Knowledge Management and Social Media

This assignment delves into the intersection of knowledge management and social media. It requires an analysis of how social media platforms contribute to knowledge creation, sharing, and utilization within organizations. Students are expected to examine the influence of social media on organizational communication strategies and explore its impact on decision-making processes. The assignment emphasizes understanding the theoretical frameworks underpinning knowledge management and applying them to the contemporary context of social media.

MANAGING COMMUNICATIONS, KNOWLDEGE
AND INFORMATION

TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
TASK 1............................................................................................................................................1
1.1................................................................................................................................................1
1.2................................................................................................................................................2
1.3................................................................................................................................................3
1.4................................................................................................................................................4
2.1................................................................................................................................................4
2.2................................................................................................................................................5
2.3................................................................................................................................................5
2.4................................................................................................................................................6
TASK 2............................................................................................................................................7
3.1................................................................................................................................................7
3.2................................................................................................................................................7
3.3................................................................................................................................................8
3.4................................................................................................................................................8
4.1................................................................................................................................................9
4.2................................................................................................................................................9
4.3..............................................................................................................................................10
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................10
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................12

INTRODUCTION
In today’s era, to stay in the market with sustainability is only possible through effective
management of communication, knowledge and information in the organization. With proper
planning, implementation, controlling and evaluation of communication channels, process can be
made smooth and targets can be effectually achieved. By taking the help of same, effective
strategies can be made and suitable decisions will be taken by management for the good of firm
(Kwek, 2013). In the present report, to understand concepts associated with managing
communication, knowledge and information, Classic Food Restaurant from hospitality industry
of Spain is selected that deals in offering food and beverage items. Firm is planning to open a
new shop for selling high quality food items. In this regard, ways to assess the information and
knowledge needs for new start-up venture will be discussed in the report. Apart from that,
different strategies to increase personal networking to widen the involvement in decision making
process will be studied as well.
TASK 1
1.1
In a firm, there are mainly three ranges of decision that are made at strategic, tactical and
operational levels of management. Start-up business, that is, new shop of Classic Food
Restaurant, can initiate its business operations with the help of range of decisions made which
are mentioned as below:
Strategic level decisions – At this level, top authorities sitting at higher level of
management take decisions in order to start a new business. In the cited firm, for opening a new
shop, managers at this level make different marketing strategies along with working policies in
accordance of which business activities will be run (Skyrme, 2007). With taking different factors
into consideration that can affect the success of new start up business, they develop competitive
strategies by which market performance of the firm in future can be analysed.
Tactical level decisions – At this level, they are the middle level managers who make
decisions as per what has been asked by top level management. For new shop of Classic Food
Restaurant, they will be the people who would make employees ready to implement the plan by
delegating specific roles and responsibilities to them and imparting training as required. They are
the individuals in firm who have authority to control the process (Bosua, 2013). Middle level
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managers play a significant role in the success of business by contributing their efforts. They
take decisions with respect to purchase of raw material by specifying its quantity and quality as
well as human resources required along with funds and machinery.
Operational level decisions – It is the lower level management where individuals, that is,
supervisors and workers perform their tasks as assigned by middle level managers. They are
actual people who lead to practically implement the plan made and discussed by higher and
middle level of management. Here, supervisors manage day to day activities like scheduling the
tasks of workers and contribute high efforts in making them understand about what is actually to
be done to attain the set goals of firm (Grunig and Grunig, 2011). With respect to the cited
scenario, lower level employees will be the people who would practically execute the plan of
opening a new shop of Classic Food Restaurant in Spain.
1.2
For opening of new business of Classic Food Restaurant, internal and external
information and knowledge will be required by the organisation to make it successful. Top
authorities at strategic level will have to analyse the market in which the firm is planning to
operate in terms of assessing political, economic, social, technological, legal and ethical
environment with the help of PESTLE analysis. Through this, external information will be
gained by the Classic Food Restaurant according to which suitable strategies will be made
(Hammami, 2011). In order to gain profits in business, skilled and capable employees will be
required who will perform operations in an effectual manner. These people will play a vital role
in making decisions based on internal information of organisation. To evaluate the internal
information, Classic Food Restaurant can make use of SWOT analysis through which strengths
and weaknesses of the firm will be known as well as opportunities and threats will be identified
(Ang, 2014). Thus, both the tools would prove to be highly helpful in examining information and
knowledge required to take decisions in relation to start up the new business, that is, new shop of
Classic Food Restaurant.
