Excellence Communication System - Essay Example

? Managing Communications, Knowledge and Information TASK A Task Effective Communication Skills Effective communication skills make it very easy to be adequately listened to and understood, leaving one with a feeling of calmness and more appreciated, as a consequence doing away with much tension in people’s lives (Turkel, 2004). a. Respect Respect is an effective communication skill aimed at avoiding and defusing tension and/or disputes that may exist. Whenever individuals feel that one respects their points of view and have listened to it, then to the vast majority of people it will not matter whether they still disagree with you or not, and they will be polite about it. There is virtually no need to worry about differences in opinions since they are healthy so long as people remain calm and state their opinion in a polite manner. Respect is therefore identified as an effective communication tool which allows you to do that because it emphasizes the other person’s right to have a different viewpoint to your own. There doesn’t have to be a right and a wrong in everything. b. Focus on the other person Being in another person’s shoes ought to facilitate communication. One should be able to understand and appreciate that whatever he or she is saying is expressed with a lot of ease. It is thus advisable that one really listens to what another person is saying and gives him/her a good chance to speak. It is worth noting that much impossibility accompanies any action of trying to speak and listen at the same time. So one needs to make sure there is much time when he/she is not speaking, so that he/she can listen what the other person has to say. Take note of what is being said. c. Read between the lines Any assumptions have the possibility of leading to several problems, but there is a middle ground. Over and over again, people can be nervous of speaking their mind, but their worries and their feelings do not get away, they just fester and make people feel bad. One is proficient enough to employ some knowledge about the person being spoken to, to be familiar with situations of holding back on another person. He/she could then gently look into in the area or reassure them that they are safe to speak their mind. Determining where the gaps are in a situation that entirely depends more so on being sensitive to the next point. d. Body language It may be of surprise that more of the messages are conveyed through body languages than by verbal communications. One has to ensure that your body language says that you are open and willing to listen, and watch out for what the other person’s body language is saying to you. Reading body language is a really effective communication skill. e. Considering responses A number of conversations are thrown off course by an overemotional response. That destroys effective communication and can be evaded via taking deep breaths, stepping back slightly and thinking prior to speaking. An efficient communication proficiency that is often over-looked is the acknowledgment of gender divergences in communication. One fact is that men in most cases do communicate on factual levels, while women do it on emotional levels. It can lead to misapprehensions. Action Plan Good goals are effective in enhancing communication skills. SMART (Specific and Strategic; Measurable; Action Oriented; Rigorous, Realistic and Results Focused; Timed and Tracked) goals framework is a fundamental tool for individuals to use in creating effective goals and action plans. Specific and Strategic (S) A Goal needs to be simple and plainly written, with adequate specificities to determine whether they have been accomplished. A goal is defined as strategic only if it serves a significant purpose and when it concentrates on something which is likely to have a large impact on the overall vision. Measurable (M) Whatever is cannot be measured, cannot be managed whatsoever. What measures of quantity, quality, and/or impact can be used to determine whether the goal has been achieved. Progress toward achieving the goal typically is measured through benchmarks. Some of the benchmarks focus on the processes, as in keeping on doing what had been agreed upon. Other kinds of benchmarks can also focus on the results, that is to say the early signs of progress toward the results. Action Oriented (A) Goals do have active, and not the passive verbs. The accomplishment steps attached to the goals designate who is supposed to be doing what. Without transparency on what is essentially going to be done to reach the set goals, a goal is only regarded as a hope with diminutive probability of being achieved. Making apparent the key actions that are essential to achieve a goal helps every person to be certain of how their parts of the exertions are linked to other components of the work and to a larger purpose. This understanding is vital for people to actually stay energized and focused instated of becoming uncertain and fragmented. Rigorous, Realistic, and Results Focused (R) Goals are never activities. Each and every goal is expected to make clear whatever will be unusual as a result of attaining the organizational goals. All goals need to describe some levelheaded yet go-getting results. They need to stretch the educators, teams, or organizations, towards improvements, but they should not be unachievable/out of reach. The effort and focus necessitated in achieving scrupulous but reasonable goals should be challenging but not extremely exhausting. A goal set too high can be discouraging, while that goal which is set too low will also leave a feeling of emptiness when they are accomplished and will not serve an organization well. Timed and Tracked (T) A goal needs to have a set time frame. Time limits help everyone to take