MANAGING COMMUNICATIONS, KNOWLEDGE AND INFORMATION

Module: Managing Communications, Knowledge and Information (MCKI)

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MANAGING COMMUNICATIONS, KNOWLEDGE AND INFORMATION

Introduction A vast amount of knowledge exists within any given organization. If the organization can tap into this knowledge base and share it among the employees and other stakeholders, it will have a huge advantage over the organization that does not. HMSO (2007, pp. 129-189). As the HR manager at Aberdeen City Council, Scotland, I hereby submit a report on managing communication, knowledge and information at the Council. The City Council was founded in 1996and falls under the Scotland Local Government Act of 1994. It comprises forty three councilors headed by Lord Provost, George Adam. Just like any other resource of people, information and knowledge is a prized resource in any organization and should be managed with a lot of caution and attention (Nonaka, Toyama & Konno 2000). While in the private sector information and knowledge are recognized as strategic assets, there is also a need for the public sector to adequately utilize its information and knowledge to improve efficiency and aid policy development. In June 2005, the Aberdeen City council introduced the Zone. The Zone replaced the old intranet traditionally used by the council. Consequently, information and knowledge delivery around the council was improved tremendously.

Task 1 a) Objectives i. Information and knowledge recognition as a corporate resource The Aberdeen City Council must develop a communications plan to promote all information and knowledge management initiatives in order to fully recognize information and knowledge as corporate resources It must also promote understanding and promote awareness of the benefits of

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information and knowledge management. Moreover, the council must advance and implement measures to enable the entire workforce to contribute to and use information and knowledge management tools and systems. The City Council must also promote the existence of the information and knowledge management officer and carry out information audit regularly. This will enable the Council to realize the following milestones: Flexible and committed staff that understands how Information and Knowledge Management benefit the organization. Amalgamation of Services that recognize organizational needs and priorities. A change-responsive culture that responds to the needs of the council and other stakeholders. ii. Achieve accurate and reliable information and knowledge disseminated by the council In order to fully achieve this objective, the Aberdeen City Council ought to create an editorial board for the Zone. This will ensure the development of guides to remove and replace out-dated information. The council should also ensure corporate data standards. In addition, it should develop an information governance structure (Scarbrough 2003). Performance indicators to gauge the Councils success also need to be put in place. This wills earnest several positive outcomes including: A City Council working with reliable, valid and au fait information and knowledge resources. Aberdeen City Council workforce that is efficient and effective. A City Council that is knowledge rich.

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To improve access to information and knowledge In order to achieve this objective the Council, among other things, needs to restructure

the home page of the Zone. In addition, the council ought to analyze the need for the information and knowledge management database and integrate the existing content throughout the Zone. Ensuring that information and knowledge management systems are situated on a particular area of the Zone is also necessary if this objective is to be realized. The council should also consult with its task force on information and knowledge requirements. This objective will enable the council to realize several outcomes including: All stakeholders will have unlimited access to reliable and accurate information and knowledge form the council. Stakeholders and community in general will be better informed. Assigned tasks will be completed faster as information and knowledge are re-used without the replication of effort. Information and knowledge disseminated by the Council is made available in suitable formats. Information is not hoarded but made available to everyone hence promoting an open corporate culture. iv. The staff is able to access, share and use information and knowledge when necessary. To expedite the knowledge sharing and application within the Council and beyond This objective will be achieved through developing procedures that encourage direct transfer of information and knowledge and the introduction of face-to-face and online Communities of Practice. The Aberdeen City Council will also develop FAQs from its helpdesk

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call logs to help in reviewing and updating procedures that govern information and knowledge sharing. In addition, it will also develop an experience and skill corporate almanac. In addition, it will introduce after-action reviews and develop ways of upholding benefits of face-to-face or online sharing of knowledge. This objective will enable the council to realize several outcomes including: An organization that is incessantly growing through the sharing and production of information and knowledge. Link information to personal contacts at the council to facilitate knowledge gathering and additional investigation. A knowledge sharing culture. The establishment of communities of practice for the informal sharing of expertise and inferred knowledge. The Council is enabled to comply with external standards concerning the conveyance and accessibility of information. The council is made aware of the benefits information and knowledge sharing. Knowledge experts (custodians) are assigned to individual matters with the responsibility to guarantee information is sustained and shared suitably. The Councils expertise and knowledge is retained in a database and/or linked to particular individuals and not lost when the staff leaves. v. To inspire and maintain the creation and nurturing of knowledge This will be achieved through production of seating plans and name labels for employees workstations. In addition, the council will promote the generation of organizational charts with employee names and make them available on the Zone. The Council will also

