Gap Analysis: Global CommunicationsEssay Preview: Gap Analysis: Global CommunicationsReport this essayRunning head: GAP ANALYSIS: GLOBAL COMMUNICATIONSGap Analysis: Global CommunicationsUniversity of PhoenixFoundations of Problem-Based LearningMBA/500Dr. WallaceNovember 28, 2007Okay but on next paper only use APA Title Page formatGap Analysis: Global CommunicationsThe biggest problem Global Communications (GC) is facing in today’s world is the increased amount of competition. Local companies as well as international companies are all competing for the same business and GC is being forced to make some changes by marketing internationally. As a result of this win-lose situation, drastic cost cutting and layoffs are going to take effect. “The main characteristic of competitive conflicts is that the participants have a win-lose orientation. This is the belief that the conflicting parties are drawing from a fixed pie, the more one party receives, the less the other party receives” (McShane & Von Glinow, 2003, p. 394). In the past three years, stock price has dropped more than 50%. In an attempt to increase profitability, the company plans to grow locally by introducing new services to small business and consumer markets. The company also plans to reduce costs by outsourcing call centers to India and Ireland. The union opposed to the plan which instigated the conflict between the union and GC management team. There are number of things that could have been done to minimize the impact of the new strategy plan such as maintaining better communication, managing risk, planning for contingencies and being more skilled at conflict negotiation. “Communication is also a key ingredient in employee satisfaction and loyalty” (McShane & Von Glinow, 2005). Therefore, the more information a company can supply to the employees, the stronger the bond. Okay, but you need to add a purpose or thesis statement outlining what you will cover in this paper.
Situation AnalysisIssue and Opportunity IdentificationSome of the issues faced by GC include tremendous decrease in stock price, cut out competition, qualified employees being hired by other companies, Job cut and customer demand for technical advancement. Due to huge competition, GC realized in order to stay in market, they need to start by providing advanced communication services to their customers, and expand their business globally. GC’s stock price has dropped from $28 per share to $11 per share in about three years due to sharp decrease in profits. So, the executive team wanted to identify opportunities for them to return to profitability. Some of their options were to outsource their call centers to India and Ireland reducing operating costs by 40% and layoff existing employees.
The Technical Union representatives were not notified initially and they somehow heard about these plans prior to the meeting losing technical union trust. “Grapevine is the main conduit through which organizational stories and other symbols of the organization’s culture are communicated. This explains why rumor mills are most active during times of uncertainty” (McShane & Von Glinow, 2005). “Executives trying to eradicate gossip at work might as well try to change their employee’s musical taste” (Nigel Nicholson, 1998).
GC created a conflict with the union by deciding to go with the new plan without negotiating with the union or employees resulting in I win, you lose concept. “A conflict is a process in which one party perceives that its interests are being opposed or negatively affected by another party” (Kinicki & Kreitner, 2004). If the Union was consulted, they could possibly have helped the senior leadership team consider other ideas without drastic layoffs. “A well-defined problem is halfway solved” (Zikmund, 2003). Or, as credited to Albert Einstein, “the formulation of a problem is often more essential than its solution.” The employee layoffs will potentially make the company lose the reputation as a good employer. The competition could lure the best employees away from the company. Dysfunctional organizational politics has a significant impact on the mistrust between Global Communications and the Union.
“Effective communication is vital to all organizations because it coordinates employees, fulfills employee needs, supports knowledge management, and improves decision making” (McShane & Von Glinow, 2005). The last major issue Global Communications encountered was their haste decision making. There are lots of people that are going to be affected by the decision, and not consulting with the Union and employees is going to cause morale issues, loss of productivity and revenue during this transitional time because it was hastily planned. “The resources at stake are expandable rather than fixed if the parties work together to find a creative solution” (McShane & Von Glinow, 2003, p. 394). GC can learn from Eastern cultures how to be patient when making such business decisions on outsourcing and reorganization in order to cut costs. Good discussion of the key issues facing GC
Stakeholder Perspectives/Ethical DilemmasWith decline in stock price, management decided to increase revenues but did not involve one of its key stakeholders, the Technology Workers Union, in the decision process which was willing to negotiate and that group is now threatening to take legal action. “The advantages of group decision making include: a larger pool of information; more perspectives and approaches; intellectual stimulation; people understand the decision; people are committed to the decision” (Baterman & Snell 2004). With many workers faced with either job losses or a reduction in salary, employee morale is at an all-time low. The Union representative calls the board-approved plan unethical and a way of manipulating around current contract conditions. Dysfunctional organizational politics has a significant impact on the mistrust between Global Communications and the Union. They expect management
⬆↩⬆↩⬆↩⬆⬆↩⬆↩⬆↩⬆⬆↩⬆– (Baterman & Snell 2004; Spivak 2008).
Lobbying
[a] [i]
Industry representatives attended a workshop regarding the new strategy of managing costs, with which they were asked to discuss the importance of having a group meeting about the importance of corporate pay and performance (Sergio et al. 2005), or a working group.
One of the members of the Working Group said that the new strategy would put a firm in the position of having to provide an accounting for its staff. One of the panel members was also asked to discuss how these new strategies would affect their position in the company, and how he thought the strategy was working to get a good return on their investment.
One of the panel members told the panel that, since it is already the third largest business organization with a combined total workforce of over 16 million workers (U.S. Department of Transportation in 2012), in a world where the global workforce is at an all-time lows, the new strategy should drive profits and improve shareholder performance. In particular, the panel members expressed concern over the way pay and management are structured, as well as the fact that corporate pay is rising fast while CEO pay has fallen, resulting in more layoffs, which could lead to larger layoffs:
At the meeting, many participants voiced concerns about the importance of improving the way compensation is determined because there are so many top management and board members (Sergio et al. 2005). In addition, many of them said that the new strategy would lead directly to higher pay:
The meeting was held at a private equity firm with a small team of advisors and directors, who were not present in the meeting.
Two co-presenters from this particular group told the Working Group they supported the new strategy and expressed their concerns about it. One of the co-presenters said that, when one member of the staff decided on a new plan, the entire Working Group was present there. The other co-presenter told the Working Group that the new strategy helped increase earnings:
The meeting featured three co-presenters who discussed how to improve corporate culture and how to achieve higher pay. It also featured several other workers whose roles are important to the corporate hierarchy. However, because the Working Group was presented with a new plan to improve these employees’ role, many of the working group members took this criticism as fact, since the new strategy was already working.
[ii]
Several unions, government officials, and political leaders have endorsed the new strategy because it is “responsible and fair”, and so is necessary to promote and protect workers in the economic and professional sectors. The working group on workers’ rights at the meeting also emphasized that there is significant evidence of strong union engagement to fight for greater protections for workers. During the meeting, labor organizations shared their work in the Fight for 5 Million in protest of the strategy being implemented and discussed the use of union bargaining tactics to stop wage increases (Byrne &*081-Byrne, 2008). In addition, during the meeting, more participants expressed dissatisfaction that the company was using “the same kind of ‘stakeholder-assessment and accountability’ they did during the campaign” to try to raise cash to keep workers from paying their salaries. One such worker, who was at the meeting for one and half months