actions. For a goal to be effectively accomplished there should be definite times when key actions are supposed to be completed and benchmarks achieved. Tracking the progress made on action steps benchmarking the processes is essential activity, falling behind on doing one action will result in the need to accelerate the pace on another action. Tracking progress on process outcomes is not enough, however. Outcome benchmarks facilitate knowing of whether they are on track to achieve the goals and/or whether they have reached the goals. Benchmarks give ways to see progress and thus celebrate them. They also provide information needed to make progress corrections if necessary. Communication Skills objectives Actions Barriers Required Support Time Scale Building stronger relationship with clients Involving clients in determining what is best Culture and law differences in countries In corporation of individuals from respective regions In as long as the company is operational Building stronger relationship with employees Involving employees in decision making Difference in decision making skills Training of employees In as long as the company is operational Being relevant to both employees and clients Maintaining high levels of communication Wider population Constance research and consultations In as long as the company is operational Personal communication development plan helps in better understanding of the particular aspects of communication skills, and effective planning of each and every task to ensure that all undertakings are successfully completed within the time frames provided, and if any case be, more time is allowed. It in short, allows for proper planning and flexibility based on the strength, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats of the communication skills of managers and employees (Roy M. Berko, et al. (2010, pp. 9 -12). Task 2 Internal communication This the communication transactions that occur between individuals or groups at different levels and in various areas o specialization that are intended to design and redesign organizations to implement designs, and to co-ordinate daily activities. The four different domains of internal communication include; management communication, business communication, organizational communication, and corporate communication. Internal communication incorporates both –official and unofficial communication. Official communication constitutes memos guidelines, policies, procedures, etc (Kitchen, & Daly, 2002). Whereas unofficial communication extends in all directions among line staff members, meaning, exchange of ideas, opinions, development of personal relationships and proverbial conversations. Internal communication helps in the improvement of productivity, reduction of absenteeism, higher quality of products and services, increased levels of innovation, minimal strikes and reduced costs. External communication External communication focuses on audiences outside the organization as consumers, investors, regulatory bodies etc. Examples of tactics by external communication include factsheets, press kits, newsletters, magazines, brochures, news releases and annual reports. Good business habits drive good external communication (Kitchen, & Daly, 2002). This means that as companies begin to develop and prize the habits of excellence, a corresponding desire and need for good communication at all levels. a. Management to employees’ communication Communications linking managers and their institutions’ employees are important issues in any progressive organizations. Every employee requires guidelines from their respective overseers, and the managements want contribution from the entire team. A number of companies have slight troubles communicating downwards, but challenging information to flow upwards is more of a challenge. When an employee stays quiet about their needs, the negative consequences can consist of missed delayed projects, opportunities, and failed initiatives (Saunders, 1999). The rationales for any communication gaps comprise employees that think that they do not need to appear ineffectual, and those who are not willing to give their sides of view to the management. Furthermore, because they know that the management teams are busy with long-term planning and strategic initiatives, many employees may not wish to disrupt details of day-to-day activities. Without that skill/knowledge, nonetheless, managers have complex situations in gauging whether they are managing the company effectively. The only solution in the action at making employees to communicate well and keep the company’s advancements to be within the expected limits is to properly put up an excellence communication system between the employees’ groups and the management teams. Breaking through the barricades and getting employees and managers working together facilitates in advancing every strategic vision and attaining goals promptly. This entire process involves the identification of communication needs, sharing of knowledge and skills, creation of motivational cycles, and establishing empowerment expectations. i. Sharing skills and knowledge: While a number of people have knowledge based on and skills relating to their duties, a number of managers are unaware of their employees’ every day’s tasks. If one ask any employee to give explanations on what goes into each project by listing the activities, costs, and time spent on each. This discussion can take account of reviewing survey outcomes, customers’ satisfaction ratings, protection metrics, or other accurate statistics. ii. Creating a motivation cycle. Management inputs play enormous roles in active motivation of employees to communicate about and work hard towards their goals. In making communication with management easier and efficient, one can organize