Gap Analysis: Global Communications

Gap Analysis: Global Communications

The telecommunications industry is struggling and the share owners are not happy with negative returns and they are loosing confidence in the industry to recover. There is tremendous pressure on the industry to turn around and Global Communications (GC) is feeling the heat of the competition and it's been reflected on there share prices.

Global Communications is finding it very difficult to compete in local and international markets for the same business. There are ongoing issues with competition creating better product with cost effective plans and with more options to the customers. Global Communication is not able to compete with these low cost providers so they have to create a new market plan to keep there market share and there stockholders happy.

Global Communications upper management has approved a new plan to introduce new services to small businesses and individual customers, who will be served in both local and long distance markets. GC will also collaborate with other companies to provide video services and wireless access to customers.

The Global Communications upper management has a vision to make the company a global company and an industry leader in the next three years. Global Communications has also introduced a cost cutting plan that involves outsourcers its information technology business from the US to India and Ireland to save 40% in labor costs. GC's management hopes that the above plan will help them reduce cost and increase there revenues; however, there were many issues that the management did not address when assembling their cost cutting plan.

This paper will provide an overview of Global Communications intentions on what they wanted to achieve with the reorganization. GC faced several communications and decision making challenges in the process of the initial decision to reorganize and to implement the reorganization plan. The reorganization plan has some conflicting interests and values among the stakeholders so the management must identify the issues and make a decision that is in the best interest of not just the company, but all the individuals that have an interest in the outcome of the decision.

Situation Analysis

Issue and Opportunity Identification

The management of Global Communications has decided on a vision to become an industry leader and global company within three years. Global Communications has implemented a cost efficient plan that will help reduce cost and improve profitability and also they plan to officer new services to there small business customers and some individual customers. As part of the cost efficient plan Global Communications has realized an opportunity to take its operations global and outsource some of its US operations to India and Ireland. Outsourcing of its operation will ensure the company's long term growth and will make the company more profitably. Outsourcing jobs will allow the company to meet customer demand for increased technical sophistication and reduce per call cost by forty percent. Outsourcing will also enable the company to expand and get more market share in the new emerging markets like India and Ireland.

Stakeholder Perspectives/Ethical Dilemmas

There are several stakeholders in these situations the company is a stakeholder, the share holders, the employees, the union, the community, the customers and the employees family members are all stake holders in this dilemma. The major and one of the biggest stake holders are the companies owners meaning the companies share holders. The share holders are worried about the negative returns and asking questions as to the company's abilities to compete in the market place. The share holders want the company's management to do whatever necessary to get the company more profitable and to increase there market share and become an industry leader. The customers are also looking to get better technology and to have more options. As long as the customers are satisfied with the service they receive they don't mind how the goals are achieved.

The management has agreed to make major changes to grow the company and to increase profits; however, there is a conflict between the management and the employees union. The conflict has arisen partially due to ineffective communication methods used by the management and the union. The two parties involved are no able to understand what the other one is trying to communicate and to act on. The management has not informed the employees about the new strategy and the vision. This has led to information being obtained through an unstructured and informal network know as the grapevine (Kinicki & Kreitner, 2003, p.74).

Another conflict was that the union had recently given some important health and education benefits to its members thinking that this would be beneficial for the company's long term growth and prosperity. The union feels that the company is outsourcing to get around the current contract. The company has a responsibility to uphold and respect the contract that they entered into with the union. Also, the union thinks that the company should look at all the possibilities and consider every opportunity before closing there US plant and outsourcing the services. The union thinks that outsourcing jobs is not the answer to the problem and they think that they would like to make a win-win situation for all parties involved; however, if the company does not work with the union the union threatens to take action against the company.

The management is only looking to outsourcing as a strategy that would increase profits and will help the company grow; however, they do understand that the outsourcing move goes against the company's philosophy of "Our Edge is People". The management also realizes that in the global market the company must outsource to stay competitive and is willing to make the move and implement its new strategy to become a global organization within three years. The management thinks that this move will help them create competitive advantage and will also help the company grow in new markets and meet customer demands.

The management is concerned with the community's