Managing Communications Knowledge And Information

Published Date: 02 Nov 2017

Before we start talking about knowledge we need to acknowledge that is based on information but knowledge is not information. Knowledge is the use of data and information, with the addition of expert views, skills and experience… It is a valuable asset in the decision making process." (The European Committee for Standardization's ‘Good knowledge management guide) Data is always correct but changes over time, it refers to information captured from different sources and a variety of techniques in its collection. It may be from primary or secondary sources. Raw data also known as primary data, it could be observations, focus groups, discussion, or transactions collected at a business point of sale system. Primary data, it always specific and up-to-date as is first-first hand information, however, its expensive and it is not time effective. Boddy et al (2005 p.9) defined information as "a sub-set of data, which means something to the receiver – which they judge to be useful, significant, and urgent and so on. It comes from data that has been processed (by people or with the use of technology) (Figure 2) so that it has meaning and value for the recipient. This means that information is subjective since what one person sees as valuable information, another may see as data with no particular significance." For instance, "years ago the UK Government Tax Office lost CD’s containing 25 million people’s records. The fear was that the CD’s were not protected from unauthorised use containing enough information to spark criminal activity. The lost information (CD’s) would allow experienced criminals to expand their knowledge, and ultimately acquire expertise on setting up fraudulent bank accounts and getting loans on someone else’s names based on the records (data) captured in it." Info engineering 2007 (Figure 1) However, information is not always an accurate reflection of the data for that reason, information needs to be reliable, timely, of good quality and accessible to authorised staff so that organisations can start building up on knowledge and acquire a competitive advantage. These are the characteristics making information valuable, enabling decision makers achieving organisational goals.

Organisational knowledge is considered to be a combination of two types of knowledge, explicit knowledge and tacit knowledge. Both of these types of knowledge need to be present within an organisation, in order for it to operate effectively and the way these two types of knowledge have to interact with each other is through the SECI model (Figure 3) lacking in DXB.

When thinking about DXB issues, there are two approaches they could take when seeking out knowledge and information. One could be collecting primary data, looking for what people know, by talking to them directly, which it could lead to a network of other leads, contacts and even a community and another could be collecting secondary data, which they could make use of.

The disadvantage of the second approach is that once captured, it grows old unless there is a mechanism to refresh it. However, DXB is unable to approach either route in order to make organisational decisions effectively. One reason restricting personal from looking for what people know is the fact, that they are disconnected from the main source of information – the people are disconnected from one another. Another reason stopping them from looking for what is known stored in computers is due to the fact that they use different software – the different workgroups geographically dispersed does not have access to each other’s data or information, this is extremely concerning when decisions need to be made based on those two components.

Information is important as it influences which and when decisions are made, what information is available at the point of decision and who is required to make decisions (Figure 4).

Decisions made on a day to day basis.

Decisions made once every five years.

Decisions made once every year.

Figure 4: Range of decisions

Each decision level requires different types of information and knowledge. Decisions at operational level are mostly taken by managers at junior level and it relies on hard and internal data, involving matters of daily activities, such as how to spend funds for the current month, how much stock to be reordered, the decisions regarding quality control, etc. These decisions play an important role in the smooth running of organisations and each adopts a specific style for making any operational decision.

Decisions at Tactical level are a smaller scale and they aim to support the strategic decisions, decisions at this level are mostly taken by managers at middle level and it relies on internal and external data, involving matters of medium term activities, such as if an organisation wishes to launch a new product, what are their competitor’s prices, what would packaging design should be like, etc.

Decisions at Strategic level are complex decisions, mostly taken by managers at senior level, working within a greater environment and it relies on external data such as market trends, economic, stock market figures, involving matters of long term activities such as if an Organisation should enter a new market.

Stakeholders are also important to the decision making process as they bring valuable feedback, instead of organisations spending time and money, they can acquire that valuable information from stakeholders. Even though DXB has internal data base and external knowledge, the information is not able to satisfy the levels of decisions making because none of these sources seem to be contributing effectively to these levels of decision making. The information system is not sharing information properly between the two different work groups, because they are using two different technology platforms, therefore, the information system is not able to inform operational decisions, as the workgroup in London does not know what is going on in New York. Managers, whom are a crucial internal source, do not seem to be communicating properly either, in addition to the lack of structure resulting in the impact of tactical decision making.

