The impact of technological

The impact of technological and organizational trends in administrative work *

Enrique Martnez Moreno**

Introduction The main objective of this study is to identify and describe the technological and organizational trends that impact major adminis trative activities. Thus, it is intended to open the discussion about the curriculum and administrative staff necessary redefinition to meet labor demands. This is a challenge for higher education institutions and tech nic, whose work is to achieve a better match in the training of administrative personnel allocated to the labor market. 1. Trends The administrative staff is influenced mainly by two groups of trends

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worldwide ences. The first is called megatrends, and is explained in part by the techno-economic force in the seventies, which consist economic development based on consumer microelectronics to * This document is the result of three years of research. Part of this was presented to the project work skills office staff for Standardization and Certification Council Work Skills (KNOW), Mexico, in 1999. Professor ** UAM-Atzcapotzalco. Economic Analysis, Vol. 39, vol. XVIII, third quarter of 2003 through electronic devices ever smaller (nanotechnology) and ba times, whose market penetration entertainment (discman, for exam ple), office (computers), in industry (machinery automated bots ro) and at home (smart homes, smart refrigerators) and its exponential growth in telecommunications, is indisputable. This paradigm still unbounded, as growth continues in the great diversity of its applications tions, where research and development and its impact on business 2 are in a field with enormous expectations. 1.1 macrotrends

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1) Globalization Within the techno-economic paradigm, we find globalization as the first megatrend, which initially involved the free movement of capi such worldwide, and has led to the markets of goods, services and even labor ts are in a process of opening, in this sense do many examples for the case of Mexico and worldwide. It is important to note that globalization is indeed a trend, it is only performed in one third of the globe, especially for access to information technology and telecommunications (media that facilitate globalization), and conducting foreign trade significantly, along with other economic exchanges. 2) It was the knowledge This second megatrend supports the new competitive advantage which any company or institution, is the development of learning capabilities der permanently, and timely and appropriate use that learning to raise the knowledge generated within, whereupon be able to efficiently respond to continuous change that exists in the world, accelerated by the inno vation of technologies that raise the level of competitiveness of companies in their hard effort to stay current on the market. As we shall see ade lante, the impact on the workplace are important. 3) ThirdThis megatrend is defined as the reallocation of human resources

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in the industrial sector to the service sector, the largest employer in Mexico-fe phenomenon that has accelerated in our country since the seventies: to spend the share of services in respect Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of nearly 56% in 1975 to 64% in 2001. This represents an increase of 8 percentage points in 27 years. In contrast, between 1910 and 1975, only grew three percentage points, from nearly 53% to just under 56% respectively. Cuadro 1 Participacin del PIB terciario respecto al PIB total Ano Participacin % 1910 52.56 1921 53.20 1930 54.94 1940 55.54 1950 54.95 1960 55.89 1965 55.52 1970 55.12 Fuente: (INEGI, 2002), INEGI (1996b). Ao 1975 1980 1985 1990 1995 2000 2001 Participacin % 55.74 57.15 61.07 60.67 64.33 63.12 64.01

1.1

The rise of the tertiary sector in the seventies has its origin in the

breakdown of the Bretton Woods agreement, leading to fluctuations in exchange you pos in different countries, so that fluctuations in foreign exchange markets, have important consequences in markets for goods and services, which are characterized (and mainly in developing economies) by instability and lack of uniformity in their cycles, in contrast to the previous two decades.

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1.2

That is, when some markets were booming, others were in

recession or recovery initiated, then the companies choose to respond using marketing and increasing service needs cio to customers, as well as specialized services of various kinds to detect and position in niche markets and act promptly. Simultaneously, the use of computers and other electronic devices and aba ratan eficientan providing services, enhancing their growth.

1.3

The phenomenon of outsourcing will continue to grow (it is

estimated that the service sector accounts for 70% of GDP by 2020), but the causes that drive in the nineties and subsequent, are of a different nature, the which will be described in the following section.

1.4

1.2 Key trends impacting administrative staff

1.5

There are three aspects that are specific (but not exclusively) to

administrative work and trends are shown as medium-and long z in our country. These slopes are known as technology trends, organizational and hybrid trends, this latest result from the combination of the first two.