With the help of gathering internal and external information and knowledge about the
business, Classic Food Restaurant can attain its set targets within stipulated time period with
effectiveness. Through this, firm can gain higher profits through sufficient productivity and
attain a competitive edge over others in the market. For external information, through proper
market analysis, development of a new and successful strategy will be done (Austin, 2015). At
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tactical level, information is linked with the requirement of resources so as to get desired results
by delegating responsibilities to staff who will execute the plan. However, at operations level,
finally the plan is implemented by people working at this level of management. Here,
information and knowledge in relation to the tools and techniques will be needed to be known by
staff so that operations can be run in a smooth and efficient manner (Pemsel and Wiewiora,
2013). Therefore, it can be said that need of information and knowledge is different at all levels
of management for Classic Food Restaurant to open a new shop.
1.3
For establishing the new start-up business of Classic Food Restaurant, various internal
and external sources are there which help the firm in attaining success in the market. These are
explained as below:
Internal sources: In terms of internal source, staff members are the people who can
provide reliable and valuable information that will prove to be helpful for new start-up business.
 With the way of organising meetings with employees, different views and opinions can
be gained and on the basis of same, suitable decisions can be made for the opening of
new shop of Classic Food Restaurant (Raupp and Hoffjann, 2012).
 In addition to this, management of cited firm can design an effective training process for
the staff members by which their existing skills, abilities and knowledge can be increased
that would help in rendering services in a better way with enhanced efficiency.
External sources: There are external sources as well with the help of which information
and knowledge can be gained to manage the activities that are required to be run for start-up
business.
 Through industrial reports, an idea about food and beverage sector can be gained in
accordance of which suitable strategies will be made so as to fight with the competitor
firms and attain higher marker share through increased sales (Leonardi, 2015).
 Conducting surveys and market research are also the ways by which latest information
about the current trends in food and beverage industry of Spain can be gained. Thus,
through this, actual customer’s requirements will be known by the firm and accordingly,
strategies will be made to satisfy the same.
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1.4
Different methods are there that Classic Food Restaurant can use as well as it can also
bring improvements in the present operations being used by the firm for selection and analysis of
information that is required for the business start-up. Some of the methods are as follows:
 Conducting online surveys has become one of the commonly used methods which helps
in reducing the time of employees that earlier they used to spend on getting
questionnaires filled through selected respondents (Loasby, 2015). The results of these
surveys provide accurate information that can be used for business start-up of Classic
Food Restaurant.
 Apart from that, through conducting SWOT analysis for having self-evaluation in terms
of assessing strengths and weaknesses of business, suitable strategies can be made as firm
would be able to know the areas where it is lacking and will take corrective actions
accordingly (Lubbe, 2007).
 Customer Relationship Management (CRM) and Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) are
also the technological tools which Classic Food Restaurant can use in order to effectually
manage its operations. These methods will lead the firm to provide information at a fast
pace through which better decisions can be taken for the success of business start-up.
2.1
Organisation has various stakeholders who can affect the decision making process in
relation to open a new shop for Classic Food Restaurant. They are mentioned as below:
 Employees – Working people of the firm play a significant role in providing valuable
information through their views and opinions in meetings that helps management in
making suitable decisions (Tran, Strutton and Taylor, 2012). Thus, for new start-up of
Classic Food Restaurant, these stakeholders would prove to be highly helpful.
 Customers – Customers are people taking the information from whom through market
surveys, information and knowledge regarding their tastes and preferences can be
gained on the basis of which products and services are offered. For the new business
start-up, conducting survey of the target audience will be helpful (Valentini and
Romenti, 2011).
 Shareholders – They are the individuals who make investment in business with a motive
to gain higher dividends in return. As per the amount they invested in business, firm
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takes decision about the budget that they can spend in their operations. For opening new
shop of Classic Food Restaurant, they have the major role in making suitable decisions.
 Suppliers – For the cited firm, suppliers will be the individuals who supply raw material
on the basis of which decision will be taken with respect to the quantity and quality of
production along with deciding the price of products and services offered by the same
(Calabrese, 2012).
 Government – Government is one of the main stakeholders who has a great impact on
the success or failure of a business. Thus, to make the new business start-up of Classic
Food Restaurant successful in the market, it is important to keep in consideration the
rules and regulations imposed by regulatory authorities of nation in which it is
operating.
2.2
Formal and informal; both approaches are there by which healthy business relationship
with stakeholders can be developed and maintained. Under formal approaches, management of
Classic Food Restaurant can use methods like e-mails, video conferencing, mobile calls and
official meetings. These methods can be used in between employees and suppliers to develop a
strong relationship (Mathews, 2013). Apart from that, Classic Food Restaurant can also use other
methods like letters and memos with the help of which stakeholders can communicate with each
other and effective business relations can be created among them. On the other hand, under
informal approaches, there comes different ways which are like having dinner together,
arranging picnics, sport’s events, etc. It has been seen that in many cases, informal approaches
prove to be better in developing healthy business relationship with stakeholders than that of
formal ways (Gulledge and Deller, 2009). Thus, with the help of mentioned approaches, Classic
Food Restaurant can build a positive relationship with its stakeholders that would help in
increasing its goodwill in the market.
