Discuss about the Manage Knowledge and Information.
Decision making is one of the important activities in every organisation that tries to remain in a sustainable position in the market. However, the effective decision-making of the organisation depends on a number of factors in which the knowledge and the information management plays a crucial role. The organisations thus employ innovative technologies that help to reach the goals of the company. In the opinion of Galliers and Leidner(2014), the appropriate management of the knowledge and the information has a positive impact on the decision making process that increases the productivity of the organisation.
The project discusses the various ways of managing knowledge and information using methods such as MIS, DSS. The impact of the technology on the decision-making process of the company is also analysed in the study to understand the importance of the technologies. The study focuses on the car industry of Australia due to which the Ford Australia is chosen. The problems faced by the company while managing the knowledge and information for appropriate decision making is discussed in order to highlight the appropriate methods for addressing the issues. The changes that took place in the recent times is analysed to understand the way in which the company arrived at the decision.
The knowledge and the information management in the organisation is a process that involves creatingsharing, using ad managing the knowledge and the information of the organisation. It is a multi-disciplinary approach that is employed by the organisation that helps the managers to make appropriate decisions that supports the organisational activities (Iraniet al. 2014). Based on the nature of the business and the organisation, there are a number of ways in which the organisations manages their knowledge and the information of the business. However, there are certain common methods and technologies that almost every organisation implements in order to obtain the best possible outcome for the decisions undertaken by the managers and the decision makers of the company. The organisation takes the support of the various technologies such as the MIS, DSS and EIS to make organisational decisions (Schwalbe 2015). The Decision Support System (DSS) is useful for the organisation to support the unstructured and the semi-structured decisions of the company. The DSS is characterised by incomplete or uncertain knowledge that uses the qualitative data. The DSS is beneficial to the decision makers of the company as the alternative scenarios can be easily modelled and compared. According to Park and Lee (2014), the investment decision is highly supported by the DSS technology.
The Management Information System or MIS is a sophisticated reporting system that is built on the basis of the current system that is under processing. The MIS is used by the organisation to support the structured decision making of the company and the tactical management level such as the stock level or the pricing of the product. The Executive Information System (EIS) supports a various range of decision making that is unstructured in most cases. It supports the executive level of management to design high level strategic decisions. The summary data from the internal system can be effectively extracted through EIS (Doz and Prahalad 2013).
The technology helps the decision makers by providing them with the tools to collect, analyse and evaluate the data which is required to make effective decisions. The technology has a significant impact on the decision making process as it improves the business performance through a number of ways such as follows:
Centralising the data of the company
The decision makers are dependent on a number of data sources within the organisation. It becomes difficult to make the appropriate decision when the data are stored in the different systems of the departments (Holsapple 2013). The technology helps to store the data in a central location reduces the difficulty and avoids unnecessary time consumption.
Simplifying Data Collection
The network technology further allows the company to make effective decisions on the basis of the latest information that is available from the supply chain or the market. The managers of the company are able to communicate with the members of the supply chain though secured networks to gain coordination in the decision making process and effectively balance the demand of the market with the supply of the product.
Collaborative Decision-Making
The collaboration of the decision making is also possible with the help of the technology. Technology can be effectively used to make joint decision while developing a new product. The videoconference facility is an effective technology that is used in the organisations in the recent days to carry out joint decisions of the company.
Ford Australia being one of the well-known companies in the car industries in Australia carries out knowledge and the information management in the organisation to make appropriate decisions. However, in the recent times Ford is reported to be under a heavy cloud and it plans to shut down few of its plants. It has been observed that the company is facing the maximum challenges due to the ineffective decisions that arise as a result of poor knowledge and information management (Hislop 2013). The decision of the company to close down the plants is considered as a wrong decision as operating in the market would allow the company to earn profit in the long run.
As per the CEO of the company, the economies of scale of Australia are one of the challenging factors behind the low productivity of Ford. The company further decides to restrict its decision regarding the up-gradation of the operation. The reason behind such decision is that the other car industry in Australia does not manufacture enough cars that will give proper justification to the investment made by Ford to upgrade the operations (Rothaermel 2015). The company further faces other challenges that include seismic re-structuring. Ford has not used the marketing strategy that Toyota or Holden have used to increase their market productivity and profit. Both the rival companies of Ford have invested in the process of meeting the changingpreference of the customers in the case of small cars as well as SUV cars. The marketing strategies gave these companies competitive advantage that supported them to secure export market and maintain them (Ward and Peppard 2016). The ineffective strategies of Ford are considered as one of the reasons behind the downfall of the company.
Ford Australia have been facing maximum of its issues due to the improper decision making. Thus, to achieve effective outcome of the decision making it is important for the company to consider certain appropriate methods or strategies that will address the organisational challenges.
Acknowledge and compensate for the biases
The decision of the company tends to become less objective as the emotions and the biases of the managers or the other stakeholders involve in the process of decision making. Therefore, it is important to acknowledge and compensate for the biases in order to achieve the effective business decision results (Ferreiraet al. 2016).
