Managing Communication, Information and Knowledge
CONTENTS
. Introduction
2. Decision Making
a) The Decision Making Process
b) Decision Levels
c) Information and Knowledge Needs
d) Decision Making Techniques
3. Personal Networking
4. Communication
a) Communication Process
b) Sources of Internal Communication
c) Sources of External Communication
5. Organization's approaches to collecting, formatting, storing and disseminating information and knowledge
6. References
INTRODUCTION
Ford was established in 1903 by Henry Ford and 11 other associates. The company launched its T-model in 1908. The company began producing truck and tractors in 1917. During 1925, Ford acquired the Lincoln Motor Company, branding out into luxury cars. In 1956, Ford went public.
The global expansion of Ford continued through this era and the company made several acquisitions.
Ford Motor Company is now one of the largest automotive manufacturers in the world. The company manufactures and distributes automobiles in 200 markets across six continents. The company's core and affiliated automotive brands include Ford, Jaguar, Land Rover, Lincoln, Mazda and Volvo. It is headquartered in Dearborn, Michigan and employs 283,000 people.
The Company operates in two business divisions: Automotive and Financial services
The Automotive business division consists of the design, development, manufacture, sale and service of cars, truck and service parts. Through this segment, Ford produces a wide range of vehicles including cars for the small, medium, large and premium segments. In addition to producing and selling cars and trucks, Ford also provides retail customers with a range of after sales services and products through its dealer network.
The financial services division operates through the company subsidiary, Ford Motor Credit Company (Ford Credit). Ford Credit offers a wide variety of automotive financing products to and through automotive dealers throughout the world. Ford Credit's primary financial products fall into the three categories: retail financing, wholesale financing and other financing. In retail financing, Ford engages in purchasing retail installment sales contracts and retail lease contracts from dealers. In wholesale financing, Ford offers loans to dealers to finance the purchase of vehicle inventory. In other financing, Ford offers loans to dealers for working capital, improvements for dealership facilities, and acquiring and refinancing real estate.
Ford Motor Company has now earned the status as a worldwide industrial icon. The company already has a proud history from which to gain perspective and inspiration and many hopeful developments to build on. Ford Motor Company had record sales in China and India in 2006. While challenges are being faced, Ford is making continuous improvements to their plan in order to capitalize on opportunities to create and sell more products and save more costs. Priorities combined with a sense of urgency, will continue to transform Ford Motor Company.
QUESTION 1
DECISION MAKING
Decision making is the study of identifying and choosing alternatives based on the values and preferences of the decision maker. It can also be regarded as a problem solving activity which is terminated when a satisfactory solution is found. Therefore, decision making is a reasoning or emotional process which can be rational or irrational, can be based on explicit assumptions or tacit assumptions.
The Decision Making Process
At Ford, decision making is achieved through 'Group' approach. The group shares ideas and analyses and agrees upon a decision to implement. Studies show that the group often has values, feelings and reactions quite different from those the manager supposes they have. No one knows the group and its tastes and preferences as well as the group itself.
Although it is possible to identify types of decisions group leaders might take, it is another to determine how those decisions are taken. In determining what decisions to take, the group leaders rely upon their knowledge and experience (tacit knowledge). Direct questioning of group leaders makes them unable to directly express their knowledge. Therefore, a methodology can be used to illustrate the decision making process at Ford. The methodology first aims to elicit information on the group leaders' decision making strategies and then to look for ways to improve their decision making.
The methodology outlines is known as knowledge based improvement. It consists of six key stages:
* Understanding the decision making process
* Data collection
* Identify available alternative solutions to the problem
* Evaluate the identified alternatives
* Implement the decision
* Evaluate the decision
Stage 1: Understanding the decision making process
The most significant step in any decision making process is describing why a decision is called for and identifying the most desired outcome(s) of the decision making process. One way of deciding if a problem exists is to couch the problem in terms of what is required or expected and the actual situation. In this way a problem is defined as the difference between expected and/or desired outcomes and actual outcomes.
For instance, in a simple maintenance scheduling problem where there are 2 actions, which are not mutually exclusive and 2 engineers who can be asked to act if available. Each of them has 2 alternative decision options: the action can either be taken or not taken; the engineers can either be asked to act or not to act.
