Conflict Management Techniques

A conflict is a common phenomenon in the workplace. It is also seen as an important aspect of the workplace. A conflict is a situation when the interests, needs, goals or values of involved parties interfere with one another. Different stakeholders may have different priorities. Conflicts may involve team members, departments, projects, organization and client, boss and subordinate, organization needs vs. personal needs. Often, a conflict is a result of perception. Is conflict a bad thing? Not necessarily. Often, a conflict presents opportunities for improvement. Therefore, it is important to understand (and apply) various conflict resolution techniques. Forcing Also known as competing. An individual firmly pursues his or her own concerns despite the resistance of the other person. This may involve pushing one viewpoint at the expense of another or maintaining firm resistance to another persons actions. Examples of when forcing may be appropriate In certain situations when all other, less forceful methods, dont work or are ineffective When you need to stand up for your own rights, resist aggression and pressure When a quick resolution is required and using force is justified (e.g. in a life-threatening situation, to stop an aggression) As a last resort to resolve a long-lasting conflict Possible advantages of forcing: May provide a quick resolution to a conflict Increases self-esteem and draws respect when firm resistance or actions were a response to an aggression or hostility Win-Win (Collaborating) Also known as problem confronting or problem solving. Collaboration involves an attempt to work with the other person to find a win-win solution to the problem in hand the one that most satisfies the concerns of both parties. The win-win approach sees conflict resolution as an opportunity to come to a mutually beneficial result. It includes identifying the underlying concerns of the opponents and finding an alternative which meets each partys concerns. Examples of when collaborating may be appropriate: When consensus and commitment of other parties is important In a collaborative environment When it is required to address the interests of multiple stakeholders When a high level of trust is present When a long-term relationship is important When you need to work through hard feelings, animosity, etc When you dont want to have full responsibility Possible advantages of collaborating: Leads to solving the actual problem Leads to a win-win outcome Reinforces mutual trust and respect Builds a foundation for effective collaboration in the future Shared responsibility of the outcome You earn the reputation of a good negotiator For parties involved, the outcome of the conflict resolution is less stressful (however, the process of finding and establishing a win-win solution may be very involved see the caveats below) Knowledge Management Nobin Ojha MPA I 1

Compromising Compromising looks for an expedient and mutually acceptable solution which partially satisfies both parties. Examples of when compromise may be appropriate: When the goals are moderately important and not worth the use of more assertive or more involving approaches, such as forcing or collaborating To reach temporary settlement on complex issues To reach expedient solutions on important issues As a first step when the involved parties do not know each other well or havent yet developed a high level of mutual trust When collaboration or forcing do not work Possible advantages of compromise: Faster issue resolution. Compromising may be more practical when time is a factor Can provide a temporary solution while still looking for a win-win solution Lowers the levels of tension and stress resulting from the conflict Withdrawing Also known as avoiding. This is when a person does not pursue her/his own concerns or those of the opponent. He/she does not address the conflict, sidesteps, postpones or simply withdraws. Examples of when withdrawing may be appropriate: When the issue is trivial and not worth the effort When more important issues are pressing, and you dont have time to deal with it In situations where postponing the response is beneficial to you, for example When it is not the right time or place to confront the issue When you need time to think and collect information before you act (e.g. if you are unprepared or taken by surprise) When you see no chance of getting your concerns met or you would have to put forth unreasonable efforts When you would have to deal with hostility When you are unable to handle the conflict (e.g. if you are too emotionally involved or others can handle it better) Possible advantages of withdrawing: When the opponent is forcing / attempts aggression, you may choose to withdraw and postpone your response until you are in a more favourable circumstance for you to push back Withdrawing is a low stress approach when the conflict is short Gives the ability/time to focus on more important or more urgent issues instead Gives you time to better prepare and collect information before you act Smoothing Also known as accommodating. Smoothing is accommodating the concerns of other people first of all, rather than ones own concerns. Examples of when smoothing may be appropriate: When it is important to provide a temporary relief from the conflict or by time until you are in a better position to respond/push back When the issue is not as important to you as it is to the other person When you accept that you are wrong When you have no choice or when continued competition would be detrimental Possible advantages of smoothing: In some cases smoothing will help to protect more important interests while giving up on some less important ones Gives an opportunity to reassess the situation from a different angle Knowledge Management Nobin Ojha MPA I 2

How to analyze critically?

