Information Communication And Knowledge Of An Organization Information Technology Essay

Coca-cola Company is the worlds largest beverage company which leading manufacturer, marketer and distributor of non-alcoholic beverage concentrate and syrups. It is distributed over 200 countries. It owns more than 400 brands in the world including the main brands like diet coke,fanta and sprite etc.coca-cola is the most popular and the largest selling soft drink in history as well as in the world.

Today there are many competitive in the beverage field. Therefore each company should be more attractive than their competitive companies. Information,Communication and Knowledge help the company to achieve its strategic goal. Amoung them Information and Knowledge help in decision-making and taking effectively. According to the coca-cola system they consider as their customers,grocery stores,restaurants and mass merchandisers.

So that it is very important to know the ideas of consumers and their complaints about the product. As a beverage company Coca-cola company needs to know what customers ideas about the taste of their products.For that it has to be collect data fro m the customers and process them into information. Even though information collected there is no use if they do not distribute for use in organization’s activities. Communication is the processes which distribute information.It can be done in many ways.

The roles of Information, Communication and Knowledge in Decision – making.

The role of Information

Information is a powerful resource and a large expense for many organizations. Information management is the process of collecting information from one or more sources and the distribution of that information to one or more audiences.This maintains the data of an organization. The information system of an organization is essential for the day-to-day activities in an organization. The activities of organizations are mainly coordinated by information and communication. Information is said to be processed data. Data can be defined as the complete range of raw facts and measurements

For examples; letters,numbers,symbols,sounds and/or images relating to the events in the organization or its environment.

Data is collected and then processed into information.Therefore information can be defined as processed organized or arranged data which is meaningful to the person.Data itself has no meaning so it is not useful in decision making.But informations are useful in decision making. Information is necessary to convert the resources of an organization such as-people,materials, machines and money for use in the organization’s activities.

Organization needs information for many purposes. They can be categorized as follows;

Planning

Recording

Controlling

Measuring

Decision making

Planning-In this step information help to get an idea about the available resources,present market and competitors of an organization.

Recording-The information which use in recording helps to manage the business properly because using recording historical details can be found easily.

Controlling-Once a plan is implemented; its actual performance must be controlled. Therefore information requires checking whether activities are proceeding as planned or whether there is unexpected deviation from plan.

Measuring-In this step information can be used to measure performances of business.This can be analyzed by collecting information on costs,revenues,volume,time scales and profitability.

Decision-making-Information is very much important to make decisions within an organization.

Good information should have following qualities;

It should relevance to a user’s needs.

It should be accurate.

The information should be readily available within the time period.

It should inspire the user’s confidence.

It should communicate to the user clearly

It should have effective cost.

The role of Communication

When data is processed the information is communicated immediately to the person who wishes to use it but if it is kept for later use then it must be stored and retrieved when required.So communication is a essential component in organization because it shows how information is sent and received within organizations.The way of transferring information is depending on the structure of the business.Like entrepersonal,pyramid,matrix and independent. In simple terms communication can be identified as the process of transferring or exchanging of information,ideas,beliefs and opinions between two or more parties. Therefore communication process helps to coordinate tasks and activities of the organization.

In other words communication helps to coordinate tasks and activities in an organization to achieve its objective or objectives.Therefore effective communication is an essential component of an organizational success whether it is at the interpersonal,inter-group, intra-group,organizational or external levels.The communication performs an important role in facilitating decision-making.It provides the information that individuals and groups need to make decisions by transmitting the data to identify and evaluate alternative choices, from sources to decision makers.

The role of Knowledge

Knowledge is full utilization of information and data.It is also related with person’s skills and experience.Knowledge is the information within people’s minds and it is a subset of information which has been extracted,filtered or formatted in a very special way. Knowledge management describes the process of collecting,storing and using the knowledge held within an organization.The knowledge is based on the meaningfully organized accumulation of information through experience communication or inference. Knowledge is very important in gaining competitive advantage for a business therefore organizations need to manage it as both object and process.

Knowledge is the power source of an organization because knowledge can increase productivity and effecientcy of an organization.The goal of knowledge management is to improve the organization’s ability to fulfill its core process more efficiently because knowledge can result in better decisions.

Therefore knowledge of an organization;

Increase productivity

Lower costs of doing business

Higher quality products,decisions and recommendations

Information AND KNOWLEDGE NEED INTERNALLY and externally to improve Decision making and taking.

What is Decision-making?

Decision-making can be defined as a process which selecting the best course of action from among several courses of actions.This may be a solution for a particular problem or a making a choice to achieve a specified state of affairs.Within an organization decision is the point at which plans,policies and objectives are translated into concrete actions.Therefore the purpose of decision-making is to direct human behaviour towards a future goal.Decisions can be classified as structured and unstructured.The structured decisions are repetitive routine. They are programmed decisions. Unstructured decisions are non routine and if decision maker provides judgment it is called non-programmed decisions because it does not provide clear cut solution.