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develop notification procedures and other service plans. Introduction of information management related systems and the assignation of data custodians to explicit knowledge will also be done. This objective will enable the council to realize several outcomes including: Staff and customers will be recognized as experienced and treasured sources of information and knowledge for the council. Future council projects will be developed comprising people with both interest and proficiency. Various Council services will work collectively for the best resources and results.

Knowledge or information requirements to achieve the Councils objectives This includes key financial figures such as sales and profits, employee information, internal business processes, customer feedbacks, markets, supply chain logistics and competitor information. This information is of various uses in business. For example, the council can use competitive intelligence to compare themselves to other organizations (competitive benchmarking). Competitor information or competitive intelligence refers to the action of gathering and analyzing information about a competitors product, customers and the entire external business environment (Hall & Andriani 2002). Competitive intelligence is a legal and ethical business practice, as opposed to industrial espionage (Hall & Andriani 2002). The internet has made gathering information gathering on competitors easy. For this assignment, I have chosen the following objective:

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Objective: To improve access to information and knowledge. This is because according to Improvement and Development Agency, 2007, any organization that pursues to identify with what its people know and shares it with its stakeholders gains a competitive advantage. Knowledge is definitely power in todays business world.

b) Types of data and information required to achieve the objective In order to improve access to information and knowledge, the following types of data are required: 1. Qualitative and Quantitative data In the context of knowledge management, both qualitative and quantitative data is valuable. Quantitative data is numerical, whereas qualitative data could be much more than just words or text. Qualitative data is most often contextual and describes the behavior and social interactions of the organization. Examples of qualitative data required will include videos of customers, pictures, clips etcetera. Quantitative data is usually scientific and more credible. For example, total number of customers annually, number of new customers, number of second and subsequent time customers, rate of customer retention, etcetera. According to Smith (2000), to gather sufficient information on how to improve access to information and knowledge, both qualitative and quantitative data will be gathered. However, all gathered qualitative information can be converted into quantitative. This would add considerable value to the research. To do this, the qualitative information is divided into units and then numbered. Once the data is in numerical form, it can then be manipulated numerically.

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2. Tacit and Explicit data Now, more than ever, organizations are forced to renew their product portfolio. It is only with new product brands and services can they maintain their competitive position and increase on profit and revenue. The question is do organizations have the correct environment and conditions to maximize on novelty success? Two forms knowledge exist: explicit knowledge and tacit knowledge, Nonaka (1991). Explicit knowledge is knowledge that can be exemplified in a code or language and consequently spoken and communicated, transmitted, managed and stored comparatively easily. It is the most generally known, public and conservative type of knowledge which can be found in journals, books and other media such as television, correspondents, internet, etcetera (Leonhard & Sensiper 1998). Explicit knowledge can be shared in form of data, manuals, scientific formulae etcetera. A perfect example of explicit knowledge in a corporate context is a patent. On the other hand, tacit knowledge is personal and difficult to formalize.it is usually rooted in action, commitment, techniques, principles and emotions. It is the unconventional, less au fait form of knowledge. Tacit knowledge is not communicated in a language it is not codified, it is attained by observation and imitation, by sharing experiences (Kikoski and Kikoski 2004). Tacit and explicit knowledge are, however, complementary. They are both essential for knowledge creation. Knowledge is generated through interfaces between explicit and tacit knowledge and not from either explicit or tacit knowledge alone (Nonaka 1994). Competitive advantage for Aberdeen City Council will only be gained if the company values its tacit knowledge. Tacit knowledge will create the learning curve to be followed by others and also provide a competitive edge for the future success of the company, Kikoski and Kikoski (2004).

