How to Assess Information and Knowledge Needs - Essay Example

(P1 Decision making involves evaluating the business problems and new opportunities provided different alternatives. To take a decision of accepting the new contract from Samsung to offer customers services and technical support in United Kingdom, outsourced call centre requires evaluating a range of decision. The outsourced call centre decisions are strategic like whether to accept the contract given by the Samsung that will lead to different changes in the business. Thus, reasonable decision making will be required because they will determine how the business will solve the different issues that may arise. The decision to accept the contract will lead to a decision to employ extra 100 workers in order to cope with new conditions of work. Donna (2008, P. 205) claim that the desire to diversify the business may lead to evaluation of resources to be used to pay the extra employees. Since, the business was operating before with 50 employees that show financial decision will be required to solve the problem. The business will make pricing decision of the services offered to customer in order to cater for the payment of the extra employees, and the extra hours that the workers will work will be required to be financed. It will not be easy to make some decision like that of pricing because it will bring conflict from customers who will be also affected in case the management opts to increase the price of services. To employee the additional workers, the management will be required to determine the availability of the potential candidate. The business should make sure to follow up the socialization of the new workers into the venture to ensure the decisions success. Lack of inadequate space to accommodate extra workers and the issue lease, the management should make a decision operate in shift for the time being as they wait to solve the issue of a lease and space. This move will be difficult to manage, but every business with an aim to maximize profit should be ready to accommodate risks involved with urgent decisions making. The management should evaluate the productivity of the contract to ascertain if it will meet the decision made to accommodate the venture in order to enhance the profitability. (P1.2) To ensure effectiveness of the new contract the framework within which these decisions making can be incorporated must be identified. The management should gather enough information on the viability of the contract depending on the current situation of the business. Past knowledge of the revenue trend of the services should be required in order to forecast the possibility revenue of the new venture. The profit trend will ascertain whether the customers should increase the price of services or reduce the wages of the employees in order to employee extra 100 workers to accommodate the operation. Before accepting the contract, the outsourced call centre should use digital media like facebook and the internet to search for the financial position of the Samsung. The management should be aware of the agreement and conditions of the lease term to avoid causing problems that would affect the operation. It should know if it is at position to renew the lease terms to continue operating on the same premises, or it has to relocate. According to the current situation of the business renewing the lease will not solve the problem of the inadequacy of the space but it will cause congestion. It should search for new premises to relocate so that the extra equipment can be accommodated that will enhance the productivity due to the maximization of the resources. (P1.3) The decision taking requires the company to research both internal and external sources of information and understanding. According to John and Claudia (2005, P. 45), the availability of the internal data of the past performance makes possible for the business to extract accurate and complete knowledge. Evaluating these data will help the business to tell if it at position to employee extra employees given the unlimited space of the premises. This data will help to supports more informed decision making, and in case of incapability, it will call for the employees and customers understanding. The business will require current employees view on the mater of working 24/7 throughout the year. To implement the method immediately will require employees understanding on the current situation of the business. Meanwhile, digital media and other advertisement press will be of significant use in explaining the situation to the customer about the changed working hours. Working in the unlimited space will require understanding of both customers and employee, and they can choose to work in a shift that will also call for understanding. The business should use the external sources like the internet and the web to research on the contract information that will enable clear and fair agreement terms with the Samsung. By use of the in person interview on the employees about implanting a 24/7 working hour, management noted that most of customer advocate for it if they were paid extra cash. About decision workers to work in a shift, the interview indicated most employees would prefer the business to relocate because the method would cause control issues. (P1.4) I would recommend the company to work for the suggested 24/7 per year, and the shift of workers will allow the efficiency and control. The company is facing the lease issue and due to the new contract the available space is not involved in the contract operation. Therefore, the management should consider working in shift, where it can decide 75 