Analyzing Tesco's Communication and Stakeholder Engagement

This report examines Tesco's communication strategies and stakeholder involvement in decision-making. It identifies primary and secondary stakeholders and explores methods for building business relationships through meetings, social gatherings, and direct communication. The report details an activity plan for increasing stakeholder engagement in decisions, such as launching new products, and suggests strategies for improving Tesco's overall decision-making process, including clarifying difficulties, seeking diverse perspectives, and adopting practical thinking. The analysis concludes that stakeholder engagement is crucial for Tesco's success and highlights the importance of effective communication and knowledge management.

Managing Communication
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION ...............................................................................................................................5
TASK 2 ................................................................................................................................................5
2.1 Identification of stakeholders of Tesco for a decision making process.....................................5
2.2 Methods to make contact with its stakeholders in order to develop business relationships .....6
2.3 Involvement of stakeholders in decision making process........................................................7
2.4 Strategy for improvement decision making process of Tesco...................................................7
CONCLUSION ...................................................................................................................................8
REFERENCES.....................................................................................................................................9
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ILLUSTRATION INDEX
Illustration 1 Types of stakeholders in new retail company.................................................................6
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INDEX OF TABLES
Table 1: Activity plan for increase involvement of stakeholders in decision making process.............7
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INTRODUCTION
Communication is one of the important functions of every organization. For taking effective
decisions, a proper coordination of both information and knowledge with interaction is essential.
The environment in which firms are operating their business is more competitive (Hislop, 2013). In
order to meet the demands of customers and expand business, a proper communication, knowledge
and information requires. The present study is related to managing communication, information and
knowledge. To understand its role in an organization, Tesco is taken into consideration (McPhail,
2011). The objectives that will cover in present study are identification of stakeholders, modes of
making contact with the identified stakeholders and their involvement as well as use of strategies
for improving decision making process.
TASK 2
2.1 Identification of stakeholders of Tesco for decision making process
Stakeholder is a group of people who are investing their money in a company or project with
the intention of getting additional benefits. They are playing an important role in decision making
process of an organization (Tseng, 2010). For Tesco, it has been identified that there are two types
of stakeholders; primary and secondary. These are indirectly or directly affecting the various actions
of the organization. Primary stakeholders are those groups of people who stand to be directly
affected by the activities of Tesco either in positive or negative way. These are management team,
employees, strategic partners, shareholders and strategic clients (Blanc and Bouillon, 2012). On the
other hand, secondary stakeholders are people who are indirectly or directly affected by the actions
of Tesco. These groups include banks, media, government, competitors, clients, suppliers,
associations, customers, trade unions, community etc (Dwyer, 2012). The impact of different
decisions of company on secondary stakeholders can impact in either way.
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2.2 Methods to make contact with stakeholders in order to develop business relationships
After identification of major stakeholders, the next task for Tesco is to create contact with
them by developing business relationships. In this context, there are some methods by which
company can develop contact with stakeholders which are as follows: Meetings: By organized formal or informal meetings, Tesco can get the chance to meet with
the stakeholders face to face. It helps in creating the new contact with them so that they can
involve in the decision making process as well (Coombs, 2014). In the meetings, company
can discuss different policies and strategies with stakeholders and try to influence them to
increase their investment in different business projects. Socially: It is known as a good method of developing and creating a good relation with
stakeholders. Tesco can conduct a social gathering in the form of party either in hotel or a
club. Here, different groups of people can easily interact with other and express their ideas
in front of the company (Galliers and Leidner, 2014). It helps in increase the communication
between the stakeholders and organization to minimize communication gaps.
 Mails and calls: It is another method where Tesco can directly contact with the
stakeholders, by sending mails, massages and calls. The overview of existing strategies and
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Illustration 1 Types of stakeholders in new retail company
(Source: Primary and Secondary Stakeholders of Organization, 2016)