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For example, the World Bank controls knowledge sharing globally to achieve its objective of becoming a clearinghouse for knowledge on sustainable development, Wah (1999, pp.17-26). This introduces a corporate-wide culture that interlaces knowledge into each of its business process. In addition, the World Bank sport approximately 4 percent of its administrative budget on management of knowledge and more than 50 million dollars to build a global knowledge management system, (Brown and Dugid 2000). 3. Official and Unofficial data Information can also be categorized into official and unofficial. Official information includes corporate communications, memos, responses from disgruntled customers, etcetera. In addition, information can also be gathered from informal day to day settings. For example, what is heard as idle talk among customers or stakeholders etcetera. This is called unofficial information. To achieve the overall objective of ensuring access to knowledge and information, the council needs to consider what all its stakeholders think about information accessibility in both formal and informal settings. This is because formal settings usually discourage some people from expressing themselves fully. 4. Policy and Opinion Policy refers to what is embodied in the companys rule books (RDI Learning Materials 2011). For example, business conduct code, rules and regulations governing employees, business procedures, company intranet etcetera. On the other hand, opinions are the views held by individuals on a subject and do not necessarily reflect the companys position. While collecting information as a corporate resource, it is necessary to recognize this distinction. In addition, valuation of both policy and opinion is necessary during decision making.

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Sources of data and information required to achieve this objective Customers and other stakeholders

Customers, the workforce (team members), suppliers and strategic partners are sources of vital business information and knowledge. This is because these are the people who interact with the council on daily basis. Internal and external

Information and knowledge is no longer exclusively produced within the internal boundaries of the council. Information is also sourced from the external environment. Key customers, suppliers and business partners, are invaluable in providing information and knowledge vital for decision making. Formal and informal

Formal methods of data collection include sales reports, quality control reports, project reports, error logs, minutes of meeting, etcetera. Informal methods can range from idle talk over coffee to informal brainstorming. In order to improve access to information, the council will need to gather both formal and informal information on knowledge and information accessibility. Primary data and secondary data

Primary data is raw, high integrity data that is essential for decision making. Secondary data, on the other hand, is achieved from the interpretation of raw data sets from primary data. It is often related with information needed by organizations for long-range, strategic decision making. Emphasis should, however, be placed on primary data storage as an approach to manage volumes of data gathered by the council.

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Task 2 a) Stakeholders to whom the information regarding the objective needs to be communicated For any enterprise to be successful and responsible, all stakeholders must have a complete understanding of their roles and responsibilities in the business infrastructure. These stakeholders include: i. Workforce (staff) It is an acknowledged fact that it is the vast knowledge that exists in the heads of individuals that organizations use to improve and develop their products and services. Council employees hold key information and knowledge of an array of subjects that enabled the day to day council operations. Nevertheless, it is evident that only twenty percent of this information and knowledge in a typical City Council is structured, codified and accessible. In order to be more efficient and effective, it is essential to make sure that the remaining eighty percent is gathered, made explicit and disseminated to those that need it. This will in turn create a knowledge sharing culture where people share their tacit knowledge; the knowledge is made explicit and readily accessible to others. Staff, the executive team and senior management all need information on the companys objectives. However, the all usually work with different types of information. Operational level staff will deal meanly with high volume raw data. Their responsibility is to interpret and analyze this data. Senior management will be working with business intelligence. Business intelligence is used by senior management to make better decisions, which in the long run, benefit all stakeholders at large.

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Information gathers more value as it ascends the organizations hierarchy. It starts off as raw data, but it is integrated with more data from strategic partners, market analysts and stakeholders becoming business intelligence and ultimately knowledge.

Market Analysts
EXCECUTIVES

Business Intelligence
MIDDLE MANAGEMENT

Strategic Partners

Stakeholders
STAFF

Customers

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Strategic partners A strategic partnership refers to a contractual association between two or more

enterprises (RDI Learning Materials 2011). It is, however, not a corporate affiliate relationship, agency or legal partnership. Companies that offer Aberdeen City Council other vital services that it does not wish to develop internally are its strategic partners. For example, the partnership between Aberdeen City Council and SeaWorld put in place to offer their customers savings on family vacations. Strategic partners need to be informed on the companys objective.

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iii.

