By determining the scope and content of the different systems and subsystems that intervene in economic-financial management in universities, one is in possession of the essential elements for the creative application of solutions in each center to form their own management models, guaranteeing however, adequate articulation and integration in order to enable the evaluation and control required at the level of the entire organization. One of the internal factors facing universities in the current context is their Management System, which must be directed towards achieving the objectives of the organization, within this the control function is essential for the administration of your resources,The proposal consists of the conception of a procedure for the design of the Management Control System and a system of indicators for Financial Economic Management in universities.
Keywords: University Management, Management Control, System of indicators.
Summary
Determining the scope and content of the different systems and subsystems involved in the economic and financial management in universities, is being in the possession of the indispensable elements to implement creative solutions in each institution to conform their own management models, ensuring however, the proper coordination and integration in order to enable the evaluation and control required at the level of the whole organization. One of the internal factors faced by the universities in the current context, is their Management System, which should be directed towards the achievement of the objectives of the organization, within this the control function is essential for management of its resources.The proposal consists of the conception of a design procedure for the management control system and a system of indicators for economic and financial management in universities.
Keywords: University management, Management Control, System of indicators.
The improvement programs play a fundamental role for the improvement of the management of any system, for this reason the elaborated procedure was conceived as a continuous improvement program. An application of the proposed procedure that is reflected in Figure 1 will be presented below.
Stage I. Characterization of the organization
Whenever a study is to be carried out, the characteristics of the organization where it is to be carried out must be taken into account, considering the following elements: brief historical review, organizational structure, management levels and composition of the workforce, in the specific case of the universities, it is important to consider the distribution of the workforce in teaching and non-teaching workers and the composition of the professors by teaching category, scientific and academic degree.
Stage II. Strategic analysis
As organizations grow, managers at various levels find themselves increasingly involved in making important decisions. These decisions affect many people inside and outside the organization, including the managers themselves. The execution of this task will have a greater or lesser degree of diligence depending on the level of detail and scope that has been achieved in the strategic planning of the organization; Due to its importance for the correct design of the Management Control System (SCG), it is recommended to review and improve it.
Review and / or definition of the Mission - Vision
In this step, it will be analyzed if the mission and vision of the organization meet the requirements and if it is known by all its members. If the mission and vision are not elaborated correctly or are not defined, they will proceed to formulate them together with the experts, through interviews and brainstorming. By way of feedback, after being formulated, they will be disseminated throughout all areas of the organization and will be enriched with the criteria of the workers. Later it will be presented and approved by the board of directors.
Preparation of the SWOT Matrix
Management systems have been modified to respond to the extraordinary complexity of organizational systems, adopted with increasing frequency; as well as to monitor the instability of the environment in search of opportunities and / or threats to the organization. In this step, the Internal Factors Evaluation Matrix and the External Factors Evaluation Matrix can be used.
Establish the key success factors
Once the organization knows what its mission and vision are, the key question to be answered is what is essential for it to fulfill its corporate purpose? It is essential for the organization to know what need the target audience hopes to satisfy, what it values and what it does not value, that is, to define the key success factors (FCE). The efficiency of a management system depends, to a large extent, on the precision with which the organization's CEFs are identified. Knowing the FCE, the organization can direct its actions towards them, which obviously will facilitate it to meet the needs of its customers.
Procedure for the Design of the Management Control System in universities
List Key Result Areas
The key result areas (KRA) are those areas or aspects that are decisive for achieving the key success factors based on the satisfaction of the clients' needs and the fulfillment of the organization's corporate purpose. It depends on the type of key factor that is sought so that one or other areas of the organization are key. The ARCs establish the places where individual and collective resources and efforts will be located.
Set strategic objectives by Key Results Areas
In this step the strategic objectives are established by ARC. The objectives constitute one of the fundamental categories of the management activity, because they condition the actions of the organization and, especially, of its managers.
Formulation and alignment of strategies
The alignment of the strategies consists of achieving coherence and correspondence between the Main Master Strategy and the remaining strategies. The levels should not be observed in isolation, but complemented with each other and cohesive to achieve integration between them.
Preparation of the strategic map
A strategy map is an integrated and logical description of the way in which a strategy will be carried out, it indicates the cause-effect relationships relative to the resources and capacities of the organization that should lead to the desired strategic results. Strategy maps provide the foundation on which strategy-linked dashboards are built. In this sense, this step consists of establishing the relationships between the actions to be carried out in the different perspectives.
