Ciencia y Deporte. Vol. 9. No. 1, January -April, 2024, p.e226
Original article
DOI:https://doi.org/10.34982/2223.1773.2024.V9.No1.013
Organizational Process Management at the Cuban National School of Volleyball. Need for a Strategic Change
Gestión de procesos organizacionales en la Escuela Nacional de Voleibol de Cuba. Necesidad de un cambio estratégico
Gestão de processos organizacionais na Escola Nacional de Vôlei de Cuba. A necessidade de mudança estratégica
Rodolfo Yovanny Pérez Céspedes1*
, Ana María Morales Ferrer2, Alfredo Quintana Díaz3
1National School of Volleyball Havana, Cuba.
2The Manuel Fajardo University of Physical Culture and Sports Sciences. Havana. Cuba.
3Center for Cuban Sports Research Havana. Cuba.
*Correspondence: rodopc73@gmail.com
Received:08/04/2023.
Accepted:09/24/2023.
ABSTRACT
Introduction: The current demands of a sports organization do not always match the reality
of significant process management aimed to produce the efficient outcomes expected and to
meet the social goals.
Aim: To determine the need for a strategic change in organizational
process management at the Cuban National School of Volleyball.
Materials and methods: Scientific techniques and methods were used, such as
documentary review, interview, survey, brainstorming, SWOT matrix, Ishikawa diagram, MIC-MAC
cross-impact matrix, statistical-mathematical methods, and methodological triangulation.
Results: The shortcomings found were summarized as a premise evidencing the state of
adverted need since the study variable constitutes the main key factor of success in the development of
a sports organization.
Conclusions: The study variable is the main key factor of success in organizational
development, which proves the need for a strategic change in management.
Keywords: Management, sports organization, organizational processes.
RESUMEN
Introducción: las exigencias actuales que enfrenta una organización deportiva llevan a
cuestionar la calidad con que se gestionan los procesos sustantivos que en ella se desarrollan, en aras
de buscar la eficiencia en los resultados que se esperan y la eficacia en la consecución de los
fines que la sociedad le demanda.
Objetivo: determinar la necesidad de un cambio estratégico en la gestión
de los procesos organizacionales de la Escuela Nacional de Voleibol de Cuba.
Materiales y métodos: se emplearon técnicas y métodos científicos tales como: análisis
de fuentes documentales, entrevista, encuesta, tormenta de ideas (Brainstorming), matriz
DAFO, diagrama de Ishikawa, matriz de impactos cruzados, MIC-MAC, estadísticos-matemáticos
y triangulación metodológica.
Resultados: se sintetiza en la comprobación de las insuficiencias existentes de la
reseñada gestión, como premisa que evidencia el estado de necesidad advertido, pues la variable en
estudio para su transformación constituye el principal factor clave del éxito en el desarrollo de
esta organización deportiva.
Conclusiones: la variable en estudio para su transformación constituye el principal factor
clave del éxito en el desarrollo de la organización, todo lo cual documenta la necesidad del
cambio estratégico de su gestión
Palabras clave: gestión, organizaciones deportivas, procesos organizacionales.
RESUMO
Introdução: As demandas atuais enfrentadas por uma organização esportiva levam a
questionar a qualidade com que são gerenciados os processos substantivos que nela ocorrem, com o
objetivo de buscar a eficiência nos resultados esperados e a
eficácia na consecução dos objetivos que
a sociedade exige dela.
Objetivo: determinar a necessidade de mudança estratégica na gestão dos
processos organizacionais da Escola Nacional de Voleibol de Cuba.
Materiais e métodos: foram utilizados técnicas e métodos científicos, tais como: análise
de fontes documentais, entrevista, pesquisa, brainstorming, matriz SWOT, diagrama de
Ishikawa, matriz de impacto cruzado, MIC-MAC, triangulação estatístico-matemática e metodológica.
Resultados: sintetiza-se na verificação das inadequações existentes na referida gestão,
como premissa que evidencia o estado de necessidade percebido, pois a variável em estudo para
sua transformação constitui o principal fator-chave de sucesso no desenvolvimento dessa
organização esportiva.
Conclusões: a variável em estudo para sua transformação constitui o principal fator-chave
de sucesso no desenvolvimento da organização, o que documenta a necessidade de
mudança estratégica em sua gestão.
Palavras-chave: gestão, organizações esportivas, processos organizacionais.
INTRODUCTION
Organizational process management is a topic studied by several scholars who are looking for methods and tools that help them perform more efficient managing work to achieve their goals. Their efforts are directed at converting their structures into highly competitive, efficient, effective, and sustainable organizations according to the demands of each moment.
Spinelli (2017) said that management is art based on creativity, not repetitive or structured actions that trigger collective processes.
Martínez (2022) interpreted management as a group of actions that must be executed to achieve a particular goal.