2.3
For the new business start-up of Classic Food Restaurant, there are different people
identified who are involved in decision making process. They are like:
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Firm can include its employees in the process for making judgements through arranging
meetings. With the help of this, views and suggestions of workforce will be gained for making
the price and location strategy for opening a new shop of Classic Food Restaurant.
On the other hand, through conducting market research, actual needs and requirements of
customers can be known along with their spending power on the basis of products and services
along with their prices will be decided. In order to make decision for finalising the location of
shop, opinion of service users will be helpful (Deen and Hendricks, 2013).
Government is the most important stakeholder which can give positive as well as
negative impacts on business start-up. It is important for the cited firm to arrange a meeting with
government officials to know latest amendments in the rules and regulations imposed by them in
food and beverage industry. Thus, on the basis of same, pricing and location strategy for opening
new shop of Classic Food Restaurant will be made (Sigala and et.al., 2012).
Also, management of corporation should discuss with the vendors about delivery and
payments so that accordingly, decisions for setting prices of products and services offered by the
new shop can be taken along with finalising the location of same.
2.4
Through different strategies, management of Classic Food Restaurant can bring future
improvements in the process of organisation. In order to open a new shop to increase the scope
of business, in future, improvements will be needed that can be brought through following ways:
 With the help of new technological tools, workload of employees can be reduced as
well as higher profits will be gained at low cost and efforts. Through this, new
strategies can be formulated and implemented within a short period of time for the
start-up business of Classic Food Restaurant (Kwek, 2013). Also, with the use of these
techniques, sales forecasting can be done that will make the process smooth and
effective.
 Apart from that, training and development is another way by which better business
strategies can be developed with taking views and opinions of employees into
consideration. Also, it would help in increasing their skills and knowledge that will
ultimately lead to enhance their efficiency and make the new start-up business of
Classic Food Restaurant successful (Skyrme, 2007).
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 On the contrary, developing and maintaining healthy and strong public relations will
also bring improvements in the process of cited organisation. Firm should keep
transparency in giving their information and must deal with clients in a fair manner. It
will help new establishment to stay in the market with high goodwill.
TASK 2
3.1
At present, Classic Food restaurant is not using a suitable and effectual communication
process in the firm and it is required to be improved. As per the give case study, conventional
communication process, that is, traditional way of communicating is being used by cited firm
through letters, meetings, telephones and memos with the staff members (Bosua, 2013). This
process if ineffective as it includes a lot of chances of misunderstanding and also, there is issue
of communication gap in Classic Food Restaurant. This is the reason; employees are not having
clear understanding about what they are actually expected to do which deadlines are not being
met on pre-determined time. Thus, it enhances the stress and workload for employees of cited
organisation (Grunig and Grunig, 2011). Because of having an ineffective communication
system, restaurant is not getting the desired results as well as firm is facing issues in getting
expanded. Performance of organisation in comparison to other competitors is declining as well.
3.2
Various ways are there through which communication process for new shop of Classic
Food Restaurant can be improved and business can get expanded. These are like e-mails,
arranging meetings and one to one interaction by which different strategies for expansion can be
developed in business. They are discussed as below:
 E-mails – E-mails since a long time have proved to be one of the best ways to dispatch
different kinds of files like audio, word as well as videos through an individual to
another in the firm (Hammami, 2011). With the help of this, efficiency of operations will
get increased in Classic Food Restaurant in comparison to previous years that would lead
to easy expansion of new shop into a well-established café.
 Meetings – Meetings are always helpful in getting different views and opinions from
number of people present there. In order to take decision regarding expansion of new
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shop of Classic Food Restaurant, meetings in between managers and staff members
would highly contribute (Ang, 2014).
 One to one interaction – It is important to build healthy relations between staff members
as through the same, understanding level of individuals will get increased. Thus,
important decisions with respect to expansion of business can be taken in more effectual
manner through having one to one interaction.
3.3
To effectually deal with the business activities of expansion in market, Classic Food
Restaurant can use different communication approaches. At the initial phase of planning,
requirement of communication is not that much high as here, only information will be gathered.
However, later for the implementation of planned strategy for expansion of business,
communication would play a significant role as now, employees will be needed to understand the
reason and way of execution of the expansion strategy (Austin, 2015). Development of existing
process can also lead to provide effective results for the purpose of expansion as it would help in
taking suitable decisions. Apart from that, reviews of employees can also be taken with respect
to the communication process being used by Classic Food Restaurant to make modifications in it
accordingly (Pemsel and Wiewiora, 2013). Through this way, integration of communication
system in the cited firm will be known by the management.