ideas can be expressed in more effective manner (Dalkir, 2013).
Hence, with the help of above mentioned methods of communication, Tesco can create
contact with identified stakeholders and develop a good business relationship with them.
2.3 Involvement of stakeholders in decision making process
High involvement of stakeholders in decision making process of a company is helpful in
taking more effective and appropriate decisions (Kebede, 2010). For example, Tesco wants to
launch a new product in UK market and for better decisions and suggestions, company is trying
new ways to increase engagement of stakeholders in decision making process. In this context,
organization needs to develop a plan which is shown in below table:
Table 1: Activity plan for increase involvement of stakeholders in decision making process
ACTIVITIES PLAN
Price strategy  Organize meeting by sending the mails to major stakeholders by
including venue, time and objectives of meeting.
 At the starting of meeting, share the objectives of launching new
product in UK market.
 Discuss the pricing strategy on which a new product can be introduced
in the marketplace (Holsapple, 2013).
 Inviting the suggestions from stakeholders on deciding strategy and
note all of them.
 Make the discussions with them by selecting the one best suitable
option by taking approval from all stakeholders on formulation pricing
strategy (Hislop, 2013).
 Developing a formal report after the meeting by including different
and essential information. Sending the report to major key
stakeholders through different modes of communication channels
(Jones and Sallis, 2013).
2.4 Strategy for improvement decision making process of Tesco
In order to improve the decision making process, Tesco can adopt different strategies. It will
assist the organization to take more effective judgement: Clarify decision difficulties: For improving the decision making process, Tesco should
prepare the list of those difficulties which create a barrier at the time of taking decision. By
clearly defining the problems, it can be easy to find out the solutions of various issues.
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 Taking support from different sources: Tesco should not underestimate to help employees,
business partners or other external agencies. Their suggestions surely help the company to
take right decisions and minimize confusing state (Decision Making Strategies, 2016). Consider rage of alternatives: Tesco should take the help of others to explore the different
alternatives that can resolve the different issues during taking appropriate business
decisions. By creating a list of best possible options, organization can select right alternative
to minimize the impact of different factors on decision making process.
 Improve practical thinking: By adopting practical thinking approach, Tesco can easily
identify its core strengths. It assists the company to develop creative and critical thinking to
understand the various issues which directly or indirectly affect the decision making process
(Guidelines to improve decision making, 2016).
CONCLUSION
From the above study, it can be concluded that business environment has affected the
working of Tesco in both positive and negative manner. Stakeholders have played an important role
in the success of company. Identified group of people who are ready to invest the money in
organization has categorized into primary and secondary stakeholders. With the help of meetings,
emails and social gathering, firm has able to develop good relationship with them. Different
strategies such as adoption of practical thinking, clearly define difficulties etc, has improved the
decision making process of Tesco.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Blanc, B. and Bouillon, J., 2012. Organizational devices for knowledge management: Proposal for a
crossover perspective between knowledge sciences and communication sciences. VINE.
42(3/4). pp.382 – 395.
Coombs, W. T., 2014. Ongoing Crisis Communication: Planning, Managing, and Responding:
Planning, Managing, and Responding. Sage Publications.
Dalkir, K., 2013. Knowledge management in theory and practice. Routledge.
Dwyer, J., 2012. Communication for Business and the Professions: Strategies and Skills. Pearson
Higher Education AU.
Galliers, R. D. and Leidner, D. E., 2014. Strategic information management: challenges and
strategies in managing information systems. Routledge.
Hislop, D., 2013. Knowledge management in organizations: A critical introduction. Oxford
University Press.
Holsapple, C., 2013. Handbook on knowledge management 1: Knowledge matters. Springer
Science & Business Media.
Jones, G. and Sallis, E., 2013. Knowledge management in education: Enhancing learning &
education. Routledge.
Kebede, G., 2010. Knowledge management: An information science perspective. International
Journal of Information Management. 30(5). pp.416-424.
McPhail, L. T., 2011. Global Communication: Theories, Stakeholders, and Trends. John Wiley &
Sons.
Tseng, S., 2010. The correlation between organizational culture and knowledge conversion on
corporate performance. Journal of Knowledge Management. 14(2). pp.269–284.
Online
Decision Making Strategies. 2016. [Online]. Available through:
<http://career.utk.edu/students/choosing-a-majorcareer/decision-making-strategies/>.
[Accessed on: 5th March, 2016].
Guidelines to improve decision making. 2016. [Online]. Available through:
<http://www.armystudyguide.com/content/army_board_study_guide_topics/leadership/
guidelines-to-improve-dec.shtml>. [Accessed on: 5th March, 2016].
Primary and Secondary Stakeholders of Organization. 2016. [Online]. Available through:
<http://www.comindwork.com/weekly/2015-03-02/productivity/primary-and-secondary-
stakeholders-of-organization>. [Accessed on: 5th March, 2016].
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