3. María Sarabia and José M. Sarabia
great inconvenience is its inefficacy
Structure: According to Strategor (1995), when processing it by its roots, that is
quot;structure is a group of functions and to say, the Intellectual Capital is
relationships that determine the tasks that unrecognizable, replaceable and
each organization unit should complete identifiable with difficulty, due to a
formally and the ways of collaborating structure that suffocates the intangible
among themquot;. The relationship between ones.
strategy and structure, is characterized by c) Mix: it’s the desired structure for the
the existence of a complex component in organization, where the channels
which variables such as the environment provide the knowledge flow, the
take part in it, and the capacity of permeability provides nutrients for its
transmission in the management activities survival and the Intellectual Capital
(culture). The behaviour of the secures the growth and the flow of the
organization, has a permanent movement organizational knowledge increases.
of sorting its structure, that is to say, the
change dynamics causes a continual 2.3 Knowledge
evolution for the sake of its survival:
quot;foreseen and systematic process which is Nonaka (1994) clearly summarizes the
carried out to change the culture, systems actual importance of knowledge: quot;in an
and organizational behaviour, to improve economy where the only certainty is the
the effectiveness in solving their problems uncertainty, the best source to obtain
and for the objective attainmentquot; (Lippit, lasting competitive advantage is the
Langset and Mossop, 1989). knowledge.quot; The knowledge is the source
of life of the Tree-organization, but its
2.2.1 Types of organizational floor reception needs of a root lattice
(Intellectual Capital) depending on certain
Which are the most appropriate soils for conditions of the soil. The fertility of this
the growth and root fortifying (Intellectual one will provide a larger bifurcation of the
Capital) of the Tree-organization? There roots, that in turn will increase the
are three soil classifications to study: (a) knowledge flow and in consequence, the
Sandy: characterized by its great survival and the growth of the organization
permeability. These are soils that, due to will be larger.
their scarce retention, they present a huge
poverty in nutrients (knowledge); (b) Nonaka (1994), offers an idea of company
Clayey: tendency to be flooded and to innovating, founded on ideas and ideals,
suffocate the roots (Intellectual Capital). and whose existence is based on the
Their main characteristic is its wealth in creation of knowledge: quot;creating new
nutrients (knowledge); (c) Mix: appropriate knowledge means literally to recreate the
for most crops, susceptible of company and each one of the people who
improvement and with intermediate work in it by means of an uninterrupted
characteristics between the sandy and the process of personal and managerial
clayey ones. remodelling”.
Now then, how can we identify each one Authors such as Huber (1991), Nevis et al.
of these types with the current (1995), or Winter (2000) have tried to
organizational structures? Let us analyze agree on the process of organizational
each one of them: learning, bringing forward key concepts of
a) Sandy: it has a great communication the essential stages of this. Within the idea
channel, where the whole knowledge of of Knowledge Acquisition, two supply
the organization could flow channels coexist: internal and external.
satisfactorily, but it moves in a simple The internal development of knowledge,
environment, where the processed follows a process of essential
information isn’t valued nor understood competitions, heroines in the cases of
as a competitive advantage. These are assumption and assimilation of irreversible
companies that do not learn and do not decisions in the past, as well as in the
negotiate with effectiveness the absence of flexibility in the adaptation to
acquired experience. the change (Leonard-Barton, 1992).
b) Clayey: the knowledge of the However, while the external acquisition of
organizational structures that lives on knowledge, makes use of contractual
this type of soil is remarkable. The mechanisms that define the knowledge
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5. María Sarabia and José M. Sarabia
grade in knowledge absorption on behalf
of the Intellectual Capital (IC): (3) Φ (t ) = f ⋅ Λ2 (t ) − g ⋅ Λ3 (t )
•
(1) Λ(t) = a ⋅ Λ(t ) − b ⋅ α(t ) ⋅ ς(t ) ⋅ Λ(t) 5. Discussion
•
ς(t ) = b ⋅ [d − Φ(t )] ⋅ α(t ) ⋅ ς(t ) ⋅ Λ(t ) − c ⋅ ς(t ) The system of equations (1)-(3) has been
solved by Runge Kutta’s method of
• e Mathematica program, version 4.0.1.0. For
(2) α(t ) =
Φ(t ) the resolution and interpretation of this
model, we will study a simulation of their
dynamical parameters, starting from a non
The equation (2) tries to value which trivial initial solution: a = 1; b = 1; c = 100;
would be the bifurcation parameter of the d = 2.5; e = 1; f = 2; g = 0.1.
