Managing Communication Knowledge and Information: Classic Badge Company - Case Study Example

MANAGING COMMUNICATION KNOWKEDGE AND INFORMATION: A CASE IC BADGE COMPANY Introduction Business communication has formed a specialized subject of itself in business management. Communication has played a major role in sharing information with stakeholders for organizational objective performance; communication has played a major part. Professional communication for business is a formal mode of written, spoken, oral, visual or digital information within organization to get the desired outcomes. To impart information on business offerings to the perspective consumers in a market and attain competitive edge over the other similar brands suggests its importance. The paper would design the communication norms and process guides for the Classic Badge Company (CBC), where the researcher would act as communication and media manager under the owner Charles Gillbeck, to set the communication processes. Task1 1.1. Major Ranges of Decision in set-up stage Communication and its processes provide a vital tool for business to put across a point that the business wish to communicate for its benefits. The affectivity of communications determines the clarity of understanding in the team to coordinate and work towards organizational benefits. Communication can be further subdivided into sub parts like visual, spoken, written, body-language, expressions, mode of transmission and contents. Thus communication along with other factors determines the affectivity of the objectives set by a business in its performance. However, for a business organization, the most basic decision that needs to be taken during the set up is the ‘Internal Communication’ modes such as Downward, Upward and Horizontal communication (Osland et al., 2001). CDC is a small enterprise that supply custom made badges to local firms. Therefore the span of communication has to be first decision that needs to be made. Therefore who is supposed to communicate what to the external sources and the mode of communication that the business would use in external communications has to be decided. For business like CBC, the business-to-business sales would mean negotiation of product price, receiving order, quoting prices, delivery notes etc. The formal modes of communication, such as written content in each of these cases, mode of the most cost effective media to communicate are to be decided and finalized. Today the most cost effective and eco-friendly mode of communications are internet dependent. Therefore the infrastructures like telephones for inter-departmental communications, internet and computer, mail Ids, websites are to be finalized with contents. Internal communication is dependent upon the structure of management and culture of organization oriented. It can therefore be divided into upward, downward and horizontal or liner communications (Murphy and Peck, 1980). Upward communication is termed to the flow of information from employees to senior management in the hierarchy. The upward communications helps the management to understand the point of view of the employees regarding the problems, solutions, ideas and thoughts. Since communication is a two way process, thus the upward and downward communications serves as the complete cycle of communication. Downward communication on another hand is the flow of information from senior management to employees about business objectives, instructions, announcements, motivation and morale development ideas. As a part of Vertical Communication, up and down flow of information and ideas builds the communication cycle within an organization. Linear communication is flow of information between people of similar rank helping the cooptation and coordination required for the business process (Stallings and Van-Slyke, 1998). These modes of communication need to be settled with the owner of the business to formalize the communications within the business. Strategic decisions: are most choices of actions that affect a big part of business enterprise. They contribute directly to the achievement of common goals of the enterprise. They have long-term implications on the business en­terprise. Tactical Decisions: these are relate to the implementation of strategic decisions. They are directed towards developing divi­sional plans, structuring workflows, establishing distribution chan­nels, acquisition of resources such as men, materials and money. Operational Decisions: They are day-to-day operations of the enterprise. They have a short-term horizon as they are taken repetitively. These decisions are based on facts regarding the events and do not require much of business judge­ment. Operational decisions are taken at lower levels of man­agement. As the information is needed for helping the manager to take rational, well-informed decisions, information systems need to fo­cus on the process of managerial decision-making. http://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/higher/business_management/business_enterprise/decision_making_business/revision/1/ 1.2. Information and Knowledge required for effective Decision making Information and knowledge is the key for a business process to make itself competent in accordance to the existent business environment (Saen, 2011). Therefore use of knowledge management to support strategic decision making and retaining competence in the operating market is vital for a business. Decision making is supported by the Knowledge and information in regards to the various factors as economic, social, cultural, consumer’s choices, competition in the market data. Sussman and Johnson (1993) observed that the business stays competent when it suitably takes the decision to implement changes in the process. The decision maker’s lean upon the knowledge and information of the market to determine the business and market overview for a decision formulation. Business Decision making Process (Source: Michman and Harris, 1977) Business decision making with knowledge and information is demonstrated in the figure above. The role of objective setting for a decision making comes first where the problem area is identified. The next step takes the pertinent information and ideas from various sources like internet, surveys and technological inputs and analyze to assess the probable fallout of each factor. Once the information is collected the course of action or how to perform the needful is decided. What all options are open to business is identified to choose the best one among them. Therefore based upon what the business is seeking decision making is done. However, the process of knowledge and experience goes hand in hand as the learning is not complete the time the decisions are executed. Based upon the outputs received from application of decision the suitability of decision taken is assessed. For future knowledge the objective achieved with the decision made is analyzed to have an understanding of its affectivity for future use and utility. Thus the CBC’s business decision making would depend upon its market, competitor’s position, and consumer’s expectations knowledge. Based upon the knowledge the most suitable decisions can be made as depicted above. 1.3. List of Internal and External sources of Information to justify the CBC’s Business The internal communication is both formal and informal communication within the organization. The internal business communications is the means of addressing organizational concerns, satisfaction, grievances, safety, productivity profits etc. In Upward, downward and linear communications for inter-business communications have the sources in its department like finance, personnel, marketing, sales etc. Financial information regarding the financial budgets, performances, is communicated while Human Resources holds employee related information. Marketing and sales information gives an idea of the business success or failure and helps to streamline the business and implement customer focused changes as required. Purchase information gives the idea of what to purchase, when and from who in context of price, availability, time of delivery etc to maximize the profits. The knowledge in this context enables proper decision making about supplier source, quality of raw materials, and cost of it etc. Further, sales and marketing information gives the internal consumers of business an idea about the business position in context of its competitors and market potential, enabling managers to take decision for future benefits. Manufacturing and administrative are internal information that have certain degree of internal classification to let it reach only to the targeted audience. Long staff (2002) argues that the internal information sources needs special care to see the information are preserved and reaches the intended audience only to keep business secrets within the organization. External communication source aids the business to have the idea of the market dynamics and legal obligations to make the precise business decision. Government sources, Trade groups, banks, media news, competitor’s details from external data and research sources. Downs and Conrad (1982) viewed, the external information aids in business decision making therefore the source and its reliability needs to be relevant to be sourced. 1.4. Recommendations The business of Classic Badge Company can incorporate the following in its sources for knowledge and information collection: The incorporation of internet in information and knowledge sourcing makes the process cheaper and easy. This can be incorporated along with suitable use of public announcing systems in shop-floor for all to hear a piece of information. A social media page is recommended to the CBC management to collate the job related information to be shared and discussed for mutual knowledge development. The grievance and employee voice would also get a role to play for future business benefits if the social media is used as all can be at one place to propagate own ideas. Journals of legal fraternity can be used to collect the new developments in legal and operations view to execute them within. Market survey reports for competitor’s business and market related projections are best sourced from news article and trade community reports as submitted to the government that can be effectively revised with the annual financial results of the competitors. Newspaper, radio, TV advertisements and promotions are proposed to attract more business. Task 2 2.1. Stakeholder’s Contribution in decision making Business Stakeholders are the customers, suppliers, employees, investors etc. The business builds coordination with the stakeholders as the business exists with an objective to provide stakeholders benefits. Therefore decisions about what to produce, quantity and quality, location, distribution, employment, strategic designs etc comes from the stakeholders. Further, there are programmed decisions for repetitive routine work and can be dealt by creating policy (Booth et al. 200. However, varied and unstructured decisions needs stakeholder’s involvement as the outcomes needs to suite the objective of stakeholders. Short term decisions are frequently made to relate supervision and management of business. Manpower planning, production, finance, safety planning in day to day operations are a few that needs short term decisions for business in day to day operations. Periodic decisions are less frequent and are tasked to keep the objectives of business on planned way. However the strategic decisions are long-term business decisions. Finance, manpower, infrastructure etc involves long term planning as they have direct link with stakeholder’s objective to sustain and develop in the market. Therefore the stakeholder’s business needs their objective view to operate as the outcomes of each process needs to fit them. Thus each decision is made to benefit stakeholders for long term business viability. 