Employees are a great internal source but are not contributing well, resulting in them holding knowledge. Their tacit information could be useful for tactical decisions but there is a lack of interaction between employees and managers and employers and employees and the way tacit knowledge works is by interaction.

As mentioned above, strategic and tactical decisions rely on external information, making customers a valuable source of knowledge and information in any Organisation. A fully understanding of costumers’ needs through expectations is crucial, as they offer knowledge regarding future demands, which can assist the development of new products with the opportunity to modify and adapt the products based on their feedback and suggestions. However, in DXB, customers are not contributing to effective decision making, as they are isolated away from the work groups. Depriving them from providing feedback, which DXB would benefit from whilst, making strategic and tactical decisions, as customers are a great source of fresh ideas.

Another valuable internal source of knowledge and information are suppliers, whom have a lot of information on the quality and use of the material. In addition to supplying competitors, being able to provide information on their orders, as well as being a source of innovative ideas but DXB is not making the most, if any use of their relationship with suppliers for their benefit.

Recommendations to help improve level of information and knowledge within DXB are the following:

Information audit, would help to identify information gaps, in other words, it would help to identify what type of information DXB needs to make decision making effective. How fast would they need it and if, the information they currently have is enough to make the decision making process flow and become effective. Knowledge audit would help DXB to identify who are the key players, which employees are holding the knowledge hubs and who is a very valuable source of tacit information.

In addition, the lack of accountability for knowledge and information within DXB, due to work groups being focused only on their own work, it suggests a need to introduce a Chief Knowledge and a Chief Information Officer to help oversee that the right information is going to the right people at the right time. The National Health Service in England, is an organisation, which uses CIO services successfully, specially when people’s lives come into play, it is crucial that relevant and accurate information is reached on time to the relevant people. DXB would benefit from giving someone the responsibility for making accountability a priority for the organisation, as knowledge and information officers audits would make sure the flow of information and knowledge that is currently inadequate within the organisation would become adequate.

Task 2

The key stakeholders in DXB that are important for the decision making process are the employees, managers, customers and suppliers. However, there are issues hindering them contributing, and preventing personal networking pos the wide restructuring DXB underwent due to economical factors. The first key issue is the geographical barrier preventing employees from New York contacting London employees, there issues related to distance, time and coordination seemed to have a great impact on their dynamics. As a result of such a dramatic change, including job losses of trusted employees, resulting in trust issues. The sudden change and restructuring, unsettled and scared employees resulting in them withhold their information. Another key issue affecting contribution is the employees’ cultural differences, preventing them from networking with each other. In addition, their communication system (ICT) is not adequate, and does not facilitate the networking between the different employees and managers. The different operating platforms and software, where files transfer between them, results in the information getting corrupted causing a lack of communication between them. In regards, to customers, there is no link between them or a way to get feedback, making it extremely difficult to build any sort of relationship, especially with customers spread all over the world. Suppliers are based in New York, and the London workgroup does not have any access to them. There is no way of communicating with them, as the US has a monopoly, in terms of getting access to suppliers and customers and there is no communication between these different stakeholders.

In order to promote personal networking between stakeholders, DXB would need an internal communication system, such as intranet which, would allow internal communication between the different managers and employees. The important features on the intranet to enable them to contact each other could be, collaborative tools, such as, Wiki pages, Lotus notes, allowing employees and managers from different locations to work on one document and update it from different locations and collaborate together, regardless of where they are geographically. That would promote personal network and getting staff to work with each other.

Due to the lack of shared identity, corporate yellow pages are web pages with the pictures of the employees, contact details, job title, interests and area of expertise. For instance, if for example, the following key words ‘project manager sales department’, were typed into the corporate yellow pages, it would bring up all the people based on the key words typed, which might have had experience on that field. Another recommendation could be the possibility of social tagging, where employees would be able to link their facebook pages and personal blogs onto their corporate yellow pages to help colleagues to know more about the person and their personal interests in terms of work. These are excellent ways to help connect different employees, that otherwise may not have known each other existed, especially when the organisation is based in two parts of the world.

