Leadership &

Organization Dynamics
Module 2 Part 2
Interpersonal Skills, Knowledge Management

Course Facilitator: Dr. Vineetha Prakash

vineethaprakash@rajagiri.edu
Interpersonal Skills

● Skill - a talent or ability that comes from deliberate, systematic and

sustained effort.
● Interpersonal Skills are the tools people use to interact and communicate
with individuals in an organizational environment.
● Basic interpersonal skills - Communication (Verbal/Non-verbal), Listening
skills, Negotiation, Problem-solving, Decision making, Assertiveness
10 skills most often identified for highly effective managers:
1. Verbal communication (including listening)
2. Managing time and stress
3. Managing individual decisions
4. Recognizing, defining, and solving problems
5. Motivating and influencing others
6. Delegating
7. Setting goals and articulating a vision
8. Self-awareness
9. Team building
10. Managing conflict
● Interpersonal relationships and interactions - with manager (supervisor),
subordinates, peers, customers.
● Managers differ across cultures in their interpersonal styles and skills.
● Leadership styles can also vary interpersonal tactics such as views of rules
and procedures, deference to authority, levels of dependence and
independence, willingness to compromise etc.
Whetten & Cameron Model of Personal Skills
Source: (Luthans, 2011)
 Important for
effective leaders,
and serve as
guidelines for
required skill
development in
future.

Whetten & Cameron Model of Interpersonal Skills

Source: (Luthans, 2011)
● Developing managers’ interpersonal skills helps organizations
attract and keep high-performing employees.
● Strong association between the quality of workplace relationships
and job satisfaction, stress, and turnover.
● Better interpersonal skills result in lower turnover of quality
employees and higher quality applications for recruitment.
● Fosters social responsibility awareness.
Soft Skills & Hard Skills

● Hard skills or Technical skills are ● Soft Skills are personal qualities
job-related competencies that are and traits that impact how we
necessary to complete work. work.
● Often applicable to a certain career. ● Transferable to any type of job.
● Indicate our competence in the
● Indicate that one can contribute
practical aspects of a job role.
to a positive and productive
work environment.
Examples
Hard Skills Soft Skills

● Computer programming languages ● Creativity

● Proficiency in a foreign language ● Empathy
● Database management ● Teamwork
● Data analytics ● Problem-solving
● Sales analysis ● Critical thinking
● Financial management ● Adaptability and flexibility
● UX design ● Organization
● Bookkeeping ● Effective communication
● Plumbing ● Punctuality
● Copywriting ● Time management
● Reporting ● Attention to detail
● Teaching ● Strategic thinking
● Engineering ● Conflict resolution
Knowledge Management

● Knowledge management is also known as the organizational

learning perspective.

● Organizational effectiveness depends on the organization’s

capacity to acquire, share, use, and store valuable knowledge.
Knowledge acquisition occurs when information is brought into
the organization from the external environment.

● Can include hiring people, acquiring companies, scanning the

environment for the latest trends.

● Also includes the process of experimenting and discovering new

ideas (Creativity & Innovation)
Knowledge sharing - the distribution of knowledge throughout the
organization.
● Can occur through physical means (direct interaction) or technological
means (computer-mediated technology such as whiteboards, wikis, blogs,
web conferencing etc.)
E.g. Pixar Animation Studios deliberately centralized its cafeteria, mailroom, and restroom
facilities so that employees would “bump into” and coincidentally share knowledge with people
from other areas of the organization rather than just their own team members.
● Knowledge use is the application of knowledge to
organizational processes in ways that improve the organization’s
effectiveness.
● New work activities require the application of new knowledge to
break out of past routines and practices.
Storage of Knowledge refers to ways that organizations retain
valuable knowledge.

● Retain employees, document best practices, record experiments

(including those that didn’t work out), and keep samples of past
products.
● The ability to acquire, share, and use new knowledge is limited by the
company’s existing store of knowledge.
● To recognize the value of new information, assimilate it, and use it for
value-added activities, organizations require sufficient absorptive capacity
● For example, many companies were slow to develop online marketing
practices because no one in the organization had enough knowledge about
the Internet to fathom its potential or apply that knowledge to the
company’s business.
● Intellectual capital : A company’s stock of knowledge, including human
capital, structural capital, and relationship capital.

● Human capital: The stock of knowledge, skills, and abilities among

employees that provides economic value to the organization.

● Relationship capital: The value derived from an organization’s

relationships with customers, suppliers, and others who provide added
mutual value for the organization.
● Structural Capital: the knowledge captured and retained in an
organization’s systems and structures.
● E.g. documentation of work procedures, physical layout of the production
line, organization’s finished products [Knowledge can be extracted by
taking them apart to discover how they work and are constructed (i.e.,
reverse engineering)]
Organizational Memory and unlearning

● Organizational memory. The storage and preservation of

intellectual capital.
● Includes structural, intellectual and relationship capitals.
● Documents, objects, and anything else that provides meaningful
information about how the organization should operate.
● Retention of Intellectual capital: Through retaining good
employees, systematic knowledge transfer (among employees),
transfer knowledge into structural capital.
Unlearning removes knowledge that no longer adds value and may
undermine the organization’s effectiveness.

● Unlearning may involve replacing dysfunctional policies, procedures, and

routines.

● Other forms of unlearning erase attitudes, beliefs, and assumptions.

Obstacles to Knowledge Management

1. Lack of a business purpose

2. Poor planning and inadequate resources
3. Lack of accountability
4. Lack of customization
References

● Robbins, S. P., Judge, T. A., & Vohra, N. (2022). Organizational

Behavior (updated 18th ed.). Pearson India. (Ch.1, Ch. 11)
● McShane, S. L., von Glinow, M. A., & Sharma, R. R. (2011).
Organizational Behavior (5th ed.). Tata McGraw-Hill. (Ch. 1, Ch. 8)
● https://hbswk.hbs.edu/archive/knowledge-management-four-obstacles-to
-overcome