Week 11 - Conflict

Conflict is a state of discord caused by the actual or perceived opposition of needs, values and interests. Conflict as a concept can help explain many aspects of social life such as social disagreement, conflicts of interests, and fights between individuals, groups, or organizations. Without proper social arrangement or resolution, conflicts in social settings can result in stress or tensions among stakeholders.

A clash of interests, values, actions or directions often sparks a conflict. Conflicts refer to the existence of that clash. Psychologically, a conflict exists when the reduction of one motivating stimulus involves an increase in another, so that a new adjustment is demanded. The word is applicable from the instant that the clash occurs. Even when we say that there is a potential conflict we are implying that there is already a conflict of direction even though a clash may not yet have occurred.

Firstly it is important to remember that conflict is normal and a part of our daily lives. It is how we react to it and deal with it that is important. When people are asked the question "what is conflict" they come up with many ideas. If you were asked, "what is conflict", what would your answer be?These answers around the fistare true because conflict can be a very bad thing and cause a lot of pain. However, is conflict always a bad thing? And does it always hurt people?

The conflict cycle can be broken when you and/or the other person or group of people are willing to change ideas and the way you view each other. Both of you have to start to look for positive things in one-another. If you do not change the way you see that person you will forever be locked into the conflict cycle.

The process of collaborative design is relatively complex, and often results in various conflicts due to technical and social factors. Therefore, to understand the relationships between design process and design conflict is critical to improve the collaborative design productivity. The methodology can identify the interdependencies among design tasks, and manipulate the evolution of various design perspectives to facilitate the management of design conflicts. An initial computer implementation of this methodology is presented and its features are discussed.
We do everything we can to avoid conflict, perhaps because past experiences have been unpleasant or we don’t know how to respond to confrontations.

There are two types of conflict in organizations: destructive and constructive. Destructive conflict is manifested by behaviours such as yelling at co-workers or customers, withdrawal from others, or even destruction of property. Anger, fear, or frustration might motivate this type of behaviour. The results from destructive conflict usually are far reaching – more people than the two or three involved are directly or indirectly affected. Typical results from destructive conflict are co-workers avoiding one another, people taking sides and subtly or overtly harassing “the bad guy”, and lower productivity.

On the other hand, constructive conflict can result in increased communication across the organization, enhanced productivity, and less absenteeism and turnover.
As managers and leaders within organizations, there focus clearly must revolve around modelling and coaching for constructive conflict. To effectively coach there team through disagreement, they need to be aware of four typical responses to conflict that they might encounter. These responses are avoidance; rationalization; “yes means no”; and refusal.
Another response to conflict is rationalization. “I won’t confront my co-worker about her constant interruptions during meetings because it’ll get better.” “Someone else will tell Bob he’s doing the monthly reports wrong.” Without constructive criticism, co-workers or direct reports may not even be aware of their offending behaviours or work deficiencies….and there’s little chance of improvement if that’s the case.

Yet another approach to potential conflict is for someone to say “yes” to a request or statement when they really mean “no”. I’ve encountered this when, as a customer, I’ve requested a solution or fix to a situation or unsatisfactory purchase. The sales rep may tell me (in person) whatever I want to hear to get me out the door, only to leave a voicemail later with a different story. This certainly doesn't build a level of trust or open communication!
The final response I’ve observed is outright refusal to engage in dialogue. When this occurs, a person may simply walk away from a discussion that begins to get uncomfortable. When one or more parties decide to disengage, there’s no chance of collaboration and the situation will eventually spiral downward.

We’re accustomed to win-lose confrontations in our society; however, I believe we shouldn’t accept a “one winner, one loser” outcome.
Characteristics of win-win confrontations are: common goals are sought; compromises occur; and everyone wins. To pursue common goals, both parties involved in a disagreement must be willing to divulge what they really want, as opposed to simply staking out a position.
The key to success is that both sides find shared concerns and then move together towards addressing those concerns. You may not always get what you want, but I’ll bet that you get what you need.