Stage 2: Data Collection
The next step in determining the decision making strategies is to collect examples of decision from each expert. One method of collecting these data would be through observation of experts at work. This, however, would be extremely time consuming. Alternatively, get as many facts as possible about the decision within the limits of time imposed and the ability to process them. But virtually every decision is made in partial ignorance and lack of complete information, which affects the decision making process.
As a result the methodology uses a VIS. The experts at Ford interact with a visual simulation of the system in question. The simulation model stops at a decision point and reports the values of the attribute variables. The expert is then prompted to enter his/her decision to the model.
The methodology suggests VIS for a number of reasons. First, it is less time consuming than observation, because the simulation runs much faster than real time. Another benefit is that, simulation run can be repeated exactly, enabling the system state to be interrogated further at a ...
This is a preview of the whole essay
As a result the methodology uses a VIS. The experts at Ford interact with a visual simulation of the system in question. The simulation model stops at a decision point and reports the values of the attribute variables. The expert is then prompted to enter his/her decision to the model.
The methodology suggests VIS for a number of reasons. First, it is less time consuming than observation, because the simulation runs much faster than real time. Another benefit is that, simulation run can be repeated exactly, enabling the system state to be interrogated further at a later date, if required.
Stage 3: Identify available alternative solutions to the problem
The key to this step is to not remain stuck on obvious alternatives or what has worked in the past but to be open to new and better alternatives. How many alternatives should be identified? Ideally, all of them. Realistically, the decision maker should consider more than five in most cases, more than three at the barest minimum. This gets away from the trap of seeing "both sides of the situation" and limiting alternatives to two opposing choices; either this or that.
A list of all the possible choices should be made, including the choice of doing nothing. Only identifying available alternatives doesn't solve the problem but creating alternatives that don't yet exist, widens the image.
Stage 4: Evaluate the identified alternatives
As each alternative is evaluated, emphasis should be placed on the likely positive and negative cones for each. It is unusual to find one alternative that would completely resolve the problem and is heads and shoulders better than all others. Differences in the "value" of respective alternatives are typically small, relative and a function of the decision maker's personal perceptions, biases and predispositions.
As the positive and negative cones are considered, ample care is required to differentiate between what is known for a fact and what is believed might be the case. The decision maker will only have all the facts in trivial cases. People always supplement what facts they have with assumptions and beliefs.
This distinction between fact-based evaluation and non-fact -based evaluation is included to assist the decision maker in developing a "confidence score" for each alternative. The decision maker needs to determine not just what results each alternative could yield, but how probable it is that those results will be realized. The more the evaluation is fact-based, the more confident he/she can be that the expected outcome will occur.
Stage 5: Implement the decision
While this might seem obvious, it is necessary to make the point that deciding on the best alternative is not the same as doing something. The action itself is the first real, tangible step in changing the situation. It is not enough to think about it or talk about it or even decide to do it. A decision only counts when it is implemented. As Alan Mullaly (CEO of FORD) said, "There are no more prizes for predicting rain. There are only prizes for building arks."
Stage 6: Evaluate the decision
Every decision is intended to fix a problem. The final test of any decision is whether or not the problem was fixed. Did it go away? Did it change appreciably? Is it better now, or worse, or the same? What new problems did the solution create?
DECISION LEVELS
Some decisions are more important than others, whether in their immediate impact or long term significance. As a means of understanding the significance of a decision so that knowledge can be gained on how much time and resources to spend on it, three levels of decision have been identified:
. STRATEGIC
Strategic decisions are the highest level. Here a decision concerns general direction, long term goals, philosophies and values. These decisions 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 such importance.
For example, what methods to use to gain knowledge, whether to produce a low priced product and gain market share or produce a high priced product for a niche market would be a strategic decision.
2. TACTICAL
Tactical decisions support strategic decisions. They tend to be medium range, medium significance, with moderate consequences.
For example, if the company decided to produce low price products, a tactical decision might be to build a new factory to produce them at a low manufacturing cost.
3. OPERATIONAL
These are every day decisions, used to support tactical decisions. They are often made with little thought and are structured. Their impact is immediate, short term, short range and usually low cost. The consequences of a bad operational decision will be minimal, although a series of bad or sloppy operational decisions can cause harm. Operational decisions can be preprogrammed, pre-made, or set out clearly in the policy manual.
