Articles

24 May

Posted at 23:06h in Articles by

[vc_row css_animation="" row_type="row" use_row_as_full_screen_section="no" type="full_width" angled_section="no" text_align="left" background_image_as_pattern="without_pattern"][vc_column width="5/6"][vc_column_text css=".vc_custom_1611276499098{margin-right: 0px !important;}"]by Ralph H. Kilmann co-author of the Thomas-Kilmann Instrument (TKI)   INTRODUCTION TO ASSESSING AND RESOLVING ORGANIZATIONAL CONFLICT It’s a great pleasure to share with you the evolution of my work in conflict management and change management, which, of course, includes what I’ve learned from using the Thomas-Kilmann Conflict Mode Instrument in many different situations since the early 1970s. That evolution of my work with the TKI instrument eventually led me to develop the Kilmann Organizational Conflict Instrument almost 50 years later, which I call KOCI for short. In essence, the KOCI explicitly...

01 Jun

Posted at 21:14h in Articles by

[vc_row css_animation="" row_type="row" use_row_as_full_screen_section="no" type="full_width" angled_section="no" text_align="left" background_image_as_pattern="without_pattern" z_index=""][vc_column][vc_column_text css=".vc_custom_1589218360706{margin-right: 115px !important;margin-left: 115px !important;border-top-width: 6px !important;border-right-width: 6px !important;border-bottom-width: 6px !important;border-left-width: 6px !important;padding-top: 30px !important;padding-right: 30px !important;padding-bottom: 30px !important;padding-left: 30px !important;background-color: #ededed !important;border-left-color: #659937 !important;border-left-style: double !important;border-right-color: #659937 !important;border-right-style: double !important;border-top-color: #659937 !important;border-top-style: double !important;border-bottom-color: #659937 !important;border-bottom-style: double !important;border-radius: 10px !important;}"] Take the Thomas-Kilmann Instrument (TKI) directly from the person who co-created it: Dr. Ralph H. Kilmann. All his many articles, books, blogs, videos, courses, and TKI certification are available on this website.  [/vc_column_text][vc_separator type="transparent" thickness="15"][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row css_animation="" row_type="row" use_row_as_full_screen_section="no" type="full_width" angled_section="no" text_align="left" background_image_as_pattern="without_pattern" padding_top="50" padding_bottom="50" z_index=""][vc_column][vc_column_text] TAKE THE THOMAS-KILMANN INSTRUMENT: TWO OPTIONS [/vc_column_text][vc_row_inner row_type="row" type="full_width" text_align="center" css_animation="" el_class="post-row-sm"][vc_column_inner...

10 Apr

Posted at 20:10h in Articles by

[vc_row css_animation="" row_type="row" use_row_as_full_screen_section="no" type="full_width" angled_section="no" text_align="left" background_image_as_pattern="without_pattern"][vc_column width="5/6"][vc_column_text]by Ralph H. Kilmann and Ian I. Mitroff This article was first published in Interfaces, Vol. 6, No. 2 (1976), pages 17-27. ABSTRACT This paper neither presents the kind of data nor the kinds of symbols that are found in the typical paper in Management Science. It deals with an important class of variables that have been slighted in the literature of OR/MS: qualitative variables. This paper presents a methodology for gathering and for analyzing a special class of qualitative variables, i.e., the projective, symbolic images that managers have of their ideal organization. More specifically, this paper shows...

10 Apr

Posted at 20:01h in Articles by

[vc_row css_animation="" row_type="row" use_row_as_full_screen_section="no" type="full_width" angled_section="no" text_align="left" background_image_as_pattern="without_pattern"][vc_column width="5/6"][vc_column_text]by Ralph H. Kilmann Appreciating and managing differences go hand-in-hand with understanding and improving many aspects of human behavior. The MBTI reveals the fundamental differences among people while the TKI provides the fundamental ways of resolving those differences. Using these two tools together, therefore, is both natural and beneficial. THE FOUR PSYCHOLOGICAL TYPES In research studies on psychological types, it is apparent that the four basic types (ST, NT, SF, and NF) bring out the key differences among worldviews, hidden assumptions, ideal organizations, notions of productivity and success, preferences for organizational structure, types of organizational structures,...

10 Apr

Posted at 20:00h in Articles by

[vc_row css_animation="" row_type="row" use_row_as_full_screen_section="no" type="full_width" angled_section="no" text_align="left" background_image_as_pattern="without_pattern"][vc_column width="5/6"][vc_column_text]by Ralph H. Kilmann Then and Now: What I’ve Learned In 1970, while enrolled in UCLA’s doctoral program in the behavioral sciences, I took the Myers Briggs Type Indicator® (MBTI) assessment for the first time. I came out as an INFP—very slight on I, moderate on F, but very clear on N and P. Later, as a professor at the University of Pittsburgh, I published several books and articles using psychological type to classify, for example, different organizational and group structures, different criteria for measuring organizational effectiveness, and different steps for defining and solving complex problems. In 1972, Dr....