for group conference calls so that employees are able to share their ideas regarding a certain projects or strategic plans. Spare a half day to carry out some roundtable discussions with employees to attend to their concerns (Barnlund, 2008, pp. 47-57). iii. Establish empowerment expectations. Effective work teams have to properly document their common understandings. Just as Blanchard’s One Minute Manager, put in writing a one-minute goal and its prerequisites in four hundred words or less. Talk about the parameters and goals with everybody concerned prior to assigning any tasks so that the whole teams are able to recognize and make any necessary tradeoffs required to ensure success. b. Organization to clients communication A company’s customers and employees can become befuddled or aggravated by managers' poor interpersonal skills and knowledge. Interpersonal skills are significant to managers responsible for building workplace trust and cooperation from staff members who are cooperatively held responsible for furthering business goals and objectives. Inaccurate and rash business communications recurrently result into wasted time and resources because of the necessity or revisiting issues that had not been appropriately communicated. Ways to improve the appropriateness of the communication processes Technological inventions and innovations have made communication between various segments in business much easier and quick. Modern technologies are even more efficient in further enabling business transactions and communication i.e., in eCommerse and/or etrade. The intense users of social media have also form fundamental target by several organizations, companies, and individuals for the purpose of publicity of their services and/or products. To ensure better reach of a wide market, none specified communications such advertisements aimed at gaining publicity can be done via the social media. An advocacy of the social media is attributed to by the fact that is has a wider market area, it is cheaper and can be accessed by virtually everyone with the knowledge of operating any computing devices that can support the social media interfaces, the different social media interfaces are built on very effective interfaces that support interactions where customers and managers or employees of any organization can interact to get more information as they may require. Availability, which also ensured by the social media, is a core requirement of any business that has the vision and mission of advancing and meeting the needs of its clients from wherever they are and whenever they so wish. Again here, social media is the best option. A telephone conversation is also another good system of communication, although it is adequate one-to-one conversation between either a customer and a manager or a customer and an employee. This system may not be very effective for advertisements but suitable for formal communication with distantly placed clients, and business communications that may call for higher levels of clarifications and understandings that are not otherwise effectively expressed in writing. Even though it has taken longer since its introduction, the use of e-mails still remains important in electronic communication within the business environment. Pictures, invoices, receipts, and any certificate thereof can be promptly disseminated through the use of emails from one point to another. TASK B Task 3: Decision Making Process The development of tourism strategies and destination management plan has to consider a number of factors. These include; sizes of the tourism company, operation levels (local, national or international levels) of the company, aims and targets of the organization, and resource capabilities of the company. Information and decision making success depends on the on the acute understanding and support of the intended clients’ requirements within the prospect of tourism as an industry. Thus, there is immense need to comprehensively understand tourists’ abilities, limitations, and inclinations. In summary, making a good decision calls for the need to have relevant information regarding the specific instances in the tourism industry, sets of organizational principles, organizational models, templates and informational abstracts. This is as shown in the diagram below. Internal and external information sources and better understanding of a Tourism Company help in the in the planning and determining realistic goals that are achievable and beneficial. For instance, internal information facilitates planning based on what need to be added and what need to be eliminated in the intent of attaining a goal. Relevant information on the external factors is also key in being precise on setting targets. A country or region with several tourist attraction sites will most likely have bigger and more complicated strategies as compared to that country with limited or no such sites. A destination management plan can be defined as a shared information/statement of intent by a tourism industry to develop, promote and manage a destination over some defined period of time by the a company/organization. Such statements articulate both the roles of various stakeholders, identifies clear actions that they are bound to achieve or undertake and the necessary for their allocation to aid their functionality. Destination management plans have to be guided by internal information sources (tourists’ history) regarding their tastes, most liked sites, most preferred means of transport, and security levels. Destination success is actually a success of well coordinated approach to the development, planning, marketing and management of a destination. Well managed destinations have the positive advantage of generating wise growth in visitors’ economy, and are able to maximize