For example, if the tactical decision is to build a new factory, the operational decision would involve where to get the material from.
INFORMATION AND KNOWLEDGE NEEDS
"Knowledge sharing is promoted as being a part of everyday work-life. Indeed, knowledge sharing can and is included in our performance reviews. One barrier we often run into, though, is when managers don't consider Knowledge Management to be a priority." (Stan Kwiecien, best practice replication deployment manager for Ford Motor Company)
For an information system to be useful, it must be capable of organizing and presenting the information tailored to the context. The component of the information system concerned with internal information must be designed to elicit and obtain all relevant information that is generated, and to index and store it in an easily accessible form. It must be possible to retrieve information as needed, and present it appropriately. It is desirable to have the same computational tools for handling the internal and external information so that a uniform 'interface' is possible.
Implementing an information management policy that is robust and rigorous is essential, not only at the strategic, corporate levels, but operationally as well. In the case of strategic planning, the quality of the information gathered, the channels used to distribute that information laterally and vertically throughout the organization, and the interpretation of the information gathered, is vital. Without a sound foundation, the policy and its procedures, the information that is fed into the strategic planning process will be flawed. This will, inevitably, be damaging to the chances of the chosen strategies being successful.
Identifying Information Needs:
This is usually done by discussing information needs with the strategic planning team. This is another crucial early stage in the use of information in the strategic planning process. The leader(s) and other members of the planning team must be clear about their information needs. Whilst at this stage it is not possible to identify all the specific details, it is essential to draw up a list of categories of information that will lead to sufficient information being gathered. For example, one of the categories will be information on forecast changes in the external environment, another will be information on current and predicted competitor behavior, another may be information on potential manpower resources, and so on. For public sector organizations one of the categories will be predicted government actions, such as in the setting of financial targets or other performance indicators. The role of the planning team is to ensure that their needs are understood and satisfied.
INTERNAL SOURCES OF INFORMATION:
* Sales Data
* Financial Data
* Transport Data
* Storage Data
* Employee Feedback
* Board Members
EXTERNAL SOURCES OF INFORMATION
* Government Statistics
* Trade Associations
* Commercial Services
* National and International institutions
* Customer Feedback
DECISION MAKING TECHNIQUES
SWOT Analysis
Ford Motor Company is one of the largest automobile manufacturers in the world. The Company's strong brand portfolio gives it significant competitive advantage.
Strengths
Weaknesses
* Strong Brand Portfolio
* Strong Engineering Capability
* Large Network
* Strategic Alliance
* Continued Decline In Market Share
* Product Recalls
* Declining Profitability
Opportunities
Threats
* Hybrid Vehicles
* Opportunities In India & China
* Increasing Demand For Dual Fuel Vehicles
* Pricing Pressures
* Metal Prices
* Tightening Emission Standards
PORTERS 5 FORCES ANALYSIS
Industry Competitors:
The new company entering into the market will have to face competition with the existing companies.
Threat of new entrants:
A huge amount of capital is required to enter into the market to face the competition with the existing companies such as Toyota, General motors, Honda etc. The company will have to face entry barriers. This will incur them high capital investment expecting less profit with high expenses.
Bargaining power of suppliers:
The structure of industries can be changed by the bargaining power of the common suppliers. As the suppliers in this market are huge in numbers, and small- medium companies, it is easy for the manufactures to switch.
Bargaining power of customers:
The bargaining power of the consumer in automotive market is not based just on a single consumer. As this market is not dealing with consumer goods as the price of the car is high the demand grows rather slowly.
Threat of substitute products:
These are the products or services, which may destroy the whole industry, and not just the existing structure. Substitutes are particularly important elements of competition, since they normally appear from directions where a challenge is not expected. In the case of cars the public transport system acts as a substitute to the consumers.
QUESTION 2
PERSONAL NETWORKING
Relationships are critical to success, as to, knowing the right person to ask is as valuable as knowing the answer yourself. Being well-connected is the ultimate source of personal effectiveness and advantage. And it's now a case of shared success.
Networking simply means making connections to make exchanges easier. This can be social, personal, professional, or even technical. Networking can be done anywhere and at any time that two or more people get together. But all the more, it is important to be aware of what is appropriate in the setting.