Perhaps creating a more interactive environment, and introduce a chat facility so they could contact each other on a more informal basis as part of yellow pages. In terms of cultural differences, DXB could carry cross cultural training, where employees would acquire more understanding on their colleagues’ traditions, and the way different cultures do business, and this could be a very good solution to bridge the misunderstandings and miscommunications gaps between the Chinese, Middle Eastern, American and English work groups and also help to aid personal networking between them and promote understanding each other’s differences.

In terms of improving trust issues, formal meetings are not sufficient to build trust. DXB is in need of plenty of scope for informal interaction such as, staff fun days, games, social events after work, etc, in order to help promote informal personal network, in order to build relationships. There is a need for some sort of collaboration between the two different workgroups, which are geographically dispersed from each other. So perhaps, DXB should organise an annual staff meeting, as face to face interaction is crucial for building trust which DXB so desperately needs.

Not every company is able to have a one to one relationship with their customers, these days but it is not impossible, where a company has a small number of clientele. In a bigger company, which rolls up their approach on a mass scale, it may not be possible to maintain direct relationships with their customers, but there are other ways to create networks with them. Strategies that would help the company making contact, developing business relationships and maintaining a personal network with external stakeholders and bringing them into decision making could be via media, and social media.

Facebook, twitter, blogs, websites and TV adverts. For instance, companies posting on their pages, get feedback instantly, promoting the ability to deal with issues very quickly, based on instant feedback and comments, strengthening the link with customers by using them into the decision making process. UPS, used this strategy effectively when one of their drives was filmed throwing a delivery over a fence and was bombarded with negative comments from customers. Thanks to the social media, UPS was able to rectify the issue very quickly, by responding and apologising promptly based on customers comments. Social media is a very clever way to maintain the direct link with customers, especially if it is difficult to maintain a direct relationship with them. Blogs are also a clever and informal way, allowing personal network to develop, especially when there is a comments feature. Greenwich University has adopted this strategy, in addition to giving new students a log in and password details to enter into the University blog, where students are able to interact with members of staff and other students with enquiries, give feedback on current issues and leave their comments.

In order to develop business relationships, build a formal network with external stakeholders and bringing them into decision making, DXB could adopt Toyota’s approach, who leads the way in suppliers’ relationships that goes beyond price.

The concept of a close network of the company and suppliers that continuously learn, improve, and prosper with each other, is the core strategy behind Toyota's supplier relationships. Toyota’s source about 80 percent of their manufacturing costs from outside suppliers, whom in return provide many cost-cutting ideas. Outsourcing manufacturing operations to suppliers can help companies increase profit, time-to-market and customer satisfaction, while decreasing costs and keeping up with consumers demand.

The best practices exchange, in addition to sharing information and learning how suppliers work are all crucial parts of their process. When working with suppliers to develop technology, Toyota creates a guest engineer program, where suppliers send engineers to Toyota's facilities to work alongside its own engineers. The training allows suppliers to integrate with the manufacturers' processes, and eventually, develop design ideas of their own, and in exchange, Toyota sends its engineers and occasionally, its senior executives to suppliers' facilities to study their operations and cultures. In addition, the experience makes the suppliers more technologically advanced, and increases their value to Toyota. The company views its supplier relationship practices as "a competitive advantage that cannot easily be replicated in the marketplace." By helping them to better themselves in the process of meeting their standards, Toyota creates mutually beneficial relationships that allows them to get what they need from suppliers without "beating them with a big stick," says Professor Choi.

The way Toyota checks suppliers are meeting their standards, is by monitoring their performance through monthly reports measuring quality, delivery, and incident reports. When issues arises, Toyota expects senior management to be involved to solve it, this process takes place in order to protect Toyota's long-term investment in the supplier, and on the other hands it helps suppliers benchmark their quality and develop new capabilities.

Task 3

The kind of communication an organisation needs in order to be effective is upwards and downwards communication. Management needs to be able to communicate down lower level in order to communicate strategies, tasks and instructions to employees.

Downward communication with customers’ about what their products are, what the company is about and what the new releases are. Downwards communication is very important and should be present in every company. However, in DXB there is a lack of downwards communication, a proper reporting process or a way that employees can easily access managers and get information from them, and this is extremely concerning.

In addition, there should be an upwards communication from employees to enable them to give their feedback, ideas, opinions to upper and middle management.