2.2. Enhancing business relationship with stakeholders The business viability involves stakeholder’s relationship with process and outcomes. Therefore to enhance the business relations with stakeholders involves two way communications between business and stakeholders. The stakeholder’s role in business is discussed with their perspectives: Customers: The consumers want the business to create value for their purchase and expect superior care and services from business. Employees: The employees are the internal consumers for the business and therefore the business relationship with them needs to be enhanced for better outcome from manpower. The needs of employees, care for their health, valuing employees as assets, managing grievances, keeping the skill competence in employee high are few steps that business takes to enhance their relationships with its human capital asset (Chappell and Read,1974). Investors: The investor’s objectives are related with business health as the investments in terms of capital for business comes from them. The return on investment is the key objective of a business towards its owners along with production and quality outcomes for achieving them (Abdin, 2011). Suppliers: The quality and quantity of raw materials have direct correlation with the outputs of a business process. Therefore the best prices, quantity, quality is dependent on suppliers and therefore partners the business. Again business repute has direct relation with its partners like suppliers and how they treat the internal processes. Stakeholders’ relation with business gives it the overall benefits of decision making for objective settings and executions. 2.3. Stakeholder communication plan or Decision making action plan The decision making and action plan formation needs consolidation of ideas from all stakeholders on how to achieve the business goal. Therefore the process of action planning involves objective identification and setting up a SMART plan to see the achievements (Himstreet et al, 1992). Specific, measurable, achievable, realistic and time-bound decisions need prioritising the tasks along with identification of steps to achieve them. Therefore the identification of the current position and set the target of what to achieve needs to be cleared by stakeholders to the operations team to let them do the needful. Use of right media is also important along with its contents. The business and product information, vision, mission, objectives etc needs to be communicated both to internal and external stakeholders. Therefore the objective of communication and mode to reach the maximum at best time and price is the key to such communiqué. Figure: Communication Plan Tactic Purpose Audience Timing Accountable Phase 1 Preparation of the managers for effective communicational process. The managers will be given a brief over view as to what are the strategic plans of the company and how they will be conducted. The managers will be informed about the upcoming strategic changes so that they can easily allocate the desired tasks to their subordinates. Line Managers overseeing different operational processes. 25 days Corporate communications Allocating tasks to the respective teams. Several teams will be created based on individual skills and competencies which as a result will allow the managers to easily complete the desired tasks within stipulated time. Team leads 15 days Vertical communication Phase 2 Communicating to the employees The team members need to be informed regarding their allocated tasks and the time schedule. Proper communication will allow the employees to avoid overlapping of roles and ambiguity in responsibilities. Employees or team members 15 days Vertical communication Feedback and monitoring of the effectiveness of the communication To ensure that the communication is successful to deliver the desired result Managers and employees 10 days Research group 2.4. Enhancing personal networking skills Personal networking is the ability to effectively communicate and build formal business relationships with stakeholders for maximum benefits to the business. Interpersonal skills need soft skills where the strengths and weakness of the researcher’s communication is determined (Marsden, 1986). For a better business process the business needs to engage the stakeholders and find out what they are thinking to incorporate the views. The process would need: Building trust and rapport: The process builds trust and confidence between business and stakeholders. Listening and Questioning: Listening is a very important part of successful communication. Understanding the stakeholder’s perspective to ask relevant question for further analysis and overview has to be a part in such a network building (Creelman, 2012). Engaging in the process: The engagement of the stakeholder can be made by visiting them from time to time, following up, expressing the counterview and receiving suggestions. Influence reference groups: The reference groups play a vital role in creating the awareness among the members. Moreover, the members in a reference group influence each others’ purchase decisions. Thus it is important to communicate with several groups of the stake holders which not only will increase the chance of brand awareness but will also improve the relationship with them. Develop online presence: Social media has become an important tool which allows the firms to create a wide network of stakeholders. It enables them to create seamless communication with them and it also allows them to have a robust consumer behaviour monitor system. Task 3: 3.1. Report of communication process in the Organization Communication process in CBC is formal and linier within the organization while the external communications are formal and are kept in records for future considerations. The data or information of the market perspectives are stored, matched with business processes to be competent and valid in business objective achievements. Information technology has made the sourcing of information for a business easier while for knowledge sharing use social media has made the process much easier. The CBC’s business is a small enterprise; therefore the communication relationships are very linear between supervisors and employees. Again, for the inter-departmental task, departments use company webmail for communications. A notice board is placed in the middle of the floor, visible to all employees to display administrative information along with a public announcement system to relay any information in work-floor at once without much time wastage. External communication is formal and has a specific language for making such communiqué which are mailed from one single company mail ID to prevent any misuse of company information to external stakeholders. 