Contents

I. Cultural Night................................................................................................................................................... 2 1.1. 1.2. 1.3. II. Communication ........................................................................................................................................ 2 Personal Difficulties in Communication ................................................................................................... 3 Personal Plan for Improvement in Communication ................................................................................ 4

Hoa Tho Company ........................................................................................................................................... 5 2.1. 2.2. 2.3. Existing approaches to Information and Knowledge Management ........................................................ 5 Suggested Changes on Information and Knowledge Management ........................................................ 8 Recommendations ................................................................................................................................... 8

I.

Cultural Night
Embracing Cultural Diversity: SHY 2 SHINE is a cultural show organized by Sunderland University. The purpose of the show is to create opportunities for the students to face to the challenges of globalization world. The air of the show brought the colourful and high humanity performances. There were eight groups joining in the show. In order to have a successful show, eight groups were through hardly training processes. And I am a member from Russian Group. I will identify the communication, difficulties and improvement of Russian Group during the process.

1.1.
a.

Communication
Internal We used many methods to communicate effectively within the group. Firstly, we set detail schedule for directly meetings. We had had three meetings each week, and each meeting is three hours. In these meetings, we discussed about the process and trained the performance. We used email to send memorandums to inform the time, date and place of meetings. We also used mobile phone to call and send messages to members. In each meeting, we assigned a member to save the minute of meeting. We also record the training by camera to know our weaknesses. Beside directly meetings, we had online meetings. These meetings were to discuss more about the performance. We usually chat in room by Yahoo and Skype. We also used webcam during meetings.

b.

External Beside the communication within the group, we also communicate with external stakeholders. Firstly, we met teachers in class to receive information and tasks. We also sent drafts to them by email in order to be checked and commended. Addition, we went to costume shop to choose and rent the costumes for the performance. After that, we sent email to order and give them the detail information about mode, quantity of products, and date we want to rent. We also sent invitation letters to our friends and family for attendance at the show. Besides, we created a fan page by Facebook to

introduce the Russian Group. This page helped us to advertise the image of the group. Thanks to that, we can attract many audiences to the show.

1.2.

Personal Difficulties in Communication

During planning, preparation, and production of Cultural Night Event, I met some difficulties in communication. Firstly, it was difficult for me to integrate to other members because we were not close before. I was an introvert person before. I rarely participated in community activities because I was afraid to stand out from the crowd. I rarely talk to strangers. I just feel comfortable with someone closing to me. Therefore, I feel uncomfortable when talking my ideas. I was also fear to talk to strangers. And, I was so shy when training close situations in the performance with boys. Secondly, I often have problems about punctual. So I always hurry. Therefore, sometimes my work is missing or incomplete because I rushed in preparation. Moreover, my tasks often were overloaded at a certain time. So, sometimes I was too busy but I sometimes also have the spare time. Thirdly, in the first period, because I did not know clearly how to write the memorandums and minutes of meetings, therefore, almost all my memorandums and minutes of meetings were fail. The form of letters, which were written for stakeholders, was also wrong. In addition, meetings by video conferencing caused difficulties. The wifi transmission was not good, so we have to waste much time to connect. And it also caused noise during the conversations. Besides, my task was to design the introduction clip because I am ability to use the software of making clip. However, my skill was also not good, therefore, I had to do them many time. It wasted a lot of time. The final difficult was the presentation. In the day of event, I became stress because I am not accustomed to performing on stage. However, I tried to calm down myself and completed our performance successfully.

1.3.

Personal Plan for Improvement in Communication

Method of improvement Issue Chatting and talking more to from November 1st to other members Practice talking in front of mirror Use Iphones Timetable to From November 1st to apply the timetable Update regularly Follow seriously Submit the drafts to teacher From November 1st to for checking the mistake Find the reference form on websites. Chat room More directly meetings ongoing when December 12th the Timetable the Timetable December 12th December 12th Time frame

It was difficult for me to integrate to other members

I have problems with time management

I have problems with writing memorandums, minutes and letter

Too

much

noise

communicating by video conferencing My skill of doing clip was also not good I became stress because I am not accustomed to Relax my mind Chatting members Encourage myself and all members with other December 12th Reference tutorials on From November 15st to December 12th

Youtube and Google.

performing on stage.

