Emerging Management Concept :Knowledge ,participative and Conflict management

Knowledge Management

Before studying knowledge management, it is necessary to know about Management. Management is the act of getting people together to accomplish desired goals. The concept of management is universal and dynamic. Management can also be defined as a human action that includes a design to facilitate the production of useful outcomes from a system.

Management is the act of planning, organizing, staffing, leading or directing, and controlling an organization. It is an effort for the purpose of accomplishing a goal.

Knowledge Management is an emerging concept of management. It involves a range of strategies and practices used in an enterprise to create and represent the implementation of insights and experiences. It is the systematic management of an organization's knowledge assets for the purpose of creating value. It involves meeting tactical & strategic requirements. It consists of the initiatives, processes, strategies, and systems that sustain and enhance the storage, assessment, sharing, and creation of knowledge.

In other words, the knowledge management system of an organization is the collection of information and technologies used to facilitate the organization and distribution of knowledge of employees. Three levels are used to describe the knowledge, they are explicit knowledge, tacit knowledge, and potential knowledge. Explicit knowledge can be of book knowledge. Tacit knowledge remains within the people of the organization and isn’t formalized into written or documented form. Potential knowledge describes that knowledge is hidden in the data that are upon collected but not yet used.

Knowledge management, therefore, implies a strong tie to organizational goals and strategy. It also involves the management of knowledge that is useful for some purpose and which creates value for the organization. Knowledge management is the process of enabling the resource of knowledge. It's a practical expression is the combination of information management and organizational learning. (KMT Knowledge management tools)

Importance of Knowledge management

Today, knowledge management is applied across the world, in all industries, sectors, public and private organizations. Knowledge management involves a strategic commitment to improving the organization's effectiveness as well as improving its opportunity enhancement. The goal of the knowledge management process is to improve the organization's ability to execute its core processes more efficiently. It provides the following benefit to achieve the organizational goals:

1. Employee awareness
   Knowledge management helps the employees to be aware of their tasks and responsibilities. It facilitates the employees to save their time and efforts because everyone knows where to go to find the destination of the organization.
   
   
2. Availability
   Knowledge can be used wherever it is needed whether from the office or on the road or at the customer's site. Knowledge management enables increased responsiveness to customers, partners, and co-workers.
   
   
3. Timeliness
   Knowledge is available whenever it is needed. It helps to eliminate the wastage of time for the distribution of information. But it is achieved just in case when people are interested.
   
   
4. Adapt organizational change
   Knowledge management helps to develop, acquire, process and retain old knowledge. Thus, such knowledge helps to adapt the organizational change.
   
   
5. Helps in decision-making
   Knowledge gained from experience gives an idea about the future. It shows the trend of the past which helps to make the right decision at present and future. The manager can collect essential information from the knowledge store and analyze the situation in a systematic way.
   
   
6. Transfer Knowledge
   Knowledge management ensures the sharing of information among all employees in the organization. Such sharing of information helps to transfer knowledge from the employees to other employees which help to develop employees.
   
   
7. Reduces risk
   It accumulates knowledge or information from internal and external sources. Such information can be used in decision making and its implementation. The manager can make the right decision using such knowledge. Thus, it reduces risk.
   
   
8. Goal achievement
   Effective knowledge management facilitates to reduce costs. It should also increase the speed of the response of employees as a direct result of better knowledge. People are developing their competence and confidence faster in an organization that practices effective knowledge management.
   
   
9. Availability of information
   All the information either tacit or explicit is stored in a knowledge store or in the form of information. Such sharing of information helps to transfer knowledge from one employee to other employees and also provides sufficient information for conducting various activities.

Participative Management

Participative management is based on the concept of industrial democracy. It encourages the involvement of stakeholders at all levels of an organization. It helps in the analysis of problems, development of strategies and implementation of the solution. It helps in increasing the responsibility of employees, forming self-managed teams, quality circles, and provide survey feedback.

Participative management is an open form of management where employees are actively involved in the decision-making process of the organization. It is based on the concept that when the worker invests his time, he should be given an opportunity to express his view and opinion. They know that the employees are the facilitators who deal directly with the customers and satisfy their wants and needs. This form of management has been adopted by many organizations to beat the competition in the market and to stay ahead of the competition. They welcome the innovative concepts, thoughts, and ideas from the employees and involve them in the decision-making process.

The concept of participative management in an organization’s decision making is not new. However, the idea couldn’t gain that much popularity among organizations. The theory of participative management is as old as the institution of employees. The employers are still not the proportion of organizations. 

Here, the employees are invited to share in the decision-making process by participating in activities like setting goals, determining work schedules, and making suggestions. Participative management itself does not ensure success and should not be seen as the tool to create magic within no time. Certain ground preparation is required before an organization can decide on the implementation of participative management. Participative management involves more than allowing employees to take part in making decisions. It also helps to create the ideas and suggestions of employees with consideration and respect. The direct employee ownership of a company is the most extensive form of participative management. (Business.com)

Needs of the Participative Management

Participative management creates a sense to motivate employees to increase productivity in order to achieve their goals.

