HSBC Bank: Challenges and Strategies

The companies these days are showing their interest in information technology and knowledge management. This is because sharing the knowledge between the processes and learning the knowledge from outside sources is very important for the companies these days. This can only be possible if information technology tools are used by the company. This case study is about the knowledge management and information technology in HSBC bank (About us, 2017). This study discusses about the different challenges that the company was facing and the strategies that has been used by the company in order to overcome the issues.

HSBC bank is one of the major banks that are headquartered at London, UK. It is the bank that operates in around 80 countries in Europe, America, Middle East, Africa and Europe. It is the subsidiary company of HSBC Holdings. There are many services that the company provides to the customers such as private banking, commercial banking, consumer finance and corporate and investment banking. The bank holds around 1800 sites in whole UK.

HSBC is the financial service company that operates in many countries and thus have to manage the internal communication. This becomes challenge for the company to share different knowledge from different country offices (Maier, 2007). International management can be successful only when there is proper communication in the internal departments of the company. Diversity is also the challenge that is faced by the company because as the banks is operating in different countries so there is diversity in the workforce.

Knowledge management can be defined as the model that helps the organization to learn from the outside sources (Dalkir & Liebowitz, 2011). This is the process that allows the organization to utilize the knowledge available in order to make the innovations in its processes. At the same time, information technology is also a very important and the integral part of organization these days. This is because the available technology can be used to share the knowledge in the organization from different sources. It has been analysed that knowledge management and IT is very much related to each other as knowledge transfer and sharing is only possible by implementing some of the information technology tools in the company (Du Plessis, 2007).

HSBC has the goals and the objectives to share the knowledge, gaols and targets to all the employees in the company. Thus, the company has to improve its internal communication system so that it can achieve its communication goals.

Vodafone: Internal Communication Issues and Solutions

Internal formal communication: The internal formal communication in the organization follow fur communication processes such as upward, downward, horizontal and diagonal. The upwards communication process is between the employee and the higher management where the employees provide the information to three top level management (Easterby-Smith & Lyles, 2011). The downwards process is related to the information sharing from top management to lower level management employees. Horizontal communication is about department wise communication while diagonal communication deals with the communication between the people from different positions.

Internal informal communication: the strategy that s been used for informal communication is grapevine. This is because as HSBC is a big bank so most of the employees get into gossip and do grapevine communication with each other. It is the effective manner to communicate as every employee in the organization gets to know about the information.

Technological tools for communication:

Telecommunication: It is the basic technique that also helps the employees of HSBC to communicate with each other.

E-mails: E-mails is also the most common technique that has been used to send and receive the information.

Videoconferencing: Videoconferencing is important for the banks like HSBC that operates different countries as this saves time and overcome the barriers of distance because this helps in replacing the face to face meetings.

New software: This is the software that provides MIS to the line managers. This helps the company to management all types of communication and keeping the records.

Conclusion and recommendations: 

It has been concluded from the report that knowledge management and sharing is the very important part of any organization. Technology pays a great role in sharing the information in the company (Holtshouse, 2013).  As far as the big bank like HSBC is concerned, it operates in many countries and thus faces some issues in internal communication. This enables the company to use some of the technological communication tools such as e-mails, Telecommunication, software and MIS etc (Zheng, Yang & McLean, 2010). It has been recommended to the company that they should use the facility of intranet in order to improve their internal communication.

Knowledge management and Information technology are very much related to each other. This report argues about both these elements and their relationship with each other. It discusses about the challenges that has been faced by and also about the implementation of MIS system in the company.

Vodafone is the telecommunication company that operates in different countries along wit UK. The headquarters of the company is situated at London, UK. This is the company that serves the customers with various telecom services and products such as data connections, calling services, mobile, Wi-Fi, sim cards etc. it not only serves the customers at individual level but also serves the business customers (Manoj & Baker, 2007). It’s one of the leading telecom brands with high range connections.

Tesco: Communication Challenges and Theoretical Aspect

Internal communication is the very important and integral part of the organization, it has been analysed that Vodafone is facing some of the issue in regards with the internal communication. As it is the company that operates in various countries, so managing the communication from one branch to another is very essential so that the knowledge can be shared (Hislop, 2013).  

There are many internal communication challenges that the company was facing. Some of them are discussed below:

Low staff survey response: As the company used to conduct the staff survey, it has been analysed that the rate of the response for that survey is low because most of the time people miss to check that mail of survey (Peppard & Ward, 2016). 

Team meetings: There are many communication issues associated with team meetings. There are many updates that have been concluded after the team meeting, that needs to be circulated and they do not have any such platforms.

Intranet usage to wide area: As the company operates at global level so the intranet also works at global level. This wide range restricts the employees to navigate it properly.

Time: It is very important for the company to customize the audience of the communication. The company wants to introduce targeted internal communication in the system.

To meet all its objectives of improving internal communication, Vodafone collaborated with snap communication in order to develop the solution for the internal communication issues (McPhee & Zaug, 2009). There are different types of snap tools that have been sued by the company in order to resolve the issue of communication in the company. Some of the tools are:

• Snap shots: This is the tool that allows the user to have the screensavers with different messages. Any messages that need to be circulated or remembered by the employees, it is popped up on the screen saver as the images along with the messages.
• Snap Poll: It has been analysed by the company that most of its employees and manners generally have different ideas regarding the involvement of business performance that needs to be shared with all (Ruggles, 2009).For this a portal has been designed that is called Snap Poll on which the employees can share their suggestions and ideas.
• Snap staff quiz: it is the tool that creates awareness about the key products and services of the company among the employees.

