|CONTENTS |
|KNOWLEDGE AND INFORMATION AND DECISION |2 |
|ASSESSING KNOWLEDGE AND INFORMATION NEEDS |3 |
|INTERNAL AND EXTERNAL SOURCES OF INFORMATION |6 |
|RECOMMENDATIONS |7 |
|DECISION MAKING PROCESS |9 |
|STAKE HOLDERS AND DECISION MAKING PROCESS |9 |
|STRATEGIES FOR IMPROVEMENTS |12 |
|COMMUNICATION |13 |
|THE COMMUNICATION PROCESS |13 |
|COMMUNICATION PROCESS WITHIN AN ORGANIZATION |14 |
|IMPROVEMENT NEEDS IN COMMUNICATIONS |16 |
|PLAN TO IMPROVE PERSONAL COMMUNICATION SKILLS |17 |
|COLLECTING, STORAGE, FORMATTING OF INFORMATION |21 |
|INFORMATION & KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT SYSTEM |25 |
|REFERENCES |28 |

KNOWLEDGE AND INFORMATION AND DECISION
Knowledge: Firstly, let’s look at Knowledge. Knowledge is what we know. Think of this as the map of the World we build inside our brains. Like a physical map, it helps us know where things are – but it contains more than that. It also contains our beliefs and expectations.
Information - The Oxford English Dictionary defines information as “Knowledge communicated concerning some particular fact, subject or event; of which one is apprised or told; intelligence, news.”
Hence the way the word information is used can refer to both "facts" in themselves and the transmission of the facts.
Decision - A decision is a choice made from available alternatives. A decision is a final product of the specific mental/cognitive process of an individual or a group of persons/organisations which is called decision making; therefore it is a subjective concept. It is a mental object and can be an opinion, a rule or a task for execution/application.
Decision making - is the cognitive process leading to the selection of a course of action among alternatives. Every decision making process produces a final choice. It can be an action or an opinion. It begins when we need to do something but we do not know what.
Therefore, decision making is a reasoning process which can be rational or irrational, and can be based on explicit assumptions or tacit assumptions.

Knowledge and information are not static but rather move through organizations in various ways. One way to distinguish between KM and IM is to identify the processes or steps involves in both fields. Strictly speaking, IM focuses on the "plans and activities that need to be performed to control an organization’s records"

ASSESSING KNOWLEDGE AND INFORMATION NEEDS

Introduction

This section tells us how information systems could be tailored to serve strategic decisions. Organizations face three types of decisions: • Operational decisions. These decisions are made by workers and their supervisors and are concerned with daily production. • Managerial decisions. These decisions are made by mid-level managers and are concerned with topics such as hiring, and motivating employees. • Strategic decisions. These are different from operational and managerial decisions. Strategic decisions are made by organizational leaders and are concerned about the mission and the re-organization of a firm. These decisions tend to be more unstructured, involve more searching of the environment and tend to occur less frequently than either operational or managerial decisions.
Strategic Information Systems help policymakers, executives, and planners decide on organization mission and strategies. Organizations make many different strategic decisions. Sometimes organizations make these decisions consciously, as when the firm engages in strategic planning. Other times decisions are made without being aware of the strategic importance of these decisions, as when the environment forces the organization to act in certain ways. It is difficult to know what issues will be strategically important for the organization.

What do you need? What do you want?

It’s not an easy challenge to design a Strategic Information System to meet the information needs and expectations of organizational leaders. Various obstacles prevent simple determination of information requirements. Dubois et al. (1982) have suggested three categories of difficulty in the determination of information requirements: • A well-defined set of requirements does not exist or is unstable. • The organizational leaders are unable to specify requirements. • The analysts are unable to elicit those requirements and/or evaluate them for correctness and completeness.

Recommended Methodology

There is a method of determining information requirements. The methodology has the following steps: 1. Identify future issues. Invite a panel of internal leaders and external experts that are familiar with the organization as well as with the environment of the organization. Ask the panel to identify strategic issues that the organization will face within the next 2-5 years. 2. Identify information needed for selected issues. Ask the panel to specify the information needed for the most likely and most important issues. Create a non-redundant list of information needed across all issues examined.. 3. Rate the importance of the information for different issues. Ask the panel to set priority for information needed to address different issues. 4. Allocate resources to govern the collection and analysis of information on the basis of the new priorities. Identify information that needs to be collected routinely, information that needs to be computerized, and information that may be collected when the need arises in the future.
Following Table shows who completes the various tasks.
|Step |Objective |Performed by |
|1 |Identify issues |Panel of experts and organizational |
| | |leaders |
|2 |List information needs of top issues |Panel of experts and organizational |
| | |leaders |
|3 |Create a taxonomy |Systems analysis team |
|4 |Prioritize information items |Panel of organizational leaders |
|5 |Develop resource allocation plan for data collection and |Systems analysis team |
| |analysis strategies | |

