THE ART OF MANAGING MALE & FEMALE KNOWLEDGE WORKERS

INTRODUCTION:

It is believed that in the present era, the competitive advantage of organizations is linked to knowledge. There is a lot of emphasis upon knowledge work, knowledge workers and the nature of knowledge within organizations. The interest in the relationship between knowledge management and HRM has increased. HRM plays an important role in creating, developing, and managing the organizational capabilities that are necessary for competing successfully in the knowledge economy. HR managers have to create effective teams within a diverse workforce; tap talent throughout the organization by recruiting, retaining, and developing people at all levels; build and integrate cultures as mergers and acquisitions become common; and develop employee commitment towards organizational vision. HRM is confronted with major challenges in the knowledge economy and one among them is managing male and female knowledge workers.

The term was first coined by Peter Drucker 1959, as one who works primarily with information or one who develops and uses knowledge in the workplace.

Knowledge workers in today's workforce are individuals who are valued for their ability to interpret information within a specific subject area. They will often advance the overall understanding of that subject through focused analysis, design and/or development. They use research skills to define problems and to identify alternatives. Fueled by their expertise and insight, they work to solve those problems, in an effort to influence company decisions, priorities and strategies.

A Knowledge worker helps the company in gaining a competitive advantage over the others by developing business intelligence, getting knowledge of customer preferences, buying behavior and their expectations, increasing the value of intellectual capital and other variety of knowledge benefits that aid the business of the organization.

SEVEN TYPES OF KNOWLEDGE ND NINE ACTIVITIES:

Knowledge workers possess seven types of knowledge -descriptive, procedural, reasoning, derived, linguistic, assimilate, and presentation. Knowledge workers – they continue - are said to engage in the following nine activities: procuring, storing, organizing, maintaining, creating, analyzing, presenting, distributing, and applying knowledge (...) Descriptive knowledge is mainly factual knowledge about items such as: prices of production inputs, the firm’s sales volume and inventory, competitor’s sales and inventory, etc. Procedural knowledge is algorithmic knowledge about task performance such as manufacturing quality control or customer order-taking. Reasoning knowledge includes both inferential and deductive reasoning procedures, and specifies how conclusions should be reached from a given set of inputs. Derived knowledge is knowledge that the firm has created from the knowledge that has been gathered. Linguistic knowledge is concerned with the vocabulary and usage of terminology within the firm. Presentation knowledge concerns the display and communication of existing knowledge. Assimilative knowledge is in many ways, the most important. This is knowledge about what additional knowledge the firm should collect.

CHARACTERISTICS OF KNOWLEDGE WORKERS :

A knowledge worker demonstrates strategic, managerial and operational traits. There are various characteristics and abilities which convert them into intellectual capital.

1. Knowledge workers have good-thinking, analytical power, good vision and ability to think independently.
2. They possess “continuous learning” i.e. they can learn, unlearn and relearn in tune with the fast-changing environment.
3. They have the ability to work with ‘team spirit’ i.e. searching, creating, sharing and using knowledge regularly.
4. They are ‘calculated risk takers’ i.e. they seek challenges in work and do not follow instructions blindly
5. They are ‘emotional intelligent ‘ people i.e. they have the capacity of understanding our own feelings as well as those of others which helps them to motivate & manage themselves and others.
6. They are ‘action oriented professionals’ i.e. they willingly embrace professional discipline, have patience and determination and highly qualified with a high level of education, multidimensional skills, technical, managerial & strategic abilities.
7. They have proper ‘understanding of computer and telecom technology’. i.e. they have the ability to apply IT skills to fulfill information needs and improve business performance.

The figure of the “knowledge worker” is associated with the idea of autonomy, independence, participation in the decision-making process, with team work within decentralized structures: the “knowledge worker” is well-paid. Observing these features of “knowledge workers” one can believe that they have been drawn to cancel the image of the work in fordist society, characterized by alienation, frustration and lack of freedom.

In Short, we can say that knowledge workers are educated, intelligent, independent, innovative, cooperative and versatile people, who are ready to learn new things throughout their lives.

CHALLENGES IN MANAGING KNOWLEDGE WORKERS :

Knowledge workers bring benefits to organizations in a variety of important ways. These include:

analyzing data to establish relationships assessing input in order to evaluate complex or conflicting priorities identifying and understanding trends making connections understanding cause and effect

ability to brainstorm, thinking broadly (divergent thinking) ability to drill down, creating more focus (convergent thinking) producing a new capability creating or modifying a strategy

Undoubtedly they are very effective in increasing the productivity & efficiency of organizations as stated above but managing them is a very challenging task.