http://www.e-hresources.com/Articles/Oct2001.htm
http://images.google.com.au/imgres?imgurl=http://www.aiksaath.com/images/conflict_cycle.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.aiksaath.com/conflict.html&h=389&w=419&sz=38&hl=en&start=4&tbnid=UL2NawEeE0fOjM:&tbnh=116&tbnw=125&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dconflict%26gbv%3D2%26ndsp%3D18%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DN

http://www.aiksaath.com/images/conflict_cycle.jpg

Week 10 - Planning

Planning is the act of formulating a program for a definite course of action. It is the selection of short and long term plans to achieve those objectives. In planning managers outline the steps to be taken in moving the organization toward its objectives. After deciding on a set of strategies to be followed, the organization needs more specific plans, such as locations, methods of financing, hours of operations, and so on. As these plans are made, they will be communicated throughout the organization. When implemented, the plan will serve to coordinate, or meld together, the efforts of all parts of the organization toward the company’s objectives.[1]

Planning is one of the most important project management and time management techniques. Planning is preparing a sequence of action steps to achieve some specific goal. If you do it effectively, you can reduce much the necessary time and effort of achieving the goal.
A plan is like a map. When following a plan, you can always see how much you have progressed towards your project goal and how far you are from your destination. Knowing where you are is essential for making good decisions on where to go or what to do next. [2]

Like in hierarchy, planning was important in our group to help us set out the path to our final goal. It was essential that the planning was understood by everyone and also agreed by everyone as it is hard work to change the plan as the project is underway. It was then up to us to stay on top of following the plan right through, so we were not distracted from our final objective.
Many companies are experimenting with wiki-based collaboration projects to assist in the planning process. Modern work is collaborative. It’s no longer about few people having the answers and others depending on them for it. Now it’s all about many people having bits and pieces of the answers and each depending on the other for it. Collaboration in desperate need in a company. And were it not for some modern technologies, this need would still not be met. Wikis along with blogs, social bookmarking and the like are giving staff a reason to cheer. Not only is the technology readily available and largely cheap, but for the first time staff can focus on the work and not on working the technology.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Planning%5b1]
http://www.time-management-guide.com/planning.html[2]

http://images.google.com.au/imgres?imgurl=http://www.michaelhuey.com/img/pictures/filing%2520cabinet2compromise.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.michaelhuey.com/&h=375&w=500&sz=80&hl=en&start=13&um=1&tbnid=nPNWx-lu7U_PFM:&tbnh=98&tbnw=130&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dfiling%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DN

Week 9 - Remuneration

This is the payment or compensation received for services or employment. This includes the base salary, but also might include any bonuses or other benefits involving money being paid to an employee or executive during employment. Remuneration can also be non monetary, such as gifts or a promotion or even recognition within there organization.

This is especially seen in group work as it gives an incentive to each individual person to succeed and complete there set jobs as best as possible with in the group. That is the reason that it is important that the remuneration award is attractive to each person, which should also motivate and stimulate them and that it is well worth the extra work they will put in. To the employee, it is justified to them to perform at their best and produce the required work. This also gives the person more reason to complete the job, rather than just doing what is just required.

In group work such as ours, no monetary remuneration is awarded, but definitely non monetary remuneration was, and still is awarded, in the form of recognition. It was important to recognize each others work, and to commend and encourage each person’s achievements to help us finish the project in time, and more importantly to the best of our abilities.


http://www.upgradetravelbetter.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/09/money.jpg

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Remuneration

Week 8 - Context

Context theory: is the theory of how environmental design and planning of new development should relate to its context. When decisions have been taken they are implemented by means of lands use zones, zoning plans and environmental assesments. A number of context theories set out principles for relationships new designs and the existing environment.

Context Definition: the parts of the environment (physical, environment, historical, etc.) that surround something such as a word, passage, or work of art and can throw light on its meaning

Context refers to a set of circumstances that surround a particular event or situation. This may take into account different aspects such as social, political or cultural influences.
Examples are:

Political Context: Reflects the environment in which something is produced indicating its purpose or agenda. Often political messages are intended to persuade one way or another. Knowing who created the message and what their relationship is to others reflects how you interpret that message.

Social Context: The environment of people that surrounds something's creation or intended audience social context reflects how the people around something use and interpret it. The social context influences how something is viewed.

