Gap Analysis Global Communications

GAP ANALYSIS: GLOBAL COMMUNICATIONS

Gap Analysis: Global Communications

Gap Analysis: Global Communications

Global Communications is a company that needed a new strategy in order to compete with its competitors. The telecommunication industry was flooded with the addition of cable companies joining in their market. Global Communications was financially in a decline and had already asked union workers to give up a percent of their benefits in order to help. The union did so willingly in order to preserve the future of their jobs within the company. The company brought in new executives to try and come up with a plan to save the company from its decline. The senior leadership team came up with a strategic plan to compete with the telephone and cable companies. They obtained approval to implement the plan, but not without problems. The senior leadership team did not consult or divulge any of their plans to the union representative or the employees prior to their approval. Their plan included outsourcing some of the work overseas which would reduce cost but also cut jobs within the company. The senior leadership team needed the support of the union representative in order to explain to the worker's what the company's plans were and how it would affect them. The union representative was upset she was left out of the communications and had to hear it from her superiors. Global Communications needed the employees to grow and increase profitability; however they could not reach an agreement and Global Communications implemented layoffs. The union is discussing what action they will take to stop the outsourcing plan that will set precedent for the whole industry.

Gap Analysis: Global Communications

Situation Analysis

Issue and Opportunity Identification

Communication is the key to having a successful business. A company must be able communicate the overall plan and future goals to their employees so the employees can support the organizations goals. Global Communication's first issue was the lack of communication to the union about their need to enter international markets for the company to expand. The second issue was also a lack of communication to the union about their plans to outsource the technical call center to India and Ireland, which would in turn affect the employee's job status. They should have contacted the union president and furnished their goals to them before moving forward. This would have opened up the communication process and not left the union workers in the dark. Global Communication could have communicated the vision, the mission, and the objectives of the plan as soon as possible in an effort to help their employees understand how these changes would affect them personally (Heathfield, 2007); however they did not and the union representative Maria Antez had to find out through the grapevine. If employees are not informed about direction of the company, or the status of the company, they will not feel like a part of a team and may not care how well they perform their job. Global communication could have spent time conversing to small groups or one-on-one with the employees the changes would affect (Heathfield, 2007).

Gap Analysis: Global Communications

Stakeholder Perspectives/Ethical Dilemmas

There were three groups of stakeholders in this scenario depending on your point of view. Ms. Heinz and Ms. Everhardt along with the Global Communication board members were one group. Mr. Rodreguez and Joel Thompson were the second group and the union employees were the third group. Ms. Heinz was new to the company and was brought on board as the Chief Executive Officer of Global Communication because of her aggressive tactics to increase revenue and profit. The company was in a decline due to the amount of competition and lack of markets they were participating in. Ms. Everhardt was also new to Global and was the Executive Vice President of Marketing. Both of these women had a vested interest in the company's success in order to prove they could do their job to increase profits and go global with positive results. They both were in a difficult situation when they obtained approval from the board to implement their plan without regards to current employee relations. They did not communicate any of the plans to the union representative Ms. Antez and who had to hear through the grapevine.

The second group of stakeholders included Mr. Rodriguez, Executive Vice President of Small Business and Marketing Sales and Joel Thompson, Executive Vice President of Human Resources and Public Relations. Both men have been with the company twenty plus years and are loyal to the company and the employees. Their interests include making the changes to expand globally while maintaining employee relations as they both realize they need the continued support of the employees to move forward successfully. Any conflict from the employees could result in a loss of production which the company does not need.

The Union Employees make up the third group of stakeholders. They have previously expressed loyalty to the company by accepting a reduction in benefits to aid the company's growth. They should have been informed by some means of communication of plans the company wanted to embark. Any communication to the union would have provided the employees time to ask questions, provide input or request clarification (Heathfield, 2007).

Gap Analysis: Global Communications

End-State Vision

Global Communications will, in the future, communicate effectively to the union in order to achieve alternative outcomes that will promote the company's overall goals. They will retain as many employees by retraining them to work other positions within the company. They will restructure the globalization plan to increase profitability while preserving employee relations.