I. MANAGING GENDER DIVERSITY AMONG KNOWLEDGE WORKERS :

Most managers and supervisors at organizations struggle to achieve and maintain

gender diversity. In particular, engineering, scientific, information technology, and

other organizations are faced with the problem of recruiting and retaining female

employees. Gender-diversity discussions tend to focus on three main concerns: 1) the

relationship between corporate profitability and gender diversity, 2) the problem of recruiting and retaining women professionals in organizations where the corporate

culture can be inhospitable, and 3) the number of women entering and graduating from science, technology, engineering, and mathematics and management programs.

Why is Gender Diversity Important?

It is found that, “Companies with the highest representation of women on their top management teams experienced better financial performance than companies with the lowest women’s representation. Furthermore, diversity can encourage a more balanced view of problems and an increased richness of decision making through consideration of different viewpoints and perspectives,” Diversity has also been shown to strengthen the overall corporate culture, enhance corporate reputations, act as a recruitment and retention tool, enhance service levels, reduce turnover, lower absenteeism rates, and improve a company’s global management capacity. Diversity creates a sense of worldliness that otherwise would not be possible. Companies invest a great deal of money to attract and train female talent. Businesses that do not include diversity in their corporate strategy will lose their competitive edge. What is more, diversity strengthens corporate brand recognition.

Obstacle No. 1: The Low Number of Women in various fields especially technical:

First, the number of women graduating from engineering and technical programs is lower than in other professional fields. This is a pressing issue because the number of women entering engineering programs is significantly lower than women entering other professions We see the lowest percentage of female graduates among all the professions—medicine, law, economics, dentistry, architecture, engineering and pharmacy.” As such, it is imperative that Companies are able to recruit and retain female knowledge workers..

Obstacle No. 2: Difficulties Retaining Female Talent:

We find that attrition rates among women spike between ages 35 and 40.The reasons women leave companies center around what are called “antigens.” The most important antigen is the machismo that continues to permeate their work environments.. One way to define corporate culture is “the way we do things around here.” What kind of culture are these women describing? Hewlett says, “They talk about demeaning and condescending attitudes, lots of off-color jokes, sexual innuendo, arrogance; colleagues, particularly in the tech culture, who genuinely think women don’t have what it takes, who see them as genetically inferior. It’s hard to take as a steady stream. It’s predatory and demeaning. Some of the other antigens identified in the HBR report include: (1) the sheer isolation many women cope with daily at work; (2) the career path for many women is mysterious because so few have mentors to look out for them; (3) most male coworkers may not be team players but may be rewarded for risky, lone-wolf behavior patterns such as flying to another country, rescuing the system crash, and returning as a hero with a new promotion and lots of fanfare at the office; and (4) a combination of extremely long hours, emergencies, and a very family-unfriendly environment. At 35 to 40 years of age, many women are having a second child, a time when even the most organized woman finds herself caught short by the demands of her life.

From my own recent experience in an organization, female knowledge workers reported that their male colleagues: (1) did not listen to them, (2) treated them as if they were useless or as housewives at work, (3) did not understand their problems, and (4) were disrespectful to their female colleagues and enjoyed gossiping to destroy the reputation of work colleagues. In a work culture such as this one, it is not surprising that there was a high attrition rate among female knowledge workers.

Obstacle No. 3: Understanding the Differences:

The latest research studies show how women and men work together in corporations is a key concern. Given this, the challenges of how women and men work together become more urgent for managers. Faced with the facts and scenarios listed above, how is a manager to adjust his or her management style in order to thrive in a corporate environment that develops and promotes gender diversity? Biologically speaking, sexual differences have an impact on the way woman and men encounter and experience work. Give below are the five ways how women and men see and respond differently in their work environments.

The female brain and the male brain.