Conclusion and recommendations:

It has been conclude from the report that internal communications is the important part of organizations like Vodafone. The company has faced many issues such as the issues of low survey response, issue of sharing ideas (Prusak, 2009).  These issues have been considered by the company and the company has taken initiatives to resolve the issues. The major initiative was the collaboration with snap tools that helps the company to improve is different sects of internal communications.

This report discusses about the different communication method used in Tesco and also discusses about the theoretical aspect of communication in the organization. It focuses on the challenges that have been faced by Tesco in terms of internal and external communication. In addition to it, several recommendations have been made to the company that can help the company in improving its communication system.

Organizational Communication Theories

Tesco is one of the leading supermarkets in UK. It operates in the retail industry of the country and serves the customers of UK as well as Ireland. The company is serving the market with online and offline methods. As the company is too big in its operations, it has integrated its functions by introducing the online portal in order to sell the products online. The online sales of the company have exceeded to $5 billion and its online website is known for its wide range. It has been analysed that as the company is operating with such a big business, it has to maintain a great communication internally and externally to have the access of all sorts of information. This requires the company to implement some of the tools and programs for making the communication efficient in the company (About us, 2017).

Communication is the most essential part of the organization. Communication is not only about the matter of interaction but it is about getting the knowledge from different sources that can be used by the company to make strategic decision. Efficiency in communication process of the company helps in efficient knowledge management and knowledge sharing between different departments of the company. There are different theories of organizational communication that are being used by the organization to deals with different types of communication. Some of the theories are discussed below:

Critical theory:

This theory deals with communication in context of resolving the issues. It has been analysed that the employees and the management of the organization always enters in the conflict now and then for different reasons. These conflicts need to be resolved by effective communication between them. As per this theory, the communication helps in unifying the workforce and the management.

Information theory:

It is the theory that deals with sharing or travelling of the information with least mistakes (Treem & Leonardi, 2013). As per this theory, communication is the process to share the message in such a way so that they cannot be altered from their original state. Accuracy measures are also being used in this theory to check the accuracy of the communication.

Post positive theory:

Ordering is the basis of this communication theory. The organizations which have autocratic organizational structure or which believe in delegating the duties and obeying of the duties generally have post positive communication (Alt?nöz, M. (2009). Under this theory, the messages have been designed in order to make the people obeying all the rules and regulation of the organization.

Groupware theory:

Groupware theory is about changing the techniques of the communication. Different mediums like computers, electronic devices such as mobiles, etc. help in communicating the information or messages faster (Blaschke, Schoeneborn & Seidl, 2012). This also helps in circulating the messages in a group. The stakeholders of the organization can be informed about any information related to the company.

Tesco is the firm that can only operates with the help of effective communication. Different type of communication is required in the company because of its big and wide range of operations (How We Communicate Together – Our Tesco, 2017). The processes of each and every function has to be interlinked with one another so that the information can be shared with each other and the decisions can be made by the top management according to the data and the figures analysed. Some of the challenges that have been faced by the company are between the employees and the top management (Turban, Leidner, McLean & Wetherbe, 2008).  They have to communicate with each other as the lower level employees have to share their views and complaints with the top management and top management has to share their decisions and policies with the lower level of employees. As Tesco is the supermarket, thus keeping the records of each and every store and sharing the information with the head office is also a challenge for the company (Tesco’s Approach to Strategy Communication, 2017). The challenges that have been faced by the company also include in external communication process with the shareholders. Thus, it is very important for the company to take serious steps in order to supports ad make the communication process effective by implementing some of the strategies.

Team 5:

It is the tool that has been used for conducting the communication between the employees. The main aim off this communication method by the company is to help the employee with their jobs.

THE ONE:

This is the publication that can be offered to all the employees of the company to take it to their home. This publication has different news, features, fun etc.

Our Tesco:

This is the site that has been made for the employees of the company to connect with each other. This is the platform that has been used by the employees in order to share the different skills and experiences. This also makes the employees aware about the new and updates related to Tesco.

Noticeboards:

Noticeboards are the boards that are being used by the management to stick some of the important information related to different issues. Some of the issues can be training, health and safety, union updates, new about the company, club activity etc.

Internet use and social networking:

The company make use of all the social networking sites available to make the groups of the team so that the information can be circulated between the team and the employees can have informal interaction so as to develop the bond between them (How We Communicate Together – Our Tesco, 2017). This bond helps the teas to have better interaction and thus increases the comfort level between the employees.

Colleague forums:

Forums can be defined as the meetings that are been conducted in order to involve the employees in the functioning of the companies. Through these forums, the employees can share their opinion and play their part in the functioning of the organization.

It has been analysed that the communication system of the company is efficient enough to have between communication and interaction between the employees. It has been identified that the company is doing very well in the section of communication whether it be external or internal. The company has various opportunities that can by the organization to make its communication system better (Tesco’s Approach to Strategy Communication, 2017).

Improving intranet: Improvement in the intranet facility helps the company to communicate and circulate the information among the employees quickly.

Portal for shareholders: the company has the opportunity to take the portal for the shareholders as well. This helps the shareholders of the company to know about the company’s functioning as well as the updates (Blaschke, Schoeneborn & Seidl, 2012). It in turn helps the company to interact with the shareholders easily and it as builds the trust among the shareholders for Tesco as the portal keeps the transparency between both the parties.

Conclusion:

This report concludes that communication is the most essential part of the organization. Communication is not only about the matter of interaction but it is about getting the knowledge from different sources that can be used by the company to make strategic decision. Tesco is the firm that focuses on developing the communication system of the company and improving it according to the technology and the requirements of the employees and the company. Various tools that have been used by the company are THE ONE, employee forum, social networking sites, intranet etc. It has been recommended to the company that it has the opportunity to implement the new tools in the communication system such as portal for shareholders to enhance the communication between the company’s management and shareholders so as to build social bond between the parties.

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