The executives at Ford Motor Company believe in quality relationships. Maintaining quality relationships with employees, customers, suppliers, dealers and society at large is an important part of Ford's ability to meet their goals and build a strong business. Quality relationships with employees and business partners help to improve efficiencies, cost and quality. Strong two-way communication with dealers, customers and society at large helps in understanding and delivering products that customers want. Finally, maintaining quality relationships with suppliers allows partnering with them to implement the environmental and human rights initiatives that are believed to be critical for a sustainable business. Communication, clear expectations and consistency are the keys to managing and maintaining strong relationships. At Ford, relationships are managed through a range of communication forums and by setting codes for acceptable behavior.
Ford currently focuses on directed professional type of networking, where an employee is required to make himself/herself available in a professional setting, usually associations related to their field of work. In order to improve its personal networking, Ford may have to implement directed/personal networking at some levels in the hierarchy. The idea here is to remain notified of the opportunities involved in making sure people know of one's work and have the kind of thinking that will encourage them to make business.
QUESTION 3
COMMUNICATION
Virtually everyone communicates at work. No matter what the field, specialized knowledge isn't enough to guarantee success; communication skills are also vital. Subscriber to 'Harvard Business Review' rated "the ability to communicate", the most important factor in making an executive 'promotable', more important than ambition, education and capacity for hard work. It is easier to recognize the importance of communication than it is to define the term.
Communication is the process of transferring information from a sender to a receiver with a use of a medium in which the communicated information is understood by both sender and receiver.
Communication Process
At Ford, starting from the executive board to down the hierarchy, employees are responsible for ensuring clear, correct and appropriate communication. Appropriate communications are essential not only to conduct the business but also to the Company's reputation. Communications include such things as written memoranda, handwritten notes, drawings, e-mail, computer files, voice mail and photographs.
Certain business activities within the company have been designated to oversee communications on specific topics, or with specific types of groups or individuals. It is important in Ford's policy that communications from outside the Company must be immediately forwarded to the proper activity for handling. Furthermore, their policy includes, stating the facts clearly to ensure that the content of a communication is not misunderstood and employees are notified not to exaggerate or include unsupported assumptions in their communications.
People at Ford Motor Company practice formal communication. As a general rule, all formal communications are recorded. The network of formal communication defines the routes over which all messages will travel. It also provides a road map for senders and receivers of information to flow. Ford Motor Company has formulated ideas and techniques for both front-line employees and managers. They have strategized and defined skills that better their internal communication which make the staff more effective, work easier, faster and less time consuming.
Communication at Ford Motor Company uses both downward and upward communication. The following pattern is followed in a downward communication: Downward communication flows from supervisor to employee, from policy makers to operating personnel, or from top to bottom on the hierarchy. A simple policy statement from the top of the organization may grow into a formal plan for operations at lower levels.
Consequently, at Ford staff also uses communication that is feedback and goes up the hierarchy. Upward communication is generally feedback to downward communication. Employees talk to supervisors about themselves, their fellow employees, their work and methods of doing it, and their perceptions of the organization. These comments are feedback to the downward flow transmitted in both spoken and written form by group meetings, procedures or operations manuals, company news releases, and the grapevine.
The Ford Motor Company focuses heavily on financial criteria, process and operational changes; yet regularly fail to have the desired impact. Often this is due to ineffective internal communication leading to a lack of engagement and disappointing results and misunderstandings. Nevertheless, when the top management realizes the communication breakdown within the corporation, they organize conferences to resolve the issue. The conferences are widely advertised through the newsletters, notice boards, bulletins, and e-mails. The corporations management help leaders understand how to use communications as a central component of their decision making process and to consider the consequences of these decisions from the employee and customer perspective.
Ford operates an internal content distribution network that presents and distributes training and corporate content to Ford dealers and corporate offices throughout the world. Content is presented in live streaming form through satellite channels.
The following communication tools are used to communicate news to the staff:
* Newsletter
* Face-to-Face
* Notice board
* Bulletins
* Memo
* E-mail
* Cell phone
* Text messages
* Instant messaging
The following communication tools are used to communicate news outside the organization:
* Audio/Visual
* Manuals
* Printed materials
* Radio/TV
* Seminars
* Billboards
Dealers present Company's face to the customers and communities and provide the Company with important feedback. Ford should consider to strengthen relationship with their dealers through open dialogue on key issues such as new products, vehicle quality and customer satisfaction.