Newborn female and male babies visually scan their environments in different ways. Female babies spend much more time scanning the faces around them, while male babies spend more time scanning the environment. This difference in scanning focus emerges in female-male adult interactions. A woman carefully scans another person’s face to read

the micro-expressions that are on display, carefully studying the person’s facial muscles, mouth, and rate and depth of breathing. When a woman scans another person’s face, she has the ability to mimic and feel the feeling that the other person is experiencing. Specifically, when communicating with others, a woman is searching for congruence—in the tone of voice, in the eye movements, in the facial expressions, and in the gestures of the other person— assessing emotional nuance to see if the words match these other

components of the message. Second, a woman senses information from the people around her based on her gut feelings. She can sense when a colleague is depressed, a boss is feeling overwhelmed, or a stressful and tense environment has developed in a team meeting. Overall, the female brain is gifted at quickly assessing the thoughts, beliefs, and

intentions of others based on the smallest hints.” Third, for men, feelings do not trigger gut sensations, but instead increases rational thought. Scientists have found that it usually takes the male brain longer to decode and process emotions. Finally, researchers speculate that a woman’s tears may evoke a painful response in a man’s brain where he feels powerless to help, which can be difficult for him to tolerate. Consequently, when a woman communicates to a man how she feels, he feels the internal pressure to do something or fix something. Fourth, men and women have different communication goals. The goal for a man in interpersonal communication is to establish status, hierarchy, and power,. This phenomenon especially occurs in conversations that tend to be asymmetrical. One person has more knowledge, more information, or experience.

For a man, this gives him the feeling of having more status. For most women, the primary communication goal is to create intimacy and connection by establishing rapport where everyone in the conversation is viewed as an equal. Men view conversation as an opportunity to spar with each other creating a hierarchy of one-upsmanship; women view conversation as an opportunity to share with one another to create a web of relationships and connections. Finally, men and women experience the same amount of anger, but men express a greater amount of anger and aggression than women. This connects directly to differences in the female and male brain. The amygdala is the brain center for fear, anger, and aggression, and it’s physically larger in men than in women, whereas the anger, fear, and aggression control center—the prefrontal cortex—is relatively larger in women.”

While men express anger immediately in a hair-trigger fashion, the female brain is hard-wired to reflect on anger before expressing it out of fear and anticipation of retaliation. What is more, the female brain has a strong aversion to conflict due to the fear of making the other person angry and, potentially, losing the relationship. Typically, the net effect of this biological difference is that a woman will not express her anger in situations where there is a chance of male retaliation.

Five ways of Managing in a Gender-Diverse Environment:

It is important to recognize that the paper I have cited here are scientifically recognizable patterns of behavior in women and men.There are always exceptions to the patterns identified (some women try to problem solve rather than listen; some men are good active listeners),

1. Woman-to-woman mentoring:

One successful approach is to create a woman-to-woman networking program. In such a program, a more senior woman in the organization provides mentoring guidance

to more junior female employees. The role of the mentor is to provide advice on career paths, to help navigate organizational politics, to be a sounding board about office politics, to prevent isolation at work, and to help create a culture that better supports gender diversity.

2. Empathy vs. advice.

Often when a female colleague discusses a problem with a male colleague, she is seeking empathy (someone to listen to her) rather than looking for a solution to her problem. For men, remember that the primary goal for women in communication is to make a connection. Women feel connected to others when they feel their feelings are acknowledged and genuinely understood. For women, remember that male colleagues are looking for bottom-line results. Men want solutions to problems, not empathy from you.

3. Anger management.

Anger is one of the primary male reactions to stress. However, when male managers blow up at work, it makes them look unprofessional to their supervisors and damages their relationships with female colleagues. For women, when male colleagues express their anger, it is important to realize that, yes, male anger does scare you. This is part of the hardwiring of the female brain at work. After the angry incident, get out of the situation as soon as you can and go to a quiet place, take a few deep breaths, and reassure yourself that the display you witnessed is your male colleague’s inappropriate reaction to stress.

4. Working through problems.

When men hear women talk about their problems, men often hear “whining” and “complaining.” Men see this as counterproductive, because they want to solve problems and get results. When faced with difficult emotional problems at work, it is better for a woman to discuss her feelings with a trusted female colleague. For men, recognize that withdrawing and not addressing conflict is perceived by work colleagues as a sign of emotional immaturity and a lack of social awareness. It is important to communicate openly with male and female colleagues at work.

5. Creating a healthy meadow.

In the mid-1990s, Don Coyhis of the Mohican Nation was asked by his tribal elders to describe his work with corporate cultures. He was asked what would happen if you planted a healthy tree in a sick forest. Coyhis replied that if you plant a healthy tree in a sick forest, the new tree will become sick as well because it is fed by the same nutrients from the soil, the same water, and the same air as the unhealthy trees. He counseled that in order for the newly planted healthy tree to survive and thrive, a healthy meadow would need to be created, where the good nutrients and clean water and air can feed all the trees in the healthy meadow.

