vol. 11 núm. 2 (2019): signos, investigación en sistemas de gestión

Communities in the State of Oaxaca have looked for a way to strengthen local economy through different mechanisms; these actions have resulted in a small-scale economy that has had an impact on communities. Communities along with their residents have created a development mechanism known as community organization, which is based on joint efforts to administer the community resources; this term is not very common, and little is known about its operation and performance; however, the development it may generate is significant to the communities, because it creates sustainable development. To study these organizations, the objective of the research was to develop a theoretical model to identify the factors composing community organization and analyze how and to which extent these factors influence the sustainable development of Ixtlán de Juárez. The research method was mixed employing questionnaires and structured interviews with 64 community members; the research was descriptive and correlational. The result obtained was a community organization distinguished by strategic/administrative, sociopolitical, technical and internal dynamic factors. It is concluded that the community organization is governed by a systemic, adaptable approach with organization integrity, in which management takes place through participation networks of the community.

This paper describes the main aspects that were taken into account to assess the financial area processes of a Higher Education Institution and their articulation with the quality management system based on the Prevention, Appraisal and Failure (PAF) model. Initially, meetings were held with the Academy, as direct users of the processes, at which the different points of view were objectively listened to, in a brain storming session, concluding with a suggestion from their view as academicians and main users. The approach was based on a mixed methodology that involved the quantitative part, by estimating failure costs in processes, and qualitative, measuring the dissatisfaction degree of internal users due to the delay or noncompliance with the different processes managed in the area. The main results show, after analyzing each one of the processes established (registration planning, credit area, payment, treasury and mobility), a very low (critical) score in two processes considered the most sensitive ones and requiring urgent intervention, such as the fees/OPS and the mobility processes; the forgoing entails an improvement plan intended to identify the economic and financial benefits of the quality management system and that guarantees process optimization.

The Colombian educational system in Higher Education Institutions is underpinned by integrality of individuals, allowing them to defend and demand respect for a decent life, upholding their rights and fulfilling their duties. Unitrópico promotes culture in arts, science, technology and education, as well as in everyday life and in people’s creation. Nowadays, it is searching for the implementation of an integrated quality assurance system under the requirements of the Colombian Technical Standard ISO 9001:2015 and program accreditation as per the guidelines of the National Accreditation Council; however, the lack of processes and procedures oriented toward the attainment of institutional efficiency and effectiveness is evident. This is why, through a positivist paradigm employing a mixed descriptive method, an integrated methodological proposal for the institution was determined, to meet the requirements of a technical standard and the regulatory requirements to improve efficiency in service provision through the consolidation of continuous improvement at the institution toward the institutional accreditation, focusing the strengthening on quality principles and values.

Pharmaceutical laboratories in Colombian must comply with five health-related rules taken from international standards, such as those GMPs related to the production and quality control of medicinal drugs; however, a lack of process integration is observed in these organizations. In this regard, the objective of this research consisted of determining the employees’ perception of the current implementation of management systems in the different organizations, improvement opportunities, and the aspects related to risk and knowledge management, which contribute with the integration of these standards, to develop an integration proposal. For this purpose, a mixed descriptive study was conducted. Semi-structured interviews with the directive staff and two surveys, one to the tactic personnel and another with operational personnel, were carried out. A proposal was developed for the integration of the quality management system, GMPs, risk and knowledge management, based on the PDCA (Plan-Do-Check-Act) cycle. It was concluded that knowledge management contributes with the proper functioning of quality management and GMPs; risk management is also a facilitating factor for the attainment of the organization objectives and quality, when it is focused on the most critical aspects of the organization and the manufacture processes, thus increasing safety of patients and reducing adverse reactions, complaints, deviations or withdrawal of products from the market.

CORALINA is a public entity engaged in the environment sector, based on San Andrés, which has a quality management system in place. This entity has a problem elated to the loss of intellectual capital, which is evidenced in the internal audits by the noncompliance with some activities thus affecting service quality. In this regard, the research was aimed at proposing strategies for the strengthening of the human talent management process in the quality management system. A qualitative research was developed, and the content of written and oral information provided by the corporation officials was analyzed. The diagnosis revealed the lack of resources for a proper human talent management, increased commitment, motivation and competence-based training of the personnel, as well as faults in all the components of the process; therefore, the strategies proposed with their respective action plan were focused on all those components in order to articulate the process with quality standards, especially ISO 9004:2009 that is oriented toward the sustained success of organizations with a quality management approach.

