How to create a healthy, creative and profitable organization

TABLE OF CONTENST

I. Introduction
I.1. Problem description
I.2. Our task
I.3. Structure of our paper

II. The Human aspects and the knowledge they hold, the basis of an organization
II.1. Values and how to put them into practice
II.2. Knowledge and its management

III. The role of technology in the Information Age

IV. Strategies to create a virtual organization

V. Conclusion

VI. Sources

I. INTRODUCTION.

I.1. Problem description.

Today, we are in the Information Age and moving deeply in the Knowledge Revolution. These are very topical issues that have to be correctly managed in order to survive in the turbulent business world today. Organizations are getting very market oriented in order to support the ever increasing customer demands. Moreover organizations have understood that the “machines” have to adapt to the people, contrary to what was happening before.

I.2. Our task.

We want to understand how to create a healthy organization. We mean by a “healthy” organization, an organization which is creative, learning, knowledgeable and of course profitable. This type of organization is constantly trying to survive and adapt to the changing environment. To understand this question in today’s (and for the future) perspectives, we should observe what is present in organizations today: in a very simple way, we will assume there are Humans and Technology. This brings up the following question: How to balance the human and the virtual aspects together in when moving from “normal” organizations to “virtual” organizations?

I.3. structure of our paper.

In this paper, we shall present these two aspects and their relationships and also the necessary basic requirements. After this we will describe the virtual organization as one possibility to create a healthy organization, thus referring to our reading collections and course material. This paper will end with a conclusion.

II. The Human aspects and the knowledge they hold, the basis of an organization.

II.1 Values and how to put them into practice.

If we take a close look at the Human aspects in an organization, they are based on values. This is surely the first step to take to create a healthy organization. We have noticed that values are everywhere. Values, through people is the core of a good organization. According to Kriger and Hanson, there are eight necessary underlying values for creating a healthy organization. These eight values should be used all the time and in every circumstance. That is to say between colleagues, customers, suppliers, the community and the overall environment. What are these values?

1. Honesty and truthfulness enables commitment and loyalty.
2. Trust is a reliable value for good relationships.
3. Humility goes against self promotion.
4. Forgiveness will allow new initiatives and decrease stress.
5. Compassion enforces the idea of group.
6. Thankfulness is a mark of respect that is likely to be very appreciated when deserved.
7. Being of service erases arrogance and holds an important role in the buying process of a potential customer.
8. Stillness and peace creates a better working atmosphere and decreases organizational turnover.

They argue that a fundamental issue in organizations is that right human relationships are essential for effectiveness in work systems. These values are necessary because they are key issues for exchange, interaction, participation, transactions, creativity, new expectations and rethinking.

In a healthy organization, one must be aware of these essential values, but one must be able to put them in practice. To do so, we can use Kriger and Hanson’s seven supporting activities.

1. Behavior consistent with values: the values have to be present in the day to day behavior.
2. Creating a climate where morality and ethics are truly valued: morality and ethics have to the fully part of the culture and has to be taught and lived by everyone.
3. Legitimizing different view points, values and beliefs: In an organization, there should be multiple and complementary perspectives.
4. Developing imagination, inspiration and mindfulness: This enables constant creativity.
5. Letting go of expectation: Organizations and moreover the people have to forget their preconceived ideas to find better ways of doing business.
6. Acknowledgement of the efforts and accomplishments of others: People must take a look at what is happening around them in order to understand the good work of their colleagues.
7. Creating organizational process that develop the whole person – not just exploiting current talents and strengths: This is a real challenge in HR nowadays because companies just “rent” the employees, they don’t own them.^[1]

These supporting activities helps the human integrate themselves in the organization. The reason for that, is because they are aware of the core and essential values. The secret is to be able to apply them on a day to day base, thus forcing the organization to always improve the human aspects. It therefore seems important to “manage” these human aspects. But when we think of it, most of these values and activities have to be part of the employees mind, philosophy and way of doing. It is self responsibility to act in these ways. Management can only try to employ the right people and always encourage these actions through appropriate communication.

We shall now move on one step further in our understanding of healthy organizations. There is more than just having people (employees, customers, suppliers, partners). Organizations have to manage the knowledge held by these people.

II.2. Knowledge and its management.

We all have knowledge and use it in different ways. Moreover it is different for everyone. The bases of knowledge are information that have value in the inter-action with human capital. In order to cease to real essence of knowledge, we will base our reflection on Stewart’s Intellectual Capital. He states that knowledge is one of five steps in creating value for an organization. It is constructed on data and information. Thus, when we make the connections to pure and simple data, it becomes information, when we make connections on this, it becomes knowledge and so on towards expertise and finally capability. This also creates value because companies are more and more knowledge companies. Knowledge is an asset and an important resource. But, the main problem is that it has to be understood and then managed. This has to be undertaken by HR departments and the overall organization is a second stage.^[2] Now that we have looked at knowledge in a general way, we shall refer to J.S. Brown and P. Duguid’s Organizing Knowledge. They study knowledge with a slightly different orientation. This is necessary in order to continue our understanding of healthy organizations.

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^[1] Kriger, M.P. & Hanson, B.J. , 1998

^[2] Stewart, T., 1998