In this study, organizational process management not only entails transformation and optimization of every organization but also involves a broad and deep process of general training of human resources for new and more complex conditions. Training should be devised collectively, emphasizing strategy, in which planning, organization, management, and control are the main premises that would help build creative and innovative organizations.
The new challenge posed to sports organizations in the future will lie in the capacity of managing, grouping, incorporating, and selecting the high volumes of information generated by the different scenarios, at a higher speed, coherently and adaptatively.
The current demands of a sports organization do not always match the reality of significant process management aimed to produce the efficient outcomes expected and meet the aims of society. Hence, their criteria should be reviewed when planning, designing, and structuring within the sports organization.
In the future, a sports organization should rest on new managing trends and approaches toward individual commitment, teamwork, individual competencies, and excellence groups, including managing diversity.
In keeping with the above, the criteria of the directors of the National School of Volleyball of Cuba are aimed at managing the entity's key processes.
This sports institution is part of the system of the Cerro Pelado High-Performance Athlete Higher School (Esfaar), whose social mission is to contribute to comprehensive volleyball (including beach volleyball) athlete training. It was founded in 2002, as part of the Battle of Ideas led by Commander-in-Chief Fidel Castro Ruz.
Considering the grounds from the above actors, and conscious of the need to promote actions in that direction, an exploratory fact-percentage was conducted. It engaged workers, athletes, teachers (coaches), executives, and officials, who provided their valuable opinions on their direct or indirect involvement in the current state of the institution's organizational management.
Accordingly, several shortcomings, needs, controversies, and unfavorable scenarios were observed, causing a manifested contradiction between the real and the desired states, according to management limitations and shortcomings in the entity's organizational management and the need to meet the social mission, with the expected results, which was described as the problem of this study consisting of the poor effectiveness in organizational management processes at the Cuban National Volleyball School.
An analysis of the facts, and the will to find a solution, led to the aim of this paper: To document a strategic change in organizational management at the Cuban National Volleyball School.
Pérez et al. (2023) noted that one of the main challenges of sports organizations is the capacity to conduct proper organizational diagnostics to get a clearer and more objective vision of the inner and outer scenarios, and then, to recommend, advise, or redesign administrative processes and structures, which help accomplish organizational objectives, using managing sciences and technological complements.
Accordingly, the aim of this paper is to determine the need for a strategic change in organizational process management at the Cuban National School of Volleyball.
MATERIALS AND METHODS
The selection of research techniques and methods was associated with targeting the validity and reliability of the research tools for data collection. Hence, the following methods and techniques were used.
Documentary analysis: It was determined as the objective of the documentary study for interpreting information published in different documents, and using it in the research. The analysis criterion established was associated with aspects of organizational process management at the Cuban National Volleyball School.
Interview: A group of individuals (15 executives) engaged in comprehensive athlete training were interviewed because of their knowledge of the school and its operation. It aimed to evaluate the population's knowledge and training about this topic.
Athlete survey: The questionnaire consisted of closed questions. It was conducted to evaluate the athlete's vision of sports organization and their perception of how organizational processes at school are managed. The sample was made up of 30 senior students during the 2021-2022 course.
Both the interview and the survey were considered opinion-based methods for empirical queries.
Brainstorming: This participatory technique is recommended for problems requiring a creative collective approach. It was used at different moments to gather more reliable results from the group's criteria about the research problem.
SWOT matrix: It is an empirical technique to determine weaknesses, threats, strengths, and opportunities. It was used to determine the state of organizational management at the Cuban National School of Volleyball in internal and external analysis. Every member of the Board of Directors took part in the SWOT matrix exercise.
Ishikawa diaphragm: The fishbone-like graph links dialectic pair cause-effect to a central axis representing the scientific problem. Accordingly, brainstorming was used to perform an analysis of the causes originating the problem, and its possible solution.
The MIC-MAC crossed-impact matrix: It consists of overlapping the impact between internal and external variables, and multiplication applied to classification. It permits consensual participation in determining crossings, and then determining the link variables for key success factor detection, and the construction of possible scenarios like prospective methodology.
Statistical-mathematical methods: Descriptive statistics was used to determine the questionnaire's response values (survey and interview), along with stat graphs showing the relation between SWOT and MIC-MAC.
Methodological triangulation: It was helpful for cross-control of the many different results, using scientific methods and techniques, and checking coinciding opinions as potentialities and shortcomings.
Selection of the ample population
The samples consisted of sports teachers (coaches), athletes, staff, executives, and officials at the Cuban National Volleyball School, confirming the intentionality of the sample, as shown in Table 1.
Table 1. - Characterization of the population and the sample
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
Documentary analysis revealed the existence of documents required for the entity's operation.
Overall, 57.1% of athletes surveyed said the executives' skills and knowledge to manage principal processes, whereas 14.2% said it was deficient, and 3.6% said it was ineligible.
A total of 14 sports teachers (100%) with over 20 years of work experience, all having a Bachelor's Degree in Physical Culture, noted that the executives have the skills and knowledge needed to manage principal processes at the institution.
