Fatores associados a gestao da aprendizagem microempresarios Mexicanos.
| Autor | Mungaray Lagarda, Alejandro |
| Cargo | Ensayo |
Factors associated with learning management in Mexican micro-entrepreneurs
Factores asociados a la gestion del aprendizaje en microempresarios Mexicanos
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Introduction
The continuous developments in the scientific and technical areas have led to the ascent of knowledge as a decisive factor to explain the success of enterprises. In this new environment, characterized by its dynamism and complexity, the importance of knowledge in organizations does not only lie on its possession but in the skills to transform it and use it (Grant, 1997). These skills are the result of the development of the learning process that takes place within the organization when considered as a critical ability to sustain a good economic performance in the face of the demands of the environment (Prieto, 2003).
In the case of social based microenterprises, which are normally set in an informal environment and are endowed with low financial and institutional resources, learning has played a relevant role, when considered as the means through which these microenterprises transform their subsistence condition to efficiency (Mungaray, 1997). The large number of their economic units, which in almost all the Mexican states constitute 90% of all economic units, and their contribution to employment have been a compelling argument for the implementation of strategies that promote learning processes in the microenterprises sector, specifically from incentives such as assistance and training.
While research confirms the existence of a relationship between learning and economic performance of the micro and small enterprises (Bates, 1990; Black & Lynch, 1996; Mungaray, 1997, 2002; Ramirez, Texis, & Aguilar, 2014; Stefanou & Saxena, 1988; Texis, Mungaray, Ramirez, & Ramirez, 2011), it also raises new questions, particularly if their learning capacities are enough to generate a positive impact in their performance. Thus, the aim of this research is centered in studying the learning capacity of social based microentrepreneurs through the combination of confirmatory factor analysis and structural equations. Through the use of both methods, the objective is to characterize the knowledge structures that shape the learning capacity in this type of businessmen and understand more clearly the relationship between their learning capacity and performance.
The research is organized in four sections. First, different approaches to the construction of learning are reviewed. Afterwards, the methodology employed to measure the learning capacity of microenterprises is detailed, and the data, for the Mexican scenario, is both described and analyzed. Subsequently, the results of the model estimation are displayed and analyzed, and in the final section, the conclusions of the study are presented.
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Reviewing the discussion on learning in the organization
Although, many points of view are present on how the learning process occurs, a consensus exists that defines it based on two perspectives: social and individual or cognitive (Cohen & Levinthal, 1990; Easterby-Smith, Snell, & Gherardi, 1998). The social perspective considers learning as a social phenomenon and assumes that organizations learn through communities and groups (Brown & Duguid, 1991). This perspective centers in the way that people make sense of their experiences in the organization, highlighting a learning process that emerges from the social interactions at the work place (Prieto, 2003). Meanwhile, the individual perspective considers that the organizations learn through the knowledge of each person that constitute them, since knowledge creation is a individual mechanism which depends on each person's ability to effectively process and interpret internal and external information (Levinthal & March, 1993), and its past learning experiences (Dogson, 1993; Fiol & Lyles, 1985; Marquardt, 1999; Munoz & Riverola, 1997; Nonaka, 1994; Senge, 1990).
When conceiving an enterprise as a system which its fundamental support is knowledge, its performance constitutes a permanent cycle where information enters to be transformed into new insight through learning, and this becomes an important ability to improve efficiency and the organization's potential to innovate and grow. With this ability, the organization is able to face changes in the environment through stocks of existing knowledge in the different organizational levels, this knowledge flows generated by the interaction between different agents (Gomez, 2003).
The distinction between stocks and flows of knowledge are based upon knowledge being an input and an output of the learning process. The stocks activate the flows and these sustain or rethink the existing stocks. This means that the exchanges of knowledge between the different levels of the organization (Prieto, 2003) are materialized through the reorientation of organizational routines and processes, as well as the search of new standards, technologies, objectives and purposes (Lant & Mezias, 1992).The flow is also considered as a result of knowledge generation process through very different procedures, such as research work, production and implementation of new ideas or interaction guidelines (Wiig, 1997).
According to Fiol and Lyles (1985), the stocks of knowledge are those which are obtained through the learning process at the individual level. These stocks are part of the organization's human capital and symbolize the set of cognitive maps and individual competencies. Consistent with Levitt and March (1988), a warehouse of knowledge (stocks) alludes to a portfolio of tactical or explicit insights, developed in different levels of the organization. The individual stocks are composed of a persons' perspectives or mental images of how the world operates, which act as a filter when absorbing new experiences, which are assimilated and transformed according to past experiences (Senge, 1990). For Becker (1962) and Shultz (1961) the stocks of knowledge are reinforced through training in the workplace, in accordance with the learning style organized by enterprises, formally organized education in institutions and every type of action to acquire information on the inner workings of the economic system. Based on understanding that training in the workplace and education level are complementary, Arrow (1962) discovers that productivity is endogenously stimulated by its employees' learning processes, through constant repetition of their tasks and confronting the same issues in the productive process. Hence, not only the investment in human capital, product of formal training in school or in the enterprise, represent economic returns, but also the informal learning processes within the workplace (Mungaray, 1997).
In the empirical field, the relation between organizational learning and performance of the microenterprises has been a subject addressed from different approaches. Stefanou and Saxena (1988) analyzed the impact of instruction in the employees' decision making process, they found that education and experience could be considered substitutes and played a relevant role in the enterprise's efficiency. Similarly, Bates (1990) found that the number of school years rise the chance of survival or success in self-employment enterprises; Black and Lynch (1996) found that indeed the average educational level has a positive and significant effect on productivity at the establishment level.
In the case of the small Mexican enterprises, Machorro (2008) identifies a series of limitations to implement knowledge management projects and technology, which is corroborated by Maldonado and Martinez (2012) when they found that knowledge management has a strong correlation with the growth of these types of enterprises. In this growth process, Mensinas (2010) has identified...
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