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MANAGING COMMUNICATIONS,
KNOWLEDGE AND INFORMATION
Lecturer: Donna O’Connor
Lesson 1
MANAGING COMMUNICATIONS,
KNOWLEDGE AND INFORMATION
LO1: Understand how to assess
information and knowledge needs
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The Basic Syllabus
• Understand how to assess information and
knowledge needs
• Be able to create strategies to increase personal
networking to widen involvement in the
decision-making process
• Be able to develop communication processes to
improve the gathering and dissemination of
information and organisational knowledge
• Be able to design and improve appropriate
systems for the collection, storage and
dissemination of and access to the information
and knowledge gathered
Learning Objectives
• At the end of the class, students should be
able to:
– Discuss the range of decisions to be taken
– Examine the information and knowledge needed
to ensure effective decision taking
– Assess internal and external sources of
information and understanding
– Justify recommendations for improve
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Overview
• Communications do not automatically take
place effectively in organisations
• Information and work-based knowledge is
often insufficient when decisions are made
• Managers often need to improve planning of
communications processes and skills
• IT systems can be used as a management tool
for collecting, storing, disseminating and
accessing knowledge and information
Communication
• The root of the word “communication” in Latin is
communicare, which means to share, or to make
common. Communication is defined as the
process of understanding and sharing meaning.
[2]
• At the center of our study “Communication is an
activity, skill, and art that incorporates lessons
learned across a wide spectrum of human
knowledge.” (Saylor.org)
• Communication is key to your success—in
relationships, in the workplace, as a citizen of
your country, and across your lifetime.
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Understand how to assess information
and knowledge needs
“Organizations set up systems and services that are designed to
acquire, share and disseminate information of all kinds, from the
production data from factories to events in the market-place.
However, information also reaches the organization by all kinds of
routes that are not initially set up as information acquisition
mechanisms. For example, the salesman in the field collects
information on the contracts made and the discounts provided by
competing firms, and the CEO learns of the market difficulties of
his/her competitor when playing on the golf course. In other words,
organizational (or corporate) information behaviour embraces not
only the formal systems set up to manage internal information flows,
but also the systems, including libraries and information centres
designed to access external information as well as the organizational
and personal communication systems through which information
reaches the organization and is disseminated.”
Maija-Leena Huotari & Maija-Leena Huotari (2001)
Knowledge
• We gain knowledge from information
• We use information to make decisions.
• Knowledge can be split into two categories:
– Explicit knowledge is rules or processes or decisions
that can be recorded either on paper or in an
information system.
– Tacit knowledge exists inside the minds of humans
and is harder to record.
• It tends to be created from someone’s experiences, so
again it is based on a set of rules or experiences.
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Information
• Information - required to make good
decisions
• Formal information - created by
organisation’s procedures (e.g. filling in
application form)
• Informal information - information that rises
naturally (e.g. through conversations).
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Information
• Many ways to classify information:
– Source (internal, external, primary, secondary)
– Nature (quantitative, qualitative, formal, informal)
– Level (strategic, tactical, operational)
– Time (historical, present, future)
– Frequency (continuous, hourly, daily, monthly)
– Use (planning, control, decision making)
– Form (written, aural, visual)
– Type (detailed, sampled, aggregated)
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Sources of Information
•
•
Primary information
–
provides data from an original source document. There are many examples of primary sources in
many walks of life, but generally a primary source is defined as being where a piece of information
appears for the first time
–
may be as simple as an invoice sent to a business or a cheque received
–
may be more complex, such as a set of sales figures for a range of goods for a tinned food
manufacturer for one week, or it may be a set of sales figures over several weeks and several
locations..
Secondary information
–
provides information from a source other than the original.
–
processed primary sources, second-hand versions.
•
–
Examples of secondary sources could be an accounts book detailing invoices received, a bank statement that shows details of
cheques paid in and out.
Where statistical information is gathered, such as in surveys or polls, the survey data or polling
data is the primary source and the conclusions reached from the survey or the results of the poll
are secondary sources.
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Sources of Information
•
Internal information
–
internal information is vital to the successful management of the organisation.
–
may be available from a number of sources within the organisation, for example:
•
•
•
•
•
Marketing and sales , information on performance, revenues, markets shares, distribution channels,
etc.
Production and operational information on assets, quality, standards, etc.
Financial information on profits, costs, margins, cash flows, investments, etc.
Internal documentation such as order forms, invoices, credit notes, procedural manuals.
External information
–
concerned with what is happening beyond the boundaries of the organisation.
–
covers any documentation relating to a subject area produced as a summary or detailed report by an
agency external to an organisation.