In terms of getting connection to external stakeholders, customers should be able to reach the company and give their feedback on the products and services and provide new ideas and if there is any improvements and modifications required on any product.

Also there needs to be horizontal communication between the different levels of the organisation. Employees need to be able to contact other employees as well, to help saving time and money by sharing ideas and problem solve much more effectively instead of always having to go through up through management and bureaucratic levels. Sometimes it is easier to share information horizontally. So there needs to be an effective communication processes that allow downwards, upwards horizontal communication (informal). So within an organisation there should be formal and informal communication. It is known that organisations should have a mix of both of these communication strategies order to be able to communicate effectively. If there is only formal communications, which may result in employees gossiping and malicious grapevine may develop, therefore, it is better to foster informal communication strategies within organisation because they have to exist within that.

DXB is a very defragmented organisation which lacks of downwards communication and formal information. There is no formal reporting structure, nor formal information dissemination. There is no way for employees to have a good connection with upper management and know what it’s going on with the company. The lack of chat facilities, informal communication between the employees themselves, has a great impact on the company’s work flow and efficient work dynamics.

So with a company that has very poor communication processes and issues, what can be done first of all, is to appoint a chief communications officer to take charge of the communication and make it a priority to deal with the issue effectively, since no one has accountability for the communication in the company. The chief communication officer could implement a communication plan for the organisation, which would function as the blue print for how the communication should ideally be working. That would be a key way to help organise communication, including all types of communication and be clear on who the stakeholders are, the messages the company needs to send them, the different communication methods there are available to reach them and choosing the most appropriate methods.

Downwards communication between management and lower level employees’ could be improved by sending electronic newsletter through the intranet, especially with workgroups in different locations. It would help management communicate ideas, strategy and its message to its employees. The role of the intranet would be a tool to improve that communication internally and use internet to improve external communication with external stakeholders.

There are different ways on how to integrate communications systems. One way that can be done is manually, appointing communication coordinators. For example, if there are important communications coming in, a coordinator would ensure those commutations are sent out to the right person.

Another way to integrate communications system could be through an integrated unified communication system. For example, all communications connected into one system, which the key messages would be sent to the key inboxes. What this would do, it would integrate the system into one area. Instead of a user having to access different communication systems, to see what management communication system is talking about, it would bring the key messages to their inbox, saving time. This process would enable users to know where to look instantly for the communications, and what is going on internally. For instance, customers’ feedback requiring urgent response, requiring important communication to be brought back, it will go to their inbox.

This process would be even more effective, if smart phones were connected to this type of communication system. For instance, if managers, employees and even suppliers are not near a computer to read communication, these devices would bring all messages directly into their smart phones, enabling even quicker response if necessary. In addition, using smart phone technology would enable stakeholders to read, forward and reply to emails quickly. Follow conversations on Social media and interact with customers, suppliers, other employers, etc. Events could be posted online without a computer, blogs could be managed, moderate comments monitored and new posts published by seeing the companies’ traffic statistics.

Smart phone technology, is the best way to bring their communication systems together as they can broadcast messages and get alert as soon as messages come in.

Another way to help downwards communication could be through meetings, enabling management to give instructions to employees. Downwards communication between the organisation and its customers could be improved by websites, blogs, video logs, youtube videos, social media, etc. In order to improve horizontal communication, an informal approach could be effective, through meetings, chat facilities, collaborative tools, email facilities, etc.

Personal Communication Plan

I am an ambitious and hardworking individual wanting to thrive intellectually and professionally. I take a heart for the community and helping others whom want to better themselves but maybe do not have the right guidance and tools. I strongly believe that every individual has an essential tacit knowledge valuable for any organisation regardless of their background, making me very passionate for people from different cultural backgrounds, willing to share their experiences. My mission is to learn from others and teach others to achieve their goals and be successful in anything they are passionate about and my vision is to implement my mission in a learning organisation, which culture is investing in employees self development in order to get the best out of them to achieve common organisational goals. I am seeking for a secure job pos graduation. I have an inquisitive mind which given the adequate tools, I will become an essential employee for any organisation’s success.

Opportunities: to develop a better personal, growth professionally by listening and communicating skilfully showing my audience I understand their needs and issues and willing to fix them. The ability to communicate verbally and write more confidently. Marry persuasive approach and motivational skills.

