MANAGING COMMUNICATION, INFORMATION

AND KNOWLEDGE

Compiled by - M.A.M Sadiq

Batch No

- CT/HNDBM/60/02

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MANAGING COMMUNICATION, INFORMATION AND KNOWLEDGE
INDIVIDUAL ASSIGNMENT

Acknowledgement
I would like to present my sincere gratitude to those who have provided guidance help me to enhance the
quality of this assignment. Most important and sincere gratitude goes to my lecture Mrs. Inoka Gunarathne for
helping me throughout the Managing Communication, Information and Knowledge sessions and the
assignment. If he would not be there I would have not got a clear understanding and up to the standard.
I should also thank to my parents for helping me to do my higher national diploma at ICBT because I have got
good lectures who would explain the subject well.
I should also thank my friends at ICBT as well as others who helped me to get knowledge about the doubts I
had while doing the assignment.

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Table of Contents
Company Introduction.................................................................................................................. 10
1.1 Levels of organisation hierarchy............................................................................................. 11
Organizational Hierarchy........................................................................................................... 11
Strategic Level........................................................................................................................... 12
Tactical Level............................................................................................................................. 12
Operational Leve....................................................................................................................... 13
1.2 Information and Knowledge needed to ensure Effective Decisions........................................13
Information can be taken from two sources.............................................................................. 13
Internal and External Source of Information.............................................................................. 13
SWOT Analysis........................................................................................................................... 15
PEST Analysis............................................................................................................................ 16
1.3 Evaluate existing approaches to the Collection, Formatting, Storage, Disseminating
Information and knowledge.......................................................................................................... 17
1.4 Existing Processes of Communication in an Organization.......................................................18
1.5 Personal plan to improve communication skills......................................................................18
Improve communication............................................................................................................ 18
Personal Plan............................................................................................................................. 19
1.6 Methods of Collecting Information and recommendation of improvement.............................20
1.7 Appropriate changes to improve the collection, formatting, storage and disseminating
information and knowledge.......................................................................................................... 20
1.8 Strategies to improve access information and knowledge to others as appropriate..............21
1.9 Evaluation of existing process and technologies of communication.......................................22
Conclusion.................................................................................................................................... 23
References.................................................................................................................................... 24

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Executive Summary
This report explains about the managing, communication knowledge and information about standard charted
and also summaries the range of decisions to be taken in different levels of hierarchy, internal and external
source of information, methods of collecting information and also to maintain secrecy.
In the next covers communication process of an organization, implement and justify improvements, identifying
the skills of a good manager, personal plans to improve communication skills and the importance of team
meetings and group discussions.
Furthermore the fourth learning outcome explains the methods of collecting and coordination of information,
the ways of collecting, formatting, storage and disseminating information, the importance of IT in
communication, the new strategies to be introduces and the ways how culture affects the communication
process.
By reading this report you will have a clear understanding of how communication, knowledge and information
is important in an organization.

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Introduction
Standard Chartered Bank was formed in 1969 through the merger of two separate banks, the Standard Bank of
British South Africa and the Chartered Bank of India, Australia and China. These banks had capitalised on the
expansion of trade between Europe, Asia and Africa We opened our office in Sri Lanka in 1858 and now
employ more than 500 staff. Were the second largest and one of the oldest banks in the country. We have a
growing presence in personal banking, expanding our branch network and product range, and are now the third
largest issuer of credit cards in Sri Lank.

Vision & Mission

Strategic Intent
To be a World Class Shared Services Centre for the Standard Chartered Group

Brand Promise
Here for good and leading by the example to be the right partner

Our Approach
Here for people
Our strategy is simple: focus on whats important, not whats merely profitable. And nothing is more important
than our people, and the people we work for.

Here for progress

The best investments are those that can benefit everyone. We are committed to setting the highest standards for
our partners and ourselves. From community programmes to our choice of corporate partners, the only way to
proceed is to always move forward, together.

Here for the long run

Were connecting the world by using new techniques to create new possibilities. More important than our
global reach is the local knowledge its built on.

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1.1 Levels of organisation hierarchy in Standard Charted Bank

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Organizational Hierarchy
The gathering of relevant and up-to-date information is a key business process. Information contains of
prepared details and statistics that have meaning within the context that the material is intended to be
understood by people. Information is accordingly a valuable business commodity,
In Standard charted a manager plans, organizes, staffs, leads, and controls his team by making decisions. The
effectiveness and superiority of those decisions determine how positive a manager will be

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Strategic Level
The top level managers like managing director and Board of directors are developing the strategic plan of the
Standard charted bank such as the CEO, directors, executive officers will make the above decisions. They
consider about company future while developing it. Makes long term decisions both in the firm and in the
external environment. They are concerned mostly on: where will the company be in another five years, the long
term industry trends, the level of employment, what products and services to be introduced, the new
acquisitions and mergers. Also make sure of the financial performance of the firm, identify the competitors and
create a vision for the company. These people meet every week and discuss about the threats and make other
needful decisions.

