Friday, February 28, 2020

A Knowledge Management Framework for call centre in a Telecom Company Literature review

A Knowledge Management Framework for call centre in a Telecom Company - Literature review Example It can aid the employees within an organisation, and that includes the top level managerial staffs to the ground-level employees, and even the employees working in the field outside. Thus, one of the key goals of knowledge management is to ensure that the employees have the information they need; at the times, whey they need it, to give effective performance. This is applicable to employees in organizations in various industry sectors, where knowledge or the collected data may play a key role. Call centres are becoming a key industry sector of their own, operating independently or in association with organizations from other major industry sectors like Telecom. With the development of advanced communication technologies, Telecom companies are proliferating and are impacting the people’s lives in various ‘spheres’. Organizations in the Telecom sector are optimally using call centres as an extension of their functioning, and importantly to manage the knowledge and p rovide customers apt services. Call centres, or their contemporary successors contact centres, are the preferred and prevalent way for many companies to communicate with their customers. However, perhaps the greatest challenge of running a call centre is to ensure that the customers are provided with the right information in a timely fashion. This is where the KM comes into the picture, and aids the companies to do that exactly. Although, KM has a number of practical tools and strategies to meet this challenge but to leverage the potential of these tools organisations must understand how to implement KM especially in their call centre department. In telecom companies, knowledge in any form is indeed valuable and so managing these ‘knowledge entities’ or information are important for the success and even the survival of the organizations. Call centres could do it aptly, if a framework of best practices is formulated. These best practices could aid in the management of kn owledge or information about the company’s products as well as the about the customers. So, the aim of this report to develop a KM system or framework of best practices to support the call centre in a Telecom Company in order to improve its customer service performance and the company’s competitiveness. In that direction, this report will do a literature review on the topic of KM in a general manner, and focusing on its applications in the Telecom sector as well as in call centres. Then the report will discuss the proposal for KM in call centre, by coming up with an optimal framework of best practices. Literature review KM- A background As Tiwana (2000, p.7) states â€Å"Knowledge management enables the creation, communication, and application of knowledge of all kinds to achieve business goals.† Seiner (2000) further expands on this aspect of KM by stating, â€Å"Knowledge Management envisions getting the Right Information within the Right Context to the Right Person at the Right Time for the Right Business Purpose†. Thus, when viewed from an overall perspective, KM is a discipline that aids in the process of knowledge creation or accumulation and thereby helps the employees to access that knowledge, when there is a need. This access of knowledge can positively impact on the employees’ performance, thereby improving the service provided to the customer,

Tuesday, February 11, 2020

Dichloro-diphenyl-trichloroethane Article Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Dichloro-diphenyl-trichloroethane - Article Example It is evident that the effect of DDT as an indoor residual insecticide (IRS) lasts longer i.e. for approximately 6 to 12 months unlike other insecticides used to control malaria vectors whose effect lasts for only 2 to 6 months. In addition, other disease causing vectors are repelled by DDT thus forced to migrate to other locations (Atkinson, 2009). Once DDT is absorbed into the body of insects and pesticides it immediately destroys them by affecting their nervous system. DDT inhibits the neurons where it opens up sodium ion channels. This causes the channels to fire up spontaneously leading to death of the affected pest or insect. DDT also acts on the shells of mosquito eggs thinning them to the extent of destroying the life of the pupa. This is because DDT manages to impair the shell glands that are supposed to excrete calcium carbonate to aid in the development of the egg (Hayes, 2010). Therefore, DDT provides a simple and sustainable pest control strategy that is suitable for mos t of the mosquito prone regions. However, due to health and environmental concerns brought forth by the use of DDT, this chemical should only be used with extreme caution to ensure all the stipulated requirements are followed and there is no other safer and affordable means that can be used. This is because the prolonged use of DDT causes environmental degradation, infertility, breast cancer, genital birth defects, brain damages and diabetes. DDT is quite stable and thus does not degrade that easily. In fact, it has the ability of remaining active for decades. On the other hand, it is not soluble in water therefore it is not washed away easily from the soil. These two facts are the core reasons for the development of the myriad controversies surrounding DDT in regards to its safety towards health of human beings, plants and animals and the safety and sustainability of the environment. As a result, it has raised a paradigm because it is not ethical to let people die from malaria and yet the effect of malaria can be curtailed by the use of DDT. On the other side, it is also not ethical to continue supporting the prolonged use of DDT since it poses a risk to the human population and the environment (Hayes, 2010). Unfortunately, the volume of sprayed DDT in households is gradually increasing to alarming rates. In fact, quite scary results were revealed according to a conducted study in the volume of semen and sperm count in males living in households that use DDT. The sperm count and semen volume of the male with high levels of DDT in their blood were extremely low when compared to others. Moreover, DDT is absorbed into body tissues and can even be transferred to infants through breast milk. In addition, DDT has a stable chemical structure thus making it possible for the chemical to stay in the environment for decades without degrading. These facts are supported by the adverse results that DDT had in America when it was sprayed to control the spread of mosquitoes and crop pests. Its effects nearly wiped out all the pelican and bald eagles (Atkinson, 2009). However, in most of the developing countries other alternatives of controlling mosquito vectors including the use of bed nets that have been treated with insecticides and use of anti-malaria drugs are not as effective as the use of DDT. This is in contrast to most developed countries where the DDT alternatives are relatively effective. This is