3.4
To improve my communication skills being the leader of business, personal development
plan is as follows:
Table 1: Personal development plan
Skills Present
Condition
Strategies Time
Frame
Listening
skills
Poor With the help of hearing opinions of employees in
meetings as well as views and suggestions of team
members, I can improve my listening skill that
would ultimately amend my communication with
others.
3 months
Decision Poor Through solving different case studies and 1 month
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making
skills
organising group discussions, my decision making
skills will get improved through which I can make
suitable strategies for the expansion of new business
of Classic Food Restaurant (Raupp and Hoffjann,
2012).
Presentation
skills
Average Through organising seminars and giving online
tests, I can improve my presentation skills that
would help me in helping the firm to deal
effectually with organisational operations.
2 months
4.1
In Classic Food Restaurant, existing approaches to the collection, formatting, storage and
dissemination of information and knowledge are not effective enough to make the
communication system smooth. They are explained beneath:
 Collection – To gather data, employees use various sources even which are not reliable.
For managing information, management of Classic Food Restaurant makes use of file
management system in which issues of data redundancy arises as well as inconsistency
is also there (Leonardi, 2015). Because of this reason; staff members need to again
perform their tasks which increase their workload.
 Formatting – On the other hand, formatting of information is done through the use of
Microsoft applications like word, excel and power point with the help of which editing
and other corrections are being done in the gathered information. It is done effectively
by Classic Food Restaurant.
 Storage – However, for storing the data and information also, organisation is using
traditional ways like rack management system in which files are manually saved
(Loasby, 2015). It leads to waste the time in searching files which results in delaying the
work of employees. Also, in this, risk of leakage of confidential data is there.
 Dissemination – Classic Food Restaurant is making use of very limited resources like
letters, memos and newspapers for the distribution of information. Because of this,
operations of firm are getting delayed (Lubbe, 2007). Because of this reason;
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complexity in dealing with the information and knowledge about the food and beverage
sector increases.
4.2
Changes that can be adopted by Classic Food Restaurant to improve its present process of
communication are like:
 Collection – With the use of Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP), information and
knowledge about the expansion of new business in the cited firm can be effectually
managed. It will remove the issue of data redundancy and inconsistency as well as make
the process fast.
 Formatting – Approaches being used by the firm for formatting of information are
effectual enough to give better reliability and improve communication system (Tran,
Strutton and Taylor, 2012).
 Storage – Through using database management system (DBMS), Classic Food
Restaurant can gain high support in storing the information. Apart from that, it will
remove the issue of wastage of time in file searching and will provide high security
features. Also, with the help of this, probability of unauthorised access will be reduced.
 Dissemination – There are many ways for spreading information like magazines,
newspapers and social media like Facebook, Twitter and YouTube (Valentini and
Romenti, 2011). Classic Food Restaurant can use the same to spread information about
expansion of new business in the market as a well-established café.
4.3
Classic Food restaurant can use different strategies to improve the access to systems of
information and knowledge which can lead to strengthen the business and help it to continue
future growth in the market. Through bid data or cloud computing approaches, management of
the cited firm make its communication process better and effective (Calabrese, 2012). Through
these ways, information from remote areas can be accessed as well as flexibility and security can
be provided as well. Apart from that, by hiring highly skilled and knowledgeable IT experts,
activities of information technology can be improved and communication system will become
better as compared to the previous years (Mathews, 2013). Also, advanced security tools like bio
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metric system for server rooms and IPV 6 protocol can be used for reducing the risk of issues
like phishing and hacking.
CONCLUSION
From the above report, it can be articulated that for developing successful strategies in
order to open, grow and make a business successful, different range of decisions at all the levels
of management are required to be taken with due consideration. Also, report has shown that there
are various formal and informal activities which are needed to be carried out by business as they
highly contribute in developing healthy and strong relations with the stakeholders of firm. Apart
from that, for opening new shop of Classic Food Restaurant, different information and
knowledge will be required to make the business successful in market with gaining higher profits
with optimum utilisation of available resources in the firm. Furthermore, suggested
communication methods and approaches will play a crucial role for Classic Food Restaurant in
designing better strategies to make the new shop a great success in the new future.
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REFERENCES
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advanced theories. Cambridge University Press.
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Grunig, J. and Grunig, L., 2011. Characteristics of excellent communication. Handbook of
Organizational Communication: Guide to Internal Communication, Public Relations,
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Gulledge, T. and Deller, G., 2009. Service‐oriented concepts: bridging between managers and
technologists. Industrial Management & Data Systems. 109(1). pp.5–15.
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Leonardi, P. M., 2015. Ambient Awareness and Knowledge Acquisition: Using Social Media to
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Sigala, M. and et.al., 2012. Social Media in Travel, Tourism and Hospitality: Theory, Practice
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Tran, G. A., Strutton, D. and Taylor, D. G., 2012. Do microblog postings influence consumer
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