managing communications knowledge and information.docx

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BTEC EDEXCEL AND DIPLOMA IN BUSINESS (MANAGEMENT & HUMAN

RESOURCES) OFFERED BY INTERNATIONAL COLLEGE OF BUSINESS AND

TECHNOLOGY

Individual Assignment


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Managing Communications, Knowledge and Information Individual Assignment

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CT/HNDBM/39/32

Acknowledgement

I would like to express my gratitude to Mr.Frank Gunasekara and Mr.Eranda Bandara who

gave me the possibility to complete this assignment and for the guidance and support they

gave in preparation of this study.

Especially, I would like to give my special thanks to my parents who enabled me to complete

this work.

However, it would not have been possible without the kind support and help from my friends.

Last but not the least I would like to thank all our peers and staff at I.C.B.T and specially

Mr.Dhilum our coordinator who were ready to lend a hand in whatever way they can.

I am making this project not only for marks but also to increase my knowledge.

Thanks again to all who helped me.


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Executive Summary

The main purpose of this project is to show how communications, knowledge and

information can be improved within an organization and making better use of Information

Technology systems.

Information, knowledge systems and communication are three aspects where a business

needs to be concerned of, in order to run a business successfully. Effective management of

these three areas is crucial to the success and effective use of organizations resources. These

areas can help the firm to gain a competitive advantage.

The aim of this report is to analyze the importance of communication in business and main

stake holders ofCargills food city and the significance & benefits of making networks with

them. And which includes how to contact and maintain relationships between them and the

ways of getting stakeholders involvement into decision making and analyzing about further

strategies to develop relationships.

This study further explains about creating strategies to increase personal networking to widen

involvement in the decision making process, developing communication processes and so on.


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Contents

List of Tables, Figures and Illustrations ................................................................................................... 4

1. List of Figures .............................................................................................................................. 4

2. List of Tables ............................................................................................................................... 4

1 - Preface ............................................................................................................................................... 5

1.1 About Cargills Food city ................................................................................................................ 5

1.2 Subsidiary and Associate Companies ............................................................................................ 6

1.3 Organizational Hierarchy .............................................................................................................. 7

1.3 Cargills Organizational Hierarchy .................................................................................................. 8

1.4 Decisions taken at different levels ................................................................................................ 9

2 - Managing Information .................................................................................................................... 10

2.1 Organizational Information Requirements and Systems ............................................................ 10

2.2 Internal and external sources of information ............................................................................. 11

2.3 Information management at Cargills food city ........................................................................... 12

Evaluation of data collection methods ............................................................................................. 12

Information dissemination methods (Stimpson.P, 2002) ................................................................ 13

3. Technologies of communication.................................................................................................. 14

Existing processes of communication ............................................................................................... 14

Verbal communication process of Cargills ........................................................................................ 15

Digital communication process of Cargills ........................................................................................ 15

.............................................................................................................................................................. 15

4. Improvements through a personal development plan.......................................................... 16

Personal Networking and Business: .................................................................................................. 19

Networking techniques ..................................................................................................................... 19

Reference.............................................................................................................................................. 20


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List of Tables, Figures and Illustrations

1. List of Figures

Figure 1 - Information, collection and storage methods at Cargills food city. ..................................... 12

Figure 2- Communication ...................................................................................................................... 14

Figure 3 - Cargills hierarchy chart ......................................................................................................... 15

2. List of TablesTable 1 - Decisions .................................................................................................................................. 9

Table 2 - Organizational information .................................................................................................... 10

Table 3 - Personal development Plan ................................................................................................... 16

Table 4 - Barriers .................................................................................................................................. 18

Table 5 - Tips to minimize barriers ........................................................................................................ 18
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1 - Preface

1.1 About Cargills Food city

Cargills (Ceylon) PLC is a Sri Lankan corporate established in 1844 and built on a strong

foundation of values and ethics. Guided by trusted leadership it spearheads the sustainable

development of the food industry in Sri Lanka.

Cargills food city was established in 1983 as a first supermarket chain in Sri Lanka. First

outlet was at Staple Street. In 1993 when the company invested in its first manufacturing

facility, Cargills ventured into the production of processed meats and Cargills supermarket

began to source fresh fruits and vegetables directly from farmers.

Cargills supermarket provides nutritious high quality products to consumer at the lowest

possible price. Now Cargills food city is rated the fourth most valuable brand in Sri Lanka

and the most valued retail super market in island. The retail chain has expanded with over

150 outlets spread across the Sri Lanka in more than 20 districts.