II. IT’S AN EXPENSIVE AFFAIR:

It includes money invested in HR i.e. recruiting, training, compensation, benefits etc. as well as infrastructure. The infrastructure related to male & female knowledge workers should be so established that they feel at home to contribute more to their organization. A special care must be taken for the arrangement of what is needed to female knowledge workers.

III. SHARING OF KNOWLEDGE BETWEEN MULTIPLE KNOWLEDGE WORKERS:

In order to reap the maximum benefits from knowledge workers, there should be a proper alignment of the demand of knowledge, availability of knowledge, distribution and sharing of knowledge in the organization along with structure and operational activities carried out in organization. In case for the policies to be made for females, female knowledge workers can provide the best possible alternatives. Hence, alignment is a must.

IV. MANAGING EXPECTATIONS:

Knowledge workers have high expectations in terms of challenging jobs, quality of work life, pay packages and benefits given by the organization. These expectations differ among male and female. So, in order to motivate and retain them, organizations need to provide the best possible facilities to them keeping in view their needs.

HR STRATEGIES FOR EFFICIENT MANAGEMENT OF MALE AND FEMALE KNOWLEDGE WORKERS

1. Proper Selection: Organizations should focus on recruiting bright, knowledge-seeking individuals. While selecting the individuals proper focus should be given to the candidate’s qualifications, job-oriented competencies and previous work experience in the related work field. Remember to see the differences in thinking, analysis & decision making skills of male & female individually before selecting and placing them in their appropriate positions. It is observed in many organizations that women who had God fathers (mostly their husbands in high positions survive though incapable) survive well. But not all women are lucky enough .Hence proper referrals must be taken before selection either male or female.
2. Retention Strategy: Retention strategies should be strong enough to retain best talent. They should hire the best and fittest employees according to the need & culture; give them promotion, appreciation, incentives, rewards and appraisals whenever required. Male employees may jump if they find best opportunity anywhere else but female employees bound with the same organization and show loyalty as they are emotionally strong. Hence proper care must be taken to handle delicate situations with these employees as most women are now in high positions because of their extraordinary learning, unlearning and relearning capabilities.
3. Knowledge sharing: Group discussions, brainstorming, seminars, guest lectures, workshops, role plays etc must be organized frequently to elucidate the importance of knowledge sharing among employees. We usually see male employees limit themselves in sharing knowledge when compared to women employees as they might have a feeling that they may surpass them in the hierarchy. Such feelings should be curbed through strategies like challenges, respect & diverse team work has to be developed. The Organizations have to have well developed softwares and knowledge repositories for creating and sharing knowledge.
4. Active learning: Organizations should focus on endorsing active learning to improve knowledge worker’s competency and capability to discover new ways. They should make employees self-dependent, self-motivated and self-controlled in order to adapt changing scenario of day today happenings. God has gifted women in handling multi-tasks with patience and perseverance. They are active learners as they learn at home as well as at work place. Hence strategies that suit both the genders must be planned in order to gain maximum benefits.
5. Employee Empowerment: The employees should be given the power to take decisions independently with sufficient autonomy and flexibility to work efficiently and achieve the desired level of performance. There’s talk everywhere about women empowerment. And I think it would appropriate to give women the power to take decisions independently. But what is usually seen is that part of the information about organization’s policy is hidden and they are asked to take decisions with the limited information provided to them which brings chaos. Therefore, organizations should see that all information pertains to their rights and obligations be given properly for proper execution of decisions.
6. Offering ample opportunities: Organizations should provide ample opportunities to them to brainstorm ideas, exchange knowledge and formulate new ways of doing business. Employees both male and female should view challenges in terms of opportunities, rather than merely focusing on problems. They should work on generating tomorrow’s business instead of focusing on yesterdays’s problems.
7. Quality of work life: Welfare measures, fringe benefits and harmonious environment should be provided by organizations to improve the productivity of employees. With regards to women employees , provision for work-life balance, flexitime, stress management, quick conflict resolution etc must be provided. Hence quality of work life must be given due significance.
8. Compensation and Rewards: The organizations should offer attractive pay packages, monetary awards, bonuses, special prizes etc to attract, retain and motivate employees, both male and female without any discrimination.
9. Motivation and Recognition: These plays a vital role as most of the female employees do not come to organization for just pay as they are emotional people. Hence, organizations should motivate both the gender with not only monetary rewards but also by appreciation.
10. Counseling and Mentoring: Counseling and mentoring are essential especially in case of conflicts in managing knowledge workers. Therefore managers managing them should act as facilitators and direct them towards their goals.
11. Sound state-of-the-art IT Infrastructure: The organization should have sophisticated and user friendly software systems that would help in documentation and streamlining of data and processes. Women employees mostly use IT to communicate easily with their Boss as they many other works to achieve the vision of the company and also to save time disturbing always their boss who otherwise are really very busy. But often this is taken and regarded as dominating nature of women. Such feelings among male & female knowledge workers must be removed through proper consultations and having a very in true sense the transparency system in the organization.
12. Training: It must be provided frequently as it provides a platform for learning and generates the scope of continuous improvement. Keep flextime for females.
13. Maintaining Team Spirit: Generating team spirit in employees should be given the highest priority. Make teams involving male & female workers for building effective team spirit.
14. Effective leadership: Top management should be involved at all levels in order to spread knowledge culture in the organization. Respect the new ideas of workers and articulate a vision that inspires others to act. Simple things to follow by top management- be a part of them always in their happy and sorrow occasions and do not just blindly listen to whatever other says .Instead , call everybody for discussion and not arguments.
15. Leadership style: As knowledge workers cannot merely perform on the basis of instructions, they must be treated with due respect and dignity. All employees should be dealt tactfully because each one male or female is different from another and have altogether different needs. So participatory style of leadership should be followed to create a win-win situation.
16. Creating an Innovative and Knowledge Culture: Organizations should develop a knowledge culture where employees are free to create and share knowledge and integrate creativity, innovation and knowledge culture. And stop blaming employees and tagging them as intelligent politicians (most common blame for innovators) and hurry-bury fools. No innovation or discovery is always successful. We will know only after its implementation. Thake the example of Thomas Alva Edison who innovative ideas failed many times and atlast was successful with exemplary invention of bulb. Hence organizations should be cooperative and friendly with knowledge workers as these are the people who can bring laurels to the organization.