Knowledge management processes described four knowledge conversion processes: socialization, externalization, combination, and internalization. Each process involves converting one form of knowledge (tacit or explicit) to another form of knowledge (tacit or explicit). This model focuses on the important issue of how knowledge may be created through organizational sharing and is useful for identifying and evaluating certain key activities in the management of knowledge. There three main types of activities: knowledge generation involving the creation of new ideas and new patterns; knowledge codification, and knowledge transfer, ensuring exchange of knowledge between individuals and departments.
The success of an IM project is achieved when the preservation and the retrieval of information is guaranteed while the success of a KM program ultimately depends on the sharing of knowledge.

Fundamentally the subject of using information for decision making is concerned with the conversion of data into information and of that information into knowledge with which decisions can be made. The Performance Planning Value Chain (PPVC) is a prescriptive, normative model describing how this process can be undertaken. There are a host of tools and techniques that can be used at each stage to improve the value that can be extracted from the data available within the organisation, improving the return on the investment made in the gathering of information.
Whist the PPVC is a prescriptive framework, the stages within it are generic in nature and can be used as an organising descriptive framework through which to synthesise the vast literature related to this subject. The framework reflects the generic “Scientific Method” describing how data should be used. In review of this literature the process is not considered to be a linear or sequential process, but a set of activities in the process of using data to inform decision making. In reality each of the stages in this process can be undertaken independently.
We have established that the definition of the data that is to be collected is a crucial stage if we are to inform effective decisions. At this early stage, the first step is to think about the objective of the data analysis. Based on the purpose of the data collection and the scope of the decision to be made, a model of the entity about which the decision is to be made should be developed. This model will define what data is to be collected ensuring that the model defines the data to be collected rather than the available data driving the conclusions you are able to achieve.

INTERNAL AND EXTERNAL SOURCES OF INFORMATION
The concept of internal and external information sources sounds quite complex, but in actual fact it is relatively simple.

Internal sources of information are that which come from data and statistics that belong personally to the company or entity involved. External sources of information are essentially the opposite. This is information that is collated from sources that may not be directly connected to the dealings of the person or people using it.

There are various sources of information depending upon the nature and the flow of information. From the business perspective, internal sources of information in a company are those which have a direct involvement in the company and the external sources of information are the external stakeholders, which have the interest in the company. Examples of internal sources of information in a company include employees, management, internal auditors, reports of the company like newsletters, financial statements etc. On the other hand, the external sources of information for the company include news agents, government agents, advertising agencies etc.

According to the general trend towards more composite knowledge, where new products and processes typically combine many technologies from several scientific disciplines, it is important to understand that firms today can hardly learn and innovate in isolation. While in large firms information and knowledge are still mainly transferred through functional interaction among R&D, production, marketing, and organization departments and functional teams, small and medium-sized firms increasingly need to rely on external knowledge sources. Accordingly, knowledge sources can be firstly divided into internal and external sources, whereas external sources can be further divided into local, national, and international sources, depending on where the source of knowledge is located. Internally, firms acquire knowledge through in-house research and development activities and by learning from continuous improvements in processes. Employee skills represent another important source of new knowledge, and firms often organize internal education and training programs in order to further build and improve the internal knowledge base. If firms do not have appropriate knowledge inside the firm, they can acquire it externally by cooperating with customers and suppliers, as well as other firms, or by forming partnerships with public, semi-public, and private institutions. In terms of geographic location, these external actors can be located in close geographic proximity (locally), somewhere in the country (nationally), or elsewhere (internationally).

