Knowledge-Sharing Dilemmas - Term Paper Example

Working Together in Pursuit of a Shared Vision The new millennium offers a myriad of alternatives to achieve good health. Media bombardment of the newest diet, exercise routine, effective medication, therapeutic interventions and research on life-threatening diseases has created significant awareness and health-consciousness in people that they are set off to committing to a healthier lifestyle. Healthcare institutions are benefiting much from health campaigns, as they are gaining more and more customers by the day. Organizations now require medical examinations before deciding to hire new staff. Also, regular medical check-ups help maintain the physical fitness of workers and guarantee that work flow will not be derailed due to health reasons. On their part, workers in the healthcare profession should be conscientious enough to provide high quality service. To achieve this, good team work must be established. The unified vision of what the organization wants to achieve and where it wants to go in the future in terms of quality, professionalism, services offered and expertise is what each of the team should aspire for. This paper attempts to analyze how workers in healthcare organizations can work together to attain above-average organizational outcomes. Aside from workers being efficient in the performance of their tasks, key factors in the journey to a team’s success are, good leadership, effective communication and objective evaluation of the team’s performance and quality of service. Effective Leadership Management must be consistent in communicating to each worker its philosophy of providing the best quality health care and treatment through collaborative efforts of professionals from different disciplines. Each worker should be able to feel that he is part of a great team that sets high goals and successfully attains them. “Creating the conditions that engender knowledge transfer entails significant structural and cultural changes by top leadership, which will require leaders to be convinced that the benefits of knowledge transfer outweigh the costs. In the absence of this commitment, it is unlikely that attempts to increase knowledge flow will succeed. Leaders should be cautious about publicly touting the virtues of "knowledge sharing" without a substantive commitment to change, as this may result in the failure of well-intentioned knowledge transfer initiatives, bringing with it lowered employee morale and the potential for resistance against future knowledge-transfer initiatives.” (Burgess, 2005) Leadership may be defined as a “process in which a leader attempts to influence his or her followers to establish and accomplish a goal or goals.” (from http://www.answers.com/leadership#top). It may be as simple as coming up with a group decision or as complex as establishing a group culture. Leadership is a continuous process wherein a leader tries to move from accomplishing one goal to another for the good of the whole group. A leader, such as a manager of a service institution, is stereotypically known to possess positive qualities and capabilities. However, in a research reported by French, Simpson and Harvey (2001), a good leader is also equipped with ‘negative capability’. “The underpinning image of leadership is based on knowing and is manifested through activity, work and achievement. There is, however, a quite other dimension of leadership, based on not knowing, on not doing, on being-done-to, and on being no longer in control of one’s own situation.” (French, Simpson & Harvey, 2001). This may be interpreted as being humble enough to admit when one doesn’t really know instead of putting up a façade of being all-knowing. This peculiarly human capacity to live with and tolerate ambiguity, of being content with half knowledge is quite a refreshing concept. “It implies the capacity to engage in a non-defensive way with change, without being overwhelmed by the ever-present pressure merely to react. It also indicates empathy and even a certain flexibility of character, the ability ‘to tolerate a loss of self and a loss of rationality by trusting in the capacity to recreate oneself in another character or another environment’ (Hutter, 1982). Good managers are always open to learning something new, and not haughty enough to claim that they are already “made”. Being human and fallible is one trait that all members of the group share, and what better quality to relate to than that? Group members will even feel important enough to share the burden of thinking up solutions to problems with their leader. Effective and Open Communication Dialogue is defined as “a sustained collective inquiry into the processes, assumptions and certainties that compose everyday experience.” (Isaacs, n.d.). In the organizational setting, dialogues are used to have a “meeting of minds”, extracting what each member believes and coming up with an agreed decision that takes into account those beliefs, Members think together, analyzing causes and effects, and end up understanding a shared meaning. Usually, they reach greater heights in idea-storming that as individuals, they could not have thought of. This is contrasted with the construct of consensus building wherein people “seek some rational means to limit options and focus on the ones that are logically acceptable to most people.” (Isaacs, n.d.). Usually, the final consensus is reached if only to end the discussion, and that is what the group can “live with for now”. There is no guarantee that whatever factor initially leading some members to disagree will just vanish after the consensus has been made. It is likely that some members walk away in resignation but not in total satisfaction. Richmond & McCroskey (2005) defines organizational communication as “the process by which individuals stimulate meaning in the minds of other individuals by means of verbal or nonverbal messages in the context of a formal organization.” There are six functions that seem to dominate communication in the organizational context. The functions are to inform, regulate, integrate, manage, persuade, and socialize. “Much of the informative communication in organizations is conducted in a written format. This way, a whole group of employees can be informed with one message and at one time. This is an effective method to disseminate information quickly. On the other hand, managers may decide to call a meeting once each week (or month) which is primarily of an informative nature.” (Richmond & McCroskey, 2005). Employees are aware that most meetings are informative in nature and must be prepared to raise questions regarding their concerns which need more information for them. The function of regulating is usually directed toward regulatory policies within the organization or messages about maintenance of the organization. “The integrative function of communication is focused on coordination of tasks, work assignments, group coordination, or the fusing of work units toward a common goal. In other words, it is communication directed at getting people to work together and have tasks coordinated so that the "left hand knows what the right hand is doing." It is an attempt to get people to work together and make things run more smoothly.” (Richmond & McCroskey, 2005). The management function of communication is focused on getting personnel to do what is needed, learning information about personnel to know them better, and establishing relationships with personnel. Basically, if a manager is successful in these three, then he has better chances of gaining employee respect and support. The persuasive function enables one to influence another to do something in particular, sort of cajoling a co-worker to do something like covering for him when he fumbles at work. “The