Unit 16: Managing Communication, Knowledge and Information Assignment

London School of Science
and Technology
Pearson BTEC Level 5 HND
Diploma in Business
Unit 16: Managing Communication,
Knowledge and Information
Assignment Title: Managing Communication,
Knowledge and Information
Assessor Name: Dr. Sharmaine Ananthan
Internal Verifier: Mohammad Haider
Issued on: 19th Feb 2018
Submitted on: 08th June 2018
MCKI
Student Name: Abdul Mumin
Student ID: H1605234
Campus: Alperton/Luton/Birmingham (delete as appropriate)
Pearson Registration Number:
Si
gnature & Date:

Introduction
The report is about the managing good communication in an organization. In today’s
business the knowledge, information and communication is most important for each
organization. The report will help Costa Coffee in decision making and also
understand what types of structure is effective. Costa Coffee is the second largest
coffee shop around the world. Effective communication channel helps organization in
building better relationship with their stakeholders (Terry, 2008).
1

LO1 Understand how to assess information and knowledge
needs
8th April, 2018
To,
The General Manager,
Costa Coffee, UK
Subject: Decision by Senior Management Team Costa Coffee
Dear,
1.1 Decisions to be taken by the top management of Costa Coffee
UK to devise the market development plan
Level of management
Every organization has three levels of manger. Manger is the person who perform
the most important work and control & make strategy for the organization. Three
major types of manger are described below:
Source:Tracy&.Scott (2006).
2

Top level
Top manger make the decision and others are work for acquiring the goal this is set
by top level manager. CEO, board of directors are the top levels manager of an
organization (Peter, 1989)
Middle level
Middle level manger work according to the order top level manager and they order to
the lower level manger. They work to acquire the plan that is fixed by top level
manger (Connors & Rom, 1991)
Lower level:
Organizations staff, peion, section officer are the lower level manger. There are no
direct communication with lower level and top level manager they interact with
middle level manger (Connors & Rom,1991)
Levels of management Examples
Top level Making strategy and policy
Middle level How acquire the strategy at lower cost
Lower level Operate and maintenance the work
Decision Range of Different Management
3

Source: Peter, 1989
Strategic level
In strategic level decision manager decide the strategy or goal of the organization.
Most of the time strategic level decision are for long time and also future oriented.
Organization runs depend on strategic level decision (Floyd & Wooldridge, 1997).
Tactical level
Tactical level management, manager find the best possible way to obtain the goal.
Costa Coffee can train their manger to tactical in acquiring goal (Floyd & Wooldridge,
1997).
Operational level
Operational level management try to implement the goal that is already taken by top
level manger in short way. Most of the work of operational level manger are daily
maintenance (Tracy, 2006).
AC 1.2 Examine the information and knowledge that Costa Coffee
UK has to consider in making strategic and effective decisions
DIKW model shows how information of an organization is flow. DIKW means data,
information, knowledge and wisdom. Data is collected than transfer it into information
when the information is provide people that become knowledge and wisdom.
UK business law
UK government enforce some rules to protect their business. Costa coffee must
have follow the rules and regulation such as license and invoice.
Selection & recruitment
Organization recruit their employee by giving advertising in online. After recruiting
they responded apply and follow others instructions. Costa Coffee recruit best skilful
employee for their organization.
Personal development
4

Personal development by which Costa Coffee enhance the quality of their employee.
They improve their personal development through seminar, training etc. (Darley,
2002).
AC 1.3 Assess the present internal and external sources of
information that are available for Costa Coffee UK.
Costa coffee collect information from both internal and external sources. By
collecting information they can decision easily about their product.
Internal sources of information
When organization collect information from inside the organization that is called
internal sources of information. Major sources of internal information are given
below:
 Sales figure:Each organization collect their sells record in daily or monthly
basis. Costa Coffee collect information from their previous sells.
 Personal records: personal records can be a great source of information
because from personal records Costa Coffee understand the demand of the
customer.
 Financial records: Every year government and other organization publish the
financial records and condition. So, costa Coffee can collect information from
financial records (Darley, 2002).
External sources of information
When information of an organization is collected from outside that is called external
sources.
 Government’s website: Government publish updated information to help
people and clarify about the information. Costa Coffee collect information by
visiting government websites (Darley, 2002).
 Search engine: Search engine like google and yahoo can be the sources of
information because most of the information is available here.
5

