Analysis of Information Needs and Decision Making at Tesco PLC

This report delves into the decision-making processes at Tesco PLC, a UK-based multinational grocery retailer. It begins by outlining the purpose and range of managerial decisions, categorizing them into strategic, tactical, and operational levels. The report emphasizes the importance of information in effective decision-making, detailing the types of information and knowledge required, such as competitor analysis, market position, and consumer behavior. It explores both internal and external sources of information used by Tesco, including financial data, marketing insights, government regulations, and competitor strategies. The report also offers recommendations for improvement, such as utilizing advanced software for data storage and involving employees in decision-making. Ultimately, the report concludes that effective decision-making is essential for Tesco's success, highlighting the need for comprehensive information and continuous improvement in data management and employee engagement.

INFORMATION NEEDS AND STRATEGIES IN
DECISION MAKING
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION................................................................................................................................3
TASK 1.................................................................................................................................................3
a. Purpose of decision making in Tesco and range of decisions a manager would need to take.....3
CONCLUSION....................................................................................................................................5
References............................................................................................................................................6
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INTRODUCTION
Appropriate and detailed information plays important role in decision making process of any
organisation. Managers of the companies need to take decisions in strong competitive and dynamic
environment which sometimes result to make it a critical and difficult process. For the present
study, Tesco PLC a multinational grocery and general merchandise retailer of UK is taken into the
consideration. This file is based on the given case scenario and consists of purpose and range of
decisions taken by the manager of the company. Along with it, study includes information and
knowledge needed for effective decision making and internal and external sources of the
information with area of improvement.
TASK 1
a. Purpose of decision making in Tesco and range of decisions a manager would need to take.
Purpose of decision making:
Decision making refers to the selection of best and appropriate decision among the various
alternatives. Tesco is one of the popular companies in UK and for increasing its popularity among
the people it needs to take proper decisions time to time. The purpose of decision making by the
organisation is to utilize and allocate its resources properly and effectively (Akrani, 2011). Along
with it, other factors which plays important role are resolving the problems and challenges,
achieving the decided and planned objectives, increasing efficiency, facilitating innovations in the
work and motivating employees for improving their performance. Tesco takes decision as per the
importance of the factor for example if its focus is on motivating workers than decisions will be
formed accordingly by the mangers (Liu, Rodríguez and Martínez, 2016).
Range of Decisions
There are three types of decisions which a manger of the Tesco can take as per the
requirement of the situation. These ranges of decisions are as follows. Strategic Decisions: This range of the decisions is taken for the long term and complex
objectives by the senior management of the Tesco. These decision results to affect either
positively and negatively entire working direction of the company. It will help in dealing
with the uncertainties, environmental changes, threats and opportunities, etc. (Marusich and
et.al., 2016). Tactical Decisions: These are medium level decision which is taken for improving the
performance, managing time, allocation of resources, etc. These types of decisions needs to
be taken by the middle level managers of the Tesco (Chand, 2016).
 Operational decisions: These decisions are taken by the manager at the daily basis for
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determining any kind of risk to the business. Tesco needs to take decisions on the basis of
facts related to the events and its other operations.
1.2 Information and knowledge needed to ensure effective decision within Tesco by management
 Information about its competitors – It is difficult to collect the entire information about
competitors but it plays a crucial role in decision making process.
 Information about market position – For effective decision making, it is important to have
quality, reliable and detailed information about various areas. Market position information
will help to take decisions regarding its growth and success (Yu and Xu, 2016).
 Knowledge about the consumer's need, expectations, desires and wants – Firm should have
the complete knowledge about consumer's needs, expectations, desires and wants because at
last, company is working for satisfying them.
 Expectations of the customers - Tesco can conduct research for knowing the expectations of
customers along with the reviews about their services and products so that it can improve
them as per their perception (Wu, Xiong and Chiclana, 2016).
 Historic information - Along with all above information, Tesco needs to collect the historic
information for analyzing the loopholes so that it can improve them in present. It must
gather all details about the previous quality of services, quantity of products, working level
and performance of the workers, strategies used, risks occurred, solutions used for solving
those risks, etc. All these things will help the firm in improving its present condition and
accomplishing its objectives. With the help of this information, company can decide its
future needs and goals effectively (Wang, and Xu, 2016).
1.3 Internal and external sources of information in Tesco with recommendations
While decision making process, it is essential to gather both internal and external
information. Tesco uses following ways for collecting both kinds of information: Internal Information: Tesco gets this information from its internal working environment. It
consists of the financial information which shows its profit and loss with the performance. It
also provides information about the personnel which helps in identifying the needs of
training and development, motivation, rewards as per the performance of workers, etc.
Marketing information is collected by the market team of the organisation to determine the
success of the service or product in the market (Kurtzman and Greene, 2016).
 External Information: This consists of information of the government which includes
change in laws, policies and procedures and legal information for running the business
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properly. On the other hand, company also gets information about the competitors for
knowing their strategies and working style. It also collects information from the databases
and researches in the market which helps in increasing the number of customers and sales of
the products (External source of information, 2013).
Recommendations:
 Tesco needs to use effective software such as databases, ERP, SAP, etc for storing data with
security about all the fields.
 Firm should involve employees also in its decision making process which will result to
enhance their motivation (Rodríguez and et.al., 2016).
Improvements:
 Training employees towards usage of advanced software such as ERP and SAP.
 Ensuring towards security of data present in databases.
CONCLUSION
It is concluded from the above study that, decision making is one of the essential process of
Tesco for achieving its objectives effectively and efficiently. Managers need to take different
decision as per the requirement of the time. These ranges of decisions help the firm in
accomplishing its goals appropriately. On the other hand, proper and detailed information about the
various fields is essential while decision making. Company uses two sources for collecting
information that are internal and external. There are some areas which Tesco needs to improve
which will result to make more effective decisions.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals
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making. Information Fusion. 29(C). pp.87-88.
Marusich, L.R. and et.al., 2016. Effects of Information Availability on Command-and-Control
Decision Making Performance, Trust, and Situation Awareness. Human Factors: The
Journal of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society.
Rodríguez, R.M. and et.al., 2016. A position and perspective analysis of hesitant fuzzy sets on
information fusion in decision making. Towards high quality progress. Information
Fusion. 29. pp.89-97.
Wang, H. and Xu, Z., 2016. Admissible orders of typical hesitant fuzzy elements and their
application in ordered information fusion in multi-criteria decision making.
Information Fusion. 29. pp.98-104.
Wu, J., Xiong, R. and Chiclana, F., 2016. Uninorm trust propagation and aggregation methods for
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Based Systems.
Yu, S. and Xu, Z., 2016. Definite Integrals of Multiplicative Intuitionistic Fuzzy Information in
Decision Making. Knowledge-Based Systems.
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Akrani, G., 2011. Importance of decision making in management. [Online]. Available through:
<http://kalyan-city.blogspot.in/2011/08/importance-of-decision-making-in.html>.
[Accessed on 1st March 2016]
Chand, S., 2016. Decision making Strategic, Tactical and operational decisions| Business
Management. [Online]. Available through:
<http://www.yourarticlelibrary.com/information-technology/decisions-making-strategic-
tactical-and-operational-decisions-business-management/10271/>. [Accessed on 1st March
2016]
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<http://www.contentedwriter.com/external-sources-of-information/>. [Accessed on
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