Critical writing depends on critical reading. Most of the papers you write will involve reflection on written texts the thinking and research that has already been done on your subject. In order to write your own analysis of this subject, you will need to do careful critical reading of sources and to use them critically to make your own argument. The judgments and interpretations you make of the texts you read are the first steps towards formulating your own approach. Critical Reading: What is It? To read critically is to make judgements about how a text is argued. This is a highly reflective skill requiring you to stand back and gain some distance from the text you are reading. (You might have to read a text through once to get a basic grasp of content before you launch into an intensive critical reading.) THE KEY IS THIS: dont read looking only or primarily for information do read looking for n ways of thinking about the subject matter

When you are reading, highlighting, or taking notes, avoid extracting and compiling lists of evidence, lists of facts and examples. Avoid approaching a text by asking What information can I get out of it? Rather ask How does this text work? How is it argued? How is the evidence (the facts, examples, etc.) used and interpreted? How does the text reach its conclusions? How Do I Read Looking for Ways of Thinking? 1. First determine the central claims or purpose of the text (its thesis). A critical reading attempts to assess how these central claims are developed or argued. 2. Begin to make some judgments about context . What audience is the text written for? Who is it in

dialogue with? (This will probably be other scholars or authors with differing viewpoints.) In what historical context is it written? All these matters of context can contribute to your assessment of what is going on in a text. 3. Distinguish the kinds of reasoning the text employs. What concepts are defined and used? Does the

text appeal to a theory or theories? Is any specific methodology laid out? If there is an appeal to a particular concept, theory, or method, how is that concept, theory, or method then used to organize and interpret the data? You might also examine how the text is organized: how has the author analyzed (broken down) the material? Be aware that different disciplines (i.e. history, sociology, philosophy, biology) will have different ways of arguing. 4. Examine the evidence (the supporting facts, examples, etc) the text employs. Supporting evidence

is indispensable to an argument. Having worked through Steps 1-3, you are now in a position to grasp how the evidence is used to develop the argument and its controlling claims and concepts. Steps 1-3 allow you to

Knowledge Management

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MPA I

see evidence in its context. Consider the kinds of evidence that are used. What counts as evidence in this argument? Is the evidence statistical? literary? historical? etc. From what sources is the evidence taken? Are these sources primary or secondary? 5. Critical reading may involve evaluation. Your reading of a text is already critical if it accounts for

and makes a series of judgments about how a text is argued. However, some essays may also require you to assess the strengths and weaknesses of an argument. If the argument is strong, why? Could it be better or differently supported? Are there gaps, leaps, or inconsistencies in the argument? Is the method of analysis problematic? Could the evidence be interpreted differently? Are the conclusions warranted by the evidence presented? What are the unargued assumptions? Are they problematic? What might an opposing argument be? Some Practical Tips 1. Critical reading occurs after some preliminary processes of reading. Begin by skimming research materials, especially introductions and conclusions, in order to strategically choose where to focus your critical efforts. 2. When highlighting a text or taking notes from it, teach yourself to highlight argument: those places

in a text where an author explains her analytical moves, the concepts she uses, how she uses them, how she arrives at conclusions. Dont let yourself foreground and isolate facts and examples, no matter how interesting they may be. First, look for the large patterns that give purpose, order, and meaning to those examples. The opening sentences of paragraphs can be important to this task. 3. When you begin to think about how you might use a portion of a text in the argument you are

forging in your own paper, try to remain aware of how this portion fits into the whole argument from which it is taken. Paying attention to context is a fundamental critical move. 4. When you quote directly from a source, use the quotation critically. This means that you should not

substitute the quotation for your own articulation of a point. Rather, introduce the quotation by laying out the judgments you are making about it, and the reasons why you are using it. Often a quotation is followed by some further analysis. 5. Critical reading skills are also critical listening skills. In your lectures, listen not only for

information but also for ways of thinking. Your instructor will often explicate and model ways of thinking appropriate to a discipline.

Knowledge Management

Nobin Ojha

MPA I

Attribution Theory
Attribution theory is the way of viewing people and their behavior. It says that people associates their behavior either with internal or external (situational). We may be wondering or often ask question, why we sometimes fail the exam or sometimes arrive late at the classroom. Those activities or behavior are guided by internal or external attributes. An important assumption of attribution theory is that people will interpret their environment in such a way as to maintain a positive self-image. That is, they will attribute their successes or failures to factors that will enable them to feel as good as possible about themselves. In general, this means that when learners succeed at an academic task, they are likely to want to attribute this success to their own efforts or abilities; but when they fail, they will want to attribute their failure to factors over which they have no control, such as bad teaching or bad luck. According to attribution theory, the explanations that people tend to make to explain success or failure can be analyzed in terms of three sets of characteristics:

First, the cause of the success or failure may be internal or external. That is, we may succeed or fail because of factors that we believe have their origin within us or because of factors that originate in our environment.