root balance or Intellectual Capital
because, according to the last of the We start from an initial situation (table 2),
bifurcations, we will measure the length of where the root length as well as nutrient
the roots. So we can extract a polarity: (i) speed supply, diminish intensely. This is, if
a longer length of the roots or Intellectual the capacity of the organization to create
Capital, a larger growth speed of the Tree- value or IC decreases, then it will have
organization; (ii) a larger length of the fewer tools to absorb the knowledge and
roots (IC), a slower speed of nutrient or in consequence their global growth will be
knowledge supply. slower. Besides, if the speed of knowledge
supply diminishes, fewer nutrients enter
Starting from Moráveck and Fiala’s (2004) each time, and the IC is held back.
empiric definition about nutrient flow, we
assume that:
Table 2: Graphic behaviour of the variables: Length of roots or IC, Knowledge Supply Speed
and Bifurcations Parameter, respectively
How do each of the variables behave increase its intangible and in this way
before parameter changes? We will begin absorb the knowledge and give it
carrying out a small variation on the efficiently to every part of the company.
parameters a and b, responsible for the What does the quantity of knowledge
variations in the root length or IC and of depend on what takes over the
the speed supply. organization and allows it to grow? The
fertility of the soil on which the
The table 3, presents an important organization is influences in the quantity of
situation for the Tree-organization: the nutrients that are absorbed, that is to say,
intellectual capital of the company grows the organizational learning allows a larger
because it has the necessary capacity to takeover of knowledge.
Table 3: Graphic behaviour of the variables: a = 53 and b = 53
What is learning translated into?: Strategy, way in which the four pillars of the learning
Environment, Culture and Structure. This combine, gives rise to different soils:
group of elements represents the fertility sandy, clayey and mix. In table 3, the
for the organization growth. Now then, the organization soil is mix, because it
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7. María Sarabia and José M. Sarabia
Table 6: BANKINTER indicators for the proposed model, an estimation of the
numerical example of TREEOR parameters a, b, c, d, e, f and g have been
model obtained (table 8).
TREEOR BANKINTER indicators Table 8: Parameters of the TREEOR
variables model in Bankinter case
Λ(t) Percentage of solved economic
Parameters Period 2001- Period 2002-
incidences in 48 hours (%)
2003 2004
α(t) Contribution to GDP per
a 0,0651 0,0633
employee (in thousands of
b 0,0000 0,0000
euros)
c 12,1417 -8,1646
Φ(t) Internal job rotation (%)
d 505,5661 -246,5072
ς(t) Percentage of employees who
e 6441,8010 3654,9810
meet or exceed their targets
f 1,0000 1,0000
(%)
g 0,0123 0,01250
Following the same way for resolution the
In the first period (2001-2003) we can
simulations of TREEOR model, we have
observe how the Intellectual Capital or
solved the equations system by Runge
length of the roots grows and the
Kutta’s method of Mathematica program,
Knowledge supply speed diminishes (table
version 4.0.1.0. But, in this case we will
9). At the same time, the bifurcation
analyse the model through real data from
parameter starts to decrease. It means
Bankinter case (table 7).
that the company has a great Intellectual
Table 7: Real data from Bankinter. Capital Structure, which gets knowledge
TREEOR 2004 2003 2002 2001 from the soil or Learning Structure.
Λ(t) 85,26 82,64 78,38 75,00* Bankinter is an interesting case of learning
α(t) 134,65 150,90 121,61 106,81 organizations where its bifurcation
Φ(t) 28,80 27,71 17,65 23,61 parameter diminishes when the Intellectual
Capital increases. The Bankinter soil is
ς(t) 48,71 83,43 29,31 62,27
very close to mix learning because the
(* they are not available data of this year, communication channel of knowledge
so we have approximated it through exists and the structure of Intellectual
known data of previous years) Capital is developed.
According to the previous values and
solving the equations system of the
Table 9: Graphic behaviour of the variables in the period 2001-2003 (Bankinter): Length of
Roots or IC, Knowledge Supply Speed and Bifurcations Parameter, respectively
The bifurcation parameter does not grow knowledge that is not used in maintenance
as the Intellectual Capital due to Bankinter actions (equation 2), and every
has not found its equilibrium parameter of organization must know what is the
“new knowledge” in this period. That is to quantity of “new knowledge” that it can
say, Φ(t) is the resulting part of the whole process.
Table 10: Graphic behaviour of the variables in the period 2002-2004 (Bankinter): Length of
Roots or IC, Knowledge Supply Speed and Bifurcations Parameter, respectively.
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9. María Sarabia and José M. Sarabia
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