In the case of HEIs, based on what is established by Villa González del Pino, 2006; Soler González, 2010, by stating that in non-profit companies the financial perspective should be the support, it is then considered that the client perspective is the end. The order of the perspectives in the strategy map, responding to a causal logic is the following: financial, training and growth, processes and customer.
Policy statement
Policies can be established for various areas of activity of the organization, as well as at different hierarchical levels of the same. They need to make sense to the organization and be very clear and logical. Policies, being guides of thought for decision-making and goal setting, should allow a certain degree of freedom, otherwise they will be rules or instructions. They should not be established as commandments, but rather encourage initiative so that they are interpreted and applied by subordinates in a creative way.
Definition of objectives for each decision level
In this stage, we start from the strategic objectives that will constitute the first level objectives, which are deployed through action variables that will constitute the second level objectives, which in turn are divided into action variables that are translated into third level objectives.
Determination of action variables
The action variables they direct are determined by each person in charge, within the structure of the organization, and in this way the OVAR Matrix (objectives, action variables and managers) of each manager is drawn up.
Preparation of the OVAR Matrix
The OVAR Method is a very valuable tool for managers to better manage their organization, and at the team level to allow them to reinforce dialogue, interaction and coherence. It also facilitates collective learning and decentralization of management, allows bottom-up integration, contributes to the detection of structural problems, provides pertinent information for follow-up and helps to measure performance.
Stage III. Process analysis
In this cover, an analysis of the University processes will be carried out, considering the strategic, key (substantive) and support processes.
Prepare the process maps
The process map encourages organizations to have a vision beyond their geographical and functional limits, showing how their activities are related to external customers, suppliers and stakeholders, giving the opportunity to improve coordination between key elements. In this step, the general process map and the university's specific process maps will be drawn up, as an effective method to visualize the processes at all levels; ordered by their hierarchies and relationships.
Prepare the process files
In this step we will proceed to make the files of the University processes, considering that to manage and improve a process it is necessary to describe it adequately, for which there are different ways of doing it, but in general there is coincidence in recognizing, Among the elements that are included, the following: name, person in charge, purpose, objective, clients, suppliers, other stakeholders, related processes and content of the process.
Perform deployment of processes
In this step, the University processes will be deployed, which constitutes a fundamental work tool for managers, as it is a detailed description of the organization's processes, dividing them into sub-process segments and these into activities.
Stage IV. Construction of the indicators
Definition of the indicator system
The proposed system of indicators must specify, on the one hand, the “vertical linkage” to, if necessary, search and act on the “root or primary causes” of the problems and, on the other, the influence on the performance of the main processes existing in the organization.
Table 1 shows a proposal for a system of indicators of financial economic management in university institutions.
Classify the indicators by decision levels
The indicators are dependent on the objectives, likewise, they vary depending on the levels of responsibility within the organization, since the problems and decisions to be taken at each level of management are different.
Classify the indicators by their impact
The evaluation of the University's performance can be carried out through indicators to measure the impact on its efficiency and effectiveness until it achieves effectiveness, considering the focus of continuous improvement.
Rank indicators according to perspectives
A strategic map is a graphic representation of related and structured objectives through perspectives that narrate the strategic actions of an organization (Soler González, 2010). In universities the objectives are related to the satisfaction of society. Social benefit is conceived as the beginning and end of all university management, since the main objective is to provide a benefit to society (Villa González del Pino, 2006). It is considered that in Higher Education Institutions (IES) the financial perspective is the support and the client perspective the end.
Customer perspective: The objectives and indicators in this perspective are linked to the results that society receives. In most organizations, the objectives are related to the satisfaction of society where measurements of the satisfaction of services are reflected (Soler González, 2010).
Process perspective : In this perspective, the key processes must be identified, the university, like other organizations, can be considered as an integral system of processes, in which substantive processes can be classified as key, as they constitute their reason for being and those that guarantee that the university fulfills its mission of preserving, developing and promoting the culture accumulated in society. The indicators must respond to fundamental objectives defined for each process from various routes and closely related to its operation, so that their evaluation could express their degree of performance.