RECOMMENDATIONS

The use of information can improve decision making and be developed in to a competitive capability for organizations. Much of the research in the management literature has focused on a rational approach to decision making which involves the use of data to inform decisions. Most managers have enormous amounts of data and plethora of tools and techniques exist to analyze and interpret data. In order to extract the maximum value out of the data that is available a structured approach to working with data should be used to inform decision making. Tools and techniques can be applied to improve the execution of each stage of this structured approach. The use of tools and techniques should be supported by an enabling infrastructure and capabilities that support execution. Considerable care should be taken when using data in context or for a purpose other than that for which it was originally collected. Data and information are attributed to entities by people, hence we should not be considered to be fact or truth.
To improve decision making through the use of data and information the models reflected in the data and in the decision makers mental model should be as closely aligned to the entity about which the decision is being made as possible. People don’t necessarily take a rational approach to making decisions. We need to understand how individuals make decisions and what role data and information play in that process. To better understand this situation we need to understand what influences the degree to which decision makers use data to make decisions rather than judgment or intuition.
This balance of approach depends on: Personality of the decision maker(s); Perceived reliability of the data; Type of decision; Experience / Expertise of decision maker. Cognitive approaches to decision making can be flexible and deal with complexity, but must be aligned to the entity and decision being made.

DECISION MAKING PROCESS
Decision making can be regarded as the mental processes (cognitive process) resulting in the selection of a course of action among several alternative scenarios. Every decision making process produces a final choice. The output can be an action or an opinion of choice.
Decision making stages
Orientation stage- This phase is where members meet for the first time and start to get to know each other.
Conflict stage- Once group members become familiar with each other, disputes, little fights and arguments occur. Group members eventually work it out.
Emergence stage- The group begins to clear up vague opinions by talking about them.
Reinforcement stage- Members finally make a decision, while justifying themselves that it was the right decision.

STAKE HOLDERS AND DECISION MAKING PROCESS A stakeholder is any individual or group that is interested in, affected by or is involved in some way with a company – anyone who literally has a ‘stake’ in any of their activities or issues. They can include some or all of: citizens, communities, consumers, private organisations, government agencies, investors, NGOs and academic institutions. Stakeholders do not necessarily own any part of or share in the financial risk of a company.
In today’s society, citizens and consumers are more aware than ever of the activities of the business sector and have developed particular expectations in areas such as business ethics, community issues and environmental concerns.
The way operations of companies affect – positively or negatively – biodiversity is increasingly important to all. Where recognition of the environmental activities and responsibilities of a company is low, interaction with stakeholders can be extremely productive and beneficial to the reputation and workings of a company, as well as ultimately improving their environmental impacts and performance.
Engaging with a broad range of stakeholders offers businesses many opportunities and benefits: • A multi-directional flow of information can provide companies with valuable feedback on their activities and products. • Transparency increases the credibility of a firm and their industry as a socially responsible corporate citizen in the eyes of its customers and in its accountability and assessment of conduct. • Stakeholders can have specific and in depth knowledge and resources that can provide broader perspectives and add value to decisions. • Association with and participation in communities can contribute to profitability, company image, expense management, employee morale and customer loyalty • Partnerships can help companies enter new markets, attract potential employees and establish or strengthen company reputation or brand loyalty. • Engagement allows decision making and responsibilities to be shared, therefore increasing the involvement and commitment of stakeholders. Studies have linked good stakeholder relations with enhanced financial performance.

Stakeholders will be specific to each company, and also to individual projects within a company. It is likely that individuals can simultaneously belong to multiple stakeholder groups, however they generally fall into two main categories: 1. Internal stakeholders (directors, managers, and employees) 2. External stakeholders (eg clients, finance sources, local government, NGO’s)

Engage Stakeholders
While many stakeholders will probably be obvious to a company, some may be less evident but just as important. Formal methods exist to help businesses identify and assess the relative importance of their stakeholders, which is an important preliminary step towards participation. Different processes of Stakeholder Analysis provide a starting point for involvement by identifying ‘key players’, noting their interests, spotting potential relationships and analysing their capacity to participate.
Companies that engage with stakeholders do so in different ways and to varying extents. o The scope and level of stakeholder involvement may also vary for different projects. This ‘spectrum’ of engagement can range from simply telling stakeholders about the company’s activities at one end, to actively obtaining stakeholder input into decision making processes at the other. Stakeholders tend to be more rigid in their opinions when not given early and frequent (or as frequent as is practicable) opportunities to provide input, therefore it may help to predetermine stages at which stakeholders can be consulted. o Informal meetings can create a relaxed atmosphere in which small groups of stakeholders can meet company representatives to discuss topics of mutual interest. It is important that stakeholders feel their opinions are going to matter and make a difference, therefore involving senior executives or other senior staff with sufficient authority is important to ensure effective decisions. o Surveys and questionnaires concentrating on specific issues. These may be directed at local communities or local interest groups to develop mutual understandings and expectations. o Create opportunities for engagement, for example set up a project in partnership with key stakeholders like communities or NGOs, or if this is not possible, keep them informed via regular newsletters or a website and give them an opportunity to comment through working groups or personal meetings. o Some sectors have multi-stakeholder forums that companies can join in order to access key stakeholder representatives and participate in organised discussions and dialogue sessions.

