Cooperativismo y Desarrollo, January-April 2021; 9(1), 1-8
Translated from the original in Spanish

Relaciones laborales y liderazgo desde la creatividad

Relações laborais e liderança a partir da criatividade

Deysi Alfonso Porraspita¹

¹ Doctora en Ciencias Técnicas. Profesora Titular del Centro de Estudios de Dirección, Desarrollo Local, Turismo y Cooperativismo (CE-GESTA). Universidad de Pinar del Río "Hermanos Saíz Montes de Oca". Pinar del Río, Cuba.
https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8914-9482
lidice@upr.edu.cu

The new dynamics introduced in the scenarios of labor relations and forms of organization of current work involve the accelerated use of technologies and generate different perspectives, which demands a capacity for action from people, coherent with these demands that trace the guidelines for the operation of a different labor scheme that, in an organized manner, implies changes in the life of workers, which can be replaced either by technology or by their adaptation to the new challenges in performance. Thus, the permanence in the current job will be defined by the competencies of the decision makers, of the worker himself and of the work team in which each person is inserted. In Cuba, these particularities are specified in Article 24 of Law No. 116 of the Labor Code (2013), which establishes the content of employment contracts and their characteristics according to the country's conditions, which are integrated to the updating of its economic and social model.

The current labor aspect presents the need to adapt to changes in technology, as well as to lifestyles and interests imposed by circumstances, which prescribes a change of leadership in the face of the new prototype on practices in terms of organizational structure, establishment of objectives, recruitment and selection systems, redesign of jobs, determination of competencies, skills, among other aspects of people management.

The capacity to adapt to change will be a determining variable when it comes to assuming the new role. This aspect is underlined by Friedman (2016), when describing that, accompanying the perceptions that people acquire and although the increase of technology is accelerated and that of "the person", increases slowly and linearly, there is also their notorious ability to adapt quickly to the facts, marking an compulsory route to travel. The combination of factors based on the characteristics of people at work has materialized over time in a wide variety of organizational configurations (Mintzberg, 1984). The demands and responses that need to be processed according to the different working conditions, according to Coripuna (2018), stimulate to conceive other forms and modes of leadership that provide the necessary connection between the differences of a world that is abandoned and another that is objectively presented, where the effect of experience, good practices, learning and teamwork will constitute the indispensable ingredients for success.

Ratifying the above, we find the actuality of what was stated by Cuesta (2017), when presenting that conceptually Taylorism with its administrative approach is surpassed by the current and new Human Resources Management (HRM), which most relevant features are expressed in the antipyramidal or flattened organizational structures, in new management systems, characterized by strategic projection; decentralization, consensus, leadership and work enrichment, polyvalence, consideration of human resources as an investment and not as a cost, proactivity or anticipatory action and teamwork.

Deloitte (2017) argues that organizations, while incorporating cutting-edge technologies, need continuous learning experiences so that in the workers' own terms they build and develop skills for the effect, quickly and easily; likewise, they need a transformation that, simultaneously with the emerging organizational model, adopts a leadership thinking with proactive and multipurpose situations, which allow well-being in conditions of rapid change.

It is essential to have human resources and work teams capable of responding to such expectations, in addition to a type of leadership that is dynamic and creative, providing sufficient security and motivation to achieve the proposed goals. In agreement with Cuesta (2011) people must possess a set of capacities, abilities and skills to fully deploy their potential at work and in society, having high-level capabilities will make it easier for them to adapt to unexpected changes, in addition to the implications for the creation and adaptation of organizational management models and job profiles.

The acquisition and development of skills become decisive for the functioning of labor markets, in order to provide forms of flexibility and security for job seekers and employers, more so when the digital transformation of the economy is reshaping the way we live and do business in our societies (European Commission, 2014).

It is at this point that people and the leadership capacity of the person guiding them become effective and thus manage to transform individual potential into collective performance to achieve a shared vision of the work team, teams focused on improving efficiency and efficacy in an organization (Gilmore & de Moraes Novaes, 1996). This fosters lasting communication, transparency, and collective well-being, paving the way for helpful leadership.