–
may be obtainable from government agencies or private information providers. Examples might include:
•
census figures , telephone directories, judgments on court cases , computer users’ yearbook,
legislation, for example the Data Protection Act, Gallup polls, national opinion polls, trade journals ,
professional publications, industry standards, the Internet, financial services agencies such as Dunn
and Bradstreet
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Nature of information
• Formal information
– Presenting information in a structured and consistent manner.
– Defined, within an organisation, as the main way of communicating
between and within parts of the organisation.
– the main way of communicating externally from an organisation.
– The main methods are the formal letter, properly structured reports,
writing of training materials, etc.
– Formal information is communicated in cogent, coherent, wellstructured language.
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Nature of information
•
Informal information
– Less well-structured information that is
transmitted within an organisation or between
individuals who usually know each other.
– It tends to be categorised as ‘unofficial’
information, and is communicated by casual
conversations, e-mails, or text messages between
colleagues.
– The language is less well structured and tends to
include colloquialisms and shorthand; and
spelling is less important.
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Nature of information
• Quantitative information
– This is information that is represented numerically.
– Any event or object that can be represented as a set
of numbers is an example of quantitative
information.
• Qualitative information
– This is information that is represented using words.
– Any event or object that is represented using words
to describe its attributes is an example of qualitative
information.
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Levels of information
• Planning, control and decision-making are
carried out at various levels within the structure
of the organisation.
• There is a direct correlation between the levels
of importance of individuals or groups within an
organisation and the level of information that is
being communicated.
• The three levels at which information can be
used are:
– strategic
– tactical
– operational
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Levels of information
• Strategic information
– used at the very top level of management
– broad based and will use a mixture of
information gathered from both internal and
external sources.
– timescale may be from one to five years or even
longer depending on the project
– will have little or no detail in them and more
detailed strategic plans will be made slightly
lower down the managerial ladder
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Levels of information
• Tactical information
– tactical planning and decision-making takes place within the
guidelines set by the strategic plan.
– mostly internal with a few external sources being used. I
• internal information is likely to be function related: for example, how much
‘down time’ a production line must allocate for planned maintenance.
– used by middle management (employees)
– timescale is usually at least between 6 months and 5 years
(depending on the scale of the strategic project). Circumstances vary
but a small project may have a tactical timescale of between one and
six months.
– have a medium level of detail and will be very specific; they deal with
such matters as who is doing what and within what specific budgets
and timescales.
– have medium scope and will address details at the operational level.
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Levels of information
– Have medium scope and will address details at the
operational level.
• Operational information
– operational planning takes place based on the
tactical plans.
– The lowest level of management or workers in an
organisation implements operational plans.
– The timescale is usually very short, anything from
immediately, daily or at most a week or month.
– Results of operational work will usually be passed
upwards to let the tactical planners evaluate their
plans.
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Be able to develop communication
processes
• Types: Meetings and conferences, workshops
and training events, internet and email,
written, telephone, video-conferencing, oneto-one meetings
• Approaches: structured and coordinated,
planned, formal and informal
• Strategy: advantages, disadvantages;
informal, face-to-face, formal in writing,
emotional, intelligence
Be able to improve systems relating to information
and knowledge
• Type: hard and soft, websites and mailings,
access and dissemination
• Style: Trends and patterns, diagrams and text,
consistent and reliable, current and valid;
legal and confidential
The Decision-Making Process
Programmed Decision - a simple, routine matter for
which a manager has an established decision rule
Nonprogrammed Decision - a new, complex decision
that requires a creative solution
Review Questions
1.
Describe the differences between data and information.
2.
Explain the relationship between knowledge and information.
3.
Explain the difference between explicit and implicit knowledge, giving an
example of each and of the kind of information that made that knowledge
possible.
4.
For each of the following situations say whether the information is primary or
secondary and internal or external.
5.
–
the minutes of a golf club committee meeting
–
a till roll showing the day’s transactions in a corner shop
–
a university prospectus
–
the published accounts of a large public business – Secondary & internal – 1 mark
Describe the differences between:
–
formal and informal communication
–
quantitative and qualitative information
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Review Questions
6.
There are three levels of information, strategic, tactical and operational. State
the characteristics of:
– information used for decision making at the strategic level
– information used for decision making at the tactical level
– information used for decision making at the operational level
7.
Explain the differences between information categorised by time:
– Historically
– In the present time
– In the future
8.
Describe how information can be used in:
– Planning
– Control
– Decision-making
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Review Questions
9. For each of the following characteristics of
information explain why that characteristic
affects the quality of the information:
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
availability or accessibility
accuracy
completeness
reliability or objectivity
timing
presentation
value
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Additional Reading
• Daft, Richard. Organization Theory and
Design . West Publishing, 1992.
• Graham, John R. "Avoiding Dumb and
Dumber Business Decisions: Why Even the
Experts Make Mistakes." American Salesman.
April 1997.
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