II.
2.1.
a.

Hoa Tho Company

Existing approaches to Information and Knowledge Management
Collecting Information In Hoa Tho, employees are supplied TPSs to communicate. Firstly, in factories, the timekeepers, which are used with fingerprint recognition, are used to manage the number of attendance and absence time of employees. This machine is connected to the computer system. And the information is stored on this system. Basing on it, the managers can control the employees working time. Secondly, the company uses a mailbox of the company to collect documents and opinions of employees. Reports are submitted by employees to manager weekly, monthly or yearly by this mailbox. And the memorandum, minutes of meeting, letters are done by typewriting such as Microsoft Office process or handwriting. They are tool to communicate between employees to employees and employees to managers. The memorandums are used to inform the information, time, date, and place of meetings. Minutes of meeting are used to store the contents of meetings. Besides the collecting systems within the company, Hoa Tho also uses the system to communicate to their stakeholders. Firstly, they collect the orders of customer by emails and faxes. These mails provide the detail information about the products, quantity, and time and so on. Therefore, the company can get the information quickly and detail. The company also sends their orders to the suppliers to order the materials for production by mails or fax. Besides, the customer service connects to their customer by phone, email, fax, and letter. They collect the opinions of customers to satisfy what their customers need and want. Knowledge Besides the information collection, Hoa Tho used many approaches to collect the knowledge from internal and external. In the company, Hoa Tho opens many long term
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and short term training classes for new employees. In those classes, the teachers are superiors or people who have high level. And employees will follow those classes to collect the explicit knowledge about their specific jobs from tacit knowledge of managers. Besides, during working, workers also have guide tables beside them, which guide them to know what they do. In outside, Hoa Tho usually introduces their new products or projects to the customers by workshops and on their website or newspapers. And the company also joins to seminars of businesses or education meetings to learn more experiences. Hoa Tho also has meeting with schools organizations that want to visit the company. For example, students from Sunderland University have visited the Hoa Thos factory to study the management of the company. The students noted and recorded the meeting. c. Format Hoa Tho used many different technologies to communicate. Firstly, memorandums, letters, and minutes are done by Word processor and Microsoft Office. These texts are sent through the intranet system. Next, the financial statement is complete by Spreadsheet. The revenues and expenditures are reports by this tool. Besides, the purchasing records are stored by Database. This tool can save the document and information of products, customers and sales. d. Store In order to store the documents of the company, Hoa Tho has two forms including manual and electronic storage. Manual storage is the way to store hard copies. The company will print out the document on paper. And they are arrange in folders and binders. There are document cabinets and document rooms in the company. Each office has document cabinets to store the document relating to its work. In addition, old documents are stored in document rooms. Beside manual storage, the company also uses the electronic storage. These tools include Online Access System (OAS) and Database. Database is used to save the information of customers, the purchasing, products and so on. And OAS is a computer
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system, such as word processing, electronic mail system, and scheduling system, which is used to increase the productivity of data workers in the office. The employees can access to get the information easily by computer and intranet, internet system. e. Disseminating Information The disseminating information is implemented with both internal and external stakeholders. With internal stakeholders, the distributing happens between managers and employees. For example, the manager will inform the memorandums to employees. And reports are submitted to managers by employees. For external stakeholders, firstly, the CEO shows the annual reports to the shareholders. These report is to describe the business activities during the year and presents the results of this work through financial statements (Balance sheet, Profit & Loss, Cash flow statement) and interpretations (notes to financial statements). Besides, the disseminating is also the invoice exchange from Purchasing Department to Finance Department in order to update financial records. And the orders are exchanged between customers and employees. Knowledge The dissimilating knowledge is also implemented with internal and external stakeholder. Firstly, training classes are a form to distribute the knowledge form manager to employees. And employees will follow those classes to collect the explicit knowledge about their specific jobs from tacit knowledge of managers. Besides, there are disseminations happening in meetings between managers. Managers will present and explain their projects, ideas to others in these meetings. So these managers will receive tacit knowledge from tacit knowledge. Moreover, suppliers also distribute the knowledge to employees. For example, the suppliers, who supplied the new sewing machines to the company, they will train for the employees how to use these machines. Therefore, the employees will receive the explicit knowledge from tacit knowledge. And in visitations of students, they will get the knowledge which is translated from tacit information to explicit information.
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2.2.

Suggested Changes on Information and Knowledge Management

Firstly, the company still stores too many hard copies. It is difficult for employees to find out the documents the want. And the hard copies are also easy to be broken or lost. Therefore, this storage form is not safe. Secondly, the saving product process involves one recording customer orders, while others re-enter this information for billing. Therefor the company is spending so much money and time than necessary to pay for two people doing a job the same. Besides, some customers want to pay by bins / boxes, while others want to pay by pallet, and also the customers just want a unit with the same items. This is difficult to adjust the installed index. Addition, improving the identifying the correct amount of inventory will help to save money for the company; and customers will be very comfortable to get answers quickly and accurately on whether the goods of which are available in store. All defects below need to be changed to help companies working better.

2.3.

Recommendations In order to improve the MIS, Hoa Tho should apply the OAS, which is a computer-based system to collect, process management, storage, and sends the message, messages, financial materials, and other forms of interpersonal communication workers, work groups, and stakeholders. Therefore, the company should apply more software to manage the information and knowledge. The company can save time and increase accuracy for orders by using the order management module. This allows one to enter and save an order, and then the order is converted into invoices as needed. The company will save money, reduce human error, as well as increasing customer satisfaction. Besides, the company can adjust their software by setting up each item with multiple units. With these set-sale units for each commodity, the system will calculate how much inventory with this unit, and you can easily buy, sell and track inventory items depending on the unit you choose. This can save much time, as well as providing the most accurate
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information of how many units of real goods in stock. Most importantly, be able to quickly notify the customer to know how many are still in stock goods by the customer unit.

References
Hoa Tho. (2008). Introduction. Available: http://hoatho.com.vn/vihttp://hoatho.com.vn/vi. Last accessed Dec 27th 2011.

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