employees to work day time and the other 75 at night. The next day those who worked at night will come during the day time, and to maintain improvement it should offer bonuses for the night shift. The strategy will allow the company to operate normally and accommodate all alternatives. The decision is made by the team. Some will be made at in manager level to avoid the conflict of interest in the process of implementing the decisions. Joseph (2010, P. 125) indicates that the idea generating tool like the brainstorming will be useful in this cause because it will produce a list of possible alternatives. For instance, the issue of the lease will require brainstorming to evaluate the different alternatives of the employees regarding the issue. This decision tool provided alternative like relocating, renewing the lease and ask for more space on the same premises in order to maintain the customers. Zoltan and David (2010, P. 37) indicate that the use of multivoting decision tool will reduce a long list of ideas and allocate priorities fast on the ideas with a high degree of employee agreement. The tool was used on the 24/7 working period issue, where majority agreed to have working shift to accommodate the new employees and limited space. The decision of the bonuses and introducing new pricing strategies required more structure approach and the nominal group decision tool would be used to resolve the alternatives. (P2.1) Different stakeholders would be involved in the decision process of accepting the new contract from Samsung to offer customers services and technical support in United Kingdom. This may include customers, employees, managers, government and owners of the business. Each member will play a main role in evaluating different options in the scenario that will help in decision making. In the lease issue, the manager, government and owners will be involved in the process of the decision making. In the case, of the need to acquire and renew the lease contract the government will be involved in considerable role in making sure the agreement terms are met, and there is fairness. The managers and employees will be useful in the decision making on the 24/7 working period issue, and the government will also be required to ascertain if the alternative is legal or not. The decision to employee additional 100 employees will be made by the managers and the shareowners of the outsourced call centre. Because the decision, to employ more employee requires financial evaluation of the business and only the necessary people will be at position to evaluate the situation. The contact issue will allow the stakeholders to make nonprogrammed decision that respond to a situation that is unique. This leads to poorly defined and largely unstructured decisions, but it provides significant consequences for the business. (P2.2) On the issue of the lease, the company had to contact the government representatives through telephone calls. Meanwhile, the manager can send the representatives the emails explaining the matters and the necessity of the lease to the current situation of the business. The online services will be useful in making contact with employees, customers and the managers. The individuals will create reasonable relationship with the parties involved because the exchange of information online will enhance a relationship among them. For instance, on the issue of the lease, manager can make meeting notes that will describe the time of meeting, the parties who are in the meeting and the subject line of the matter. (P2.3) The government and owners will be involved in the process of the decision making. In the case, of the need to acquire and renew the lease contract the government will make sure the agreement terms are met, and there is equality. The employees will also be vital on the 24/7 working period decision making. In this case, the brainstorming decision tool will be used to evaluate the ideas of the employees and select the option with the highest number of acceptance. (P 2.4) The flexible pricing strategy will help the business to improve on the decision making on the employment of the additional 100 employees. According to Richard and Dorothy (2010, P. 78), the strategy will help the business to set different prices for service depending on the situation in the market. Employing extra workers will cost the company additional wages; thus, the company should modify the price of customer services in order to reduce the cost. Meanwhile, the marketing strategies will improve the personal networking internally and externally. The use of digital media can improve the personal networking because it will allow individuals to exchange information, and in the process, they create reasonable relationship. The use of reasonable marketing strategies will enhance the decision making of the business because they help in evaluating the alternative available. The company should implement the development and diversification strategy that will evaluate if the contact venture is profitable. Bibliography Donna, H. 2008, an Empowering Approach to Managing Social Service Organizations, Springer Publishing Company, New York. John, C and Claudia, E.2005, Design process improvement: a review of current practice, Springer Press, United Kingdom. Joseph, C.2010, Organizational Behavior: Integrating Individuals, Groups, and Organizations, Taylor and Francis Press, United Kingdom. Richard, L and Dorothy, M. 2010, Understanding Management, CengageBrain Inc, New York. Zoltan, J and David B. 2010, Handbook of Entrepreneurship Research: An Interdisciplinary Survey and Introduction, Springer Press, United Kingdom. Read More