STRATEGIES FOR IMPROVEMENTS
In order to design an appropriate and better process and produce some improvements there should be some activities that should be consider • What to produce, and how • How much to produce, and what selling techniques to employ. • Where to locate • Who to employ and how many • Whether to develop new lines or stick to existing ones. 1. Make sure you have a process you use to make decisions. This does not necessarily mean a rigid set of steps that you follow every time, but it does mean formal process that you can fall back on for difficult decisions and relax, as warranted, for easy ones. The process must, at a minimum, have: 2. Ensure that everyone on the decision-making team understands the problem — they are working on the same issue, they have bought into the alternatives being considered and they have worked together to generate a set of discriminating criteria. It is imperative that there be more than one alternative to consider. If not, they are not making a decision, but only justifying a someone's pet idea. 3. Manage the evaluation of the alternatives using measures defined by the criteria. 4. Manage uncertainty. This does not mean eliminate uncertainty, but rather to recognize it, eliminate what is easy to address and make the results as incentive as possible to that which remains. 5. Base what-to-do-next on the fused evaluation. Having a strategy here can defuse paralysis by analysis, relieve waiting for something to happen and counteract. 6. Capture and record the rationale behind the decision, not just the result of the decision.

COMMUNICATION
Communication in simple terms refers to the act, by one or more persons, of sending and receiving information, ideas and feelings with an objective to exchange meaning. This definition of communication is not as simple as it appears to be. Communication is rather a complex process. Its complexity and intricacy lies in the following: 1. Thoughts, feelings experiences, prejudices and vocational setting of the person who sends and receives the message, influence its meaning; 2. Multiplicity of channels through which the message is transmitted may distort the meaning of the message; 3. Multiple means of expression (i) verbal, consisting of words and language, and (ii) non verbal, consisting of gestures, facial expressions, body movements, exclamations, etc. may increase the ambiguity in interpreting the message; 4. Barriers from the environment may also distort the meaning of the message.

THE COMMUNICATION PROCESS
For the purpose of understanding, a communication can be broken down into its following basic elements.

1. Sender or Source: refers to the person (or persons) who is/are sending the message. The personality of the source is one of the most significant aspects of any communicative act. 2. Encoding: refers to sender’s activity of translating the message in symbol (words, language, gestures) so that it can be understood by the receiver. 3. Message: is the content of the information which the sender intends to send to the receiver. 4. Channel: is the means through which the message is transmitted to the receiver. For example, the message may be conveyed through written words, spoken words, gestures, etc. Again, it may be conveyed personally or publically, may be directed towards the receiver or towards everyone. The effectiveness of a message depends much on the channel used to transmit it. 5. Receiver: is the target of a communication. As in the case of the sender, the personality of the receiver would influence the reception and interpretation of the message. 6. Decoding: is the corresponding process to encoding in the case of the receiver. It refers to the process of interpreting and understanding the received message. Again, as in the case of the sender, the consequences of decoding are influenced by the receiver’s vocabulary, motives and the context within which the message is being interpreted. 7. Feedback: is the concluding link of the communication process. A complete act of communication implies that not only the sender sends the message which is received by the receiver, but also the sender comes to know that the message has been received and understood properly. This act of receiver’s response, which may be explicit or implicit depending on the nature of the message, to the sender is known as feedback.

COMMUNICATION PROCESS WITHIN AN ORGANIZATION
Communication process within an organization is characterized and molded by the nature of the organization structure. The content of the communication and the barriers leading to communication breakdown can reasonably be anticipated by knowing the organizational positions of the sender and the receiver. In general, there are three types of formal communications in an organization:

1) Downward Communication:
Any communication which originates from a higher level of hierarchy and is diverted toward the lower levels is called downward communication. This essentially consists of policies, orders, directives, etc. Downward communications are needed:

i) To instruct the employees about the work methods and jobs; ii) To provide information about the rules, procedures and practices to the employees; and iii) To provide the subordinates with feedback on their performance. An important requirement of effective downward communication is that it needs to be translated into more operational and practical terms as it passes down the levels of hierarchy. Unless this translation makes the message relevant for the receiver, it defeats its intended purpose. For example, if the corporate objectives which are phrased in very generic terms are presented to the worker without specifying his targets, they would convey no message to him to act upon.