1. Clearly Defined Objectives
   There must be clearly defined objectives in each party to decision-making called the participants namely by participative management. Operationally there should be no clash between the objectives of the organization. The objectives must be clear and achievable.
   
   
2. Clear Communication
   Clear communication builds trust between the two parties. There should be clear communication between the management and the workers or the employees. With the help of communication, the workers also gain a sense of responsibility to increase their stake in the work and in the organization as a whole.
   
   
3. Psychological Satisfaction
   Participative management is needed in order to give psychological satisfaction to the employees. They feel a kind of important when their views are taken into consideration.
   
   
4. Choosing the Representative
   It is important for the workers to choose their representatives from among themselves. This is important for two reasons. One is, the person is able to better understand the problems and report the same to the management. The other is the management needs to talk and listen to a person who works within the organization.
   
   
5. Training the Workers
   Further training is required to ensure that every person at every level should know his/her contribution. Training is required to make it more effective. For example, the level of middle management is different compared to participation at the lower or top level of participation.
   
   
6. Confidence
   Both parties workers and the management need trust to develop confidence between the two. Participation should not be perceived as intimidating to the position. If the workers think of affecting their status, they refuse to participate. Similarly, they will decline to participate, if the managers suspect that they will lose their authority.
   
   
7. Removes Grievances of Employees
   The participation of employees is needed in order to remove doubts, misunderstandings, and grievances in the minds of employees. It helps to remove grievances in the company. So, it leads to the progress of the organization.
   
   
8. Increasing Workers Participation
   Worker's participation needs to be increased at each level in order to encourage them. The suggestions and recommendations of the workers must be treated with full dignity and respect. Nothing can be more motivating than seeing your recommendation being put to practice.
   
   
9. Legal Action
   Some legislative action is required for the employees. Since participative management requires a structural and cultural change, there is resistance to change to those who perceive it as a threat to their status and authority within the organization especially offered by the employees.
   
   
10. Raised Industrial Production
    Participative management is needed to raise industrial production. When employees are given importance and a chance to express they work with enthusiasm and interest.
    
    
11. Creates Responsibility
    If more employees are involved in the activities of the organization, they would feel responsible for the organization. A responsible approach is created among the employees by the participative management.
    
    
12. Management Relation
    Participative management is needed in order to establish management relations. The participation of workers in management can act as an effective means for preventing industrial disputes.
    
    
13. Uniformity
    Participative management is needed in order to have a uniformity approach for employers and workers. Uniformity has importance for both parties.

Participative management can be a solution for each and every type of organization. It is a great challenge in organizations with large employee size. The implementation needs to be carefully planned and gradually implemented. 

Conflict Management

Conflict means an active disagreement between people with opposing opinions principles. Conflict management is the process of handling the situation while interacting with the different people in the organization. It is the management's ability and skill to handle a situation. When people work together in a team, there is always the chance of raising conflict on different issues. It is a very challenging task for the manager because of differences among the people in perception, value, culture, the level of education, interest, attitude, goals, power, resources, background and feeling. Conflict may arise in the organization in the course of goals, allocation of resources, distribution of rewards, policies, procedure, and assignment. A conflict might have an adverse effect on the organization. It may have an impact on the organizational performance like delay in work, lack of teamwork, distrust between employees, decrease loyalty towards the organization, etc. Therefore, the manager must be active in handling and managing the conflict without any delay.

In the organization, conflict may be the symptoms of strikes, destruction, obstruction, agitation, poor-cooperation, coordination and communication. So, we came to know that there is always a negative relationship between conflict and performance. It means that a higher level of conflict, lower the level of performance.

Views and Approaches to Conflict

There are two different views and approaches to the conflict which are given below:

1. Traditional approach
2. Modern approach

Traditional approach:
This approach was first developed in the late 1930s and early 1940s. According to the traditional view, any conflict in an organization is the view as bad, negative, destructive, harmful and unnecessary for the organization. It only sees conflict as dysfunctional and destructive. It suggests that organizational conflict must be eliminated by identifying the major causes of the problem.

Modern approach:
During that period, the view of management and organizational behavior was changed. It refers to the human relation view on organizational conflict presented a significantly different perspective on the topic. In the organization, a conflict occurs naturally, which simply cannot be eliminated. The human relation view of the organizational conflict teaches us to accept conflict. It also defines the conflict can be valuable to the group and organization. If the manager can handle conflict properly, then the performance of the group may increase. It advocates that a minimum level of conflict is actually beneficial for the group because it maintains a certain level of creativity, self-evaluation, and competition among the individuals. Therefore, the conflict should be accepted and resolved positively.

Characteristics of Conflict

1. Natural Phenomenon
   It is a natural phenomenon. It occurs naturally. In the organization, every manager and worker must face it on a regular basis while performing the task.
   