 Newspaper: Financial newspaper publish economic condition, GDP, per
capital income and other related issues. So, Costa Coffee can collect
information from newspaper.
AC 1.4 Based on your analysis, present and justify your
recommendations to Costa Coffee UK to increase their current and
potential customers.
Though Costa Coffee is the second largest coffee shop around the world, they has
some recommendation that help them to get competitive advantages.
 New technology: Costa Coffee can adapted technology in most of their
sectors. They can use technology in home delivery product and used in
promotional activities.
 Training & motivation program: By efficient training Costa Coffee can
minimize their production cost and increase the production level.
 Performance Related Rewards: They can give reward for their performance.
They also rewards the specific customer who drink coffee in daily basis.
LO2: Be able to create strategies to increase personal
networking to widen involvement in the decision making
process
AC 2.1 Identify five stakeholders that are important for Costa Coffee
that you will invite for launch
Stakeholder
Stakeholder means the person or people who influenced by the organization and
organization also influence by the stakeholder. Stakeholder can be classified primary
& secondary, internal & external stakeholder.
Types of
stakeholder
Examples Importance in decision
Primary Shareholder,
customer, supplier
 Shareholder invest the capital
 Customer purchase or consume
6

product
 Supplier supply raw material
Secondary Government, agency,
trade union
 Government regulate rules and help
financially
 Trade union help in difficulties
Internal CEO, manger,
shareholder
 Decide the goal and strategy
 Manager operate the organization
External Government,
employee, supplier
 Enforce rules and policy
 Employee work in lieu of salary
AC 2.2 Propose appropriate communication channels that are cost
effective to be used to invite your identified stakeholders.
Organization has to carry good relation with their stakeholder and they can build
good relation through communication channel.
Internal channel:
Costa Coffee can communicate with their different stakeholder through different
internal channel such as meeting, workshop, training and internal email. These
channel is cost effective and fruitful.
External channel:
Costa Coffee can also communicate with their stakeholder by various external
stakeholder such as newspaper, conference and advert etc.
Different communication procedure with stakeholders of Costa coffee
Costa coffee &CEO+ Board of Directors
Costa Coffee can communicate with CEO & board of directors by email, telephone
call, face to face, face book, twitter etc. Email is the best way in communicating with
CEO.
Costa Coffee to manager
7

Costa Coffee communicate with the manger by email, telephone call and face to
face. Email is the effective communication channel in communication with manger.
Costa Coffee & customers
Customer is the heart of Costa Coffee. They can communicate with the customer
through telephone, email, phone call, twitter and Facebook. Phone call and face
book is effective channel in this regards.
COSTA COFFEE & Media
Costa Coffee communicate with media who spread the product among the customer
through email, telephone, face book etc.
AC 2.3 Based on your identified stakeholders explain stakeholder’s
interest and feedback
Agenda of Activities
 7.00pm check in time
 Invited guest take their seat
 Provided welcome speech
 The designer presented about the product
 The stakeholder teste the product
 Cultural program is held
 The stakeholder ask question about the product and designer answered
 The program closed
Feedback from the stakeholder
After completing agenda of activities, organization provide some question about their
product and collect feedback. These feedback help further is decision making. The
question are given below:
How do you evaluate the taste of Costa Coffee?
What thing do you link most?
8

Which features can be added for betterment?
How much you invested?
2.4 Design all-inclusive strategy for the launch of Costa Coffee
UK’s new product to be outstanding and unforgettable.
7s Mckinsey model
7s Mckinsey model is value based management model that explain how can
organize the organization. All the element are influenced together and the elements
are described below:
Sources: (Hayes, John, 2014).
 Shared value: Shared value is the interacting centre of the model and identify
what the organization stands for and what it believes in.
 Strategy: Strategy is the process of allocation of resources, how the goal can
be achieved at a minimum cost.
 Structure: Structure is the way different units of organization is relate with
each other. Centralized, decentralized and matrix are don in this (Hayes &
John,2014).
9

 System: System is the procedure how important work are done. Financial
system, promotional system and appraisal system are done.
 Staff: Staff is the number of person who are in the organizations.
 Skill: Descriptive capabilities to do the work in best possible time and less
cost.
Stakeholder analysis
Stakeholder is the people whose has interest in the organization. The stakeholder is
influenced by the organization. Costa Coffee has different types of stakeholder who
are influenced by the organization.
Stakeholder Activities
Shareholder Invest money and owner if the company
Government Enforce rules and regulation
Employee Operate the business
Customer Consume the product
Supplier Supply raw material
10

LO3 Develop communication processes
3.1 Report the current Costa Coffee UK’s communication structure
and system.
The current communication system of Costa Coffee is going to be illustrated here:
Source: (Scollon & Scollon, 2009).
Sender: Sender indicates the person who delivers the message or generates or
creates the communication system (Scollon & Scollon, 2009). For example, if the
top level manager of the company wants to deliver information to the employees, the
managers will play role as sender.
Message: Message indicates the information that the sender has created to send.
For example, the HR manager of Costa Coffee has decided that he would request
the employees not to thieve the work. So, the message is “not to thrive work”.
Encoding : Encoding is how the sender chooses to bring the message into a form
appropriate for sending (Graber, 2012).
Channel: Channel indicates the media through which the sender will deliver his
message to the receiver. Channel may differ for example telephone, mobile, internet
etc. Generally, the top level manager of Costa coffee emphasizes on letter basis
communication at most of the cases (Graber, 2012).
11

