This article examines the use of management tools in university institutions from the socio-critical approach. Methodologically, the research is framed as descriptive, field, its design was not experimental and transversal. The population was made up of a Colombian university and a Venezuelan university willing to provide information for the exploratory study of the project, using as informative units six (06) deans and seventeen (17) directors of said universities. The survey was used as a technique and the questionnaire for obtaining the information as a tool; the results were shown through measures of central tendency. The findings established that the generation of networks and conflict management was placed in a low category, limiting an important action for this management possibility in the socio-critical scheme of the universities. Finally, it was concluded, in this exploratory phase, that the universities merit a process of critical reflection focused on the consideration of management tools as instruments to improve their performance, in search of the efficiency and effectiveness demanded by the university education of this millennium.