   
2. Conflict is Inevitable
   Conflict is a natural phenomenon, so it exists everywhere. No two people are the same because of individual differences. The difference may be in terms of value or otherwise. Although inevitable, conflict can be minimized and resolve. Conflict happens because we are dealing with people's lives, jobs, pride, self-concept, ego and sense of mission. So, conflict is inevitable and often good.
   
   
3. Being a Part of Life
   Every person and organization has unlimited needs and different values but limited resources. Thus, this is the cause of conflict. Therefore, conflict is not an exact problem, but if it is poorly managed then it becomes a problem.
   
   
4. Interaction of Human Behavior and Relationship
   In every field, people show their own personal and psychological behavior in the workplace. Mostly, they perform their activities as a group or team. Therefore, conflict is the outcomes of human behavior, interaction, and relation.
   
   
5. Consequences of Poor Coordination and Loss of Communication 
   The major cause of conflict is the lack of proper coordination and ineffective communication. The core of the success of management depends on effective and proper communication.

Types or Level of Conflict

1. Conflict Within the Individual 
   It refers to the conflict that occurs solely. It is also called the intrapersonal conflict. Conflict arises from a person's own psychology. The causes of such conflict are frustration and much more. Generally, it is faced by employees, when they feel that the organization does not recognize his/her expectation and want to search for new opportunities.
   
   
2. Interpersonal Conflict
   It is the conflict between individuals. Generally, it arises from the disagreement between two or more people on certain issues. The main cause of conflict is due to the internal power of competition, position, wealth, and capacity. These kinds of conflicts often occur due to personal clashes. Positive ego and the constructive view among employees will be beneficial to the organization and vice versa.
   
   
3. Intergroup Conflict
   Intergroup conflict refers to the conflict between two or more groups of an organization. Various kinds of group formation in the organization like a formal and informal group for the purpose of performing the task and they also have different goals and objectives. If the roles of the groups are conflicting and not supportive of each other, then the conflict may arise. Therefore, intergroup conflict basically arises due to organizational matters.
   
   
4. Inter-organizational Conflict 
   It refers to the conflict between two or more organizations. Conflict arises basically due to competition among two or more organizations. Hence, the inter-organizational conflict is the disagreement between competing firms on their product, markets, brands, resources, price, and promotion.

Sources/ Causes/ Reasons for Conflict

There are many causes of the rising conflict in an organization. It can be categorized into two groups, which are given below:

1. Sources of Intergroup Conflict: 
   Intergroup conflict refers to the disagreement that arises between two or more groups within an organization. It may arise due to diversity, incompatible goals, poor communication, and an unfair reward system.
   
   
2. Sources of Interpersonal Conflict 
   This is the main reason for the rising conflict. In this source, conflict occurs between two or more people working in an organization. This conflict can be people-focused or issues focused. People-focused can be related to emotion and feeling, directed toward personal attack whereas issues focused related to events. The main reason for interpersonal conflict are given below:

• Personal Differences
  This is a common source of interpersonal conflict. In this source, every person is different in terms of the set of values, perception, and expectation which arise conflict.
• Inadequate Information:
  It is another source of conflict in which communication is not effective.
• Role Incompatibility:
  In this conflict, if there are differences between goals and responsibilities assigned to an individual, conflict may arise.

Techniques of Conflict Management

The main job of every manager is to control and resolve conflict as much as possible. There is some technique that helps to manage conflict.

1. Withdrawing
   This technique is also known as an avoidance technique in which issues are postponed for a later time. It means that the manager does not want to face the current problem. Therefore, ignoring and imposing is the main technique to avoid conflict in the organization.
   
   
2. Diffusion Technique
   The organization tries to cool down the conflicting parties. In this technique, the organization takes time to decide conflicting issues. After that, the issues will be resolved with the consent of both parties.
   
   
3. Conflicting Containment Technique
   In this technique, management plays an important role in resolving conflict with the logical and appropriate ground. Bargaining and liaison group are the methods of managing conflict.

Conflict Management Process

It is the process of identifying the source of conflict and finding the best solution to such conflict, which is beneficial to the people and organization. Following is the step of identifying and resolving the conflict.

1. Source Identification
   In this step, the manager should identify the major source or causes of conflict. The manager should spend a lot of time for the purpose of understanding the major source of conflict and without knowing the reason for conflict the problem cannot be resolved. He/she should also analyze whether the source of conflict is interpersonal or intergroup.
   
   
2. Information Gathering
   If the manager understood the major source of conflict. He/she should process furthermore for the purpose of deep underlying needs, concerns, and interests of an employee. The aim of the gathering is to identify a major source of problem or issues clearly which is affected by the employee and organization.
   
   
3. Problem Identification 
   It is the process of applying managerial skills for the identification of what the problem is. He/she finds out the solution which is mutually beneficial to employee and organization.
   
   
4. Negotiating a Solution 
   In this process, the conflict is resolved by negotiating various parties with the purpose of mutual benefit.