Managing Communications, Knowledge and Information

Managing Communications, Knowledge and Information
must produce a report based on case study written in professional manner and properly referenced with word count of 2000. I am required to focus on case study points I was given….1 Identify the existing processes of communication in the given case study and explain the different communication processes available to a small voluntary organisation. 2 By comparing the different communication processes explain how the voluntary organisation citied in the case study can improve appropriate communication and how they can ensure integration of systems of communication. 3 Identify and recommend improvements to the organisations existing approaches to collection, formatting, storage and dissemination of information and knowledge. 4 Recommend and explain methods by which this organisation can improve its access to systems of information and knowledge. 5 If you are given the opportunity work as the volunteer supervisor in this case study, explain, using a personal plan how you would improve your own communication skills.
ORGANISATIONAL COMMUNICATION

introduction

the organisation chosen for this case study is a small political activists organisational for which the writer of this paper once volunteered. The organisational communication problem encountered was that the volunteer supervisor did not have projects ready during the scheduled volunteer time slots, and despite a thorough interview process to determine skill-need matches and prior verbal scheduling of volunteer times, this problem persisted for months. With the lack of a communication plan, the consequence was a diminished enthusiasm for the cause and growing level of frustration causing this writer to cease volunteering for the organisation despite having a true belief in its mission.

Knowledge

The major problem in this case study was that the volunteer supervisor was engaged in so many projects that she did not invest the time to communicate projects to delegate to the volunteer. Most volunteers for this organisation worked on updating databases, solicitations, and mailings. This writers volunteer emphases was on writing and doing special projects.
Therefor it was only through horizontal top down communication from this particular supervisor that these special projects could be delegated. Because the volunteer work was so different than the other volunteers, there was no real value to vertical communication. In Organisational Communication, Kathryn Baker, contends many communication theories are not so relevant in todays service world as well as todays technologically globalised world. (Baker, 2002) While many organisational communications principals would apply, this organisation operates locally and nationally, and falls into baker’s description of ” the service” organisation. What the supervisor could have done was implement time saving communication systems such as writing memos, emails, and other written communication methods to delegate tasks to be done within that specific time frame. If this was done the tasks often were so simple that they did not take all the volunteer time, and she was left scrambling to find another volunteer project. The person that appears to be most responsible for the problem was the volunteer supervisor. However she being asked to do more than supervise volunteers, she was an assistant to the Marketing/Communication Director and was involved in a very extensive public awareness campaign which required a lot of hands on work on her part. Additionally the communications department seemed at odds with other parts of the organisation, and other departmental managers often were putting demands on this supervisor as well. Her lack of time resulted in her being poor communicator and even though this volunteers skills could have helped ease her load, she couldn’t slow down enough to implement a concrete communications strategy.

Skills

The writer of this case study looks to Carter McNamara’s Basics in Internal organisational Communications (McNamara 2007) who suggests communication plan. This plan can involve verbal or written communications that would cover how to effectively manage a non-traditional volunteer. As cited earlier this supervisor dealt mostly with people with specific tasks, not project skills, and therefore did not need a one-on one short session with them during their volunteer time. They also had the value of communication with one another to help them out when they ran into a specific problem.

Values

The value of the frustrated volunteer was to desire to create some quality work and be included within a network of volunteers for this cause. The value of the supervisor was to impress her managers. The values of the volunteer and supervisor were not mutual. If the goals had being mutual, it might have created an environment that would have made it more conductive for the supervisor to take time to communicate special volunteer projects of value. Its rather ironic that during the initial volunteer meeting, how the writer of this paper could assist the cause was a major point of discussion. This paper does acknowledge that as with many political activists organisations, things happen on the spot, and there is a great deal of crises management, and not a lot of pre-planning. Additionally the communication focus for this organisation was external not internal. This organisational culture spilled over into the communication methods of the writers volunteer work, and was a cause of a great deal of frustration. Alternative solutions The volunteer supervisor should delegate another volunteer lto hand out the written instructions for the volunteer time block, and because of the nature of the work keep the volunteer time appointment in her appointment book, not just on the general volunteer log. This would have eased the frustration and allowed the writer of this paper to feel like a valuable contribution was being made to this particular cause.

Above case study is extracted from ,
#Booth T. A. (2008) Organisational communicatio. Business Intelligence Journal, 120-122.

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