2) Upward Communication:
Both management and employees often neglect the role of upward communication in an organization. However, many of the decisions regarding the policies and targets, made at the upper levels of hierarchy, depend heavily on the information received through the upward channels of communication. The upward communication is useful.
i) To provide feedback to the management about the implemented programmes and policies; ii) To provide information about output, quality of products, etc. iii) To collect the job relevant feelings and reactions of the employees. iv) To receive the complaints and grievances of the employees.

For smooth and unhindered upward communication some of the salient pre-requisites are:
i) The management must ensure an open and uninhibited organizational climate which creates a feeling among the employees that the management is interested in their views and problems; ii) The employees from whom such communications originate must feel responsible enough to send only those messages which are relevant and meaningful, both in terms of content and format, within the organizational framework; and iii) The functionaries at the intermediary levels (e.g. supervisors, departmental heads, etc.) through whom such communications pas, must become a link and not a block, in the communication channel. This is especially so in the case of ‘negative’ message (e.g. grievances, complaints, reports of failure etc.) which may be interpreted by their supervisors’ as indications of their own ineffectiveness.
3) Horizontal Communication:
Messages exchanged among employees who are at the same level in the organizational hierarchy is called horizontal communication. Such communication is important for effective organizational functioning in two ways:
i) It facilitates coordination of work at the inter-departmental level, and ii) It permits exchange of jobs, related experiences and knowledge.
It must, however, be noted that the horizontal communication to be useful, requires going beyond the petty feelings of one-upmanship, jealousies, favoritism etc.

INFORMAL COMMUNICATION IN ORGANISATIONS
In addition to the formal channels of communications, people in an organization also communicate through a network of personal contacts, which is known as the grapevine or the informal channels of communication. Such communications are, however, a double edged sword. When they are used to exchange work related or personal information they become and important means of communication, on the one hand, and an instrument in promoting interpersonal relations, on the other. But they have also a tendency to degenerate into rumor mongering and inter-personal conflicts.

IMPROVEMENT NEEDS IN COMMUNICATIONS AND THERE IMPLEMENTATION
There are several things we can do to improve the quality of individual and organizational communication.
Use Multiple Channels for Organizational Communication – One of the most effective ways to ensure that people get your message is to send it across multiple channels. Some of the more effective channels include meetings, face-to-face talks, e-mail, faxes, telephone conversations, bulletins, postings, and memos.
Make Important Messages Repetitive – In addition to using multiple channels, you can improve organizational communication by repeating important messages from time to time.
Focus on Listening – This is vital during individual (i.e., one-on-one) communication. The biggest reason that most of us are poor listeners is that we don’t take the time to actively listen.
Get Your Message Across – After you listen and fully understand your communication partner, you must make sure you can get your message across in the exact way it is intended. To do this, speak openly and honestly, and be as straightforward as possible.
Handle Communication Problems – Finally, we must become more effective at managing the communication problems that will inevitably arise during human interaction. Such problems include conflict, difficulty in resolving problems, misunderstandings, dealing with difficult people and managing cultural differences. I will address these issues in future posts.

Open-Door Policy: One of the best ways to show that an organization is serious about communication is to implement or encourage employees to utilize an open-door policy. When there is an issue or a concern, employees should feel comfortable going to their supervisor or boss to air their grievances.

Set Expectations: It seems silly, but setting expectations regarding communication will help employees understand how they are to respond when an issue arises. If you expect an employee to speak with their manager as soon as possible or fill out an accident report form immediately following an incident or make a concerted effort to talk to a co-worker when a conflict arises, they will strive to follow your guidance. If you never communicate to them the process or procedure regarding communicating issues, accidents or new information, most will follow the path of least resistance, which is typically doing nothing and internalizing any accompanying stress. Set expectations early and post reminders on bulletin boards or in the break room.

Training- Keep your employees' minds sharp in the area of communication by providing quarterly training. Mix it up by bringing in a communication speaker who takes an interactive and humorous approach to the workshop one quarter and the next quarter, set up a team-building game that requires communication to succeed, like a trust walk where employees are paired and one is blindfolded while the other must lead them through the office using their voice only without any physical contact.

