ILO recommendation 195 on the development of human resources, highlights the need to create continuous learning mechanisms in organizations capable of providing an effective response to current global challenges in organizations.
The Simapro proposal -which allows to land this recommendation- is oriented towards decent work in organizations, focusing on the participation, communication and integration of all workers, in order to achieve improved productivity and working conditions. job.
To this end, it has been implemented in several countries and in different sectors, fundamentally in the Sugar Industry.
In Cuba, it has been experimentally implemented in the Sugar Industry, the Light Industry and in Construction, taking into account the peculiarities of each of the activities.
This work collects aspects of the implementation of this tool in two Construction Projects companies.
Introduction
The Productivity Measurement and Advancement System (SIMAPRO) is a model developed by Pritchard and associates at the University of Texas in the 80's of the last century, Productivity Measurement and Enhancement System (PROMES, for its acronym in English).
Part of the assumption that the behavior of workers affects the productivity of the organization, so that the appropriate modification of behavior must lead to an increase in productivity.
In the 1990s, the approach was extended to industrialized countries, so that by 2004, eleven of them had already applied it.
The ILO Office in Mexico, in order to implement recommendation 195 on the development of human resources, which highlights the need to create continuous learning mechanisms in organizations, takes the Simapro proposal and in agreement with the University of Tilburg, Holland, introduces it for its application - as a test - by Mertens.L. in a company in the sugar sector in Mexico (1995).
The positive results of the application favored its extension to 17 companies in the same sector and also to advisory services to small rural companies, export maquiladoras and other branches of the service. At the same time, it was applied in other Latin American countries, such as the Dominican Republic, where INFOTEP took it up again within its program of advisory services to companies.
This experience extends to Cuba as a result of the need to have an instrument that manages to optimize, in a productive and humane way, the great investment in the training of people.
Its antecedents go back to the “Empresa Azucarera 30 de Noviembre” (2002), belonging to the Ministry of Sugar (MINAZ), in which the application of Simapro produced satisfactory results, so it was decided to extend it to a sugar mill per province and to other organisms. For such purposes, the International Simapro Workshop Seminar (System for Measurement and Advancement of Productivity) was held in Havana in 2004, sponsored by the ILO Office in Mexico.
From that moment on, other organizations committed themselves to the implementation of this experience in two Project Companies and in one of the Furniture Factories belonging to these organizations, in order to be able to have a methodology that would make its extension possible for the sake of to increase work productivity and improve working conditions, taking into account the peculiarities of each of the companies undergoing experimentation.
In the particular case of project companies and which in fact becomes the object of this work, it was necessary to take into account the way in which the service was prepared (by projects), since it responds to specific requirements and demands, such as example: professionalism, creativity and unique concepts.
These requirements were what made it possible to develop a completely different Simapro in relation to the experience that up to now has been developing in Cuba and in other experiences at the international level.
Therefore, it was proposed to include in the experience of the Project Company a training process that facilitates endogenous development at the individual, collective and organizational level, using the Culture of Trust method, in accordance with the objectives of the experience and the strengthening of it based on the principles of teamwork as a new form of work organization.
The following were considered as system processes:
- Support and confidence in the Presentation of the Model Familiarization with the Experience Generating alignment with the values, vision, mission and goals of the organization Measurement, processing and evaluation Advancement
Taking into account the requirements set out above, Simapro dispenses with a new conceptualization, then: What is Simapro for these new conditions?
It is a Productivity Measurement and Advancement System (SIMAPRO) that arises from a socially responsible management, within the scope of the production managers themselves, namely, all workers; leaders and directed, and from the grassroots groups; consequently, it is a proposal with a broad social base.
It is a process that begins by viewing from the grassroots level, the most sensitive indicators or those with the greatest influence on production processes, in such a way that they allow an alignment between the strategic objectives of the grassroots group, whatever the organizational unit, and the strategic objectives at the level of the entire organization.
It includes the monitoring and follow-up of the indicators in a group and participatory way, as part of the technical content. As a result of this process, Simapro presupposes an increase in productivity, based on a higher level of social inclusion in production management, or the so-called social dimension.
It is not a linear process, and it allows opening a space for a programming of feedback cycles, periodic measurement and monitoring of the commitments for improvements acquired (Systematic Content).
The Simapro, seen from this perspective, is an instrument that manages to modify the mental model, that responsibility and control of productivity as an indicator of company efficiency is not only of the management areas of the same (such as Economy and Human Resources), but must integrate the active participation of grassroots labor groups.
