Gap Analysis: Global Communications

Gap Analysis: Global Communications

University of Phoenix

Gap Analysis: Global Communications

Global Communications (GC), once heralded as a leader in the telecommunications industry, is faced with new competition in the marketplace. Over the past three years they seen their stock prices depreciate more than 50%. This decrease in share price is primarily due to increased competition in the local, long-distant and international markets by cable companies. (University of Phoenix, Scenario 2) Global Communications has issued a public statement announcing it will outsource thousands of its technical support jobs to India and Ireland in order to decrease their operating costs, thus enabling them to be more competitive in the market. This announcement instigated an internal conflict between the management at Global and the Technologies Workers Union. Secondly, they have decided to create an alliance with various providers to bring new services to their customers. This two-pronged approach, by the Global Communications top management, has created several issues while generating new opportunities that will be discussed further in this analysis.

Situation Analysis

Global Communications faces many new issues and opportunities since they implemented this two-pronged approach. Table 1 outlines the following issues. The outsourcing of thousands of jobs to Ireland and India was approved by the board in an attempt to increase revenues and decrease operating costs. GC's actions have strained the relationship between the union members and management, while tarnishing the companies "People friendly" philosophy. GC's management now has the opportunity to renew their good working relationship with the union by including them in all top level meetings as they move forward with this new plan to make them more competitive in the global marketplace. Next, GC management has created a sense of insecurity and distrust amongst the employees by not properly informing them of the impending layoffs. GC executives now have the opportunity to engage in face-to-face or town hall type meetings with their employees to answer questions about this transition. GC top management failed to communicate properly with their employees, thus creating an information silo at the top of the organization. To fill this information void, online magazines (a.k.a. eZines) or a company newsletter need to be implemented to keep employees abreast of current events affecting the company. Finally, many of GC's decisions were made without including all the parties involved. They now face losing many of their employees to their competitors and legal action by the union. By including the union in this business reorganization strategy; GC has the opportunity to regain the trust of its employees, increase worker productivity and improve GC's decision making process.

Stakeholder Perspectives/Ethical Dilemmas

Global Communications has seen a decrease in revenues over the past three years. Their stock prices have dropped from $28 per share to $11. The board and GC management have arrived at a crossroads. Both parties must act immediately to ease the rising tension between the union and management. Management, with board approval, decided to outsource the technical support centers to Ireland and India in a move to cut operating costs. However, the Technology Workers Union representative was excluded from the decision making process. GC management informed the union representative that many employees would be laid off, but the remaining employees would have the opportunity to take positions in the Consumer Division with a 10% pay cut or be laid off. Now, the union is threatening legal action. At this juncture, management should implement integrative negotiation with the union in order to reach an agreement that satisfies both parties involved. "Face-to-face meetings have the highest data-carrying capacity because the sender simultaneously uses multiple communication channels (verbal and nonverbal), the receiver can provide immediate feedback, and the information exchange can be customized to suit the situation." (McShane & Glinow, 2005). Refer to table 2 for a listing of the stakeholders.

End-State Vision

Global Communications is facing the same issues many companies face today: increased competition in the marketplace. In order to survive, GC will provide: local and long distant telephone service, a version of satellite broadband internet and video services to at least five countries on five different continents within the next two years. To achieve this goal, Global Communications will: improve communication throughout the organization, increase its market shares by increasing its profitability by 20% within two years, and reduce the overall operating costs by 20% in two years. Table 3 outlines the specific goals GC will attain by implementing the SMART (Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic, Timely) goals policy.

Gap Analysis

After a thorough analysis of Global Communications practices three gaps have been identified: organizational communication, decision making processes and leadership. In order for any company to be successful they must have excellent organizational communication. "Communication refers to the process by which information is transmitted and understood between two or more people. We emphasize the word understood because transmitting the sender's intended meaning is the essence of good communication."(McShane and Glinow, 2005 p. 324) GC currently lacks effective communication.

This lack of effective communication is due in part to increased filtering and ineffective media richness, which is compounded by increased rumors generated by the corporate grapevine. Organizations must to seek out possible deficiencies in their communication practices to allow employees to make the best possible decisions armed with the most accurate information available. "By improving decision making, knowledge management, employee needs, and coordination, workplace communication has a significant effect on organizational performance." (McShane and Glinow, 2005 p. 324) When information is being distributed throughout an organization, employees will rely less on the corporate grapevine for information. In GC's case, the union was notified of management's decision to outsource its technical support division to India and Ireland. The union was not included in the decision making process. By not including the union in this decision making process, the employee's perception of management's actions was