The supply chain Companies today can rarely bring value to their customers entirely on their own.

Aberdeen City Council success depends not only on how well they perform, but also on how well their value network performs. The organization must thus focus on the logistics value chain. Supply chain management dominates the thinking if many CEOs today. This is because it is an innovative logistical concept seen as a source of competitive advantage. Shorter product cycles, distributed, and complex company operations and globalization means that the senior management now requires a higher level of decision support. The need for integrated and interpreted data for effective decisions is very high. For this reason, the supply chain needs a clear definition of the companys goals and objectives. Therefore, Aberdeen City Council needs to invest heavily in IT systems that support enterprise resource planning (ERP) and supply chain integration. These systems will integrate data from Accounting, Financials, Controlling and HR, as well as relevant data from the supply chain network. Additionally, the need for integration of multiple data types of content into a more cohesive strategy, as well as integration of structured and unstructured data and content is increasing. Only ERP systems and data management systems can enable this kind of semantic integration for Aberdeen City Council. Communication to stakeholders can take many forms including meetings, conferences, workshops, training events, email, written business plans, project plans, sales reports, company statements, telephone, video conferencing, one-to-one meetings etcetera. The choice of the channel of communication is dependent on several factors including nature of message to be conveyed, cost, location of recipients etcetera.

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Effective stakeholder engagement for Aberdeen City Council will ensure better planned and more informed policies, programs, projects and services. This is mutually beneficial to both the organization and stakeholders. For the stakeholders, benefits of being informed on the organizations objectives include the opportunity to contribute as experts in their fields to both policy and program development. In addition, stakeholders, for example, the staff and customers, get to have their issues heard and participate in the process of decision-making. For the organization, Aberdeen City Council, one benefit of communicating to stakeholders is improved information flows through tapping into local knowledge. In addition, the organization gets the opportunity to road-test proposals or policy initiatives with stakeholders. The earlier Aberdeen City Council engages its stakeholders, the more likely these benefits are to be realized. b) Communication links with stakeholders at the Council and involving others in decision making processes Both formal and informal communication links have been established at Aberdeen City Council. Informal communication occurs when different people converse without the restrictions of organizational hierarchy or structure. Information shared through informal communication networks spark a grapevine of spontaneous interactions. Profitable and authentic relationships are solidified through this method. However, sometimes this informal atmosphere can result in careless, casual distribution of information especially amongst the staff, employees or strategic partners (Molinsky 1999). Informal verbal communications usually take place over phone calls, lunch breaks, and hallway interactions etcetera. Creative, business communicators also deliberately include text messages and handwritten notes.

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c) Communication skills, weaknesses and how to improve Success in many life aspects requires effective communication skills. To improve my communication skills I first need to empathize. This refers to trying to see things from another persons point of view and not only your own. While communicating with others especially at the workplace, I will try not to be biased or judgemental. This I will achieve through not having preconceived ideas or beliefs. Moreover, I will stay in touch with other peoples emotions. If appropriate, I will also try to offer my personal viewpoint honestly and clearly to avoid confusion. Relating and interacting with others through well-established business relationships can also better my interpersonal relationships. In addition, I will also involve myself not only in decision making but also decision taking. This is best achieved through listening. Listening is not similar to hearing. Listening incorporates not just the words being spoken but also the non-verbal messages that accompany the message. Finally, I will also try and unmake more on eye contact. Whether speaking or listening to someone, eye contact with the person you are conversing with makes the interaction more successful. Eye contact will convey interest and encourage your partner to in return be interested. A common technique to heap me achieve this is consciously looking onto one of my listeners eye and then moving to the other. This back and forth movement creates a sparkle in ones eyes. Task 3 a) Improving communications processes at Aberdeen City council and how to implement the improvement process Existing communications processes at Aberdeen City Council include meetings, conferences, workshops, training events, email, video conferencing, written communication,