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1.2 Subsidiary and Associate Companies

Cargills

Magic

Kotmale

Kist

Kist

Knuckles

Kist

Biscuits

Supremo

Finest

MilcaCargillsLanka

Milk

KFC

Food

City

Express

Book

City

Private

Labels

Store

Locator

Millers

Limited


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Strategic

LevelTactical

LevelOperational

Level

1.3 Organizational Hierarchy

In an every organization there are three main levels of management.

Strategic level Tactical level Operational level

Strategic levelIn this level mostly the information is used to plan organizations objectives and strategies. Tactical level

In here this kind of information is used by the middle level managers for management control

activities, purchasing, distribution, stocking and etc.Operational levelIn this level line managers have to ensure whether they have done their particular work or

task.


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Operational

level

Tacticallevel

Strategic

level

OperationalManager

Executives Clarks

DivisionalHeads

Low level

Staff

Other

Functional

Managers

1.3 Cargills Organizational Hierarchy


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1.4 Decisions taken at different levels

Decisions taken differ according to the levels in the hierarchy. Higher level managers

take important, unique decisions which can be also known as programmed decisions or

strategic decisions. On the other hand non programmed decisions or routine decisions are

taken by lower level managers.

Decisions can also be categorized as strategic decisions, tactical, and operational

decisions.

Table 1 - Decisions

Decisions Examples Who makes the decision

Strategic Decisions:

it sets the direction of

the company

- Market new products

- Expanding the distribution

network

Top level managers:

Chairman, Directors

Tactical Decisions:

It is about how

things will get done- How to market the new

product

- Recruiting and training

marketers

Managers

Operational Decisions: Day

to day decisions that keep

the organization running

successfully

- At Cargills the marketers

or the operational level

staff decides daily on

which product to market

according to customer

requirement. For e.g. if the

marketer is going to market

a medicine

Operational level,

employees


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2 - Managing Information

2.1 Organizational Information Requirements and Systems

Information is important for long term benefits of a firm as well as to run day to day

operations. Firms daily gather information and also give out information. Organizations

require information for several reasons.

Table 2 - Organizational information

Requires knowledge of the available resources, possible timescales and the likely outcome under alternative scenarios.

PLANNING

Once a plan is implemented information is required to assesswhether it is actually preceeding as planned and to check forvariations.

CONTROLLING

Information about each transaction or event is required forreasons such as evidence, legal requirement, and operationalinformation.

RECORD TRANSACTION

Comparisons against budget or the plan is able to be made.PERFORMANCE MEASUREMENT

Information is required at different levels of the organizationto make decisions.

DECISION MAKING


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2.2 Internal and external sources of information

Internalsources of

informationTelephone

E-mails

month-end

conference Daily reports

Conversations

Free sims

Externalsources of

information

Telephones

Emails Groupwebsite

Suggestionbox


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2.3 Information management at Cargills food city

Information management is the collection and management of information from one or more

sources and the distribution of that information to one or more audiences. (Course material)

The marketing department at Cargills food city gathers a great amount of information relating

to different areas. Marketing and the sales staff provides important information to the other

departments and to different levels in the organization.

Figure 1 - Information, collection and storage methods at Cargills food city.

Evaluation of data collection methods

Primary methods Meetings,Telephone calls,

Catalogues and leaflets

Secondary methods - Dealers ,Competitors,

Consumers.

Information gathering can be categorized as shown above. Cargills uses various

methods in gathering information however these methods also have limitations up to a

certain extent and might be unsuitable on certain occasions. Therefore it is necessary

to evaluate and check the effectiveness of these methods.

INFORMATION Customers Supplier Products Competitor

Communication Surveys verbally Product

catalogues ,verbally.

Companywebsite

Storage computerised

database computerised



database


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Information dissemination methods (Stimpson.P, 2002)

Intranets: it is a mini version of internet. Employees in an organization use networkedcomputers to access the data held in a server. The user interface is a browser, similar to

those used on the internet. It consists of information relating to a wide variety of topics.

Extranets: this is an intranet that is accessible to authorized outsiders, using a validusername and password. The user name will have an access right that is which areas of

the extranet are possible to be viewed.

Internet: through websites, and sites such as LinkedIn, Cargills is able to disseminateinformation on their company and products. Therefore it is better if Cargills can create

their own website so that a large amount of information can be given out.