To the same extent that work is multiplied at the grassroots level, the organizational and work culture is changed.
However, it is not a sustainable process over time, as neither is the motivation to transform and change behavior, once the results have been obtained.
In order to carry out this transformation, the perseverance and long light of an Organization Directorate capable and willing to understand and assume the dysfunctions of the company's system and to glimpse as a “system” the transformation path is required. It is also necessary to evaluate the "level of satisfaction" of the needs of the members of the organization, to know the visions that guide the values of the people and the company, as well as to know the degree of harmony that the business and social mission of the company has. people with their daily life (Rojas NE and Hernández N. I 2006).
Traditionally, the changes have been oriented towards the achievement of results or the fulfillment of the task, and the aim is to integrate the person as a fundamental element within the change process.
For people to be able to modify their behaviors, it is necessary to develop at the individual, group and organizational level, learning processes based on reflection and inquiry with an orientation to ethical values, which invites and motivates the transformation of their beliefs, interests, skills, behaviors that benefit the development and growth of the organization; then there will be a need to contribute in a participatory way with the organization.
As part of the learning process that occurs with Simapro, it is not only to align the operational and strategic objectives at a personal, group and organizational level, but to work on the strategy at a personal and collective level, using the Tool Chart of Integral Command elaborated by Norton and Kaplan (1992) and in the domain of Dialogue and Discussion as team learning practices, conceptualized by David Bohm and developed by Esteban Rojas and Isabel Hernández in the Diploma of the Culture of Trust.
It is necessary to start the long journey that allows feedback to people to find their personal vision while helping to shape the vision of the organization. A vision that motivates and connects with the needs of the individual, the workforce and society as a whole. In order for the organization's Mission to sustain its motivation, it must connect with the legitimate needs of people and society.
Being able to connect with this source requires honesty and commitment.
In our experience, this is essential for the mission of the company to be deeply motivating, beyond the traditional participation of the worker for reasons of economic transaction. Vision will forge the moment critical mass is reached.
It is a path in which, in light of the dysfunctions within the company, the different areas of the organization and the company management develop a vocation to reach solutions in an integrative and daring way.
From the 4 Disciplines of the Culture of Trust, the dysfunctions in communication and values of the organization and its members can be understood.
So far, factors that have not traditionally been worked on in the organization of work have been dealt with, and which is called the Social Dimension, which has regained great importance in recent years.
Because it is an intellectual activity, the results and the measurement of the SIMAPRO progress are basically qualitative in both efficiency and effectiveness and will be expressed in terms of applying the knowledge acquired during implementation, such as: Systemic Thinking for the redesign of the solutions provided in each of the processes; Ethical values and human needs for the development of the strategy at a personal and collective level.
Conclusions
• The integration of the operational level with the tactical and strategic levels for the development of the Strategic Direction is insufficient.
• To establish new work habits, behavior, and produce changes in management relationships, starting with the methods and styles used, for the assumption of a new model of management and more social management, it is necessary to create useful knowledge, where the new conception about Simapro will be important.
• Qualitative dimensions of efficiency and effectiveness are important, such as competencies, commitment, and satisfaction; as well as the development towards the interior of the individual, the group, the organization and the changes in culture. Examples of this approach are: the contribution of the group to the elaboration of the strategy at a personal and collective level and to the revision of the strategy at the organizational level; mastering the practices of dialogue and discussion as new forms of effective communication and learning; change in beliefs and behaviors of individuals after generating processes of development of ethical values.
• Recognition of the need to guide individuals, groups or groups in the organization to ethical values as a source of transforming motivation.
recommendations
• Extend and systematize the transformational work of behavior at the individual, collective or group and organizational level, so that in this way superior results are obtained, both at a quantitative and qualitative level, in terms of productivity, efficiency and effectiveness.
• It is important to continue deepening motivation management, communication, information and participation at all levels.
Bibliography
Alhama B, Rafael; Alonso A, Francisco and Martínez N, Tania: Social dimension of the Company.
Editorial Social Sciences, Cuba, 2005.
Collective of authors: Simapro Guide for Sugar Companies in Cuba, March 2004.
Mertens, Leo: Training, Productivity and Labor Competence in organizations, 2004
Rojas N, Esteban and Hernández N, Isabel: Diploma in the Culture of Trust. Spain, 1997
Rojas N, Esteban and Hernández N, Isabel: The 4 disciplines of the Culture of Trust (in preparation)