10 Apr

Posted at 19:58h in Articles by

[vc_row css_animation="" row_type="row" use_row_as_full_screen_section="no" type="full_width" angled_section="no" text_align="left" background_image_as_pattern="without_pattern"][vc_column width="5/6"][vc_column_text css=".vc_custom_1563583281958{margin-right: 0px !important;}"]by Ralph H. Kilmann This article was originally published in G. Zaltman (Ed.), Management Principles for Nonprofit Agencies and Organizations (New York: American Management Association, 1979), pages 213-255. INTRODUCTION Managers are continually beset with problems. Some of these are very well structured, concrete, easily definable, and solvable. For example, which of three photocopiers is most economical to purchase or lease given the projected duplicating needs of the high school? Which of two candidates would best fit the job of assistant to the hospital administrator? Which of three methods of inventory control would minimize out-of-stock...

10 Apr

Posted at 19:53h in Articles by

[vc_row css_animation="" row_type="row" use_row_as_full_screen_section="no" type="full_width" angled_section="no" text_align="left" background_image_as_pattern="without_pattern"][vc_column width="5/6"][vc_column_text css=".vc_custom_1563583471218{margin-right: 0px !important;}"]by Ralph H. Kilmann and Ian I. Mitroff This article was originally published in California Management Review, Vol. 21, No. 3 (Spring 1979), pages 26–33; reprinted in Gore, G. J., and R. G. Wright (Eds.), The Academic/Consultant Connection (Dubuque, Iowa: Kendall/Hunt, 1979), 71-80. INTRODUCTION Intervention theory [1] and the consulting process [2] have developed to provide more effective methods by which organizational change is conducted. These methods have emerged in order to operationalize a theory of changing rather than a theory of change. The latter is what Bennis [3] found to be the focus of most discussions...

10 Apr

Posted at 19:46h in Articles by

[vc_row css_animation="" row_type="row" use_row_as_full_screen_section="no" type="full_width" angled_section="no" text_align="left" background_image_as_pattern="without_pattern"][vc_column width="5/6"][vc_column_text]by Ralph H. Kilmann This article is adapted from R. H. Kilmann, Quantum Organizations: A New Paradigm for Achieving Organizational Success and Personal Meaning (Newport Coast, CA: Kilmann Diagnostics, 2011), 97–107. ABSTRACT During the past few decades, there have been extensive efforts by both academics and practitioners to identify and manage an organization’s culture. Regrettably, however, the term “culture” is often spoken without clarifying its meaning or making it operational for use. Not surprisingly, therefore, efforts to improve corporate performance by changing corporate culture have been severely limited—and largely disappointing. To rectify the current situation, this paper revisits...

10 Apr

Posted at 19:41h in Articles by

[vc_row css_animation="" row_type="row" use_row_as_full_screen_section="no" type="full_width" angled_section="no" text_align="left" background_image_as_pattern="without_pattern"][vc_column width="5/6"][vc_column_text css=".vc_custom_1571438972384{margin-right: 0px !important;}"]by Ralph H. Kilmann This article is adapted from R. H. Kilmann, Quantum Organizations: A New Paradigm for Achieving Organizational Success and Personal Meaning (Newport Coast, CA: Kilmann Diagnostics, 2011), 121–135. Assumptional analysis is a systematic method for tackling the most complex steps of problem management: defining problems and implementing solutions. This method not only pinpoints all the decision trees that are potentially relevant to problem definitions and implementation plans; it also probes below the surface of each tree to reveal its roots—the implicit assumptions that keep each tree alive and well. It is through the...

10 Apr

Posted at 19:22h in Articles by

[vc_row css_animation="" row_type="row" use_row_as_full_screen_section="no" type="full_width" angled_section="no" text_align="left" background_image_as_pattern="without_pattern"][vc_column width="5/6"][vc_column_text css=".vc_custom_1571429840750{margin-right: 0px !important;}"]by Ralph H. Kilmann This article was originally published in Human Systems Management, Vol. 3, No. 2 (1982), pages 66-76. ABSTRACT A number of different design alternatives are distinguished according to whether each is best for addressing a well-defined or an ill-defined problem. The latter is reserved for a collateral design, one that coexists with the formal, operational design but is structured as a flexible, open, loose, “organic-adaptive” system of problem-solving groups. A number of key steps are presented for designing such a collateral organization so that the operational design and the collateral design...