Database system: this is also another method of disseminating information internally atCargills. Employees in different departments can access to the data held in the database.

All the tools used to communicate can also be identified as dissemination methods for

e.g.: the leaflets and catalogues given out to customers disseminate information regarding

the products.

Furthermore the marketers task is to disseminate information to their customers.

Marketing itself is a method of information dissemination.

Also at Cargills it is the marketing that gathers data on customers, products, competitors

through research and make available to other departments. E.g. the information on

competitors is useful for the accounts department when it comes to pricing decisions


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3. Technologies of communication

Existing processes of communication

Communication means exchange of information, between two or more people at work. Most

of the companies dont have proper communication and plan so all the time misunderstanding

can occur between two individuals and resentments build because people are not

communicating effectively with each other. Company would receive bad outcomes but to

avoid that problem Cargills has communication process to deliver proper information tomanagement people.

Figure 2- Communication


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Verbal communication process of Cargills

Cargills always follows verbal method with their stakeholders. Companys specific goal is to

have people understand and what management is trying to say through the verbal

communication in order to communicate the valuable message. In this process company uses

oral and written communication with their stakeholders e.g. presentations, announcements,

feedbacks, and conversations etc also are using by Cargills to share the collected information.

Digital communication process of Cargills

This process in this is by using email messaging system, websites suggestions, online group

chats, fax, social Medias and internet to communicate message. By using this method Cargills

could able to convey the information at the same time could maintain strong relationships and

it is very faster & easier and company dont want to spend too much time and paper wastage

is also low.

When we look at the Cargills communication processes they need to make some

improvement for effective communication inside the company so this report has suggested

appropriate improvements.

Figure 3 - Cargills hierarchy chart


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4. Improvements through a personal development planTable 3 - Personal development Plan


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There are many ways that Cargills can implement within company to ensure the greater

systems of communication processes in Cargills.

Establish a defined employee orientation process that outlines the company policiesand employees roles within them.

Create monthly employee newsletter with company news and holiday calendars andother morale building information.

Conduct regular staff meetings, group discussions to keep people updated oncompany changes and aspects. Company wants to encourage the people input and

participation at the meetings and other events.

Implement anonymous employee communication survey where people can providetheir independent feedback about companys policies.

Ensure the appropriate channels through which company can communicate areworking and are effective. E.g.; internal publication, messages on websites, email,

broad casts, posters. Any way sufficient feedback has to give by company.

Hold employee grievances programs, suggestion programs such as quality circles toimprove communication in company.


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Table 4 - Barriers

Table 5 - Tips to minimize barriers


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Personal Networking and Business:

Networking is building relationships with others and getting to know each other. In a

business context networking is developing business relationships and enhancing trust and

communication to do business easily and profitably. More often this is done by exchanging

leads and referrals to their potential customers. A referral is the opportunity to do business

with someone who potentially needs your products or services and is expecting you to contact

them.

Networking techniques

Business cards: a business card is a simple but a very useful tool in networking. It is

common but networking would be effective only if the card has the necessary relevant

information, such as who you are? What you do and why someone should have your contact..

Social networking sites: There are a large number of sites these days e.g. LinkedIn, face

book, Twitter and so on. These sites help businesses to promote their company, introduce

their products and basically to meet people and build relationships. Cargills marketers have

their profiles on face book, with the company details. It has a large audience.

Greetings: To keep the relationship with their customers and suppliers Cargills send wishes

on customers and suppliers birthdays and for various festive.

Suggestion boxes: Customers and even employees can give their suggestions on the

companies current activities and improvements. Anyone would feel free to give their ideas

as it is more confidential.


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Reference

Text books references

Jane. P. Laudon_ management information systems_ Pearson education_ India 2004

John adair_ effective communication_ macmillan publishers Ltd_ London 1997

Stimpson.P,Business Studies, Cambridge University Press, New York.

Websites References

http://www.cargillsceylon.com/OurBusinesses/FoodCity.aspx

For company introduction (viewed on 27th of Dec 2012)

http://human-treasures.com/Communication.htm

For communication process (viewed on 23rd of Dec 2012)
http://www.cargillsceylon.com/OurBusinesses/FoodCity.aspxhttp://www.cargillsceylon.com/OurBusinesses/FoodCity.aspxhttp://human-treasures.com/Communication.htmhttp://human-treasures.com/Communication.htmhttp://human-treasures.com/Communication.htmhttp://www.cargillsceylon.com/OurBusinesses/FoodCity.aspx

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