In Colombia, micro, small and medium-sized enterprises are searching for tools contributing to perdurability and competitiveness of their businesses, overcoming the most common problems of micro, small and medium-sized enterprises: short lifecycles and low growth. Since these organizations account for over 90% of the domestic production sector and are responsible for 35% of GDP as reported by DANE, it is important to the country that these organizations be competitive and sustainable. As a consequence of this, a methodology was developed for management integration for these enterprises. The research was developed following a sequential explanatory design, and the methodology designed was submitted to an expert panel taking into account pertinence and relevance criteria. Likewise, the statistical method was considered for content validity based on Lawshe formula with the correction factor proposed by Tristán-López. According to the results, the proposed methodology makes it possible for management to be integrated, as shown by the results of the content validity criteria, such as pertinence (IVC= 0.8542), relevance (IVC= 0.9167) and Cronbach’s alpha (a=0.9886). It is concluded that the methodology designed provides the input required for management integration based on the strategic direction and is applicable to the studio scenario.

The guidelines for the design of sustainability reports established by the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) are intended to generate a commitment to mitigating the negative impacts of corporations on populations, the environment, the economy, social performance and human rights. Therefore, the core questions of this research are: How has the number of reports within the GRI framework has evolved in the different Latin American economies between 2010 and 2015? And how can this evolution be explained? To answer these questions, a descriptive analysis of the number of reports per year, country, sector and size is presented. A literature review is performed, and the opinion of different actors involved in the corporate social responsibility management is asked. The findings show a growing trend in the reporting activity and present the reasons behind these efforts.

The objective of this study is to determine the quality level of the working life of the health workforce in Latin American countries. For this purpose, a meta-analysis was carried out, in which the main search criteria was based on the use of the CVT-GOHISALO questionnaire; the chi-square test was applied to the results of the meta-analysis to determine heterogeneity which was represented using tile charts. Furthermore, a multidimensional escalation was developed to define the similarity degree among studies. As a result, 10 studies with 1,024 participants, who were mostly female nursery staff engaged in healthcare activities, were included. It was observed that the quality of the working life of health workers, according to the research works analyzed, is predominantly low, with institutional support for work being the best qualified dimension and wellbeing obtained through work receiving the lowest score. No marked differences were observed among the results of the countries studied.

The International Organization for Standardization, ISO, published in November 2018 the new international technical standard ISO 30401 related to the requirements of knowledge management systems. This standard is intended to assist organizations in the development of management systems that promote effectiveness and value creation through knowledge for all stockholders. The standard defines knowledge management as a discipline focused on how organizations create and use knowledge.

Bibliometric analyses apply statistical techniques that provide relevant information to identify advances of the activities related to knowledge generation, trends and characteristics of articles published in magazines. The objective of the research consisted of analyzing bibliometric indicators of the magazine Signos. Investigación en Sistemas de Gestión, through a descriptive, longitudinal study. For this purpose, a quantitative, descriptive and longitudinal bibliometric analysis was carried out. 121 articles corresponding to 16 volumes from 2009 to 2016 were analyzed. The production, visibility and impact and collaboration indicators were studied, identifying the citation level through the magazine website. It was found that 4% of the content published by Signos was written in English, with a total of 196 authors with 3 or more articles, of which 40 authors wrote an article individually, with 61& of authors being women. Internal collaboration amounted to 46 contributions and the number of external contributions was 75. The most common keywords were quality management and quality management systems. It is concluded that this type of bibliometric analyses evidences the current status of the magazine, its weaknesses and strengths, their significant contribution to editors as a contributing tool in the management process.

Society demands professionals qualified to perform in the working world through knowledge management. This research work is descriptive and determines how students (N=189) at a Higher Education Institution in Santander-Colombia perceive the development of their scientific competences in their educational processes as a contribution mechanism to the working world. HACOIN, an instrument to measure scientific competence in graduate and postgraduate students and the statistical technique ANOVA were used to determine the differences between groups, considering gender and age of participants. The results reveal the significance of the research processes in the building and development of scientific competences based on knowledge management in learning processes. An improvement in interpersonal and interpersonal, decision making, and problem resolution skills is detected, as well as the acquisition of basic and specialized scientific competences to develop critical thinking as an employability mechanism. It is concluded that the research process directly influences the acquisition of competences demanded by the working world to improve the development of professionals in their knowledge area, and that knowledge management is a key process for the development of professionals’ competences. Keywords: Scientific competences, Higher Education Institutions, labor market, knowledge management.