Tactical Level
The top management heavily relies on the middle level to make the correct and appropriate decisions. A
successful manager will allow the middle level to take decisions without micromanaging and will support
completely in their decisions. They will set short term goals, marketing new products, create action plans to
solve organizational problems, recognizes the challengers in the environment and budget fixing. In fact they are
the people who apply the plans taken by the top management. Standard charted focuses mainly in this level as it
has to play a big role in coming with the correct decisions.
Operational Level
The middle level decisions are brought down to the operational level where the lower management makes the
day to day based decisions. Operational decisions are short term decisions taken to achieve the long term goals.
The principle purpose of this level is to answer regular questions and to follow the way of transaction through
the organization such as: the number of inventory, amount of payment to debtors, the selection of suppliers. At
this level the goals, wealth and tasks are predefined and high structured. Hiring supervisors, over time works,
bonuses, pay rates and eliminating workers are done by the above level.
To make the suitable decisions made above, all three levels must have a good communication process. The
operational level should feel free to talk to the middle level in every task they do. And in the other hand the
tactical management should support and create a good bond in achieving the expected goals. For example
Standard charted bank arranged meetings every month in the production area where they have to do
presentations and views and ideas will be taken in the end.

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1.2 Information and Knowledge needed to ensure Effective Decisions.

It is very important to get correct information in order to make correct decisions predicting the future of the
business. More over different levels of decision making require different sources of information and
knowledge, for example;

Strategic level requires information in regard to future plans as it is not usually decided.
Tactical level requires information on day to day basis which is decided on current situation. This is

changed according to strategic and operational decisions.

Operational level requires information in regard to the progresses of the Standard charted bank and
staff.

Information can be taken from two sources.

Primary Data: Data that is taken directly from a source.eg: meetings, interviews.
Secondary Data: Data taken from books and magazines.
Exact information can be taken from the correct data it provides. To take the efficient decision the person
should have the best knowledge of from where the information to be taken.
Internal and External Source of Information.
Internal sources of information are that personally belong to the organization that comes from statistics and
data. This type of information is required while make decisions, and will provide the company the structure of
the organization, features about the customers and suppliers, staff turnover.
Types of internal information.

Financial

Marketing

External sources of information are that is collected not directly from organization. The managers at the
strategic level thus need a large amount of external information on the background within which they function.

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The main competitors and the threats outside,

Identifying the Future market, what the customers demand in the future.

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SWOT Analysis

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STRENGTH

WEAKNESS

OPPORTUNI
TY

THREATS

Strength

Inclusion of social and environmental development with economic growth

Aggressive Advertising
Leaders in Asia Pacific and Africa
Globally it has over 80,000 employees
Services include Credit cards, Consumer banking, corporate banking, finance and insurance, investment
banking, mortgage loans, private banking, wealth management
Sponsors of major sports events and teams
Weakness
Less importance for Small enterprises
Less dissemination in developing economies like India, China etc
Opportunity

Growing foreign exchange market

Global expansion in countries across the world
Mergers and Acquisitions of smaller institutions

Threats

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Stringent economic policies world over

Highly competitive environment
Government policies and global financial crises

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PEST Analysis

Political
Political

Social
Social and
and
Cultural
Cultural

Economical
Economical

T
Technologic
echnologic
al
al

Political

If we rationally analyse the political conditions of United Kingdom then the political condition in the
external macro environment are:
The UK economy is an open economy which allows and appreciates foreign/local direct investments.
The UK comprises the market based / free market economy with less governmental control and
interventions. The government plays its role as a facilitator rather than influencer in the business
industries and markets.
UK government supports and appreciates competition among different organizations to improve their
efficiency and to make wider choice/lower prices available to consumers. In this way, the government
supports both the organizations and competitors.
There is a political stability in the country which provides opportunities for foreign direct investments.
(The National Archives, 2010)
Standard Chartered has actively undergone growth through expansion in other parts of the Europe and
to beat the competition. It is an effective and efficient strategy to grow under stable political conditions
of United Kingdom.

Economical

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Economy is suffering from a recession due to global financial crisis. It is a threat for the financial sector
because standard chartered is operating in this sector.
Unemployment has increased.
Bargaining power and disposable income of consumers has decreased due to inflation and
unemployment. It is threat for consumer banking.
Production level has decreased and the government is considering revising its taxation policies due to
economic recession. This is a threat for Wholesale banking sector
Standard Chartered is facing some difficulties due to the economic and financial recession in UK.