Decision- making process

Different people use different approaches in making decision.Diferent scholars have presented different series of steps of a decision-making process.Whatever stages are elaborated, the decision-making process should have four stages as;

1. Identification

2. Development

3. Selection

4. Implementation

Identifying the problem and collecting Information are important in the identification stage, while developing and evaluating alternative solutions are discussed under the second stage, development.Selecting the best course of action amoung the alternative solutions under third stage and put decision into effect and provide report on the progress of solution in the final stage in decision-making.According to the decision-making process collecting information is very important.

Decision-making comprises the whole process that involves decision makers’ upto the point at which the issue is decided.Decision-taking is the function or activity of the responsible authority as in the case of a manager deciding on a course of action.

Recognize the need for a decision

Define the problem

Identification

Collect data relevant to the problem

Analyse the data and find the root cause of the problem

Develop criteria for satisfactory solution

Development

Generate Alternatives

Assess Alternative

Selection

Select an Alternative

Get the authority and implement the chosen alternative

Implementation

Monitor the feedback

Steps in the decision-making

Importance of Decision-making

Within an organization, different types of decision are taken at different levels.Generally the decisions which are taken by senior management will be affected the business as a whole, and decisions that affect only one aspect of the business will be taken by lower levels of management. David Jennings and Stuart Wattam stated decision-making as ‘an activity that lies at the heart of management’.This shows how important is decision-making to an organization. All the actions made by the organization are result of decisions made by the organization itself.Problems of an organization arises because of the limited resources.

But to make the organization effective it has to use the available resources.Thus they need to improve their decision-making.On the other hand the competition faced by organizations is increasing day by day. The survival of an organization will totally depend on the quality of decisions they make every day.Organization is a sub system of a social system.Therefore organizations can not work independently because several other systems are interrelated to the organization.

In the case of coca-cola company decisions which make at any managerial level is very important because it can be either increase or decease in the number of customers.The future of this type of companies totally depends on the their consumers.Therefore every decision has to be taken by thinking about the consumers.

Strategies to improve Decision-making and taking by using Information and Knowledge internally and externally.

Managers can improve decision-making by using information and knowledge internally and externally.Internal information is important for all management levels in their decision-making and taking in the organization.But this relate to activities or transactions performed within the organization, such as administrative tasks, the production of products and services or the sales of products. To improve internal information manager can;

Establish a system for collecting data or measuring data such as measuring output,sales and cost

Relying to some extent on the informal communication lines between employees.

In an organization to improve the knowledge managers can improve the personal skills of the employees.They can organize seminars to improve the knowledge of the knowledge of employees.

External information is the information that obtained from outside the business.It can be either official or unofficial sources.Normally these information concern about official areas (tax,regulations etc.), the economy,suppliers and customers.In an organization external information are very useful. It helps in effective decision-making because in decision-making it is very important to know customers’ ideas,complaints and choices.The information of official areas provide the current situation of the business world in political view.Therefore by collecting information and knowledge of the outsiders the organization can achieve their goal effectively and efficiently.

STRATEGIES TO increase personal networking to widen involvement in the decision-making process.

What is networking?

Networking of a business is the process of establishing a mutually beneficial relationship between personnel including customers, stakeholders and experts.The purpose of networking is to increase business revenue by development of relationships that generate information, referrals, advice, support, energy and much more.The best business networking give rise to exchange business information,idea resources and is the most important skill to establishing a mutually beneficial relationships.

For effective and strong networking it requires people to;

Effectively communicate

Be prepared and willing to share information

Listening to the others

Have good contact with others

Exhibit curiosity

Asking questions to show that they are interested in the subject

Identifying people in jobs that can talk to and make enquiries of

Sources of personal networking

Personal networking includes both formal and informal network members.Personal networks can guide the self determined person.This is very important in decision-making.Personal networking helps to improve the productivity.As well as personal networking it is very important to keep in touch with any group or key individuals who can affect the work or the objectives of the organization.

Stakeholder networking help to;

Stay in touch with developments in area of work

Get information which will help in the work

Influence individual decision-makers

Stakeholders can be internal ( all levels of managers and co-workers) or external(regulators, environmental and legal entities).Therefore stakeholders are clients, project managers and teams, contractors and sub-contractors, distributors and suppliers and everyone else with a stake in an outcome stakeholder networking is a key to business success.

According to the stakeholder contacts it can be dividing into two types;

i) Primary stakeholders- They are directly linked to the organization such as shareholders, employees, customers and suppliers.

ii) Secondary stakeholders-They are indirectly linked to the organization such as the media, regulators and competitors.

Good relationships with stakeholders can increase the stability of an organization. For example if it has good relationship between suppliers and organization they show optimal responsiveness to company needs. This is not easy to do. It needs time for people to know one another, build trust and deal with organizational issues

Strategies to increase personal networking

1).Forming business relationships

Establishing good relationships with stakeholders help individuals to go through to find and develop lasting interpersonal relationships. The relationships with stakeholders can improve by

Attending the meeting or events of other organizations

Use e-mail and the internet to network with national or international organizations

Attending political and community events where key organizations and decision-makers will be present

Attending conferences, seminars and consultation meetings

The relationships with customers are very useful in decision-making because managers have to increase customer satisfaction and minimize their problems. For that they have to build good and smarter relationships with customers to identify their preferences and to develop trust. In this case complaints, errors and proposals of customer are very important. So they must be recorded. There should be any medium available to contact the customers such as Internet, through a call center or personal contact. Therefore in an organization the decision which making by the ideas of customers are more powerful in achieving their goals. Not only the customer’s relationships supplier relationships also very important.