QUESTION 4
Keeping past records is the most vital commodity at Ford Motor Company. So much so that they have devised policies those are mandatory on all personnel. All electronic data stored on Company computers or similar assets are the property of the Company. The company has the right to monitor or access documents on its systems at any time, within the limits of existing laws and agreements.
The Company's information is a valuable asset and all measures are taken to ensure effective and secure management. Company information is any information that is received, acquired or recorded in performing job duties, it includes documents such as product plans, vehicle designs, strategy papers, retail finance contracts, communication to the Company's board of directors and management and agreements the Company has with others, as well as written memoranda, handwritten notes, drawings, photographs, computer files, voice mail and e-mail notes.
Effective management of Company information helps the Company meet its business goals, maintain a competitive advantage and achieve its objectives for quality. Proper information management is also required to support the Company's compliance with legal and regulatory requirements and internal policies. Employees at Ford are required to know the Company's procedure for creating, transferring, retaining and disposing of information. The Company takes disclosure of its information very seriously and doesn't hesitate to act to protect its interests.
Ford Motor Company started a Global Information Standards (GIS) program that includes standards, processes, services and solutions that enable the management of Company records and information, regardless of media or location. Two Global Information Standards form the basis of GIS program:
. Global Information Standard 1 (GIS1) - the records management standard that establishes retention requirements for all Company records, regardless of format.
2. Global Information Standard 2 (GIS2) - the information security standard for the Company. It governs the protection and handling of records and information and defines four security classifications: Secret, Confidential, Proprietary and Public.
Collection
Ford developed a new set of digital tools to capture sales prospect information from auto show visitors. They designed a customer friendly interactive framework for the auto show environment that would gather names and information, purchase intent time frames and interest in specific Ford vehicles. Auto show visitors who preferred to personally enter their information could access a network of touch screen computers. Other than that, Ford product specialists also carried hand held PCs, which would guide customers on specific product as well as acquire information. Once all information is gathered, it can be transferred wirelessly to Ford Data Center.
Storage
With the Company's ever growing storage needs, Ford implemented a new system, STORmanage(SM). This system provides storage management best practices and operational expertise to manage, monitor and operate Ford's existing and new data storage assets. Installing this system reduced the storage costs radically by 27%. It enables Ford to more efficiently utilize its existing storage assets and reduce new storage deployments. The system provides a common structure that unifies storage resources through defined interfaces for information exchange, control and management.
Under utilization of storage assets can occur even within companies that have large state-of-the-art data centers. This is due in part to inadequate storage management tools in the industry today, but it is also the result of the complexity and high cost of selecting and implementing the storage management tools that do exist.
DISSEMINATION
Ford has implemented Selective Dissemination of Information (SDI). It is a tool used to keep the employee informed of new resources on specified topics.
"SDI services include alerts, current awareness tools or trackers. These systems provide automated searches that inform the employee of the availability of new resources meeting the employee's specified keywords and search parameters. Alerts can be received in a number of ways, including email, RSS feeds, voice mail, instant messaging, and text messaging." (www.wikipedia.org)Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Selective_dissemination_of_information"
Ford Motor Company is constantly coming up with innovative ideas that cater the ever growing needs of its customers and industry as a whole. It's to their good that no flaws can be found in their current working systems. Ford has been able to gain a considerable sized market share, and has always worked hard to meet the high hopes of its customers as well as its shareholders. The Company needs not to improve but to stay consistent and maintain its current efficiency.
REFERENCES
* http://www.ford.com
* http://www.google.com
* http://www.wikipedia.com
* http://www.media.ford.com
* Ford sustainability report 2006/07
* Proceedings of the 2001 Winter Simulation Conference (B.A. Peters, J.S. Smith, D.J. Medeiros, and M.W. Rohrer, eds)
* Ford Motor Company profile ( Reference code: 4E3AD1B7-04B2-4E87-BB09-7DC916B9230F) Publication Date: November 2007
* Communicating at Work - Principles and practices for business and professions (7th edition) by Ronald B. Adler and Jeanne Marquardt Elmgorst
* 360? Feedback process at Ford Motor Company by Anne E. Belec