In definition context refers to a set of circumstances that surround a particular event or situation, which takes into account different aspects such as social, political or cultural nfluences.

Political context reflects the environment in which something is produced indicating its purpose or agenda. Often political messages are intended to persuade one way or another. Knowing who created the message and what their relationship is to others reflects how you interpret that message.

Social context involves the environment of people that surrounds something’s creation or intended audience social context reflects how the people around something use and interpret it. In short, context is the environment in which something relevant exists or happens. The relevancy changes with time, as something could be relevant in the past but it may not be relevant in the future.

Specifically in regards to Architecture, an architect needs to understand the environment or context in which the project will be designed and built. If the idea is to design a project within certain parameters such as financial, cultural, and environmental then they have to design to fit this context. For example a building that may not fit the right context or may not be in the right environment would be a building that is made from completely different material to other buildings in the same area. Furthermore a religious or cultural building may not be in the right environment. This would lead to it being built in the wrong context.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Context

http://www.boxesandarrows.com/files/banda/competitive_analysis_understanding_the_market_context/withrow_1.gif

Week 7 - Hierarchy

Hierarchy is best described as an arrangement of objects, people, elements, values, grades, orders or classes in a ranked or graduated series. The word is derived from the Greek word hierarchia, hieros meaning sacred and arkho meaning to lead or rule. Best examples of this are in governments, workplaces and even in religion. [1]

Hierarchy is most important in the world of architecture, as it is needed when individuals are working in a group. It helps establish a ladder of authority, with each person in the group assigned a particular job, and a responsibility on that job which must be completed within the group. The importance of hierarchy is that it enables all the people in the group to work effectively, and to help direct each one in there given task. It particularly helps when a person has a problem, as that problem can easily be solved by following the ladder up, to the correct person to address the problem.

Many problems can arise from incorrect hierarchy, especially in group work. The main problem is when there isn’t a clear understanding of the hierarchy established when each member of the group doesn’t fully understand the importance of each person’s role within the group, so the main flow of work isn’t undertaken by each person.

In collaboration, each party accepts responsibility for its own inputs as well as for the equitable sharing of returns on outputs. Collaborative relationships are voluntary. They facilitate knowledge creation. Corporations, however, are typically based on hierarchical, non-voluntary relationships. Corporations are built to exploit knowledge and to appropriate a financial profit from it. Consequently, collaboration is difficult to combine with corporate hierarchy. Nevertheless, there is a growing list of examples illustrating successful co-existence of collaboration and hierarchy. [2]

Below is a simple visual to represent what many of us may be currently experiencing in the workplace. Most companies leverage the traditional reporting hierarchy which has worked for generations. But in addition to this, we are increasingly seeing smaller teams breaking out into streamlined work groups. These teams may be composed of individuals from different “tiers” in the traditional hierarchy representing a variety of disciplines. Some managers have advocated for more smaller, faster, leaner teams. Others advocate for more formality, structure and rigor. Some companies blend both equally. [3]




http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hierarchy [1]

http://www.iou.uzh.ch/bwl/iou/lehrveranstaltungen/SS2004/Topics_and_Literature_Seminar_Collaboration_SS_2004.pdf [2]

http://darmano.typepad.com/logic_emotion/2006/07/human_hierarchy.html [3]

Week 6 - Intent

To have intent is to have an aim or purpose to complete a set task. Whether that’s in the workplace, individual, or in a group, intent must be given at the start of any project to give all participants a clear goal. Each task must be explained in full to each person assigned to complete the task, with a full understanding of the aims and goals need to be achieved. Each goal must be an achievable one by each person, whether they are in the short term or long term and must be performed at the best of their ability.

The way the intention of a job is described to the people undertaking it is also very important, as the final goal and objective should never be lost. These can be outlined in many ways, either by reinforcing it through speech, written form and even visual. This can also include budgeting and set time frames. These must be continually reinforced during the work processes, to keep the workers motivated and concentrated on the final goal and the tasks ahead, as without intent there isn’t a goal that is achievable.

