Introduction

Managing communication knowledge and information The fate of any business venture is decided by the decision-making ability of the business leadership. Profiting in a business is all about making the most of opportunity that performs in a market. Timing is most important essence in the business. Quick decisions is more needed to be made by business managers to take benefit of chances when they present themselves. In today's world, one needs business managers who can take quick decisions and execute the outlined strategy. Sometimes, a loss or profit in the business brings down to one deciding moment of decision. That is what business is all about, the decision-making ability of the thinking of any organization; it decides how effective a role play in the business world. Knowledge management(KM) is the process of capturing, developing, sharing, and effectively using organizationalknowledge.It refers to a multi-disciplinary approach to achieving organizational objectives by making the best use of knowledge. Knowledge management efforts typically focus on organizationalobjectivessuch as improved performance,competitive advantage,innovation, the sharing of lessons learned, integration andcontinuous improvementof the organization.KM efforts overlap withorganizational learningand may be distinguished from that by a greater focus on the management of knowledge as a strategic asset and a focus on encouraging thesharing of knowledge.It is an enabler of organizational learning.

INTRODUCTION TO THE BUSINESS

Our main business is retailing of various products which is needed by customers for their day to day use. As our business is operating in fast moving consumer goods sector it should be more proactive to the market within which it operates. We have 2 main retail outlet which provides excellent service and also provides home delivering products for customers as per their order. In order to be competitive in the market we prefer to deliver excellent customer services to our customers. Our organization is small in size and thereby it has less functions to carry out regardless like the big organizations. The hierarchy of our organization is as follows;

Organizational hierarchy and the level of management

Supervisor

SupervisorAssistant mangerManager

EMPLOYEE

EMPLOYEE

EMPLOYEE

EMPLOYEE

EMPLOYEE

EMPLOYEE

We have 2 retail outlets which are managed in such a way that it would help to hold its customers and even attract more customers so that the business will grow in future. We believe that having right information about the market changes will help us to be more competitive in the market. In order to react to insist change in the market. The business should have the right information about the market in order to take the right decision at the right time. The appropriate decision taken at the right time has led to the success of our business over the years. Decision-making increasingly happens at all levels of a business. Mainly the three level of decision are taken in our business are as follows:- Strategic level: makes the grand strategic decisions about investment and direction of future growth; it concerns long term goal, philosophies and values. They are the least structured and most imaginative; they are the most risky and of the most uncertain outcome, partly because they reach so far into the future and partly because they are of high importance. Usually this type of decision in our business are taken after a meeting with supervisor and the assistant manager and the manager. Tactical level: tactical decisions about how their own department may contribute most effectively to the overall business objectives they tend to be medium range, medium significance, with moderate consequences. These decision are made to help implement the strategic decision; these type of decision my look at the available resource and the money. Operational level: employees are increasingly expected to make decisions about the conduct of their own tasks, responses to customers and improvements to business practice. They are every day decisions, used to support tactical decisions, often structured and their impact is immediate, short term, short range, and usually low cost

External and internal sources of information and knowledge Appropriate decision taken at the right time has led to the success of the organization over the years. In order to make above mentioned decision our organization required two types of information. Theses information will let to make effective decision which has to be taken in order to make the organization successful. The information and knowledge about the market environment and business environment will be gained in two ways, they are as follows: Internal information: Internal information are gather and used for the decision making purpose inside the organization. These information will be needed to make operational level decision and tactical level decision in business. Usually organization use some sort of information system to develop and maintain the internal sources of information. According O'Brien and Marakas "an information system can be any organized combination of people, hardware, software, communication network and data resources that stores and retrieves, transforms and disseminate information in an organization" (O'Brien & Marakas, 2001). It means that the internal sources of information can be the employees and the computers etc.The employees can give information regarding various operations and then the supervisors will take the decision according to the mangers opinions. There are different kinds of internal information such as Financial Information: These are the information available related to performance, profit and loss of the organization. Business information such as cost of products, salary, taxes, profit, loss, etc. Personal and administration information: These are the information about the employees their personal details, career information, experience, skills, training, productivity rates, bonuses etc. Marketing information: This information used to understand the success of products and services offered by the organization and internal marketing information are the sales figures, complains, revenue generated etc. Stock information: these are information related to buysing of goods os such as cost of purchasing, transport cost, supplier details etc. As our business is small in size it has few they source

External information:

External source of information are the external information which are not governed by the organization External information are gathered by managers that provides an organization intelligence information regarding the outside parties including customer, society, competitors, government etc. The external sources of information provide most valuable information regarding the organization environmental factors. Our organization environmental factor consists of economic factors, demographic factors, technological factors, political-legal factor, and socio-cultural factors. This information is of very importance for the business organization because the organization environment serves as an obstacle between the business and its target market. Through proper scanning of the environmental factors managers are able to devise his strategies keeping in view the dynamic environment. These external information are helpful in making decision regarding the market. These external information for our business are collected through market research, survey, direct inquires and through various other forms. Normally this type information can be used if there is need to reduce the price of various products, weather to have promotion, etc.