socialization function of communication in the organization is the one that can determine whether an individual survives well, or not at all, in an organization. Socialization doesnt mean being "buddies" with everyone. It means being integrated into the communication networks in the organization.” (Richmond & McCroskey, 2005) Communication can either go horizontally, or across co-workers who are considered equals in terms of position in the organization, and vertically, indicating a hierarchy in position that either goes upward towards higher management or downward, towards rank and file. Downward communication from management to the employees usually involves job instruction, rationale, ideology, information and feedback. Job instruction includes directions mandated by management such as direct orders, written memos, workshops on how to do the job, and so on. An example is the kind of treatment or therapy a patient should receive at a particular shift is instructed to the therapists on duty. Rationale is the rationalization or explanation of a duty or assignment and how it is compatible with what the personnel are already doing. Ideology is the philosophy of the organization that managers expect their employees to share. If they do believe in the same views, then communication would flow much easier within the organization. Information is concerned with acquainting employees with general knowledge that they need to know, such as regulations, changes in benefits, and general policies. In healthcare institutions, it may be new diseases that breakout, a new therapy approach that the hospital may be trying out or specific medications for certain symptoms. Feedback is the managers way of giving employees information about how they are doing. This is usually expressed as praise, recognition, salary increase, criticism, a frown or a termination notice. Managers should provide feedback to their employees so that they would be guided well enough in their work performance. Employees are used to being the receiving end of downward communication, but usually struggle with initiating upward communication such as speaking up about one’s situation and need for consideration, request for an increase, complaints about a co-worker, etc. Upward communication can only be successful if those at the higher levels are willing to allow the communication to be effective. Horizontal communication is the more common, everyday kind that is transmitted from peer to peer. It usually focuses on how the work day went, feelings about the organization or problems faced. In addition, horizontal communication promotes social interaction and increases one’s knowledge, communication skills and socialization skills that are necessary for survival in the organization. Despite a growing understanding of the importance of open communication and knowledge transfer, the sharing of information within organizations remains a challenge. Burgess (2005) reasons that “one impediment to developing successful knowledge transfer initiatives seems to be the tendency of practitioners and researchers to focus on tools (e.g., technology) and tasks (e.g., routines), with less attention paid to knowledge-transfer among people (Argote & Ingram, 2000; Cabrera & Cabrera, 2002; Davenport & Prusak, 1998; Huysman & de Wit, 2003). Some practitioners do not have the patience entailed in discussing the technicalities of their expertise someone from another discipline or unit. “Motivational barriers to knowledge transfer included a lack of extrinsic rewards, stronger levels of group versus organizational identification, reciprocity norms, and the view of knowledge as a means of achieving upward organizational mobility.” (Burgess, 2005). Workers will be more encouraged to transfer knowledge to another professional from another discipline if this sort of behaviour is rewarded by management either by external means such as merit or salary increases or internal means to boost their self-esteem such as praise or simply appreciation. A sense of loyalty to the organization is also necessary for workers to be motivated to go beyond just doing their job. Mostly, it takes above average standards of personal and professional characteristics to uphold such company integrity. This is something to think about as a worker, and for management to evaluate the kind of worker they really want. In order to succeed working as a team, organizations must be aware of relational power, or the give and take of power and knowledge. Hence, this would involve knowledge transfer from individuals who possess it to those who do not. In healthcare institutions, this may be in the way of sharing expertise in various disciplines which must be transferred and shared among units. Indeed, companies that are more effective at knowledge transfer have been shown to have a greater likelihood of organizational survival and higher levels of productivity (Dart et al., 1995; Dyer & Nobeoka, 2000; Galbraith, 1990). Objective Evaluation and Reflective Practice Not being able to objectively evaluate an organization’s quality in workers’ performance and delivery of service may leave the organization in the dark as to how their clientele respond to it and how the output may further be improved. Evaluation and reflection is an integral part of success in organizations. According to Osterman (1990), “reflection is the essential part of the learning process because it results in making sense of or extracting meaning from the experience” Reflective practice has both advantages and disadvantages. It can positively affect professional growth and development by leading to greater self-awareness, to the development of new knowledge about professional practice, and to a broader understanding of the problems that confront practitioners (Osterman 1990). However, it is a time-consuming process and it may involve personal risk because the questioning of practice requires that practitioners be open to an examination of beliefs, values, and feelings about which there may be great sensitivity (Peters 1991; Rose 1992). Should they realize that they do not have what it takes to contribute to the pursuit of excellence of the company, then, they have to re-think if they should move out or stay, with the commitment to being one with the company’s vision. Of course, the priority should always be the attainment of the organization’s goals and that includes upholding high quality performance and service. No matter what angle is analyzed in organizational management, critiques are easier said than done. In the case of healthcare institutions, what is essential is the commitment of managers, clinicians, staff and everyone else in the team to work together as a cohort group in providing the quality of service their clients deserve. More important than the business that comes back to them due the efficient implementation of their jobs is the fulfillment that they are contributing to making people healthier. That, in itself, is a wonderful and empowering vision that must be commonly shared by everyone. References Argote, L., & Ingram, P. (2000). Knowledge transfer: A basis for competitive advantage in firms. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 82, 150- 169. Leadership. Retrieved on September 8, 2007 from: http://www.answers.com/leadership#top Burgess, D. (2005) What motivates employees to transfer knowledge outside their work unit?. The Journal of Business Communication. Volume: 42. Issue: 4. Cabrera, A., & Cabrera, E. F. (2002). Knowledge-sharing dilemmas. Organization Studies, 23, 687-710. Dart, E., Argote, L., & Epple, D. (1995). The acquisition, transfer and depreciation of knowledge in service organizations: Productivity in franchises. Management Science, 41, 1750-1762. 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