External And Internal Factors

External and Internal Factors

"Management is the process of working with people and resources to accomplish organizational goals" (Bateman-Schnell, 2003, p. 14). The four functions of management are planning, organizing, leading, and controlling. Internal and external factors such as rapid change, technology, and diversity impact the four functions of management. This paper will focus on these three factors and their impact on Verizon. The successful application of the four management functions when dealing with these factors, impact the success and failures of Verizon, as well as all other organizations.

Rapid change impacts the four functions of management. The atmosphere is less stressful when Verizon has the luxury of operating without rapid change influences. Goals are planned for the company for the year, which become high-level projects. The high-level projects dictate advertising and budgets for the year. The organizing function then kicks into the process. "Organizing is assembling and coordinating the human, financial, physical, informational, and other resources needed to achieve goals" (Bateman-Schnell, 2003, p. 15). Project teams are assembled with the appropriate subject matter experts (SME) needed to successfully complete the project on time and within budget. Project managers then incorporate the leading function. These managers keep their teams stimulated to be high achievers by doing little things necessary to keep them motivated: giving praise often, rewarding milestone achievements with bonuses, planning activities to keep morale high. The controlling function is used next by following an established project plan. The project plan monitors every step of the project from beginning to end. The project plan tracks resources, tasks, milestones, problems, and solutions. This monitoring enables a manager to recognize potential problems and implement necessary changes to keep the project on track and successful.

The atmosphere becomes stressful when Verizon encounters rapid change from the competition. The carefully thought out plans for the near future are often put on hold to allow the company to deal with the latest threat from their competition. Projects already underway are often put on hold or altered in order to counteract the latest innovation by AT&T, Sprint, or Cingular. All of the organizing of budgets, resources, information, and project plans are prepared without the luxury of stress free planning. Quick decisions are made, but they are not always the correct ones: new SMEs may be needed for the project or the SMEs needed may not be available or may not exist. Project plans are created in a very short time frame that may or may not include all the tasks needed for success. Managers are challenged with motivating their teams to function well under unexpected stress and long hours. Managers often revert to micro-managing from controlling during times of rapid change. This situation can turn a well planned year into a year of chaos. A good example of this was when Verizon was faced with the internet access services. Initially, Verizon was able to sustain a reasonable profit from the sales of second lines used for residential internet access. Competition from cable companies arrived in the form of cable modems. This forced Verizon to adjust its broadband service rollout, resulting in an expedited delivery of DSL.

Technology has external and internal impact on Verizon's business operations. Internally, tools used to plan have advanced tremendously, broadening the scope of planning while allowing for shorter intervals. Arranging meetings has gone from sending e-mails requesting attendance to checking everyone's schedule from a shared calendar database. Organizing these meetings has gone from dependence on resource availability to selecting from a variety of meeting options such as teleconferencing, web share meetings, and conference calls. Technology has also impacted the means of leading a team. Projects are no longer initiated and supervised on site. Today, a manager has the ability to run a project remotely thanks to advances such as instant messaging, remote call forwarding, and wireless internet access. A project team leader can receive a call, go online for answers, and electronically forward documentation to the team from a remote location, or the comfort of his home. Perhaps the most effective impact technology has is how quickly results can be measured when monitoring the success of a project. Once a project is complete, tools such as shared databases allow each team member to monitor results real-time, and apply necessary changes.

Technology also impacts Verizon externally. Advancements in communication delivery by a competitor often cause a planned project to be altered. The popularity of Nextel's walkie-talkie feature gave Verizon incentive to adjust focus its planned rollout of a similar service. Other competitive technological