In our group project, the initial intent was given, so as to give each team member a certain task and goal. Each person was allocated a specific task, which had to be completed by a set time. We also had meetings to reinforce what the groups main goal was, and to reinforce what had to be done in the current step of the project in what timeframe so that everything can completed in the end.

Week 5 - Knowledge

Organisations today are facing increased challenges, brought on by pressures of the workplace. In today's economy, knowledge sharing and collaboration are the survival skills of the 21st century [1]. Many organisations are now looking to knowledge management to address these challenges. Such initiatives are often started with the development of a knowledge management strategy [6].

Below is a detailed description of what is knowledge? What is knowledge collaboration? The Role identifications within knowledge management, Knowledge management systems and the benefits of knowledge management.

What is Knowledge?
We can define Knowledge as being "information combined with experience, context, Interpretation, and reflection. It is a high-value form of information that is ready to apply to decisions and actions." (T. Davenport et al., 1998) Knowledge itself comes in two forms:
Explicit knowledge – It is knowledge has been recorded and documented and can be shared with others
Tacit knowledge – Tacit knowledge refers to knowledge that is known, but has not been shared with others. Tacit knowledge is problematic in a support organization because if it is not shared with others, it cannot be leveraged to solve problems and is gone when the knowledge holder leaves the organization [5].

What is Knowledge Collaboration?
Knowledge collaboration for an Architectural Organization is the successful implementation of Knowledge-Centred Support. Evidence of good Knowledge Collaboration is seen when the successful implementation of Knowledge-Centred Support has been completed.

This, in turn, leads to:
• Improved speed of collaboration,
• Positive customer perception, the Architect knows what they are doing.
• Leveraging tacit knowledge and enabling authors to turn it into explicit knowledge
• Ownership and increased enthusiasm on the part of experts.[5]

Identify Roles in Knowledge Collaboration
Knowledge collaboration flows through a chain of people communicating from various perspectives. By identifying the key roles along this chain, the people who play those roles, and their perspectives, you can help to make this flow smoothly. Identifying the knowledge collaboration roles for each user plays within the organization will help to scope and plan the implementation. The key roles in the knowledge collaboration are:
• Owners
• Producers
• Consumers
• Problem Manager/Quality Analysts [5]

Knowledge Management System (KM System)
Is a system for managing knowledge in organizations, supporting creation, capture, storage and distribution of information.

The idea of a Knowledge Management system is to enable employees to have ready access to the organization's based documented of facts, sources of information, and solutions. For example an engineer could know the metallurgical composition of an alloy that reduces sound in gear systems. Sharing this information organization wide can lead to more effective engine design and it could also lead to ideas for new or improved equipment.

A Knowledge Management system could be any of the following:
Document based i.e. any technology that permits creation/management/sharing of formatted documents such as Lotus Notes, web, distributed databases etc.
Provide network maps of the organisation showing the flow of communication between entities and individuals. Increasingly social computing tools are being deployed to provide a more organic approach to creation of a Knowledge Management system.

The Benefits of Knowledge Management Systems
Some of the advantages claimed for Knowledge Management systems are:
Sharing of valuable organizational information.
Can avoid re-inventing the wheel, reducing redundant work.
May reduce training time for new employees
Retention of Intellectual Property after the employee leaves if such knowledge can be codified. [4]

Developing a knowledge management strategy provides a unique opportunity to gain a greater understanding of the way the organisation operates, and the challenges that confront it. By focusing on identifying staff needs and issues, activities and initiatives can be recommended with the confidence that these will have a clear and measurable impact upon the organisation. Taking this approach to the development of a KM strategy allows limited resources to be targeted to the key needs within the organisation, delivering the greatest business benefits while positioning the organisation for long-term growth and stability.

http://www.knexa.com/[1]
http://en.proverbia.net/citastema.asp?tematica=688[2]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knowledge_management[3]
http://www.answers.com/topic/knowledge-management-system?cat=technology[4]
http://www.thinkhdi.com/hdi2006/files/StrategicAdvisoryBoardPaperKnowledgeCollaboration.pdf[5]
http://www.steptwo.com.au/papers/kmc_kmstrategy/index.html[6]
http://www.steptwo.com.au/papers/kmc_kmstrategy/index.html[7]