Strengths: I fore think before communicating, evaluating my target audience, considering their education level, mood and context of the situation in order to structure my message accordingly and choose the best channel of communication for the message and audience in question.

Weakness: Sometimes, I fail to adequately consider my audience needs, where trying to meet deadlines, overloading with information, losing important details in the process. Crucial details such as cultural background and education level on the communication process, using jargon loosing members whom lack of understanding and experience on the those terms.

Threats: Emotional interference is a crucial threat I face. If I am irritated, frustrated or resentful towards someone and yet try to communicate patience and acceptance, I will therefore, send messages that are incongruent, which my audience will perceive ambiguity and insincerity of my message.

Key objectives/goals: Identifying weak communication areas. The formal communication plan will allow me to maintain strengths and improve weakness through consistent action and monitoring.

Key stakeholders I am trying to reach

Key messages to communicate to them

Communication tools needed

Employer

Build relationship

Email, telephone

Teachers

Questioning

Email, telephone

College

Informing

Email, telephone

Colleagues

Motivating

Email

Task 4

4a. the current issue with DXB is that they have disparate fragment systems, where each international location is using a different system and software, NY may be using Mac and London may be using Windows and that is going to lead to problems with timely information transfer and corrupted data. For DXB to be able to get accurate and timely information transfer they would have to have a unified system where the information is able to transfer over quickly without any problem in terms of formatting and data corruption.

Historically, the way that ERP systems (ERP is quite hard based, hard info is covered) worked, what org used to have for all their dif dept or locations, they’d have separate data bases, sales, HR, accounts, Marketing and dif operating systems and what this meant, when they tried to transfer info between this dif dpt in the organisation it would lead to lengthy info transfer times and corrupted data, making the whole process difficult in terms of transferring info and data in a timely manner, then info becomes unvaluable because by the time it has reached where it is supposed to be it maybe be outdated. ERP seeks to use a unified data base, allowing all the functions to access that data base. So in DXB, which has a very fragmented information system, ERP would be a good solution to help overcome this unity in term of info systems.

Intranet could be used as info system, accessible to all org and is a great way to disseminate across the org as well.

e.g. Walmart success is due of their information systems, they have an unified information systems, where all their stores link up to a single information system, they all use the same software and operating platforms and this helps to make sure all information is transferred seamlessly.

Hard and soft information issues (lecture 12), it is important for a business having effective operations. Businesses need to include and be able to store and have a good information system which seeks to collect adequate information and knowledge should have a facility to hold both and hard and soft information.

Hard information is mainly quantitative data, including sales figures, stock reorder levels, etc.

Soft information is qualitative data, including descriptions, opinions, private documents, emails, etc.

Soft information needs, could be an a knowledge management system to cover soft information, allowing the collection of docs, people personal emails, docs on the data base, pics, notes, comments, etc. This kind of knowledge management system will be able to collect that soft info, that maybe ERP system would not be able to decipher. So Knowledge management systems are also a good way to ensure that an org system is able to deliver both hard and soft info and knowledge needs.

4.b

There is a lack of access in DXB, because lower level employees do not have any access to info, only managers have a strong hold on the info and do not share it well. Obviously, info and knowledge are strategic resources, org do not want to share it with anybody and don’t want it go be in the wrong hands. The ways for an org can limit and give access is by setting up passwords firewalls and smart cards control, by metric access authentication Org that are worried about unauthorised people using their system and therefore not making the system accessible, firewalls will check incoming data packets coming in and will either grant or deny access. Assign passwords to each staff member, instead of banning them from seeing anything, create levels of access. If docs are very sensitive and not meant for everybody in the org put an access lock on it, which a specific password would be required in order to see that specific document.

Which companies have implemented what I am suggesting to implement successfully (intranet, blogs and social media, etc)?

it is important to insure the chief information officer, actually fulfils their role diligently.

The fact that managers do not give access to lower level employees, it is very difficult as they need to know what are the current trends and there are issues there in DXB.

1b. stakeholders are important to the decision making process as they are bringing valuable feedback, instead of organisations spending time and money they can acquire that valuable information from stakeholders. Suppliers have a lot of information on the quality and use of the material. In addition, they supply competitors, being able to provide information on competitors’ orders, as well as being a source of innovative ideas.

Customers: modifications and source of fresh ideas.