Receiver: The person for whom the sender has created and sent the message. In
Costa Coffee, most of the time employees play role as receiver (Laudon & Laudon,
2008).
Decoding: Decoding is the process of how the receiver understands and interprets
the message. The employees of the company decodes the message from the top
level how they understands the message (Laudon & Laudon, 2008).
Feedback: Based on the decoding of the message (what the employees have
understood), the receiver will respond properly to sender (Graber, 2012).
The above communication system is not only Costa Coffee’s communication system
but also all other companies’ communication system.
Downward communication system
Downward communication system occurs when information or message flows from
top level management to lower level management. In Costa Coffee downward
communication system is strictly followed (Rosner, Halcrow & Levins, 2010). For
example, the decision makers of the company direct the employees how they should
implement their activities.
12

Upward communication system
Upward communication is just opposite of downward communication system. The
process of flowing information or message from lower level to top level management
is called upward communication system(Graber, 2012). Sometimes in Costa Coffee,
employees play role as decision maker that implements upward communication
system.
External communication system
External communication is the process of communicating with the external
stakeholders of the company. In other word, the communication that flows crossing
the internal stakeholders of the company is called external communication system.
Costa Coffee also needs to communicate with the investors, suppliers, and creditors
etc that implement external communication system(Darley, 2002).
3.2 Design methods to improvise the overall communication
systems at Costa Coffee UK with the emphasis of recent
technology invention with modernisation.
Costa Coffee is highly dependent on their communication system. But in their
communication system, there are some barriers which are going to be discussed
with proper suggestions
Barriers Ways to Improve
Work ignorance by the employees.
Lack of technological and
The barrier can be resolved if the company
emphasizes on giving regular updates to the
13

administrative communication among
the internal stakeholder of the
company.
employees. If employees are given regular
updates, they will be motivated and they will have
a strong thought that they should give their best
effort to the company. It will help to stop their
negligence to the company (Scollon & Scollon,
2009).
Rapid growth which is forcing the
company to develop a new store
almost everyday. In this regard the
company is being unable to take
decision properly.
If the company can be able to finish each regular
meeting successfully, this problem can be solved.
In their regular employee meeting, employees and
employers will be able to play role in decision
making that will help to resolve this barrier
(Graber, 2012).
Customers are sometimes
dissatisfied with the company.
Because of high growth demand,
Costa sometimes can’t respond to
customers feedback satisfactorily.
Focusing on regular customers and employees
feedback will help to resolve this problem. When
customers will be given proper feedback, they will
be liable to the company (Darley, 2002).
Employees are sometimes assigned
with lots of responsibilities that may
demotivate them to develop
communication and respond to the
top level management
Appointment of communication committee will
help to resolve this barrier. Appointment
committee will help to distribute responsibilities
communicating with the employees(Darley, 2002).
The company has a scarcity of latest
communication technology that is a
great barrier to the communication
system.
One of the most important strategies to develop
the company’s communication system is
developing communication software where
employees and employers will be connected. This
will help to improvise the company’s
communication system (Graber, 2012).
Feedback system
The feedback can be taken from the customers creating some question for them.
14

3.3 Implementation plans that will improvise the current
communication mediums between Costa Coffee UK and the local
community.
The plans which will improve the current communication system of Costa Coffee are
going to be described here:
Regular meeting
Regular meeting will help the company to make a good communication web among
the employees and employers. Meeting must be occurred between employers and
employees (Darley, 2002).
Understanding local and cultural value
Local and cultural value understanding is an important issue to develop
communication between employees and employers of the company. Generally, the
employees of different stores of the company are recruited from the local area.
Different culture’s employee’s behaviour and attitude is different. If the company can
understand about the local value and culture, they will be able to develop a good
communication with the employees (Scollon & Scollon, 2009).
Selecting communication way
After understanding over local cultural value, the company should emphasize on
effective communication ways such as telephone, mobile, internet etc. All these will
help to make employees full time connected with the company (Bryson, 2013).
3.4 Responsibility in the Communication Department, create a
personal plan to improve your own communication skills
15

Swot Analysis
Strength
 Good communication skill
 Good learning skill
 Understanding people easily
Weaknesses
 Lack of group discussion ability
 Lack of presentation skill
 Lack of high networks
Opportunities
 Top level management support
 Good working environment
Threats
 Different cultural employees
 Decision maker’s decision change
 Lack of some top level management assistance
Professional development plan
16

