Corporations should also be ecologically successful and sustainable

The Achilles heel of organizations is the lack of intermediate supervisors. During the last 20 years, technological changes have been dramatic and the global economy has become the limit. This new reality poses a challenge for organizations that must be “ecologically successful and sustainable”. To achieve this, changes have to reach all personnel levels through innovative retention, motivation and value processes and a more effective communication that allows the participation of everyone.

Hugo Prieto

The environment has become extremely complex and the ability of corporations to influence the spheres of national life is limited. But the worst thing that organizations can do is to observe, without doing absolutely anything, the course that things are taking. There is a lot to be done and the formula to gain strength is clarity and strategic thinking, high management abilities, interactive communication, achievement motivation, new participation forms and joint responsibility for purposes and goals.

Human nature is, par excellence, changing. And the line that can be drawn from that reality is always ascending. Change is something that companies have closely followed in the midst of an ocean of difficulties. Who survives and who doesn’t? Invariably, that question has hovered as a concern in the horizon. It is here where strategic ideas, decision making, business plans and competitiveness step in. The juncture of these factors is defined as success. But none of this is possible if the parts of an organization are not coupled, as a whole, in the pursuit of that goal.

It has been 20 years of profound transformations that are reflected on the human being. Belkis Guédez, a partner of the firm KPMG, says that citizens “receive more information from a very early age, they have access to a better education and this makes them more demanding of innovations and more conscious of their influence in society. But they have also changed as workers. Understanding the worker in its aspirations, rights, opportunities, motivating him to evolve and retaining him is a challenge for organizations, for which they will be forced to change their standards and to incorporate new tendencies adjusted to these new generations that have new demands and more creativity and flexibility”.

Hugo Urdaneta, director of Team Talent Consulting, says that “the process of resources management has an impact on organizations”. Also, the search for a “high level teams in different areas”, but it is the “profound knowledge of the environment and the corporation itself that will allow reaching reality”.

The new generations

Before exploring this diagnosis, which is a fundamental tool in an organization, one has to keep in mind the changing cultural reality that is described by Guédez in the following terms: “the new generations are more independent and ambitious; they have very high goals in labor terms. The young choose and demand, they know what they want, their professional “north” is well defined, and they are looking for a job that allows creativity, inclusion in strategies and payment that is in line with their contribution to business results”.

The road to success goes through involving the entire personnel through different participation schemes. This, in turn, demands that high level teams closely follow “the organization’s day-to-day”, says Urdaneta, “what people are doing”. Without that knowledge: “How do you organize? How do you defend your strategies or processes?”

The time when a financial or market strategy, for example, was on one side and the labor force was on another, is a thing of the past. Who implements technology or processes? asks Urdaneta. “Human resource”. This is key to understanding that “talent has to be present throughout the organization” and to that end, it is fundamental that each individual has the abilities that its job requires.

However, finding the best talents, “is not enough”, says Urdaneta. “An organization has to have policies, processes and incentives so that people give their best”. Otherwise, it is impossible that any person gives the best that is in them. “The great challenge is to create an environment, a work climate where people give their best and also commits”.

Natural harmony in corporations

The world financial crisis and its impact in the Venezuelan economy is beginning to show unequivocal slowdown symptoms, implies more organizational efficiency and this will be related to its human resource. But this is part of the challenge. Guédez believes that the challenge means moving towards ecologically successful organizations, where “both the emotional ecology of persons, the integration of people in business strategies, the adaptation of their culture to the demands of the new generational gap as well as the optimization of medullar resources for the conservation of the environment and the community to which they relate”.

Watching the complexity of the environment in retrospective, some organizations have been more proactive than others in their responses. This is closely related to the commitment that companies have with their workers, who are a fundamental part of a sustainable activity that is economically feasible. In the event of a temporary seizure of a plant, for example, workers not always shown a level of commitment or have defended their organizations. But this can also be told from the technological changes that have advanced at amazing speeds in the past 15 years, while human processes are slower.

Organizations where some think and others perform do not work. Just like those having a vertical chain of command. If the personnel demands explanations, there has to be a first line supervisor who is able to give an answer to their concerns. “Otherwise, there will be many problems”, says Urdaneta. “If you do not give explanations, how do you expect to create an effective communication based on trust? The key point is an environment of harmony and a good work climate, but that is achieved, precisely, by gaining trust. It is not about reediting what was called “labor peace” in the past, because what stood behind that illusion of harmony, except for honorable exceptions, was something very close to coercion.

“Leaders are needed”, says the director of Team Talent Consulting. A person who represents the company and is able to transfer values. One of them is that communication has to be effective. “Channels have to be created so, when there is a problem, you are able to channel those concerns on time”.

Supervisors, the big issue

Just like resources, incentives and processes are oriented to capture and retain high level management personnel, companies must go beyond that and apply a similar strategy to have first line supervisors who are able to build a new organizational climate with its workers. This challenge is met through efficient communication, values, trust and something Urdaneta emphasizes on: “new ways of participation in all processes of the company. There is a participation boom, not only in Venezuelan but around the world”.

There is much to be harmonized. Variables are diverse, complexity a substantive fact. Guédez sustain that the new “organizational ecology is directed to promote the individual and group needs, in “empowering” them by promoting creativity and inclusion in the design of business strategies from their own space to the collective, taking into account the base level and the management level, under the premise that each participant of an “organizational” family has an important role to play. This way, commitment and responsibility are promoted and abilities are developed, both of individuals as well as of work teams to establish synergies and communicational networks”.

If that change is not promoted and the first line supervisor is seen, for example, as a “foreman” (in the authoritarian sense of the term), then, the breeding ground, the necessary “noise” will be laid for minority groups to stimulate conflict. In this sense, the first line supervisor “channels the demands and concerns of the personnel regarding the problems that should be resolved. The reports of a damaged infrastructure, for example, should have a timely and efficient answer. Without that active role, based on communication, trust and timely responses, the first line supervisor is generally bypassed.

“That is the Achilles’ heel of many organizations in Venezuela”, says Urdaneta. Such failure has a lot to do with uncontrollable sources that have appeared in some industrial plants and in the Guayana region. A fact that points towards the need to change towards ecologically successful and sustainable organizations”.