CONCLUSION:

It is observed that there’s no getting around the fact that women have different emotional perceptions, realities, responses, and memories than do men, and these differences—based on brain circuitry and function—are at the heart of many interesting misunderstandings. If the employer recognizes that misunderstandings between women and men at work are often based on female and male brain differences with resulting displays of gender-specific behaviors, then they have the chance to practice a new set of behaviors. These new behaviors provide them with a more flexible repertoire of responses to stressful work situations. They can create a corporate culture where women and men thrive by using the five techniques described above.

Managing knowledge workers especially women is indeed a difficult task as these people are more aware of the latest happenings, have high expectations and are more prone to switch to another organization if not satisfied. Therefore it is one of the greatest challenges for HR managers and organizations. Therefore, organizations should provide maximum opportunities and foster a congenial environment and learning culture so that they can explore their creativity and innovative skills. And if HR manager and Organizations recognizes the importance of strategies mentioned above and follows them, then no one can ever stop its continous knowledge enhancement, incremental productivity and above all its grand success.

REFERENCES:

1. A study in 2001 by Roy Adler, ‘Women in the ExecutiveSuite Correlate to High Profits,’ published by the Glass CeilingResearch Center
2. ”A 2004 study conducted by Catalyst, “The Bottom Line:Connecting Corporate Performance and Gender Diversity,”
3. Barbara J. Bowes in her book The Business Case for Diversity (2007).“

4. “Why So Few Women, Still?” by Jill S. Tietjen,

5. Louann Brizendine’s book, The Female Brain,

6. Deborah ‘s book, Talking from 9 to 5 and Women and Men in the Workplace:

Language, Sex and Power.

7. CB. Mamoria, SV Gankar , “ Personnel Management “ 2005 Edition, Himalaya

Publishing house.

8. Minakshi Chauhan Asopa, “ Manging Knowledge Workers- An HR Perspective”,

HRM Review, March 2010.

9. Sukhvinder Kaur Multani, “ Managing Knowledge worker-a new Paradigm”,

2007 Edition, The IUP.

10. Tanuja Agarwala, “Strategic Human Resource Management”, Oxford University

Press, New Delhi.

AUTHORS :

1. Dr. Harjoth Kaur, M.Com., MBA.,M.Phil.,B.Ed.,MEG.,NET.,Ph.D,

Professor. Department of Management Studies,

Mail Id: harshinder1@gmail.com, Mobile: 91 9247139101, 994863173

Sree Chaitanya PG College, Thimmapoor,Karimnagar – 505 527.

Andhra Pradesh, INDIA

2.Mrs. Gurupreet Kaur.,

M.Com.,B.Ed., ( MBA)