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telephone, one-to-one meetings. Internet, email and video conferencing, however, needs improvement. In todays changing world, global teams work around the clock and in various locations. In addition, advances in technology, a mobile workforce, and the increasingly globalized team approach has led to the internet, electronic mail and video-conferencing becoming corporate communication media (Lansisalmi, Kivimaki & Elovainio 2004). Nevertheless, workforce communication and collaboration is today way beyond just email, video-conferencing and databases. Collaborative environments in the modern world have become virtual spaces where stakeholder in different geographical locations and time zones can meet, reason and work together (Garvin 1993). This is made possible by use of collaborative applications like Group Ware. b) Existing methods of collecting, formatting, storing and disseminating information and knowledge at Aberdeen City Council Data collection: Information at the council is collected at all levels- staff level, management, customers and the market place. This information is then interpreted and analyzed progressively culminating in high value business intelligence. Executives in turn use this business intelligence in decision making. Traditionally, disparate islands of information were common at the council. However, today the focus is on the integration of information across disciplines, functions and geographies. This information should also be easily accessible to all who need it at any time and location. This central repository of information and supporting applications is called a business information warehouse or data warehouse. Storage: the council is putting in place specialized data stores optimized for large quantities of digital data storage. These include SToR, LaRDS et cetera (Boddy, Boonstra & Kennedy 2004).

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Data dissemination: information is released to users through various media including, press releases, television and radio interviews, telephone calls or facsimile response to a special request, a paper publication, the internet via Aberdeen city website, et cetera. However, some statistical data is under disclosure control by the government. c) Improving access to systems of information and knowledge for employees at Aberdeen City Council Empowering employees as users of knowledge and information can improve interaction throughout the council and community in general. This will also help in creating a positive knowledge sharing culture. As a result, the council will speed service delivery and consequently achieve employee and customer satisfaction. This aspect will also ensure that information held within the Council is accessible to all that may wish to use it, and it can be used to its fullest extent. If the information held by the council is made available to all, every stakeholder can understand better their assigned roles. In addition, better decision making is achieved. The council also becomes more irrepressible and less reliant on a few members of staff (those hitherto deemed the owners of information).

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References: Boddy D, Boonstra A, & Kennedy G 2004, Managing information systems: an organizational perspective, Financial Times, Prentice Hall, 1 December 2004. Brown, JS & Dugid P 2000, `Balancing act: how to capture knowledge without willing it, Harvard Business Review, May-June, pp. 73-4, 76, 78-80. Garvin, DA 1993, Building a knowledge organization, Harvard Business Review, July-August, pp. 78-91. Hall, R & Andriani P 2002, Managing knowledge for innovation, Long Range Planning, vol. 35, no. 1, pp. 29-48. HMSO, 2007, Unlocking the potential of public sector information, Improvement and Development Agency, pp. 123-201. Kikoski, CK & Kikoski, JF 2004, The inquiring organization: tacit knowledge, conversation, and knowledge creation skills for 21st-century organizations, Praeger, Westport, CT and London. Lansisalmi, H, Kivimaki, M & Elovainio, M 2004, Is underutilization of knowledge, skills, and abilities a major barrier to innovation?, Psychological Reports, no. 94, pp. 739-50. Leonhard, D & Sensiper, S 1998, The role of tacit knowledge in group innovation, California Management Review, vol. 40 no. 3, pp. 112-25. Molinsky, AL 1999, Sanding down edges: paradoxical impediments to organizational change, Journal of Applied Behavioural Science, Vol. 35, pp. 8-24. Nonaka, I 1991, The Knowledge-Creating Company, Harvard Business Review, NovemberDecember, pp. 96-104.

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Nonaka, I 1994, A dynamic theory of organizational knowledge creation, Organization Science, vol. 5, no. 1, pp. 14-37. Nonaka, I, Toyama, R & Konno, N 2000, SECI, ba and leadership: a unified model of dynamic knowledge creation, Long Range Planning, vol. 33, pp. 4-34. RDI Learning Materials 2011, Marketing Planning, [Online], Available at http://www.rdi.co.uk/ Accessed July 23, 2012. Scarbrough, H 2003, Knowledge management, HRM and the innovation process, International Journal of Manpower, vol. 24, no. 5, pp. 501-16. Smith, EA 2000, Applying knowledge-enabling methods in the classroom and in the workplace, Journal of Workplace Learning, vol. 12, no. 6, pp. 236-44. Wah, L 1999, Behind the buzz, Management Review, April, pp. 17-26.