PLAN TO IMPROVE PERSONAL COMMUNICATION SKILLS Communication is one of the most important skills in our life. Its communication that convey our ideas and feelings to other people. Some people are naturally good communicators, but some others will not be. They can develop their communication with daily practice. There are many techniques that can make you to become a good communicator; you can go though watching all the talk shows; listening to all the radio programs; joining clubs dedicated to public speaking; etc.
What you know
Education is all about learning and internalizing the basic knowledge, but to be an effective communicator is to practice what you’ve learned. Knowledge is only useful when it’s applied. Of course we all have our limitations, but that doesn’t mean we can’t learn to keep up and share what we know. Don’t be afraid to share what you think as this becomes a habit, you’re shaping yourself up for a better communicator as well.
Listening
Listening is more important to develop effective communication. This is one of the most difficult things to do for many people. Most people forget that they actually have two ears and one mouth. Learn to listen more if you want to be a better communicator. Sometimes listening to the sound of your own voice can teach you to be a little more confident with yourself and to say the things you believe in with conviction
Humility
We all make mistakes, while we communicate and sometimes we mispronounce certain words even though we know what it means, but rarely use it only to impress listeners. So in a group, don’t be afraid to ask if you’re saying the right word. Form mistakes only you learn the correct one and if you have any doubt don’t hesitate to ask and get the correct one.
Eye Contact
Try to keep an eye contact for better communication. Some people struggle to make eye contact with others, which is a basic component of social interaction. Failing to make eye contact suggests to some that you’re shy; to others, it indicates
Rudeness or boredom or you’re trying to hide something. Just look directly at the person in a relaxed manner.
Smile
Keep smile always in your face while you mingle with other. It gives them an impression that you are more close to them. You can better express what you’re saying when you smile.

Use gestures
Make your whole body talk. Use smaller gestures for individuals and small groups. The gestures should get larger as the group that one is addressing increases in size
Like to be around with people
Interaction is all about mingling with other people. You’ll get a lot of ideas, as well as knowing what people make them as they are.
Develop your voice
Use dynamics. While you speak you can modulate your voice by using high and lower pitch. Your volume should be soft and loud. This voice modulation adds more charm to your speech and it seems more professional. Listen to your TV news anchor; take notes to develop your voice modulation.
Use appropriate volume
Use a volume that is appropriate for the setting. Speak more softly when you are alone and close. Speak louder when you are speaking to larger groups or across larger spaces.
Slow down
People will perceive you as nervous and unsure of yourself if you talk fast. If you speak fast, the listener cannot grasp what you have told. Try to slow down your speed while you talk with others.
Pronounce your words correctly
People will judge your competency through your vocabulary. If you aren’t sure how to say a word, don’t use it. If you’re not sure of the meaning of a word, don’t use it. Start a program of learning a new word a day. Use it sometime in your conversations during the day.
Practice, practice and practice
Practice is the best way to improve your communication skills. The more you do it, the easier it will get. Keep in mind practice makes you perfect.

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COLLECTING, STORAGE, FORMATTING OF INFORMATION There are a range of different types of methods and analyzes for collecting information about outcomes systems. Outcomes systems are any systems for identifying outcomes, measuring them and holding parties to account for their achievement. They are known as performance management systems, result-based systems, evaluation systems and monitoring systems. There are a range of different methods for collecting information which can be used in monitoring what is happening in such systems in regard to the steps leading up to outcomes and monitoring changes in outcomes themselves.
Data Collection
Whilst stage 1 is concerned with identifying what data we need to collect, stage 2 is concerned with how the data will be collected, whether the data is already collected and how can we gather it in an effective and efficient manner? While most organisations collect lots of data, not all have trust in all of their data. There are always issues with the data sources, how was the data collected, data collection points and timing, and generally how much trust can we put in the data, etc. This is usually due to non-credible and/or non-transparent data sources, a result of poorly designed measures, or a combination of both. It is not unusual to observe two people heatedly arguing over some dimension of performance and later find that the root cause of their disagreement was the imprecise definition of a measure. It is for this reason that this step becomes important, and the tools used here were selected to ensure organisations follow a systemic and structured data collection approach.
Fundamentally this process is concerned with translating the conceptual definition of information defined in the model into an operational definition. In his managerial and statistical writings, W. Edwards Deming placed great importance on the value of using operational definitions in all agreements in business. As he said:
"An operational definition is a procedure agreed upon for translation of a concept into measurement of some kind."

