Gap Analysis: Global Communications

Running head: GAP ANALYSIS: GLOBAL COMMUNICATIONS

Gap Analysis: Global Communications

Sean Butler

University of Phoenix

Gap Analysis: Global Communications

This Gap Analysis aims to dissect the issues and opportunities involved in the decision making process at Global Communications (GC). Increased competition from multiple sources as well as a decreased stock price has put great pressure on the Senior Management Team. Directed by the Board to cut costs and increase growth, the team creates an action plan that is bilateral. They decide to cut costs by moving Small Business call centers overseas to India and Ireland reducing costs by nearly 40 percent. They have also decided to introduce new services to their small business and consumer customers to help realize increased growth in these sectors. Due to poor communication, the plan is met with an uproar form the Union, causing a rift that needs to be fixed.

Situation Analysis

Issue and Opportunity Identification

Global Communications was forced to make difficult decisions based on their market standing. One of these decisions was to cuts costs by outsourcing jobs to India and Ireland. By poorly communicating the company's intent, Global Communications has increased the risk of lowering employee morale and decreased productivity. The company knew it had to do something; the value of company stock was decreasing as competition form outside sources was increasing. By considering sending jobs overseas they were attempting to meet two goals at the same time; reduced costs and increased globalization. If these issues are not communicated properly, they risk losing not only the employees they lay-off, but also other high value employees who no longer trust the company they work for. (Collins)

Stakeholder Perspectives/Ethical Dilemmas

There are three stakeholders in this scenario; the Board of Global Communications, the Senior Management of Global Communications, and the employees via the Technology Workers Union. They have different perspectives based on their reality; the Board needs to a change to remain a viable company, the management team needs to find a way to make the changes necessary to sustain viability and work towards future growth, while the Union has the needs of the employees in mind. These perspectives may not always agree, and in this case provides a great ethical dilemma by ignoring the Union's perceived right to know. The Union believes that had they had an increased role in the decision making process, they could have helped come to a better conclusion then sending Union jobs overseas. While acknowledging the Union's concerns and stating a desire to work with them, the senior management team is locked into a decision and must now make it work.

End-State Vision

Global communications must remain financially viable in order to continue operations. This need can be met in a variety of ways, but they all require the need to keep the employees aware of what is going on in the business. An efficient communication process will allow the employees to take more ownership of their work, thereby increasing productivity and efficiency. With an increased global market and a more thorough offering of services to consumer customers, the company will be able to grow in such a way that makes all the stakeholders satisfied. By creating an assertive yet perpetual communication process, the needs of both the employer and employee can be met.

Gap Analysis

Currently, the employees at Global Communications are ready to revolt as expressed by the statements made by Maria Antez, Vice President of the Technology Workers Union, "when the Board got wind of it, fireworks went off." Poor communication between the senior management and the Union led to a crisis threatening the company. The Union had recently made concessions including a 20% decrease in benefits which they thought would be met with some stability. In actuality, behind closed doors the company was trying to figure out ways to take more from them. While it may appear to be just business, the ethical decision to take jobs away from Union employees in order to replace them with cheaper labor overseas is great. In order to reduce tensions and create a healthy work environment again, the company must look at how it communicates and find a richer media in order to show that it truly cares about its employees. By allowing this information to leak through the grapevine first to the Union, then to its employees, the company was not able fully to explain and lay out the needs of the company in a way that softened the blow of the decision. If they would have included the Union further before the decision was made it would have also decreased the chances of ruining the relationship between the employees and the company.

Conclusion

Global Communications put itself in a corner when it made the decision to send jobs overseas without consulting the Union without a proper action plan in place. Had they thought it through and set about doing it properly, they would have avoided the problems it now faces. In coming to understand the problems associated with communication in this scenario, it becomes increasingly aware that a comprehensive communication plan is necessary to alleviate the worries of employees. Employees who are concerned for their job will not work effectively, further reducing the ability of the company to reach its goals. In implementing its strategy for growth, Global Communications failed to recognize one very important aspect of their plan, their employees and the reaction from the Union. In failing to recognize these issues before it went about the process of implementing them, it put itself in a position where the Union is threatening legal action and dissatisfied and disillusioned employees further dampen growth. When searching for new ideas, it is imperative that companies