Managing Communications, Knowledge and Information - Report Example

Introduction In order to comprehensively complete any project or task within the organization, it is important that the overall information needs areassessed. Assessing the information and data requirements will therefore also indicates as to what type of data is required and how it will be used meaningfully by the management of the firm. The planned expansion of hotel to include gym and swimming pool facilities in the hotel will require a comprehensive understanding of the overall information and data requirements in order to make a rational and well informed decision. In order to assess what information and data is required; it is customary that data gathering methods as well as the criteria for gathering such data shall be outlined also. Once the required information is gathered, next phase will involve a systematic dissemination of data and information among the management as well as the operational staff in order to keep them informed about what potential changes may be introduced as a result of the expansion. Further, this report will also provide an appropriate information system diagram to visually present the flow of information besides providing a detailed description of at least three performance measures which should allow the management of hotel to practically judge the success and failure of the proposed expansion plan. This report will therefore attempt to explore all the above mentioned areas and will provide an analysis of how this can be achieved and what resources and requirements will make it possible to achieve the intended objectives. Task-1 a) The proposed expansion in the hotel will require different sets of data and information to assess the commercial viability of the project. First of all, hotel needs to explore following: 1. Is there any demand for these types of facilities? 2. If there is a demand, how many visitors will visit the facilities and what prices hotel shall charge to attract the visitors? Having defined this, next step shall be to identify the data required to perform such type of analysis. It is therefore assumed that both the qualitative as well as quantitative data will be required to complete this project. Most important sources of data will be internal and a temporal analysis of available data is required to assess as to whether the customers, historically, requested for such services. Further, external sources of data will be required to assess as to what the market is charging for providing such facilities and what may be the costs involved in constructing and maintaining such facilities. This data will be required because it will allow the management to assess the commercial viability of the projects and will provide them a critical insight into how to design the facilities in a manner so that cost of maintenance remains low while at the same time offering high quality services. b) Some of the methods to collect the data will include survey of existing hotel records in order to assess the hotel occupancy and demand for these types of services. Further, a market survey may also be performed in order to explore as to what types of facilities are offered by the competitors and what are the charges for such facilities. (Trochim, 2006). c) In order to effectively use the data and draw meaningful information from it for effective decision making process, it is important that data gathering process must be performed by taking into consideration following elements or variables: 1. The overall purpose of the data must be analyzed effectively in order to make the meaningful assessment as to whether the data serve the purpose for which it was obtained. Thus the first important criteria for using the data and information are whether it serves the purpose for which it was obtained. 2. Once it is defined that the data obtained is serving the purpose, next criteria should be to assess whether it is timely and effectively. Timely obtainment of data is critical because if data is not obtained in timely manner, the decision making process as a whole may not be effective and management may lose the necessary advantage of taking required action to complete the project. 3. Third and probably the most important criteria to be used is to assess as to how much it would cost the organization to obtain the data. If data obtainment is costly and time consuming at the same time, it may not serve the purpose of the organization as cost and benefit analysis may suggest that the commercial viability of the project may be compromise due to costly obtainment of data. Task 2 (a) Communication Plan A good communication plan is considered as the heart of the overall strategic planning process as it outlines the comprehensive program of how the information will be disseminated and who may be the stakeholders for getting this information.(Potter,1997). Objective The objective of this communication plan is to identify and outline what information requirements are for this project. Further this communication plan will also provide a concise insight into how this information will be disseminated and to whom. In order to achieve this objective, active participation of all the hotel staff including the higher management will be required. As such communication flow will be both ways and will involve voluntary flow of information in vertical as well as horizontal manner. Target Audience This communication plan is targeted at the higher management of the hotel i.e. all the departmental managers and Managing Director. Further, all the operational staff of the hotel will also be the target audience of this plan. Principles and Values 1. Successful construct Gym and Swimming Pool as additional services within the Hotel. 2. To make these services commercially viable and profitable. How Information will be Communicated 1. Departmental Managers and Managing Director of the Hotel will get the required information in the form of concisely presented reports. 2. Operational Staff will get access to this information through display of the same on Hotel Notice boards and internal memos. When this information will be provided Since this project will be a phased project therefore the information will be provided as and when collected and processed. Further, the data will be provided to higher management of the hotel prior to processing of the same so that higher management of the firm is involved in each decision making step. b) Information Dissemination The Management Team Since management team will be the key stakeholders group in this project and taking the key decisions, therefore following plan of action has been prepared inline with the communication plan to disseminate information to this group: 1. Daily Activity reports will be prepared and circulated to the higher management of the firm. 2. A comprehensive report will be prepared on the overall information requirements; how the data will be sourced and complete cost benefit analysis will be provided. 3. Finally a comprehensive presentation will be made to the higher management that will outline everything about the project. Operational Staff Information to operational staff will be presented in following manner: 1. Information will be disseminated through official notice board of the hotel. 2. Higher management will circulate the internal memorandum to the staff outlining the information needs to be disseminated. Task 3 (a) b) It is most important that the information system must provide a comprehensive and systematic overview of the performance of any project undertaken. In order to successfully develop such information system, it is important that timely information must be provided to the system to extract timely reports to make more informed and timely decisions. If the proposed expansion plan get a go- ahead from the top management of the firm, it is customary that the information system must be able to provide critical information regarding the performance measures of the proposed expansion plan. Three most important performance measures that could be developed are: Strategic Analysis Reports Probably the most important report that the information system must be able to produce is the strategic analysis report which can provide higher management of hotel a critical insight into how the project is going to fit into the overall organizational objectives. For this purpose, this strategic analysis report must provide the overall market information, information regarding key players, suppliers as well as the customer trends and patterns. Further, this report shall also provide information regarding the internal stakeholders of the firm and how they perceive the project and contributing towards its success. Activity Reports In any given project, it is most important that the project must meet its budgeted variables including costs and time budgeted to complete a particular activity. Since delayed completion of the various activities will result into more costs to be incurred it is therefore critical that the system must be able to provide accurate information regarding the level of performance against set criteria.(Herken,2007). The activity reports therefore must provide clear and accurate status of the various activities to be performed, budgeted allocation of time against them and their current status. Higher management of the hotel will therefore than be able to make meaningful comparison and take decisions. Cost Analysis Reports Another important performance measure or report which system must provide is the cost analysis. Like activity reports, cost analysis must also provide a meaningful variance analysis indicating the differences between the allocated budgets and what actually has been incurred on them. This report will probably provide most important and critical information to the management regarding the overall commercial feasibility of the project. If costs exceed the budgetary allocations, the overall project may become difficult and expensive to complete. References 1. Potter, L (1997). The Communication Plan: The Heart of Strategic Communication. 1st. ed. New York: International Association of Business Communicators. 2. Heerkens, G (2007). Project Management: 24 Steps to Help You Master Any Project. Illustrated. ed. New York: McGraw-Hill Professional 3. Trochim, W (2006). Types of Data [online]. [Accessed 23rd July 2010]. Available from: . Read More