In describing the type of leadership that is needed, Kofman (2012) relates that the better one knows the inner and outer world, the better one will be able to transit. In this way, he supports conscious action as a posture of life, which is about "being rather than knowing", "emotion rather than cognition", "spirit rather than matter", without detracting from their correlation, since he also finds no contradiction between material and spiritual wealth. Team leadership promotes processes, integrates the team's activities, creates a positive climate, develops collective learning, etc. (Ortega et al., 2013).

It can be understood in two different ways (Day et al., 2004):

1. As those attributes (abilities, behaviors) that team members bring to the team (e.g., charisma, integrity, proactivity) and that operate as inputs that influence team processes and performance;
2. As an outcome of team processes (e.g., group learning), facilitating team adaptation and performance through the different stages of team development.

Examining what competencies team leadership generates in labor relations, it is relevant what Zaccaro, Rittman and Marks (2001) propose for cognitive processes (shared mental models, collective information processing and team meta-cognition): making sense, identifying the needs and requirements of the task, planning, promoting meta-cognition and developing and motivating team members. For the motivational processes (cohesion and collective efficacy): planning, setting goals, coordinating, developing and motivating members and giving feedback; for the affective processes (conflict control, group norms of emotion control, emotional contagion and emotional composition of the team): giving feedback, selecting and developing personnel, utilizing personal resources and for the coordination process: aligning members' capabilities with their roles, providing clear strategies, monitoring changes in the environment, giving feedback and reorganizing.

Appreciable is the proposal of Zaccaro, Heinen and Shuffler (2009) that reveals the impact of team leadership, based on providing greater interconnectivity, integration and coherence among members. The fundamental role of the leader, in addition to setting direction and managing team operations, is to develop the capacity and expertise of team members.

Kozlowski, Watola, Jensen, Kim and Botero (2009) suggest an adaptive, contingent, fluid and flexible leadership model, which adapts to the eventualities of the task, the workloads, the competencies of the members and the relationships between them. The leadership role can be passed on to members and rotate among them depending on the circumstances.

Due to the fluctuation present in labor relations, this leadership must be able to mobilize the actions needed and achieve the expected results, with the ability to formulate and communicate a clear and indicative vision of the future. In addition, it identifies and acts on possible spaces, established through the analysis of a present that takes into account the lessons learned from practice and, in turn, allows it to serve as a guide, which will be possible by finding an adequate balance between personal and collective interest, respecting and integrating in its actions the emergence of multiple perspectives for the conception of inventions in possible future scenarios (Mojica, 2005).

The sublime challenge will be to adapt to the reality of the labor markets, to promote an inclusive transition to the opportunities offered by teleworking and distance training, which requires improved access to information and communication technologies. It is also important to develop tools that encourage the effective combination of more experienced workers and the new generations. Here it will be important to strengthen inter-agency synergies to address the situation in favor of productivity.

To favor the flexibility of labor relations provided by open work platforms, the protection of workers from an occupational health and safety perspective, training as a superior intangible, requires a rethinking of management schemes from the creative leadership that enhances the role of work teams, based on the aforementioned cooperation and solidarity as stated by (Díaz-Canel Bermúdez, 2020).

The new conditions require restating and amplifying the traditional models of leadership, based on authority and centered on the establishment of contracts and plans with subordinates, referred to a local scope, focused on a single person and oriented to individual or interpersonal relationships with subordinates to a creative and shared team leadership.

In this issue of the Cooperativism and Development Journal, readers will find works and experiences based on theoretical and methodological contributions made by national and international authors, who discuss topics related to change management in current conditions.

Readers are presented the idea that today's organizations demand a type of creative leadership not only personal, but also team and organizational, with which old and new employees reach to develop more and better capacities. In this way, they will be able to achieve a correct march and adjustment to the panorama they encounter and potentially point to the experience of a leadership that provides them with people capable of welcoming each challenge that arises as a new step to create and master the opportunities that arise and, thus, define a new space for labor relations.

Talking about labor relations in the Cuban context makes it possible, from a theoretical and methodological point of view, to assume a critical position centered on the structuring of power in work processes. This is only possible if it is assumed the diversity of actors present in the socio-productive framework that is being built at present.

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