Existing methods of collecting formatting and disseminate the information and knowledge As our business is small in size it has less information to be rolled within the business. Firstly the person who needs information should must know what kind of information that they need to make the decision. First usefulness of a particular information should evaluated against the organizational objectives and using social and cultural backgrounds. Issues and problems which are relevance to the receiver should be understood and information related to that should be collected. Information types such as Bibliographic information, Practical information, Referral information, Statistical data and Analytical information can be considered. Then this information should be formatted according to the organizational requirements (Commonwealth of Australia, 2009). For this condensing information using digests and abstracts, consolidating information to catch the main output and repackaging information such as changing it to understandable format can be done. Then this relevant and updated information should be stored in organization. This can be done in documentation form or in online form. In storage should be concern to easy access and easy retrieval of information according to the requirements. Then dissemination of information should be done and should first verify the appropriate receiver of the information. Then the appropriate media of dissemination of information should be selected. The media such as Oral media (words), Electronic media (TV, radio, internet, email, fax, video, podcasts, teleconferencing, webcasts). Choosing the correct media for the communication is vital to reach the potential.Existing process, technologies of communication in business Communication is a process which sender and receiver sharing of a common meaning. Communication process has key components as sender, encoding, transmission, decoding, receiver and feedback. Communication technology has changed the way the world conducts business. Cellular phones, webcams and the Internet are only a few of the many tools business regularly used that were unheard of a little more than a decade ago. The advent of this technology and its variety of benefits has made conducting business easier and more assessable to small business like us globally. The important factor in a communication process is people who involves it. Therefore, a useful tool to identify and reflect upon our personal strengths and areas for development is the personal SWOT analysis. In order to improve the effective communication, SWOT analysis is a useful technique to help people identify these strength and weakness; analyze the opportunities and treats in workplace. Using this tool in company will help employees develop their career. Manager can focus on developing the strength and opportunities while minimizing the weakness and reducing the threats in the business. Perhaps the biggest advantage of the improvement of technology in business communication is the financial savings it affords small businesses and global corporations alike. Tasks that once took large sums of money may now be completed with a touch of a button for pennies. This has allowed small businesses like us to better compete with larger organizations in the global market. Where once we would have stored business information in filing cabinets, now the same information is referred to as data and 99% of it is stored in digital form. What this means is that if someone in another city needs to see a file, instead of having to courier it to them overnight we simply attach it to an email and send it to them instantly. The medium that has made this possible is the Internet. This revolutionary medium has allowed business communications to become faster, more efficient and completely free from geographical limitations. The Internet has made possible a wide range of new business communication tools wchich are currently used by our business are as follows: Email This has become the main form of communication for our businesses, as it is relatively fast and very cheap and can be used to forward and receive additional files attached to each message. Instant messaging (IM) IMing is faster and more convenient than email or telephone, and is an excellent way for employees to communicate with one another in real time. Social media Social media has allowed businesses to communicate on a much more personal level with their customers and more over this helps to advertise our products to our customers and also to get their feedback on servicers so that we can improve the services we provide in future. We believe that high level of customer satisfaction is needed if we want to grow and expand the business in future. Targeted advertising Using tools such as Adwords, businesses can now target potential customers much more accurately. Video conferencing Video conferencing allows participants to attend virtual meetings with colleagues and clients via a video link on their tablets or smart phones. With this technology our manger can directly contact the supervisors. Moreover, the expediency provided by business communication technology is also beneficial in interpersonal communication. Previously, businesses would have to plan conferences for individuals who sit in separate locations to meet. Before Voice of Internet Protocol, or VoIP, technology, placing a long distance telephone call was an expensive gesture. Current VoIP and cellular telephone technology, however, has made flat rates for local and long distance calls common place. This made us to save money in contacting various our suppliers. The important factor in a communication process is people who involves it. Therefore, a useful tool to identify and reflect upon our personal strengths and areas for development is the personal SWOT analysis. In order to improve the effective communication, SWOT analysis is a useful technique to help people identify these strength and weakness; analyze the opportunities and treats in workplace. Using this tool in company will help employees develop their career. Manager can focus on developing the strength and opportunities while minimizing the weakness and reducing the threats in the business.

Communication weakness within the organization and recommendations

In order to have effective communication in our business it is vital to recruit, train and develop suitable people across the organization. The communication within and outside the company will have impact only when the receiver (one who receives and interpret the message) pursue exactly what the sender (a person who transmit and idea or message) mans. This depends a lot on the people inside the organization. If staff within our organization are talented and have mature personality they will interpret the message by using their professional skills acquired through various training and development. If the case is opposite, the organization will be facing difficulties in every wake of life. Likewise staff within our business should be given more training so that they can improve their Communication skills. Moreover good communication skill of employees will also add goodwill to Wal-Mart (Usray & Matz, 2006). As our business is getting bigger and bigger we need to have a proper information management system. Management information system provides information in the form of pre-specified reports and displays to support business decision making.To make a good decision experience, good information and interpreting the information correctly is quite vital. Information and knowledge plays an important role in modern organizations. Due to the complexity of business processes people need high level of knowledge, skills and expertise