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Social and cultural

Consumer's focus is now shifting towards standardized goods and services are low prices. Consumers
are now more focused towards savings rather than spending. It is an opportunity for standard chartered
bank.
Consumers are more rational and sophisticated now. Banking services are needed to be very direct and
personal.
Brand loyal customers are now becoming brand switchers due to low disposable incomes.

Technological

The government supports competing technologies in the UK and appreciates innovation and
technological developments.
High Research funding for technological development is being made UK government in
different sectors.
Standard Chartered has invested heavily in advanced technology to improve its banking
operations.

1.3 Evaluate existing approaches to the Collection, Formatting, Storage, Disseminating

Information and knowledge
Merely collecting information is not sufficient, using it in the appropriate way is much more important, hence
for an organization to utilize its information effectively they have to be done in the proper manner.
Collection

Collecting information can be done through several means, such as internet,

from Standard charted own website, newspapers, past records and annual
reports of competitors

Formatting

The information has to be sorted out to the relevant department.

Storing

Proper storage facilities should be implemented.

Dissemination

Right information should be given at the right time to the relevant department.

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1.4 Existing Processes of Communication in an Organization

Communication process is the way in which the stakeholders of the organization could communicate with one
another. Communication could be done in several ways. According to Standard charted, the main forms of
communication are: e-mail, fax and Skype.

E-mail: Standard charted uses e-mail to communicate with their customers in the other countries and

also very easy to receive and sent letters of conformation of order and others purposes
Skype: Standard charted uses the Skype software which enables multiple people on video conferencing,

which is very cost effective and time saving compared to the past.
Fax: Standard charted uses the fax machine to send letters to other countries and this is very useful in an
instance where signature is required.

Communication Tools

Telephone,
fax, mails
and Skype

Internet
and
company
websites

Board of directors
Executive Director
HR Director

Business
letters and
memos
Other
multimedia
tools (for
advertising
and other
purposes)

1.5 Personal plan to improve communication skills

Improve communication
Communication plays a major role in every organization. As a student I have to develop many communication
skills. The main weakness is getting nervous when doing any presentation where I forget the facts that was
planned to talk. So the ways to develop this is to practice very often and having confident in what we are

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doing. This should be followed in order to improve the personal skills because there can be lack of
communication where in a meeting they have to do some presentation.
Personal Plan
Area
1.Time
management
2.Communication

Objective

Strategy

Make the most of the time of

life valuable.
Build and strengthen a good

reputation among others.

Build healthier relationships.

Taking measures to reduce time wasting.

To spend every morning planning the time.

Position yourself as knowledgeable and

dedicated professional.
Listen to yourself and others.
Understand other cultures of peoples you

talking to.
Try to take right attitude and willing to
3.Motivation

To make everyone work as

they

4 Team building

are

part

of

the

organization and effectively.

Make strong the organization
and

people

connects

emotionally
5. Negotiation

and

psychological needs.
To achieve a satisfactory
advancement and success.

answer questions.
Treat everyone kindly and be a good listener.
Give responsibilities to others also.
Reward employees according to their work.

Review the team goals, work towards a same

goal.
Work

with

multiple

tools

like

email,

softwares and mobile phones.

Focus on needs and requirements.

Give a commitment for each concession you

make.
Explain your idea or point of view.

6. Leadership

To

achieve

respect

and

organization

everyones
control
and

the

achieve

goals with the employees.

Maintain definitive goals and follow accurate

action plans.
Always try to educate and improve.
Make others feel they are important.
Motivate the employees as possible.

1.6 Methods of Collecting Information and recommendation of improvement.

The interview at Standard charted said that they are not mainly considering the communication process, which
can lead to messages being passed in a very difficult way. The progress of information is formal and very low.

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At the same time Standard charted is mainly focusing on certain customers, thus, not considering about the
competitors or the new market options.
If they could have considered about the opportunities in the local market, Standard charted could have been a
successful bank in Sri Lanka as well. And in turn earn more sales and be one of the market leaders.
To keep them aware of the threats they can implement:
Certain qualified people to watch the market situation
Customer and Supplier feedback

1.7 Appropriate changes to improve the collection, formatting, storage and disseminating
information and knowledge.
As standard charted doesnt have a particular system to collect information, Standard charted bank can use
these methods,
Collection

Instead of collecting information from website they can use telephone to collect
customer information and orders which it will help to give response to the customers
more quickly. Also they can conduct surveys among Standard charted customer, so that
they can collect much more customer information by asking different question from
customer.
In addition Standard charted can collect competitors information through competitors

Formatting

websites and other information on some government regulation, business news from TV
Modern technology could be utilized by Standard charted for formatting of its collected

Storing

information.
When keeping the information instead of depending on one system they could put extra
system to store the information which could be a backup system for each and every
department. Also, depending on IT system they can contrivance paper files because if
incase anything happen to the company IT system they can use those paper files as to
backups. This will manage all the problems.