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1.6

1) Technology Trends

1.7

The daily work in the office area is being affected at high speed

by the increasingly common use of telematics, neologism whose meaning is the combination of communications technologies (CT) and information technology (IT) , being the best example of this combination the computer, which not only facilitates the capture and processing of information, but also is a new communication channel multimedia (voice, likeness, image and voice to movement and data ).

1.8

Advances in this area are fast and strong, so that companies and

institutions need to rethink their way of administrative work, and using telematics as a means of gaining competitive advantage, since it is expected that decisions faster and better informed, for the benefit of the business.

1.9

Also considered or tecnoergonoma ergonomic technology that

favors greater adaptability of the devices to the posture and natural human movements. Thus, this technology stimulates the fact workplaces have increasingly comfortable, where the environment

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and the furniture is customized to your body's natural posture and employee needs. The emergence of "intelligent buildings" will surely have greater impact in the near future.

1.10 2) Organizational Trends

1.11 The other side is identified as organizational tendencies, which

represents the transition from traditional organization-present and rooted in Mexico-to diver sas and new proposals on organizational restructuring, which began in our country by corporations and framed in two sets: the first interprets as a continuation of the macro trend of outsourcing, while the second is recognized as strategies according to the knowledge era.

1.12 Regarding the first set, this organizational restructuring has its

antecedents in the second half of the eighties, through the implementation of reengineering, reengineering particularly since costs within organizations. The critical element of this practice is to evaluate the costs of the various administrative processes that are embodied in each and every one of the posts. With this assessment is decided redistribute the activities and / or positions, either through

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the reallocation of activities, or where applicable, the implementation of new and even disposal.

1.13 The purpose of reengineering of posts is to reduce costs, defi

niendo more efficient and effective activities truly strategic business, raising the response rate for customers to better face the competition with an increasing number fewer staff and better distributed.

1.14 Companies that have increased this practice are in the industry,

and have done trying to compare costs flinging them keep payroll staff, or hire him as a profes sional service through service companies. The result has been obvious to the ma majority of companies, it is more costly to maintain staff, which generally does not perform key business activities, such as making the same products.

1.15 The effect of reengineering costs in the industrial sector has led

to

another

trend

known

as

downsizing,

ie,

reduction

of

administrative staff (mainly), which gradually extends to more industrial companies.

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1.16 The

downsizing

in

turn

stimulates

the

emergence

and

development of another trend parallel known: outsourcing. This is defined as the creation of a greater number of companies providing administrative services specializing two administrative areas replacing industrial companies. The strategic element of the outsourcing trend is to meet with the best possible quality to customers in those administrative and routine activities occupy an important time in the daily work industry, offering the advantage of leaving more time for activities that report profits and are key to nego cio.

1.17 There have been various ways in which this linkage occurs

between downsizing and outsourcing, of whose experience is confirmed that large industrial companies tend to be medium, while occur further proliferation of micro and small enterprises, mainly oriented to specialized services for industrial and administrative character above vo stimulating further outsourcing in the world and consequently in our country.

1.18 An example of this is the emergence of strategies based on

Strategic Business Units (SBU). Which have been applied in its maximum expression in the ma cases of mega-mergers between

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industrial companies. After the merger, the new company is divided into smaller ones, seeking specialization in their activities and where one of them is dedicated to providing the remaining staff, via outsourcing. This stimulates another strategy, that while not new, is showing results: the decentralization of activities, providing the possibility SBUs to act autonomously, but in sync with the rest of the units. Consequently, they can tar faced with a new organizational format to the market and competition. Such is the case of the megamerger of Syntex and Roche pharmaceutical laboratories, now known as Roche-Syntex.

1.19 The second set of this organizational restructuring may call it as

"knowledge management", and feeds on a variety of instruments and strategies for the administration and management recognize insigths allowing each organization to enhance them and make them a competitive advantage. Among these instruments in recent years highlight "organizations in lifelong learning" and "learning organizations" which have an inheritance "organizational learning" and "intellec tual capital" as an effort to recognize and measure " Intangible assets "hid two in each organization, and especially highlighting the important role of knowledge possessing organizations, which must be identified, cultivated, shared and renovated the interior, thus achieving a better understanding of organizational dynamics and facilitate the change process, which

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serves to respond more flexibly the reality of the markets in which it competes, rompien do with traditional schemes and supporting hierarchical organizational knowledge sharing in an atmosphere of greater trust and techniques learning. There are now documented cases of the application of this concept in the world and in Mexico.