Second, the cause of the success or failure may be either stable or unstable. If we believe cause is stable, and then the outcome is likely to be the same if we perform the same behavior on another occasion. If it is unstable, the outcome is likely to be different on another occasion.

Third, the cause of the success or failure may be either controllable or uncontrollable. A controllable factor is one which we believe we ourselves can alter if we wish to do so. An uncontrollable factor is one that we do not believe we can easily alter.

Knowledge Management

Nobin Ojha

MPA I

Organizational Culture
Organizational culture, sometimes also referred to as corporate culture, is a general term that outlines the collective attitudes, beliefs, common experiences, procedures, and values that are prevalent in an organization and others similar to it. Organizational culture is the phrase much more likely to be used within the corporate world itself, as it also affects stakeholders, who may or may not be directly involved in the daily transaction. Organizational culture tends to be the larger shared goals and vision for a company, but that doesnt make it the end. Within the larger organizational culture will be many smaller sub-cultures that are still dedicated to the larger picture, but have their own system of operating and working to be more efficient in their task, and their part of the larger picture. This helps to create unity and increase general worker efficiency. Organizational culture helps to establish the expected guidelines, expectations, and rules that will help the company achieve their goals. A classic example of this would be computer tech people. Because of the extremely specialized nature of their expertise, computer technicians are likely to have their own odd behaviors, working conditions, and strategies to getting the job done. Computer language leads to a whole series of terminologies or technologies that many non computer people wont have a clue aboutbut their organizational sub culture affects the larger organizational culture as a whole, for the better or worse of the company, but hopefully for the better! There are different measures of this as well. A company or corporation that has a staff which responds strongly to organizational values and can successfully pass that on to the workers at every level are considered to be part of a strong culture. Inversely, if the opposite is true where overly restrictive rules, procedures, and bureaucracy are necessary to enforce the companys vision, then that is definitely considered weak culture. Weak organizational culture is a detriment to a company for obvious reasons. The extra supervision, rules, and bureaucracy cause the company to be less efficient and less effective. In addition, having these extra layers also tends to be much more expensive, which will obviously show on the bottom line. Weak cultures can not take advantage of an opportunity that demands quick, decisive action. Strong organizational culture tends to be a good thing, but there are also some dangers that have to be watched. For one, if everyone is completely in line with the organizational culture of a company, and hold the same centralized beliefs on how the goals should be accomplished, then there is a danger of group think. This is where an entire group thinks in such similar terms that they lose the ability to become innovative or take a unique approach to a problem. To put it another way, they lose their ability to think outside the box. Organizational culture is still necessary for any company of size, and a strong organizational culture combined with openness to new creative ideas and problem solving can be the building blocks to something amazing.

Knowledge Management

Nobin Ojha

MPA I

IS OB a common sense?
Organizational Behavior Is Not Simply Common Sense In some ways, organizational behavior is taken as a common sense. The motivation, control, teamwork seems to be a common sense in some ways. But it is more than just the common sense when it comes to the structuring of a whole organization with so many different people, and learning styles, and also the common goals and mission of the organization. It almost becomes a management science. And it has to be treated as such. Also, the OB will have to be a little more human than plain pure hard science, which is why it cannot be treated as all fact. Many organizations survive on the edge and the directors as well as staff think on feet to accomplish what in all good conscience they have to for upholding their companies agenda. There are many books which discuss all this, in detail and there are always ideas that can help improve the work that organizations pride themselves in rendering. Organizational behavior is a very inter disciplinary field from economics to management and even to ethics of running a corporation. The curriculum OB course include case studies from various corporations. And that provides a good sense of organizational behavior to the students at college and graduate levels. In that sense, OB can be taught in a field work manner as well, where multiple fields come together. So it can simply be said that OB is more than a common sense.

