Gap Analysis: Global Communications
In this analysis I am going to present the problems that Global Communications confront before and after the implementation of an aggressive approach to become a truly global resource. Global Communication was getting behind in the industry. In my Gap Analysis I will identify the issues and the opportunities confronting this company followed by the ethical dilemmas faced by the stakeholders and company's end state vision. Paper also includes the detailed gap analysis for the Global Communication as to where they are today from the business perspective and where the company wants to be by becoming a true global resource in the telecommunication industry.
Situation Analysis
Issue and Opportunity Identification
There are several issues facing Global Communications (GC) in this scenario. The first issue is Global Communication's plummeting stock price. Generally when this happens, stockholders and members of their Board of Directors will demand that immediate, corrective actions be taken. The second issue faced by Global Communications is increased competition. This is a difficult issue to resolve and is also a main reason why GC's stock has been slumping. A third issue that Global Communications faces is the fallout from the layoffs that it has planned. Global Communications plans to cut costs and become more competitive by moving some of their call centers to India and Ireland. This move may save the company money but what will be the resulting cost in human capital? Internal communications within the company is a fourth issue. Global Communications as an organization should consider all possible motives to resolve issues and make the best decisions. "By improving decision making, knowledge management, employee needs and coordination; company can progress and retain the name in the communications industry. Workplace communication has a significant effect on organizational performance (McShane & Glinow, 2005). "First organizations depend on the ability of people to coordinate their individual work effort toward a common goal (McShane & Glinow, 2005). Global Communications is faced with economic issues. They are come together to strategize plans to restructure the company. Through the plans they are trying to implement, Global Communications is having difficulty communicating the information to their employees. Global Communications is known for treating their employees well, so they do not want to ruin that reputation because their employees are a vital part of the company. Local, long-distance and international markets are all competing for the same business but the industry suffered a huge blow at the hands of the cable companies. Global Communication has to take steps to improve on the technology as well as outsource their existing technical call centers to India and Ireland for effective cost cutting.
Stakeholder Perspectives/Ethical Dilemmas
Global Communications (GC) finds itself at a crossroads and must act quickly to solve the current dilemma. GC has seen its revenues dip and due to intense competition in the industry and the stock price has dipped from a high of $28 three years ago to its current price of $11 a share. The management group has decided that it must act now to increase revenue by introducing new services through partners and reduce costs by outsourcing call centers currently hosted in the United States overseas to India and Ireland. But management did not involve one of its key stakeholders, the Technology Workers Union, in the decision process and that group is now threatening to take legal action. With many workers faced with either job losses or a reduction in salary, employee morale is at an all-time low. Here in this situation management should start using integrative negotiation with the union and come to some conclusive decision which will be beneficial to both parties. "In most conflicts, more than one issue is at stack and each party values the issues differently. The outcomes available are no longer a fixed-pie divided among all parties. An agreement can be found that is better for both parties than what they would have reached through distributive negotiation. This is an integrative negotiation," (M H Bazerman and M A Neale, Negotiating Rationally, 1992, p. 27).
End-State Vision
Global Communication (Global) is seeing and feeling what every other company in the industry is too much competition; to resolve this issue, Global has plans to grow into the international market. In doing so, Global will be able to provide better telecommunications services to their small business and consumer customers. Global has even partnered with a wireless provider to allow for better connectivity and accessibility for their customers. In addition, the executives have looked into ways to cut cost that will increase company profits and increase its marketability. This way company can achieve at least three SMART (Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic, Timely) goals like provide better service to their customers, global presence in the international market and becoming profitable.
Gap Analysis
The Gap Analysis can be defined as a gap between the current practice in any given area and the desired end state. In the present situation, Global Communications needs to deal with the market competition and at the same time they have to find the ways to keep up with the technological changes with in the organization through effective cost cutting measures. Their stock price was down to $11 from the $28 with in a short period and company started losing consumer confidence. To deal with this situations company management came with the two plans. First to realize growth they need to introduce new services primarily for small business and local consumers. On the other hand to get to the profitability stage, company needs to take cost effective steps through outsourcing some of their technical cost centers to India and Ireland. To bring back the consumer confidence the concept of globalization applied here by introducing new technological changes into local, long-distance and international market and for the effective cost-cutting measures the concept of outsourcing is a good fit. Outsourcing is defined as "turning over all or part of an organization's information systems operation to outside contractors or service providers" (O'Brien). Off-shoring refers to outsourcing in another country (Pfannenstein and Tsai, 2004). Conceptually, outsourcing and off-shoring can be viewed together, since both involve employing individuals outside of the organization to handle operational work. According to Stan Gibson, some American companies seem to be slowing their outsourcing/off-shoring efforts. The main reason that companies outsource/off-shore is to reduce costs, which can be obtained through lower labor rates of overseas workers. (Pfannenstein and Tsai, 2004).
Conclusion
Global Communications is finding itself a victim of modern day progress. Not being profitable creates problem and generates a huge downward spiral. This in turn, creates doubt with investors. As a result, stock prices drop and ultimately, the future of the company is questioned. Global Communication actively started looking for the options and their management team came up with two plans to resolve their issues like sales decline, moderate technological changes in the market, cop up with the competition and bring down the cost to meet the profitability standards. But at the same time the management could not able to communicate the decisions to union and they started threatening.
By applying the nine step problem solving model the company management were able to make good decisions and started implementing their plans for the globalization by introducing new services to meet the local, long-distance and international business requirements. Through effective outsourcing plans they were able to transfer their technical call centers to India and Ireland and able to meet their profitability standard which also helped investors, board members and consumers to bring back their confidence in the company.
References
McShane, S. L., & Von Glinow, M. (2005). Organizational behavior: Emerging realities for the workplace. New York: The McGraw-Hill Companies.
M H Bazerman and M A Neale, (1992) Negotiating Rationally
Pfannenstein, Laura L. and Ray J. Tsai. Offshore Outsourcing: Current and Future Effects on American Industry. Information System Management Journal, fall 2004. Retrieved on February 18, 2007, from ProQuest database