Training and growth perspective: The formation and growth of an organization come from three main sources: the people, the systems and the procedures of the company (Kaplan & Norton, 2002). As for the workers, it is necessary to know certain indicators (satisfaction, retention, skills) and develop a training plan that prepares them. In the specific case of the university, the university staff is obliged to develop a constant process of self-training of their complementary teaching and research competencies.
Financial perspective: According to Soler González, 2010 in the case of budgeted organizations, the financial perspective is linked to objectives and expenditure indicators. It should be designed this way, since these organizations are financed from the state budget and their expenses must be strictly controlled because the results are intangible and do not produce direct monetary benefits. The financial perspective is considered to be the support.
Characterization of the indicators
According to Harrington, 1997, an indicator is expressed by an attribute, a meter, a goal and a time horizon. Considering the criteria issued in the consulted bibliography, the following elements are proposed to characterize the indicators: definition, objective, reference levels, responsibility, reading point and instruments and periodicity.
Table 1 Proposal for a system of indicators of Financial Economic Management in universities (Download PDF)
Preparation of the Management Indicators Manual
All the information offered by the characterization of the indicators constitutes the basis for the preparation of a manual that serves as a consultation and work tool for managers and specialists. This manual can be formed as a printed document or in electronic format, as part of the organization's information system. Annex 1 presents a proposal of indicators for the financial perspective.
Preparation of the Balanced Scorecard
The analyzes carried out previously lead to the preparation of the so-called Balanced Scorecard (CMI) or Balanced Scorecard, which constitutes the bridge that allows connecting the strategic direction of the company with the management of its processes (Nogueira Rivera, 2002). Its implementation will be in a “cascade” through the “pyramid of control panels” (López Viñegla, 1998), starting with senior management, leading to middle managers, until reaching the physical system or operational core. The process approach is integrated into the analysis through perspectives, defining, in each case, the indicators in terms of efficiency and effectiveness, ensuring that they are aligned with the organization's objectives and with the key success factors. Once the indicators have been established, they must be updated periodically, the frequency of which can be: "day by day", weekly, fortnightly, monthly, quarterly, and so on. Similarly, the design of the BSC should be reviewed,adapting it to existing changes in the organization's strategies, this being a process that never ends, since the strategy is constantly evolving.
Stage V Development of the Information System
For the BSC to be successful, it must be coupled with the organization's information system. In this sense, it is of interest to analyze the situation regarding the collection of the information that is needed. For this, the following must be taken into consideration: the resources and time available in the organization, the hardware and software available and the possibilities of intensive use of the internet and intranet.
Conclusions
- The proposed procedure constitutes a methodological tool that contributes to the implementation of the control function in university institutions. With the proposed procedure, it contributes to the improvement of university management.
Bibliography
- Amat i Salas & Soldevila i García. Optimization of management control in public universities with the Balanced Scorecard. Harrington, HJ Total management of continuous improvement. McGraw-Hill, Santa Fe de Bogotá, 1997.Díaz Canel Bermudez, M. “The university for a better world” Opening conference. VII International Congress of Higher Education. University 2010. Cuba, 2010.Kaplan, RS & Norton, DP Control Panel Ediciones Gestión 2000 SA, Barcelona, 2002.López Viñegla, A. The control panel and information systems for business management. Possibility of hypermedia treatment. Editora AECA, Madrid, 1998.Nogueira Rivera, D. Conceptual model and support tools to enhance Management Control in Cuban companies. Thesis presented to opt for the degree of Doctor of Technical Sciences.Matanzas University "Camilo Cienfuegos". Cuba, 2002.Revista Cubana de Educación Superior No 3 / 2005.Soler González, R. Procedure for the implementation of the Balanced Scorecard as a management model in Cuban companies. Thesis to opt for the scientific degree of Doctor of Technical Sciences. Cuba, 2010.Villa González del Pino, E. Procedure for Management Control in Higher Education institutions. Central University of the Villas. Optional thesis to the scientific degree of Doctor of Technical Sciences. Cuba, 2006.Villa González del Pino, E. Procedure for Management Control in Higher Education institutions. Central University of the Villas. Optional thesis to the scientific degree of Doctor of Technical Sciences. Cuba, 2006.Villa González del Pino, E. Procedure for Management Control in Higher Education institutions. Central University of the Villas. Optional thesis to the scientific degree of Doctor of Technical Sciences. Cuba, 2006.