Dissemination
Disseminating the information to the applicants by the HR department if they can get
the right of entry to information of applicants then it is more appropriate, because they
are the responsible people for the employees issues.

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1.8 Strategies to improve access information and knowledge to others as appropriate

To improve the strategy or action plans to access the information and knowledge of the company standard
charted researched about the company after knowing the nature of the business, they found that the real need of
the company which was, business automation as a way of improving access to their system of information and
knowledge to them as well as others. Therefore Standard charted decided to build an information system that
can enable them to improve access to system of information and knowledge. SDLC are to improve more access
to Standard charted to gain more knowledge and information. SDLC mean System development life cycle.
Implementation
The enterprise system has been developed and its been ready to implement. After the system has tested they
will instigate the system, in the implementation process they will, train their employees to use the system and
make sure the system is operating efficiently and effectively by planning it.
Design
It describes the data to be inputted, calculated or stored. Write the procedures that tell how to process data and
produce output. Developers will work together and talk about the ways of developing the program. The
physical characteristics of the system are specified and a detailed design is prepared.
Planning
The concept is further developed to describe how the business will operate once the approved system is
implemented and to assess how the system will impact employee and customer privacy.
Developing the system
According the identified above problem company decided to build an enterprise resources planning system
which helps to keep the information freely between different parts of the bank. Also Standard charted is
planning to started to build hardware and software needed to support the system either by purchasing software
or by creating own software.

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1.9 Evaluation of existing process and technologies of communication

The various electric devices used to communicate in Standard charted are not enough to control and organize
the company information flow. Mainly they use telephone, mail, Skype, fax, video and audio conference and
different kind of information technology which can enable to communicate within the company.
It is better to invent and implement an intranet internal enterprise portal system in order to develop the internal
communication within the each department of Standard charted, so that each and every department can contact
the information and communication. Also this will help reducing operational cost and miscommunication. In
addition each department can perform its business process faster by providing employees information an action
they need to take, without being communicated face to face through each department portal. Essentially this
assists each Standard charted store to order product and ability to check the inventory, once they put order using
a button of portal, back store staff will get the order and can deliver quickly. Also top management can check
the each department status each and every minute. A typical example of how Standard charted works using this
device has shown below.

Top management

Finance & accounting Department

Human resources Department

Internal enterprise portal system

Operational Department

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Marketing Department

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Conclusion
Standard Chartered must not seek to throw good money after bad because of critical economic conditions and
changed consumer trends. It above "value" strategy would increase the market share of Standard Chartered
bank in Sri lanka as it is the penetration point to capture more market share in banking sector. It is also a harvest
strategy because competitive advantages are now imitable and industry is unattractive. The Standard Chartered
must pursue its differentiation advantage in the developing economies of Asia, Africa and Middle East. The
organizations can grow more efficiently there because of the catchup effect of growing economy. Standard
Chartered is wasting its resource in differentiation advantage in Sri lanka market because customers are more
rational, less rich and banking sector is saturated. It should save its resources to invest in growing economies.

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References
Web References

Standardcharted.com.2008.mission and vision.[ONLINE].Available at:

https://www.sc.com/lk/en/. [Accessed on 11.05.2015]
Standardcharted.com.2013.standard chartered organizational chart.[ONLINE].Available at:
https://www.standardchartered.co.kr/fg/eng/pr/URPR_UrGroupM00.jsp. [Accessed on
11.05.2015]
Standardcharted.com.2014.Swot. .[ONLINE].Available at:
http://www.mbaskool.com/brandguide/banking-and-financial-services/1279-standardchartered-bank.html . [Accessed on 11.05.2015]
Tutor2u,(no date), Stakeholders and business ethics/tutor2u [online]
from:http://tutor2u.net/business/gcse/organisation_stakeholders_ethics.htm [Accessed on
11.05.2015]
Lies, damn lies, and statistics | Ben Linders. [Accessed on 11.05.2015]
Communication: Making quality & process improvement visible benlinders [online] from:

http://www.benlinders.com/2011/communication-making-quality-process-improvement-visible/
[Accessed on 11.05.2015]

Jeff Stein,(1999-2012), Levels of Management Decision Makingehow [online]

from:http://www.ehow.com/list_6569326_levels-management-decisionmaking.html#ixzz1zA87HjYD[Accessed on 11.05.2015]

Textbook Reference

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Ken Laudon, Jane Laudon, Rajanish Dass-Management Information System-Eleventh edition [Dorling
Kindersley,2010,India]

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