Problem Solution: Global Communications

Running head: PROBLEM SOLUTION: GLOBAL COMMUNICATIONS

Problem Solution: Global Communications

Adekunle Ojo

University of Phoenix

Problem Solution: Global Communications

Global Communications (GC) is a telecommunication company under tremendous economic pressure just like other telecommunication companies. Its stock value has diminished drastically at over 50% which creats doubt in the stockholdersand thefuture of the company is being questioned. GC decided to take an aggressive approach to solve this problem by outsourcing some of their technical call centers department to Ireland and India, without communicating it first to the union This will cause a lay-off of employees and cut salaries by 10% for those relocating. Of course this plan will not go well with the employees and the union who just gave up major benefits in the recent negotiation, are threatening to take legal action against GCs' new strategy. This paper will discuss the alternative solutions to GCs' problems, risk assessments for suggested alternative solutions, and the implementation plans to deal with the problems.

Situation Analysis

Issue and Opportunity Identification

There was too much competition in the Telecommunication industry. Local, long-distance and international markets are all competing for the same business. The company suffered a great deal at the hands of the cable companies, who stepped in to provide complete solutions incorporating computers, television, and plain old telephone services. Stockholders are experiencing diminishing returns and have doubts if GC will be able to recover. Their customers are demanding more technical sophistication from their sales people. GC plans to cut cost and outsource their technical call centers to india and ireland. Outsourcing will save the company money and make them more competitive because of their international status.This in turnwill make them meet their goal of globalization . but have a gap in communication with the union.which makes the situation complex.

Stakeholder Perspectives/Ethical Dilemmas

Global Communications' management infringed on the rights of their technology workers union by not involving the union in the decision making process, and the union is now threatening to take legal actions against Global Communications. Global Communications also faces another dilemma based on their decision to outsource. GC has always been known caring for her employees, and placing a great value on them also. However by carrying out their outsourcing strategy, employee's morale will at an all-time low because both the union workers and the company's employees now face either job losses or a salary cut.

Global communications seems to have stepped on too many toes, hence there is bound to be conflict. There is conflict between the union workers and the leadership team, and there is also conflict between her employees and the leadership team too. Conflicts arise when the values and rights of two parties vary on a particular issue and one party tries to impose their values or rights over the other. "In most conflicts, more than one issue is at stake and each party values the issues differently. The outcomes available are no longer a fixed-pie divide among all parties. An agreement can be found that is better for both parties than what they would have reached through distributive negotiation. This is an integrative negotiation," M H Bazerman and M A Neale (1992).

Problem Statement

Global communications aspires to keep up with the technological changes within the telecommunications industry. Global communications will keep up with the technological advancements within the telecommunications industry by developing effective cost cutting measures. GC will re-build her consumers confidence and realize growth by introducing new services primarily for small businesses and local consumers. GC will a stage of profitability by outsourcing some of their technical call centers to Ireland and India.

Some American companies seem to be slowing their outsourcing/off-shoring efforts (Stan Gibson). The companies rely on outsource/off-shore to reduce costs, because of the lower labor rates of overseas workers.( Pfannenstein and Tsai, 2004). GCs' management developed two major plans to tackle their problems. The first plan involves growth realization through the introduction of new services primarily for small businesses and local consumers. The second plan focuses mainly on profit maximization by implementing cost effective steps through the outsourcing of their technical call centers to India and Ireland.

Lastly to re-build consumer confidence, the concept of globalization will be applied by introducing new technological improvements into local, long-distance, and international markets, and the concept of outsourcing will be a good match for effective cost-cutting measures.

End-State Vision

Global communications is presently being over-run by too much competition in the telecommunication industry which is a situation that is common to every company in the telecommunication market. Global communications' end state vision is to overcome this intense competition by growing into the international market through globalization. Another end-state vision of GC is to provide better connectivity and accessibility through partnership with a wireless service provider. A minimum of three SMART(specific, measurable, attainable, realistic, timely) goals that will be achieved by GC includes the following ; provision of better service