Knowledge Management

Nobin Ojha

MPA I

Communication and personality development

Communication is a deliberate or unintentional transfer of knowledge. It is a dynamic process that a person interacts internally or with the external world. Every second of life people are communicating either verbally or nonverbally. It has been assumed that facial language contributes 55% of total communication, 38 % paralinguistic and 7% spoken language. Now effectiveness of language must not be concentrated only to spoken language only. The accent and beauty you provide in your words and the complementary physical gestures and postures play a great role. So, all the extent and behavior of our communication determines owns personality. Personality is the sum of total of ways in which an individual reacts to and with others. Gordon Allport nearly 70 years ago used personality as the dynamic organization wi th in the individual of those psychophysical systems that determine his unique adjustments to his environment. So personality means a dynamic concept of describing the growth and development of a persons whole psychological system. Every time people are interacting to outsiders and his interior attitude or state of mind is continuously reflecting. So, communication is a medium that anyones personality is reflected. Communication really matters level and type of personality. Anyone who can express his inner feelings and emotions, address real output of what remains inside his brain can develop by himself to get appreciation and motivation from others. But some people lack this potential to interact so they face problems of double personality problems. Inside they are one person and outside they are communicating or interacting totally different. Unless people develop or sharpen an effective way of communicating to outsiders or give an excellent exposure there are always lags in their personality development. Ones attitude, behavior and personality can be noticed and evaluated by the communication skills he possesses. His inner state of mind and standard is weighed by the output reflected to the outsiders. So, personality development occurs only when his potential becomes compatible to real output he makes. However, personality is determined by three factors viz. heredity, environment and the current situation. Some traits related to physical stature, facial attractiveness, gender, temperament, muscle composition and reflexes, energy level, and biological rhythms are generally considered either completely or substantially influenced by who our parents are. Many results have concluded that personality is reflected from these traits carried out biologically. Similarly, peoples behavior depends up on the way they have been grown up. The environment the people are facing up has direct impact on his personality. There are various such examples: The personality of people of New York and those of Down Town is totally different. New York people are helpful, cooperative and cool personality people while the people of Down Town are very aggressive, stunt and have own accent in speaking. The child who has grown up in happy and friendlier environment has good behavior and manner than the one who grew up in scarcity, violence or any crisis.

Knowledge Management

Nobin Ojha

MPA I

Knowledge Management: an emerging management concept

Knowledge Management is a process that helps organizations identify, select, organize, disseminate and transfer important information and expertise that are a part of the organizational memory that typically resides within an organization in an unstructured manner. It is also treated as the knowledge warehouse. This enables effective and efficient problem solving, dynamic learning, strategic planning and decision making. Knowledge management focuses on identifying knowledge, explicating it in a way so that it can be shared in a formal manner, and thus reusing it. Knowledge management enables the communication of knowledge from one person to another so that it can be used by the other person. It covers a wide range of areas that can be practiced within an organization. The fields in which knowledge concepts are deployed in organization through knowledge initiatives are: sharing knowledge and best practices instilling responsibility for sharing knowledge capturing and reusing best practices embedding knowledge in products , services and processes producing knowledge as a product driving knowledge generation for innovation mapping networks of experts building and mining customer knowledge bases

Goals and Objectives of Knowledge Management The aim of knowledge management is to continuously improve an organizations performance through the improvement and sharing of organizational knowledge throughout the organization (i.e., the aim is to ensure the organization has the right knowledge at the right time and place). Knowledge management is the set of proactive activities to support an organization in creating, assimilating, disseminating, and applying its knowledge. Knowledge management is a continuous process to understand the organizations knowledge needs, the location of the knowledge, and how to improve the knowledge. Broadly, we can put classify the goal of knowledge management into four different aspects. create knowledge repository improve knowledge assets enhance the knowledge environment manage knowledge as an asset

Knowledge Management

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MPA I

Knowledge Management Activities Knowledge management consists of four basic functions: externalization, internalization, intermediation and cognition (Frappaolo, 1998): Externalization: Externalization is capturing knowledge in an external repository and organizing it by some framework in an effort to discover similar knowledge. Technologies that support externalization are imaging systems, databases, workflow technologies, document management systems using clustering techniques, etc. Internalization: Internalization is the process of identifying knowledge, usually explicit, relevant to a particular users needs. It involves mapping a particular problem, situation, or a point of interest against the body of knowledge already captured through externalization. Intermediation: Intermediation is similar to the brokering process for matching a knowledge seeker with the best source of knowledge (usually tacit) by tracking the experience and interest of individuals and groups of individuals. Some technologies that facilitate these processes are groupware, intranets, workflow and document management systems. Cognition: Cognition applies the knowledge exchanged preceding three processes. This is probably the knowledge management component that is most difficult to automate because it relies on human cognition to recognize where and how knowledge can be used. In order to manage knowledge effectively in organizations, besides other factors, special attention should be given to contextual dimensions of organization such as strategy, technology and culture, that is: Most important is building a strong culture to adopt and support it. Defining effective strategies for using all knowledge resources efficiently. Using information technologies (digital documents, intranets, expert systems etc) for developing knowledge management systems.

Knowledge Management

Nobin Ojha

MPA I

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