Gap Analysis (Global Communications)

Gap Analysis: Global Communications

Telecommunications in this day and age is an idea and reality that seems like many people cannot live without. Just driving to the local grocery or convenience store and one will not have enough fingers to count the people that are driving and using a mobile phone, let alone those that are walking, on bicycles, or working at the store. But even with its importance on Wall Street, confidence in the telecommunications industry is waning. Stockholders are bemoaning diminishing returns and speculating about the industry's ability to rebound. Understandably, telecommunications companies are under tremendous economic pressure and Global Communications is no exception. Three years ago, its stock traded at $28 per share; today, the stock is valued at $11, more than 50 percent depreciation. This paper, will explore the issues, stakeholder perspectives, and analyze what it will take for Global Communications to find a solution for the dilemma caused by upper management and turn the company into a serious contender on the global stage.

Situation Analysis

Issue and Opportunity Identification

There are several issues that Global Communications will have to deal with. The first and most obvious is competition. Generally, competition is bad for a business, but good for the consumer. It is bad for a business because too much of it can drive them out of business. On the other hand, it is good for the consumer because competition usually keeps the competing businesses in check. All will fight for the consumer by lowering prices and upping the quality of the goods and services sold. This is also a chance for Global the revamp operations to increase productivity.

Another issue Global is facing is its outsourcing plan. With outsourcing comes the catch 22. Global will have to layoff or relocate its call center reps to a foreign country with a 10 % decrease in pay. But the catch is if all companies used an outsourcing plan like this, hardly anyone would have jobs, therefore no consumers left for Global and similar businesses. Another problem caused by outsourcing is low productivity rates. Outsourcing positions to a foreign country where English is a second language with majority of your customers being only English speaking Americans causes a major language barrier. The longer it takes for the customer and rep to understand each other, the more money Global looses in employee pay and the possible loss of customers.

A third issue is the lack of communication with the current employees and union. The decision to create and approve the outsourcing plan was done without any input or involvement of the employees or union. This also made Maria Antez: Vice President in the Technologies Workers Union and the liaison between GC and the union, look to be incompetent. This plan and lack of communication and has caused her, the union, and some of the other stakeholders to lose faith in Global Communication's integrity.

Stakeholder Perspectives/Ethical Dilemmas

Because the world is constantly changing, business decisions and operations have to change also. The problem is humans get used to functioning a certain way and are reluctant to accept changes unless the change is a huge and obvious benefit to them. A huge change such as implementing a new outsourcing plan is not going to sit well with hardly anyone except upper management. Employees will be worried if they will still have a job and/ or will they have to relocate and take additional pay cuts. Stockholders will be worried if they lose on their investment when the plan is finalized. Customers will be worried if their service will be interrupted during the process and how much of a factor