the benefits of that growth in long term basis, more income and job creation. In addition, if well managed, destinations can excel in attracting new investors/ investments, in keeping tracks of value-added jobs, in raising new talent and in stimulating innovations. Thus, great destinations are greater and better places to live in, work in and visit on a frequent basis. It has to be acceptable among the stake holders that proper allocation and management of the available resources is key to the expected outcome of the destination management action plan, which is a segment within the bigger strategic framework for tourism. They have to support action plan objectives of sharing best practices among the strategic planners and practitioners to make sure that there are high levels of quality provided, and an integration of destination management strategies. Partnership and strong involvement of the external stakeholders have the impact of focusing their concentrations on the everyday’s’ partaking of the tourism company. Since these stakeholders are fully involved in the running of the company, they can also be encourage to register as stockholders so that all that goes around the company have direct impact on them. This will provoke them to be strong members of the company in the process of decision making. As stock holders, their interest will also be involved in possible techniques that the company can apply to be operation and management efficient to gain the end result of maximum profit making. Engagement of stakeholders in the process of decision making by a tourism company considers individuals who may be affected by the decisions made or have a hand in influencing the implementation of its decisions. In this sense, they may oppose or support the decisions, be directly significant in the organization or within the neighborhood in which the tourism company runs, takes position of pertinent executive positions at the end. As a part of a corporate social responsibility, the process of involving or engaging stakeholders to facilitate achievement of bottom line issues regarding the efficient running of the company is crucial. This type of involvement is actually a tool that may be used by any organizations in developing the fundamental understanding and agreement to possible solutions on the complex matters. A core principle in have stakeholders involved in the case tourism company’s affairs are to enable have a chance in influencing the decision-making process. Task 4 Improving Access to Systems of Information and Knowledge The current approach to data collection, formatting, storage and dissemination of knowledge and information to support the teaching and learning at the London School of Business and Management involves the use of COLA system. This system serves the basic functions of information or data collection, formatting, storage and dissemination (Snyder, & Wilson, 1998). However, there are other tasks in data/information management such as the consideration of the meaning of words to different communities. It is therefore important that, for the purpose of knowledge management, much attention is given to the nature of practical knowledge and the social construction of knowledge. Believing knowledge or just some sections of the knowledge to be socially constructed depicts knowledge or information as a dynamic commodity which cannot be easily captured and structured. For instance, perception on how to carry out an activity in a company setting is repeatedly a multifaceted task requiring knowledge of formal and informal procedures; organizational roles; expectations about behavior; personal and collective capabilities; and values which used in judging performance in roles. This type of knowledge is continuously refined as the organization conducts its tasks (Scott, 1998). Tacit knowledge, on the other hand, is stored in individuals' heads and is habitually communicated in a relaxed way, since it is precious to an organization. It is private, as is on an individual's opinions, standards and instincts, and is a major part of the knowledge which characterizes personality as experts. Hence, it is complex to sanctify and record. Explicit knowledge is fundamental in its roles within the learning processes and throws in to the individual’s armory necessary for their effectiveness in the organizations. However this alone is insufficient since business decisions often rely heavily on tacit knowledge which informs decisions, proficiency, principles and insights. COLA course of action assists project in uncovering and reflecting on the reflexively apprehended tacit knowledge and enables it to be explicit (Suomi, 1992). BIBLIOGRAPHY Barnlund, D. C. (2008). A transactional model of communication. In. C. D. Mortensen (Eds.), Communication theory (2nd Ed.). New Brunswick, New Jersey: Transaction, pp. 47-57. Kitchen, J.P., & Daly, F. (2002). Internal communication during change management. Corporate Communications: An International Journal, 7(1), pp.46 Roy M. Berko, et al. (2010) Communicating. (11th Ed). Boston, MA: Pearson Education, Inc., pp. 9-12 Saunders, M. (1999). Linking external communication and organizational effectiveness. Organizational Development Journal, 17(4), pp. 35 – 40. Turkel, S. (2004). Communication is a key factor in franchisors and franchisees getting along. Lodging Hospitality. 60(1), pp.22 – 23 Scott, J. E. (1998). Organizational knowledge and the intranet, Decision Support Systems, Vol. 23, pp 3-17 Snyder, C.A. & Wilson L.T. (1998). The Processes of Harvesting Knowledge: Keys to Management of knowledge, schedules of BIT 98 held at Manchester Metropolitan University. Suomi, R. (1992). On the concepts of inter-organizational information systems. Journal of Strategic Information Systems; Vol. 1, No. 2, pp 93-100 Read More