2).Networking direct or using media as an intermediate

Based on the relationship of trust someone can be use as a referral in the process of networking. It is the most fundamental act in networking. Professional networking groups are the best referrals. They meet at regular times at a specific place and take decisions.

3). Formal and informal networking

4).Networking through trustworthy relationships and confidentiality

Every individuals in an organization link together through trust and relationships. Therefore networking through trust and confidentiality is very important.

Development of a communication process to improve the decision-making and organizational knowledge

Process of communication

Communication can be thought of as a process or a flow.

Noise/barriers

Receiver

Decoding

Channel

Encoding

Source

Message Message Message Message

Feedback

Communication flows from one person or group to another and then, via feedback to the original person a group making a closed loop or cycle. Elements of the communication process are;

i. Communication source/sender- The person who has message to communicate.

ii. Message- The message can be identified as what is communicated. It is the subject matter of the communication.

iii. Encoding-Encoding is converting a communication message to a symbiotic form.

iv. Channel-The channel can be defined as the medium through which a communication message travels. Examples; Telephone, Letters, Radio etc.

v. Decoding-Decoding is translation of the symbols in message into form that can be understood by the receiver.

vi. Receiver- The receiver is the object to whom the message is directed by the communication source/sender.

vii. Feedback-Feedback is the check on how successfully the communication source/sender has been transferring his/her message as originally intended. It is necessary to ensure that the receiver has received the message and understood it in the same sense as communication source/sender wants.

viii. Noise/Barriers-Noise is external distances in the communication process.It is very important to note about noise. The result of this noise is that the message received is not the message transmitted by the communication source/sender.

The types of communication processes are;

Meetings and conferences

Workshop and training events

Internet and e-mail

Written

Telephone

Video conference

Communication process of coca-cola company

They use ICT (Information and Communication Technology) to communicate both internally and externally.ICT has enabled 24 hours- 7 days global communication. This includes communication with;

Employees-They use Facsimile (Fax) as the tool to contact the employees because most employees have fax machines I their office.

Management-The pagers and Fax-machines help them to contact.

Customer-Coca-cola company use only e-mail to communicate customers. They could send different product or new sale’s etc.

Distributors of Coca-cola- They use video conference for the communication

The existing processes of communication in Coca-Cola Company are:

Internet and E-mail

Video conferencing

Facsimile(fax)

Internal ICT communication in Coca-Cola Company

E-mail-This is very fast way to send information and it save lot of time both sender and receiver. The staff of the Coca-Cola Company has their own program which is installed in their computers to tell them once they have received e-mail. Using email message can be sent to multiple recipients easily and can be forwarded on to others.

Fax- This allows people to have copies of document they may require and sent the message. Enables messages to reach remote locations quickly but complex images in he faxes are not clear.

Pagers-This allows people to received information whenever they are and whenever they need but long messages cannot be sent through this. Mainly executives use pagers in business.

Video conferencing-This cannot use by all companies. Through this people from different countries allow to talk one another and listen to what is being said. This type of communication is very effective in the communication because it allows transmitting pictures as well as voices.

External ICT communication in Coca-Cola Company

Fax use to contact the external suppliers and suppliers are the only people who do fax them externally. This type of communication process saves money and the time.

Improvement to ensure greater integration of communication

They can use conversation also as a tool.This is unstructed and a discuss a wide range of topics. In decision making meeting are very effective communication tool. Coca-cola Company is world wide company .here only top level managers and directors can meet and take decisions. This allows expressing multiple opinions and they can be discussed and resolved wide range of issues. This type of communication tools can be used in long term decision-making and taking but for instant decision making they can use telephone. This is good way of communication that does not required a written record and conference alls allow multiple participants.

Workshops and training events can be used to improve employee Knowledge. Through that they can improve organizational knowledge. Those types of methods can be used country vice.

Personal-Interpersonal skills should be improved.Interpersonal skills involve inspiring,motivating,leading and controlling people to achieve objective/objectives. Interpersonal skills can be defined as skills use in interactions and relationships between two or more people. Good interpersonal skills can assist in Motivation,Communication,Team working and Team building and customer care.

The role of Knowledge MANAGEMENT (KM) plays in managing organization strategically

As indicated in the role of knowledge , Knowledge Management describes the process of collecting,storing and using the knowledge held within an organization.It is basically focus on organizational objectives such as performance,competitive advantage and continues improvement of the organization through the improvement and sharing of organizational knowledge management throughout the organization.Therefore knowledge management is not a technology pr computer thing and it depends on the human skills.

Knowledge management use to identify,create,represent and distribute insights and experiences in an organization. These are help in managing organization strategically.