOM. The negotiation system of the Joint Venture contracts (shared risk), to change local telephone lines ten years ago, the risk was assumed by Telecom and the net profits were for foreigners, which was verified when they demanded the payments 10 years later, leaving for Telecom and its clients some obsolete lines, acquired at high costs; although the company sued,The State Council ruled against Telecom, ordering the payment of 149 billion pesos to Northel, in the same way it had to pay other contracts that expired in 2004. Comply with obligations with the pension fund, to guarantee payment to 8,000 retirees in the country.
On the other hand, there are the internal factors inherent to any organization, such as:
- The different administrative models applied, technological innovation, resource optimization, logistics, commercialization of services and products, new market niches, organizational culture and customer service, added to the general belief in workers, that the "great the company would never be liquidated ”, they did not allow us to meet expectations or advance in the processes to meet competitiveness and quality standards. The dysfunctional coexistence of three unions within the company: for the 2002-2003 collective agreement they presented a unified list of petitions, each one had their status, interests and petitions, they protected their union chiefdoms, preserving the leading positions with anti-democratic practices that impeded the generational and ideological renewal,Their forms of struggle focused on observing the other and pointing out their mistakes, not on presenting viable proposals to the company; If any of them generated supported studies or not, they were rejected and considered allies of the government by the other two unions, making it impossible to establish consensus for unity and important decisions. The technicians and professionals had their own spokespersons unions on specialized issues that competed for them, the base union represented 60% of the workers, did not accept union pluralism, power struggles were generated, sustained by a line of thought, with limitations in the union political cohesion derived from the competition between them and the insufficient organizational development for their unit, in this way the union movement was exhausted.The cessation of activities in 2002, which lasted 15 days, left losses not only in the production of services, but also in customers and image, a circumstance that gave the government the opportunity to order the closure of the company on June 12, 2003 and the non-entry of every employee was this excellent, committed or not, acts like these incite violence because they disrespect and violate the dignity and right to work of all the people who worked there. Just as there are organizations that are gestated and developed by the hard work of human resources, in the same way there are groups of people with the necessary power to violate fundamental rights, the right to work and human dignity. In this particular case, sadly there were no internal or external leaders,With the will and strength to change the course set by the economic groups, who, mindful of the mistakes made within them, encouraged, with the support of the government, the liquidation of Telecom with the social consequences that 4000 former workers and their families experience today.
4. Proposals
Restructuring in multinationals and / or state companies is feasible, without threatening their employees, as long as there are balanced negotiations. There are model organizations that manage their employees efficiently, such as the company "FedEx", which applies the motto "People, service, profits", their decisions are evaluated by the effects on employees, their customers and the financial performance of the company, have a philosophy of "no layoffs" and "guaranteed fair treatment" to solve the problems of their employees. Similarly, the hotel chain "The Rittz-Carlton" believes that its employees are as important as its customers, in this way, workers feel part of the company, have autonomy, stability, obtain high benefits and develop as beings. whole humans.
Design a social model, with the guiding principles that should be met so as not to deteriorate the living conditions of its citizens and advocate for improving the quality of life of those who have not yet achieved it, there would participate movements and parties of various ideologies, businessmen and government, with a sense of solidarity, these well-oriented processes lead to societies where pluralism, tolerance, respect, collective interest and cooperation coexist. There are states like South Africa where social agreements have been reached that benefit 90% of its inhabitants.
Promote the evolution of current unions towards transformative movements, because these cannot continue to be anchored in a successful past, being counterparts of the state and the employer, they must prepare and be essential within the community, politically, economically and labor, with a practical sense of humanitarian coexistence, not only to represent human rights, but also being generators and entrepreneurs of macro-projects synchronized with the other unions representing society to benefit the entire population.
5. Conclusions
It is true that the country today has an agile organization, "Colombia Telecomunicaciones" with the best infrastructure leads the national market and operates the telecommunications service in 21 department capitals, 940 municipalities of the country, more than 4000 locations, more of 40 international connections, 14 associated companies, 2.6 million local lines, Internet and data transmission; At the same time, it applies modern administrative theories, free of financial commitments, without a service charge, better marketing, high-quality services, more coverage and low rates, which benefit customers; However, the difference is that the state no longer has control or autonomy and its large profits are not reinvested within the country, because its owner is the Telefónica SA Group of Spain with 51% of its shares.
It is observed how the working class of a country is the one that contributes the highest sacrifice quota in the activation of the economies in different states, after the liquidation of large companies there are consequences that negatively affect society, increasing job instability, insecurity, technological backwardness, lack of quality and unequal distribution of income.
Today in our country there is a tendency to increase the gap between classes, the denial of opportunities for most citizens, low social indicators in education, health, housing and employment, this is evidenced by the figures shown by the DANE in the last census, our country has 22 million Colombians living in poverty, of which 6.6 million live in conditions of misery, it is no secret that wealth has been concentrated, as a consequence there is low social mobility and this constitutes a more factor of violence.
This question is left for reflection, why was TELECOM chosen and not another company? By raising it, it does not mean that we intend the same end for other state entities, on the contrary, it seeks to promote agreement before affecting the social indicators of a country; It seeks to support governments and institutions made up of people free from prejudice, immersed in universal values such as truth, social responsibility, transparency, respect, equality, honesty and solidarity, among others, that investigate multiple alternatives for optimal solutions.
Are we then going back to the mandates of our Constitutional Charter? Of course, it does not mean that it is a utopian vicious circle, but rather a call to remember that the work of building companies and country identity is the responsibility of all of us in society, whatever our role in it, we must find mechanisms to do The policy of modernization of the State is compatible, without subjecting its sovereignty to the will of the global macroeconomy, or violating the fundamental rights of citizens, in particular with the right to work to create the foundations of a true social coexistence, with equity and welfare for the entire population.
6. Bibliography
CHIAVENATO, ldalberto: Introduction to the General Theory of Administration. Fifth Edition, Editorial McGraw-Hill Latinoamericana, SA, Bogota DE 2004.
DA SILVA. Reinaldo O. Theories of Administration, First edition, 523 pages, Thomsom Editores SA Mexico DF 2005.
Telecommunications Directorate - Telecom. Marca 9 Magazine, Bogotá. January 2000, April 2002.
EVANS, James R. LINDSAY, William M. Management and Quality Control. 2005. Sixth edition, Editoral Thomson SA, Mexico 760 pages.
TELECOM. Annual report 1998, 1999 and 2000, Bogotá.
Vice President of Human Resources Telecom. Telecom Magazine 30 days. May and July 1998. Bogotá.
www.telecom.com. Online July 16 2006.
www.telefónica.com. Online January 24 2007.
