Management of Organizational Change Through the Capitalization of Knowledge.

• Author: Beltran, Josefina Morgan

INTRODUCTION

Knowledge is currently the basis of changes in the world. In it lies the root of innovation, quality and competitiveness of organizations, however, it is generated by man. Santillan (2010) believes that knowledge is "a human capacity, based on experience, which aims to transform information into concrete decisions and actions" (p. 21). Knowledge is a human characteristic which, through a teaching process, is generated, transferred and finally conserved. Through the human capacity of reasoning, knowledge is generated. It is intangible, since it is not something that can be seen optically or physically; it is volatile; the knowledge that is not used is blurred over the time; knowledge has the characteristic of disappearing through the epochs in which it is happening.

Knowledge needs to be elaborated, organized, structured. Since the data by themselves do not provide knowledge, it is necessary to have a structure so that they can provide it (Dalmau, 2005). The types of knowledge are varied. Nonaka and Takeuchi cited in Santillan (2010), explained that knowledge has two forms, explicit knowledge and tacit knowledge.

Many family businesses in Mexico lack some planning, however, people have confidence and dedication to the businesses to which they are committed. The company in the case study began activities in 1998 with the idea of providing maintenance, transformation, and automation services to the industries in the state and the Mexican lowlands. It has been observed in the company, that the things are done in a way that people are familiar with, which has defined the creation of the organization. In this way, it has been thought that if you capture and manage that knowledge of people, this will be the basis for a new strategic planning process that defines their objectives and meets the organizational goals that are based on this knowledge.

The problem with the target of this research is, on the one hand, the discouragement of human capital in this organization, because they neither develop nor strengthen all their potential. And, on the other hand, due to the challenges of the environment and competition, the company has identified the need to generate a significant organizational change in its structure. They also have become aware of the need to grow internally in number of personnel and infrastructure and to respond to market demands. As well, they need to build high performance teams and integrate qualified people who are trained and match the profile of the position which they will occupy in the company, because there is a lack of planning. And thus there are organizational shortcomings, such as a blank in training follow-up, objectives by staff, lack of interest in the working environment, development of processes, among others, which have generated a stagnation in the company. The central question asked was, "What strategies can be implemented in order to use the knowledge and skills of people in the organization aiming to generate an organizational change in the company?"

KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT

Santillan (2010) considers that knowledge is "a human capacity, based on experience, which aims at transforming information into concrete decisions and actions" (p. 21). Knowledge is a human characteristic which, through a teaching process is generated, transferred and finally conserved, through the human capacity to reason. It generates itself; it is intangible, since it is not something that can be perceived optically or physically; it is volatile; the knowledge that is not used is blurred over time. Knowledge has the characteristic of disappearing through the ages in which it is happening. Another important characteristic is that knowledge needs to be built, that is, it needs an arrangement of placement and of order. It needs to be structured, since the data by themselves do not provide knowledge. Therefore, it is necessary to have structure so that knowledge can be conveyed (Dalmau, 2005). Types of knowledge are varied. Nonaka and Takeuchi (Mentioned in Santillan, 2010) explains that knowledge has two forms, explicit knowledge and tacit knowledge.

According to Santillan (2010), explicit knowledge is "that has been or can be articulated, codified, and stored in some kind of medium and is easily transmitted" (Santillan, 2010, p.24). On the other hand, he affirms that tacit knowledge "refers to the knowledge that the person has internally and that presents enough difficulty to be transmitted to other people" (p.24).

Knowledge is the greatest source of power for any company and managing it is possible in any organization, according to its size and particular features.

The competitive position of a country will be largely based on the production of the knowledge it generates. Developed countries have become wise nations, and this has had an impact on their worldwide competitive position, Kondratieff (mentioned in North & Rivas, 2008, p.25) states that "capital and labor will no longer be considered as scarce resources, but information and knowledge derived from it will be considered as scarce resources and, therefore, valuable for society or companies" (p. 25). When talking about developed countries, which are conceptualized as knowledge-based societies, it is worth mentioning that they manage information, analysis and knowledge as factors that have a preference over the production.

The basis of global competition is determined by the ability to generate and transfer knowledge in global knowledge networks. The industrial nations increasingly become wiser nations, thanks to their knowledge regarding the information of international markets that allows the development of new products, organizing production processes at a global level and managing international logistics.

What are smart companies like? What characteristics do these organizations bear? Which ones manage to transform information into knowledge and turn it into efficiency? When companies comply with the demands of their consumers, they become intelligent organizations. These companies balance their prices, provide the right products to the customer and provide solutions for them. These solutions are increasingly less related to work and capital, but they are related to knowledge, the importance of its structure and its transference of knowledge (Dalmau, 2005).

For Fontalvo, Quejada and Puello (2011), knowledge management is "the process of generating value from the intangible assets of the organization" and, therefore, it can be said that knowledge management is a process that, together with organizational communication, can lead to generating innovation in products and processes in order to guide them to improvement.

HUMAN CAPITAL

Human capital, according to Ramirez (2003), is the capital that the company has related to the personnel that work in it and their skills and knowledge. It is formed by different skills and abilities that take organizations to a higher level and maintain efficiency, as well as innovation and employability, which means "the possibility of people to...