3.2. Pitfalls in the process and ways to improve them The business communications for the business of CMC dose not incorporate the external communication with consumers as in promotional campaigns. Since the business is based to serve other businesses with Badges thus the concept of mass communication about product and offerings is missing here. Developing them would mean developing communication for mass communication. Badges are symbol of identity and therefore the mass communication is designed to attract young consumers using cell phones (Abdin, 2011). The internet is used for its social media to promote the badges and prices with design. The sports pages, fashion, adventure; school pages are targeted to give the selected audience an idea about our product and its price along with availability. 3.3. Recommendation It can be recommended for the company to employ a more robust online marketing strategy. This will allow the firm to reach a wider customer segment and will also enable it to conduct business processes easily. The company is also advised to undergo a business collaboration with a third party marketing company which will help the firm to create new dealership networks thereby increasing its distribution channels. 3.4. Personal plan to improve Communication The success of learning processes for further improvements is dependent upon current communication skills. Listening and reflecting upon the subject develops clarification of communicated idea, empathise and encourage active use of formal spoken, written and body language. For effective communication practising them with family and friends is a recommended where the latter may help in grooming the skills for effective communication skill development. Moreover, communicational skills need to be improved in terms of both verbal and non-verbal communications. Verbal communications can be improved by engaging in group discussion activities and involve in keynote or public speaking. Non verbal communications can be improved by observing professional speaker and learning their haptic cues (Beamer and Varner, 2008). Task 4 4.1. Existent approaches for information collection As discussed in the previous parts the CBC uses the social media for its internal communications and knowledge sharing. The sources of information those are used are checked and validated before incorporating them in the company data base. The data collected in the process is used for future decision making for strategic objective achievements. For dissemination of information the organization uses social media internally and for external communications the formal Mail ID is used for the time being to avoid multiple views reaching the business clients. 4.2. Improving the collection of Information The business of CMC can use one metallurgy site subscription for new updates in the metal production and property. The badge production uses metal for its output therefore the new additions in the industry, product and raw material variety can be received from there for the purchase department to try and use the new technology for better output. Again the business can make a commendable product differentiation through knowledge management using the internal social media pages to teach and store product and process related information. This would also help the new joiners to learn about the production at a shorter span of time. Training and development based on product development and technology therein can also be stored and transmitted by the production supervisor as and when necessary for content development. 4.3. Recommendations The recommendations that can be given are as follows: Internet use for Product and process related information gathering, storage and distribution is one such recommendation. Using lesser paper in the business process is another recommendation that is proposed. The use of paper is costly and not an environment friendly affair therefore the use of internet would be cost effective for CMC’s business. However internet and computers are prone to crashing or technical fault. Therefore it can be recommended that to keep the data safe, Cloud Drive folders of a web mail provider is to be used each day for back up storage, to recover them in case of a technical crash-down. Reference List Abdin, J., 2011.The Barriers of Communication & Guidance of Effective Communication. SSRN Journal. Beamer, L., and Varner, I. I., 2008. Intercultural communication in the global workplace. Boston, MA: McGraw-Hill. Booth, R. Dixon-Brown, M. and Kohut, G., 2003.Shared Teaching Models for Business Communication in a Research Environment.Business Communication Quarterly, 66(3), pp.23-38. Chappell, R. and Read, W., 1974. Business communications. London: Macdonald & Evans. Creelman, V, 2012. The Case for "Living" Models.Business Communication Quarterly, 75(2), pp.176-191 Downs, C. and Conrad, C., 1982. Effective Subordinancy. Journal of Business Communication, 19(2), pp.27-37 Himstreet, W., Baty, W. and Lehman, C., 1992 Business communications, Belmont, Calif.: Wadsworth Pub. Co. 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