Problem Solutions To Global Communication

Problem Solution: Global Communications

Global Communication (GC) is facing a significant challenge in maintaining its competitive while honoring the rights of all stakeholders. Handled improperly, a push to increase the bottom line can result in a worse financial situation simply due to organization behavior. To accomplish its goals, GC must not only keep the end state in mind, but also address the method by which goals are achieved.

Communication between stakeholders is essential to provide a foundation of needs and resources GC has to work with. The effect of emotion on work product makes it essential that options to outsource and other changes are fully explored for all costs. A consistent delivery to stakeholders, such as union representatives is necessary for a cohesive plan to form. Absence of these characteristics is a plan that will not succeed.

Describe the Situation

Issue and Opportunity Identification

Senior leadership has developed a two-pronged approach to address declining profits and rising operating costs by outsourcing technical positions while developing new product offerings and an aggressive marketing strategy. The initial reaction from both union and press is less than favorable and may end up being costly, in terms of legal action and public approval. Before GC moves forward with implementation, several issues needs to be addressed. First is whether outsourcing is the most effective approach - are their hidden costs that have not been evaluated, such as quality differences and protections afforded by the union contract. Second is to communicate that there is a need for technical expertise in the sales and product development areas, with GC being willing to subsidize the transition between pay scales and thus demonstrate a corporate commitment to workforce retention. Third, outside of senior leadership, it does not appear that stakeholders are involved in development of corporate policy, limiting the creativity that additional perspective can bring in developing a holistic solution. Fourth, GC does not have a systematic way of disseminating information to stakeholders - the patchwork nature of communication to now have left some stakeholders with an incorrect perspective of the situation and prevents their positive contribution to a goal-oriented strategy. Fifth, this "patchwork" approach extends to corporate decision-making, as initial handling of the new strategy seems disjointed; development of a ethics code that all employees and vendors are to practice daily should bring cohesiveness to the process and strengthen a comprehensive corporate vision.

Stakeholder Perspectives/Ethical Dilemmas

This solution addresses many of the ethical dilemmas identified in Table 2. Shareholders receive the benefit of a reduced operating overhead while employees maintain employment. Union commitment is rewarded by the time management is willing to invest in finding an amenable solution. Consumers can expect a consistent quality product. The only stakeholder ignored is the vendor, who is not a permanent stakeholder in the GC future.

Frame the "Right" Problem

GC will regain leadership of the telecom industry by developing its customer base and using employee strength as a competitive advantage.

Describe the "End-State" Vision

A bright future for GC involves developing and practicing policy and skills that provide a competitive advantage. Success can be measured in our flexibility with staffing assignments to meet market demands, development of new product lines to capture a greater market share while meeting or exceeding current quality standards, and implementation/practice of internal policies that continually strengthen organizational commitment at all stakeholder levels.

Identify the Alternatives and Benchmarking Validation

To stimulate new development and streamline decision-making, Kraft reduced its executive management team by 33% and openly acknowledged its flaws and declared a path for the future with an internal memo. This was in response to lackluster performance and a tendency to bureaucracy (Thompson, 2006). Although GC's declining performance is in a completely different industry, the same principle applies to both companies - a clear statement of what will happen followed by actions that back it up are necessary to make significant cultural changes. For GC to argue that decrease of operating costs is prompting the outsourcing, then teams across the company must be subject to budget reductions. This strategy can be coupled with workflow analysis (see below). A second area for GC to examine in defining its corporate strategy is where the company's core competencies lie - is GC noted for their technical team or aggressive marketing strategies.

At first glance, a call center does not have much in common with the telecom industry. But at McKesson, the loss of several FTE positions stimulated employees to develop a cohesive plan to train coworkers and streamline workflow to allow for the consolidation of three groups (Levin, 2006). This was accomplished by fully informing affected staff of upcoming changes and taking their input into consideration to develop/implement a solution. GC has a similar opportunity in front of them - by including union and staff on the constraints of the current situation as well as available resources, employees themselves may be able to identify additional areas of savings while working to retain the employee pool in a redistributed basis. As with McKesson, GC may find that many strategies that emerge are ones that have been percolating in employees' minds for some time. Regularly soliciting input from those on the floor can maintain vigilance for both employee and management to consider the impact of their daily duties on the overall company goals. Repeated incidents of constructive communication will strengthen relationships, as will continuing education opportunities.

The FDA regularly increases requirements for the testing for human blood products. Over time this has created a hardship for smaller blood centers that simply do not collect at a capacity that justifies expensive, specialized testing - one of those organizations was Puget Sound Blood Center (PSBC). Instead of eliminating blood collection in the western Washington region, and risking the health of the community through its blood supply or outsourcing the testing portion, PSBC went in the opposite direction - to expand services. The nonprofit organization now tests three times its own collection volume by becoming the institution that