17

4.1, 4.2, 4.3- PowerPoint slide
4.1
18

Cost coffee basically collect necessary data by questionnaire & survey, observation
and interview. The company operates different research and most of the time they
collect data from the respondents (customers and employees) through survey
questionnaire. Sometimes because of limited time, they focus on observation.
However, to collect and analyze data deeply, the company focuses on depth
interview (Lubbe, 2007).
19

Costa Coffee formulates the collected data based on customer’s expectation (what
customers wish to have from the company), customer preferences (what customers
prefer to have from the company) and customers complain (focusing on the negative
complains) because the most dissatisfied customers are the best learning source of
an organization (Graber, 2012).
20

Four techniques are followed to store the data of the company. These are:
Customer complain in one file, based on product features, based on sales and based
on employee data for all departments. As the company emphasizes on these
approaches properly, their data management system is improving day by day
(Rosner, Halcrow & Levins, 2010).
21

The collected and analyzed data of the company are distributed through TV,
newspaper, bulletin etc. Also, some other essential data are distributed according to
the demand of different departments of the company (Rosner, Halcrow & Levins,
2010).
22

4.2
If the company can focus on three effective strategies such as focusing on different
MIS software that impact on communication, developing their communicating
process (focusing on communication improving techniques) and analyzing the
collected data by experts (Graber, 2012).
23

If Costa Coffee can be able to store data through intranet where their employees can
utilize the data, the company will be able to improve their communication system.
Changing invalid and old information will help to keep the data management system
up to date. And if the storage system is developed with latest technology, it will give
the best feedback (Laudon and Laudon, 2008).
24

If the company can be able to improve their communication process and data
management team by effective training, they will have a chance to improve their
communication system (Rosner, Halcrow & Levins, 2010).
25

Identifying opportunities, saving data in Google drive and keeping separate
department for data management will also help the company to improve their
communication system(Laudon and Laudon, 2008).
26

4.3
User friendly data management strategy is the process of giving a flexible
opportunity to the users to utilize data in the most effective way. The Company can
improve their communication system following user friendly strategy. Costa Coffee
can improve the strategy if they can design data management according to customer
expectation, focusing easy access an recording them in a easy way so that
customers or users can flexibly utilize (Laudon and Laudon, 2008).
27

Customers easy entry system should be focused and bureaucratic problem should
be eradicated. Thus the company will be able to ensure user friendly communication
in their communication system (Rosner, Halcrow & Levins, 2010).
28

29

Conclusion
Based on the above assessment, it can be said that communication is an important
issue for every business organization. The assessment was basically developed
based on different communication system and tools of communication system based
on Costa Coffee. Importance of communication system, opportunities of developed
communication, the company’s communication system, ways to develop
communication system etc have been described here properly. All these have
helped to achieve the aim of the assessment.
References
Rosner, B., Halcrow, A. and Levins, A. (2010).Communication. 11th ed. New York:
McGraw-Hill.
Graber, D. (2012). The power of communication. 12th ed. Washington, D.C.:
Congressional Quarterly.
Laudon, K. and Laudon, J. (2008).Management information systems. 11th ed. Upper
Saddle River, N.J.: Prentice Hall.
Lubbe, S. (2007).Managing information communication technology investments in
successful enterprises. Hershey PA: Idea Group Pub.
Bryson, J. (2013). Managing information services. 10th ed. Farmhand: Ashgate Pub.
Darley, M. (2002).Managing communication in health care. Edinburgh:
BalliereTindall in association with RCN.
Scollon, R. and Scollon, S. (2009). Interculturalcommunication. 12th ed. Oxford, UK:
Blackwell.
Terry, J. F. (2008). The Art of Asking: Ask Better Questions, Get Better Answers. FT
Press.
Richard Arvid Johnson (1976). Management, systems, and society : an introduction.
Pacific Palisades, Calif.: Goodyear Pub. Co. pp. 148–
142. ISBN 9780876205402. OCLC 2299496.
30

Tracy, S.J.; K. K. Myers; C. W. Scott (2006). "Cracking Jokes and Crafting Selves:
Sensemaking and Identity Management Among Human Service
Workers". Communication Monographs. 73 (3): 283–308.
Mahoney, Leonardo (1996). 5,000 years of Architecture in
Malta. Malta: Valletta Publishing. Format. p. 123-124.
Peter Aucoin (1989), Middle Managers, Institute of Public Administration of Canada,
p. 191
Connors, J. L.; Rom berg, T. A. (1991). "Middle management and quality control:
Strategies for obstructionism". Human organization. 50: 61–65.
Floyd, Steven W.; Wooldridge, Bill (1997). "Middle management's strategic influence
and organizational performance". Journal of Management Studies.
Hayes, John (2014). The Theory and Practice of Change Management. London:
Palgrave MacMillian. p. 137. ISBN 978-1-137-27534-9.
31