However, they stated that on occasions, they are not free to make decisions, and about the administrative office, they value the limited knowledge and experience in terms of administrative management, which hinders coherence and proper sequence of the results in their work.
A participatory meeting for planning was held with executives and officials, to design the Ishikawa diagram and analyze the causes and effects. Brainstorming was useful to achieve that objective.
The Ishikawa diagram is visualized through the research problem, particularly, the poor effectiveness of organizational processes at the Cuban National Volleyball School, an essential effect to determine the possible origins by deriving them into a satisfactory solution to the problem. Accordingly, four first-order causes were determined: poor mastery of organizational process management, lack of discipline and control by executives and officials, subordination to the Cerro Pelado Main Office, and lack of knowledge about goal-based management.
The second-order causes were related to the lack of knowledge of legal standards, little scientific research, shallow analyses, short payrolls, little autonomy, and lack of knowledge of guidelines from the Headquarters (National Institute of Sports, Physical Education, and Recreation).
The third-order causes were the following: no use of norms and procedures, lack of interest and motivation of some executives, unqualified staff for their posts, bureaucratic styles in the structure, and the lack of observation of the norms and procedures as working tools.
The analysis revealed that the second and third-order causes determine the existence of the research problem, and the organization should focus on them to create conditions to work on the first-order causes. Therefore, the proposal for actions should deal with addressing these causes, and therefore facilitate the solution to the research problem.
The first and second-order SWOT results considered the effects of the analysis of impact intensity by quadrant and helped determine the strategy to follow as more offensive (MAXI-MAXI) so that the Cuban National Volleyball School is capable of relying on its strengths and take advantage of opportunities to solve the strategic problem resulting from flaws observed in organizational process management: Table 2 and Table 3.
Table 2. - First-level SWOT analysis
Table 3. - Analysis of impact intensity
The MIC-MAC analysis for determining the key success factor for change management and scenario design led to the establishment of six link variables necessary for this procedure.
Link variables:
F1. Alliances between the School and the National Commission; S2. Experienced technical staff; S4 Labor legislation regulating Human Resources management; W1 Observation of labor functions; W8. Comprehensive educational work; O4 Approved enrollment policies for athletes, coaches, specialists, and sports veterans
Data processing revealed that the variables obtained in the sports factor are the most dependent on the other variables, whereas the variables within the managing factor have the highest influence on all the other variables.
It was also found that the behavior of management will have a proportional repercussion on sports performance. In that sense, the predominant organizational setting of the entity will be more or less relevant, as described by Pedraza and Bernal (2018).
Based on these results, a desirable and feasible scenario was designed for the organization, which was assumed as the main agent of management change.
Desirable and feasible scenario (change management):
The Cuban National Volleyball School as a sports organization will deal with relevant processes through an offensive strategy (MAXI-MAXI), with growing autonomy levels based on the compliance of guidelines by the National Institute of Physical Education and Recreation (INDER), and the Cerro Pelado Higher School for High-Performance Athlete Training, according to the labor regulations approved.
It will enhance the potentialities derived from the alliances between the institution and the National Volleyball Commission, relying on the enrollment policy approved and designed for athletes, coaches, and specialists, as well as the experience of technical staff, thus leading to a more demanding attitude toward work functions that will entail higher comprehensive educative actions from staff.
The results provided by the various techniques and methods used were checked for coinciding potentialities and shortcomings. The methodological triangulation concluded that the variable studied, organizational process management at the Cuban National Volleyball School is the main key success factor in the organization, particularly quality management, as described by Díaz and León (2019), Sánchez et al. (2022), and Pérez et al. (2023).
Naturally, the diagnostic of the the current state of the problem justified the need for this research, and document a strategic change in organizational process management at the Cuban National Volleyball School, in keeping with the objective set by Fierro (2020), and Cassetti and Paredes (2020), using an organizational change perspective, the theory of change, and the system of government management based on science and innovation for sustainable development in Cuba, looking to project and make transformation more dynamic.
CONCLUSIONS
The inclusion of scientific methods and techniques unveiled the existing flaws in key organizational process management at the Cuban National Volleyball School; this study found that the strategy to follow should be offensive (MAXI-MAXI).
A feasible and desirable scenario was built for this particular sports organization, whose main agent is management change. Meanwhile, a transversal analysis revealed the potentialities and shortcomings of the problem. It was concluded that the variable used for change is the main key success factor in an organization, thus calling for a strategic change of management.
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Conflict of interest statement:
The authors declare having no competing interests.
Author contribution statement:
The authors have participated in the redaction of the manuscript and the documentary review.
This paper is distributed under the terms of the Licencia CreativeCommons (CC) 4.0. (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0)
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Rodolfo Yovanny Pérez Céspedes, Ana María Morales Ferrer, Alfredo Quintana Díaz