Organizations all over the world have been forced to change tactics when it comes to management in order to cope with the new business realities. Just a few years, the entire globe underwent an economic turmoil that saw many businesses downsize even as others were ousted from business altogether. Consumers are increasingly cost-conscious and continue to demand value for their money. Profit margins have grown thin and the level of competition has gone higher than ever before. The globe has become increasingly connected, leading to a whole new level of complexity (Witzel & Warner, 2015). In such changing business environment, two business realities have emerged, which include the need to manage with complexity and the centrality of knowledge management as a key driver for the success of postmodern organizations. The following discussion is about how Thinking Habits of Heart, Mind, and Imagination for the 21st Century , especially two thinking habits of "Complementary Thinking" and "Constructing Meaning", can be helpful to middle-level managers to meet knowledge management needs as well as manage the complexity in postmodern organizations.
Managing with Complexity through Complementary Thinking
The reality of the current business environment is that complexity is indispensable in all aspects of any business. Taking an example of Human Resource (HR), this function is a critical one in any organization but remains a very complex product comprising many variables. Such variables include culture, environment, and the reward element all of which also have different cots and value drivers, communications, and even different preferences across different segments (Wright & Kehoe, 2011). A middle-level manager in charge of HR is obviously faced with this complexity and cannot fully manage to make sound decisions without being a complementary thinker. Complementary thinking is defined as the habit of considering a multiplicity of perspectives, weaving all of them together into an integrated fabric understanding (Montuori, 2012). In the case of an HR Manager abovementioned, discovering new meanings and insights into managing the people aspect of a business requires that the manager must competently use the complementaries within his or her reach. The manager can gain important insights by identifying relevant opportunities for meaning by considering complementary polar-opposites or even through nonpolar multiple perspectives (Straub, 2013). Whatever the approach, what is important is to always consider different alternatives from a multiple of perspectives and developing and evaluate a wide range of alternatives to make more effective decisions.
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Knowledge Management Through Constructing Meaning
Postmodern organizations are in a knowledge-driven economy and information is power and the foundation of a competitive edge. In order to create and sustain a competitive advantage in the hyper-competitive, dynamic and volatile global marketplace, businesses have recognized the criticality of knowledge management. Knowledge management is a new business reality that involves taking systematic approaches towards ensuring information and knowledge flow in the organization to create value for the organization (Wright & Kehoe, 2011). There are many reasons why an organization would want to manage its knowledge. One such reason could be that some very critical staff members are about to retire and they hold information that could add impetus to the organization. That knowledge needs to be captured. With the many economic challenges, an organization may consider a merger or an acquisition to improve its competitive position, leading to the need restructure the organization and break down silos that prevent the flow of information. Moreover, the risk of losing critical information in the face of eventualities may prompt the leadership of a department or an organization to consider knowledge management.
Whatever the reason, there are two types of knowledge that need to be managed, that is, explicit knowledge and tacit knowledge. Explicit knowledge is readily available when needed and includes the files in an organization's information system. Tacit knowledge is, however, not readily available and sits with the carrier and has to be extracted through special means. To capture both explicit and tacit knowledge, managers need to use Constricting Meaning as a thinking habit is defined constructing meaning by not only acquiring diverse sources of knowledge but equally synthesizing these diverse sources to enrich one's thinking. Departmental managers can construct meaning by acquiring explicit knowledge by collecting and analyzing this type of information to help them make informed decisions. The same middle-level managers can all acquire tacit knowledge through personal interviews, introspection, and experience. With the two types of knowledge in place, departmental managers can go ahead to synthesize the whole knowledge by combining explicit knowledge and tacit knowledge of self and that of others. That way, it becomes easy to construct meaning and help employees within the departments to use the knowledge to aid their decisions in the daily routines.
In summary of the preceding discussion, it is clear that the critical nature of knowledge management and complexity of business management are new business realities that can be addressed using Constructing Meaning and Complementary Thinking thinking habits respectively. Middle-level managers can manage the complexity they face within their functions by taking into the diversity of perspectives and integrate that into a fabric of understanding. Similarly, the managers can also rely on construct meanings through the acquisition of both tacit and explicit knowledge and synthesize these to guide their decisions as well as the decisions of other employees.
References
Montuori, A. (2012).‘Complexity, epistemology and the challenge of the future’ in Complexity in organization studies, vol. 2, SAGE, London, pp. 31-42.
Straub, R. (2013). Why Managers Haven't Embraced Complexity. Harvard Business Review, hbr.org. Retrieved 24 May 2018, from https://hbr.org/2013/05/why-managers-havent-embraced-c
Witzel, M., & Warner, M. (2015). Taylorism revisited: Culture, management theory, and paradigm-shift. Journal of General Management, 40 (3), 55-69.
Wright, P. and Kehoe, R. (2011) ‘Human resource practices and organizational co, mitment: A deeper examination’ in Asia Pacific Journal of Human Resources 46(1).