The operational definition provides a common definition of a piece of data that everyone can understand. Without such a definition that is commonly understood the only person who fully understand the meaning of that data is the person who defined it. To demonstrate this
Deming added:
"There is no true value of any characteristic, state, or condition that is defined in terms of measurement or observation. Change of procedure for measurement
(change of operational definition) or observation produces a new number."
This second statement emphasises the importance of the operational definition and lies at the heart of many misunderstandings and misinterpretations of data which lead to the adage “lies damn lies and statistics”. It is easy to talk about changes or trends in a particular piece of data such as a performance measure, but unless we understand the precise formula used to calculate it and how the data was collected, we can not be sure that everyone has the same understanding of what that change or trend actually means.
An example of such an operational definition is provided in the performance measurement literature. A tool such as the Performance Measurement Record Sheet (Neely et al. 1997) specifies important criteria that should be defined when calculating any performance measure.

Data analysis / processing
Once we have all the right data collected via a process that can be trusted, this stage attempts to answer the question: What is the data telling us? At this point, data starts being transformed into information by using tools for quantitative and qualitative data analysis.
These tools help dissect the data and show them in different lights to start understanding what is the message contained in the data. Tools here include the basic seven tools of quality management (Histograms, Pareto analysis, etc.) among others. The outcomes from this stage would be the information – raw data transformed into value adding information (graphs, comparative tables, percentages, etc.).

Data Interpretation
Interpretation of data is one of the key stages in the process of using data to inform decision making. Interpretation is to translate data into intelligible or familiar terms, it is at this point that data becomes information having been given context. It is important to differentiate this step from data analysis. Once the charts and graphs have been completed in the previous step, the question now becomes: what does that mean for the decision being made or objective we are seeking to achieve? This stage is crucial and attempts to deal with fundamental questions: What insights can we extract from the data? How will the message differ by changing the angle we look at data? This is converting information into knowledge and is done by adding the important elements of relevance and context which clarify the insights that are contained in the data. Spence (2001) refers to interpretation of information as achieving the Ah-ha moment. That is arriving at the moment at which the messages in the data become clear.

Tools include information visualisation and benchmarking.
Information Visualisation - “Decision making can be immensely enhanced by presenting data graphically (and aurally) and allowing a user to interact with the data and rearrange its presentation” Spence (2001). There are many visualisation tools and techniques available that help to present data and information in a way that provides insight. Herrmann (2001) summarises traditional visualisation tools such as Tracking performance; Variances and Comparisons; Trends and Change; Relationships; Presentation; Value Ranges; Schematics and Maps; Organising Data and Information; Probability, Prediction and What-if. Tufte (1990,
1997, 2006) and Spence (2001) provide more dynamic and varied representation of information to enhance the insight that can be gained from it.

Benchmarking is a way of adding context to information by comparing it with that of comparable units of analysis. Camp (1989) identified four types of benchmarking to aide decision making.
- Internal Benchmarking - Comparison of internal operations. For example TNT use league tables to compare the performance of depots to learn about performance improvement (Moon and Fitzgerald, 1996);
- Competitive Benchmarking - Specific competitor-to-competitor comparisons for the product or function of interest
- Functional Benchmarking - Comparisons to similar functions within the same broad industry or to industry leaders
- Generic Benchmarking - Comparison of business functions or processes that are the same regardless of industry

Dissemination of knowledge and Information
Dissemination is the interactive process of communicating knowledge and information to target audiences so that it may be used to lead to change. The challenge is to improve the accessibility of desired knowledge products by those they are intended to reach. This means ensuring physical availability of the product to as large a proportion of the target audience as possible and making the product comprehensible to those who receive it
It is a fact that survival and self development are the major issues central to several adults in many communities. The need to raise their socio-economic status is thus necessary and urgent. This requires empowering adults, the under-privileged and economically weaker sections of society with technical skills and education.
However, organizing programs meant mainly for raising awareness, education, and training are information and communication dependent. Information dissemination as such constitutes an important and critical factor for the success of adult education and learning programs.
More often than not, organizers perceive information dissemination to be a one way form of communication, circulating information and advice mainly through mass media in a cost-effective and timely manner. In some cases, the media are posters and pamphlets, while in some others reliance is exclusively on text-based print medium. However, two-way form of communication is relatively more relevant and effective for organizing awareness programs and activities in adult education.