Using pro and con lists
Although the use of the pro and the cons list is an old method used in the organisation, it is still one of the most effective way to address in the decision making issues and managing the knowledge and the information of the business. This is an effective option as it allows the decision makers to evaluate the entire positive as well as the negative options and thereby chose the best possible option (Motro and Smets 2012).
This is a useful strategy when the decision making becomes difficult. In this method, the decision maker tries to limit the interruption rather than thinking of all the possibilities. It is beneficial to stripe down the deciding factors to the minimum numbers. Furthermore, eliminating the factors that are not of the primary consideration helps the managers to make better decisions and manage the knowledge and the information of the organisation effectively (Liebowitzand Frank2016).
The data are the facts and the figures that infers something specific but are not properly organised and hence do not provide any further information related to the context. In the present market, there are different types of data that are important for the companies. There are different multimedia data such as the audio, video, images and graphics apart from text and numbers (Stadtler 2015).
In the opinion of Ogiela(2015), for the automotive industry the data is not something new. The company constantly considers the data to optimise the supply chain and analyse the sales. The big data have a significant impact on the parts and the features of the car. The big data of the company helps to infiltrate every aspect of the experience of Ford. The innovation in the technology is allowing ford to deal with larger and diverse datasets. Ford uses data analytics to find efficient ways to survive in the market. The big data is important for Ford Australia as it allows the company to acquire the adequate information and knowledge needed by the company to carry out the business activities.
With the changing demand and the consumer behaviour, there is remarkable changes in the technologies that are useful for the organisations in dealing with the market changes. Ford started the business in 1970s with engine controls and microprocessors. With the passage of time, the products of the company have become more and more advanced and software based. The company has gained the ability to take the data, store it and analyse it to identify what value can drive up the productivity and performance of the company (Davison, Ou and Martinsons 2013). The technology has helped the company to know the easier methods of repairing the car and analyse the way in which the people are using the vehicle.
The company studied the market demand and the need to bring effective changes in the business. Introduction of new car models with better technology have been considered by the company. Ford introduced the new Mustang that has been accepted by the Australians well. The Australians ordered the car twice the time as that done by the buyers in UK, despite the car market in Australia being small. The car is a right hand drive car that attracted a number of customers in Australia(Ford.com.au, 2016). The company has been able to reach the decision of launching the car with the innovation with the help of the effective knowledge and information management strategies. The strategies helped the company to consider the pros as well as the cons of the company.
Conclusion
The knowledge and the information management is thus one of the most crucial activity that is carried out by the company effectively. The effective management of knowledge and the information of the organisation is not only able to support the decision making of the company but also drive the productivity and revenue of the company, thereby helping the company to gain more profit. The various methods such as the MIS, DSS and EIS are effective in managing the knowledge and the information to facilitate the decision making process of the company. The technology further has a significant impact on the decision making process of the company. The efficient and the innovative technology allows the organisation to gain a competitive advantage over its competitors with the help of the appropriate decisions.
While considering the knowledge and the informationmanagement of Ford Australia, it can be inferred that the company faces a number of issues that are to be effectively addressed in order to allow smooth running of the business. The methods such as acknowledging and compensating for the biases, using pro and con lists and striping down the deciding factors are effecting in addressing the issues of the company. The company has witnessed a number of changes in the recent times that has been possible with the implementation of effective technologies that allowed it to arrive at those particular decisions.
References
Davison, R.M., Ou, C.X. and Martinsons, M.G., 2013. Information technology to support informal knowledge sharing. Information Systems Journal, 23(1), pp.89-109.
Doz, Y. and Prahalad, C.K., 2013, January. Quality of management: An emerging source of global competitive advantage?. In Strategies in Global Competition (RLE International Business): Selected Papers from the Prince Bertil Symposium at the Institute of International Business, Routledge (pp. 345-368).
Ferreira, F., Marques, A.L., Faria, J. and Azevedo, A., 2016. Large Project Management in the Automotive Industry: A Flexible and Knowledge Based Approach. In New Advances in Information Systems and Technologies (pp. 455-464). Springer International Publishing.
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. ed., 2013. Handbook on knowledge management 1: Knowledge matters (Vol. 1). Springer Science & Business Media.
Irani, Z., Sharif, A., Kamal, M.M. and Love, P.E., 2014. Visualising a knowledge mapping of information systems investment evaluation. Expert Systems with Applications, 41(1), pp.105-125.
Kuga F, ‘Ford Australia – Our Best SUV And 4WD Range’ (Ford.com.au, 2016) <https://www.ford.com.au/suv/> accessed 12 November 2016
Liebowitz, J. and Frank, M. eds., 2016. Knowledge management and e-learning. CRC press.
Motro, A. and Smets, P. eds., 2012. Uncertainty management in information systems: from needs to solutions. Springer Science & Business Media.
Ogiela, L., 2015. Advanced techniques for knowledge management and access to strategic information. International Journal of Information Management, 35(2), pp.154-159.
Park, J.G. and Lee, J., 2014. Knowledge sharing in information systems development projects: Explicating the role of dependence and trust. International Journal of Project Management, 32(1), pp.153-165.
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Stadtler, H., 2015. Supply chain management: An overview. In Supply chain management and advanced planning (pp. 3-28). Springer Berlin Heidelberg.
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