Focus on communication

1. Communities of Practice - bring people together, often from different departments, to share ideas. This methodology involves the process of sharing tacit knowledge and development of informal networking (e.g.: Monsanto, Hewlett-Packard, US Army, World Bank). 2. Question and Answer Forums - bring people together, often geographically dispersed, but with similar jobs, usually through email or chat rooms, to solve problems. This methodology involves the sharing of tacit knowledge and also storage of knowledge as the exchanges are usually archived for future use (e.g.: Buckman Laboratories, CIDA)

Focus on storage and retrieval

1. Knowledge Mapping - performing an audit to discover the knowledge resources within an organization, as well as the development of a guide for employees describing and providing location information for these knowledge resources. This methodology involves the discovery of tacit knowledge in order to facilitate eventual sharing (e.g.: Monsanto, Hoffmann-LaRoche, Health Canada, US Army). 2. Expert Databases- similar to mapping of knowledge, this maps experts by identifying knowledge of each expert and providing a guide map to help employees find those experts. This methodology may involve discovery if performed by others and may just facilitate the sharing of tacit knowledge if, as in many cases, it is up to the employees to provide his of her own expert profile (e.g.: Hewlett-Packard, BP Amoco). 3. Knowledge Databases- explicit knowledge is stored in databases similar to standard document databases. This methodology facilitates the storage and sharing of explicit knowledge (e.g.: Hoffmann-LaRoche, Hewlett-Packard, Case Corporation, Buckman Laboratories, WHO).

Focus on selected dissemination

1. News Information Alerts- provide for the distribution of selected information and explicit knowledge (e.g.: Case Corporation, WHO). 2. Organizational Learning- acquisition of new knowledge by individuals through training, continuing education (e.g.: Buckman Laboratories).

Focus on action

1. Virtual collaboration – enable people from various areas to work together (e.g.: US Navy).

INFORMATION & KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT SYSTEM
There are following steps that should be followed in order to improve the information and knowledge management system.
STEP 1: Developing an Information & Knowledge Management System
It is an integral component of project management, particularly within the context of climate change where the context is constantly evolving, and there may be necessary trade-offs between different objectives.
Step 1.1: Analyse information and knowledge needs
In order to be effective in managing information as a resource, this system must meet the information needs of all stakeholders.
Step 1.2: Design a system for information & knowledge management
Information & knowledge are critical components of project design. In order to be effective, I&KM systems should be as simple as possible while meeting the information & knowledge needs of all stakeholders. It is important that the information system is periodically reviewed and adjusted as necessary to ensure that it is meeting the needs of all stakeholders. Step 1.3: Develop capacity for information & knowledge management
In order for it to be effective, information and knowledge management must be the responsibility of all project staff, including partners. For this to work, the project team must understand the value of information and knowledge, and must be clear on their roles and responsibilities for managing this valuable resource.
STEP 2: Monitoring & evaluation of project achievements
A project monitoring & evaluation (M&E) system is focused on tracking project inputs, activities and results. It is often oriented towards donor reporting, however good M&E is more comprehensive than this, and is designed to facilitate learning while monitoring & evaluating the project achievements.
Step 2.1: Identify performance indicators for project results and processes
Evaluating the results requires us to consider indicators of achievement that may be new or different from the types of indicators we typically use to monitor & evaluate development projects.
Step 2.2: Establish the baseline
Once indicators have been identified, the next step is to establish the baseline. The baseline allows us to measure changes in the indicators over the life of the project. It also establishes the data sources and collection methods that will be used in monitoring the project.
Step 2.3: Monitor progress
The monitoring system is an important element of the overall knowledge and information system. Effective monitoring is structured and systematic, and fosters participation by project stakeholders in data collection and analysis.
Step 2.4: Evaluate achievements
Evaluations are used to assess project achievements, as well as to determine whether the priorities and needs of the target populations were met. Evaluations may be conducted at strategic points during the life of the project, or at the end of the project to determine whether its objectives were met. Evaluations also generally look at unexpected results of project activities.
STEP 3: Documentation and dissemination
Documentation and dissemination of information & knowledge is a critical component of project management. The process of documenting the project involves not only documentation of results, but also analysis, processes, methodologies and key project decisions. Project information & knowledge should be disseminated to key stakeholders using the means most appropriate to the target audience.
Step 3.1: Ensure effective documentation
Documentation and dissemination of experiences is of utmost importance. This includes documentation of project achievements in progress reports to donors
Step 3.2: Disseminate project information & knowledge
Documenting project experiences is only the first step in sharing information and knowledge gained through the implementation. The information & knowledge management strategy must also include dissemination of project documentation to targeted stakeholders.

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