Gap Analysis: Global Communications
In today's telecommunication business, companies are increasingly outsourcing to improve profitability and productivity. From reading this scenario about Global Communication, several points of interest will be presented in this paper. The scenario involves a company called Global Communication and presents various business and ethical dilemmas that this company must face to continue being a competitive force in this field. This paper will discuss the initial problem that explains issues and opportunities. Also, the paper will discuss stakeholder's outlook and any ethical problems that might arise. Lastly, the end-state goal will be discuss which will include gap analysis.
Situation Analysis
Issue and Opportunity Identification
Global Communication is having an economic challenge. The problem that Global Communication is facing is too much competition from local long distance and international market. The cable companies have caused the issues. These cable companies are offering the complete services such as computers, television, and regular telephone services. Global Communication is planning on offering new services to small businesses and regular individual customers. Also, the company has connected with satellite provider to offer broadband services. Global Communication leadership team did not plan enough to achieve the goals. Global Communication wants to cut labor cost. Global Communication is discussing the moving the technical call service to India and Ireland. This plan will help globalization of the company and reduced unit costs for handling calls. Global Communication downsizing domestic call centers will cause many employees to leave or relocate with 10 percent salary cut. According to Some Lessons in Outsourcing the millions of jobs in the USA are being lost to outsourcing (Ajay K Aggarwal, 2006). Global Communication is concern about this plan might create morale problems and negative feelings to employees.
Another more important issue is the concern of the Technologies Workers Union. The Workers Union was not informed a heads up on this plan. The Workers Union also does not see the benefits to their union people when jobs are given to people in India and Ireland. The Workers Union considers being unethical and sneaky way to work around current contract condition. The Workers Union is very disappointed and will take actions to support union people.
Stakeholder Perspectives/Ethical Dilemmas
Two areas of concerns in this scenario are actually connected to each other. The Workers Union has been created to protect the rights of the employees. As mentioned earlier, the Workers Union was not informed of the new strategy formulated by the Global Communication.
The case study of GMFC provides an example of a company attempting to avoid unionization of its workers. GMFC is expanding by building a new U.S. plant which will manufacture motorized recreational equipment. The company plans to hire about 500 production workers to assemble mechanical components, fabricate fiberglass body parts, and assemble the final products. In order to avoid the expected union campaign by the United Automobile Workers (UAW) to organize its workers, GMFC must implement specific strategies to keep the new plant union-free. GMFC’s planning committee offers suggestions with regards to the plant’s size, location, staffing, wages and benefits, and other employee relations issues in order to defend the company against the negative effects of unionization and increase...
All of these workers could be transferred to the new plants abroad. This action will remove the vagrants from the streets and gainfully employ them in a new beautiful
Factories were known for their ill treatment of their employees, long hours and dirty and unsafe conditions. In 1866, unions started to form to improve working conditions for the workers. A fundamental problem faced by democratic societies is as long as people live their lives individually and go their separate ways and be selfish individuals, they are unlikely to meet collectively to resolve issues. There needs to be meaningful unity among people to alleviate this problem to get people obliged to one another, so there is a willingness to sacrifice for shared goals. Bonding of its citizens creates a democracy. Unions seemed to offer the middle class a chance to become a crucial part of fostering institutions of constitutional democracy. The unions have went through several transitions, but have always worked for the working force. I will discuss the history of the various unions, their wins and losses, and the struggle of the employee to achieve democracy in the workplace.
Labor unions were established as a way for workers’ needs and grievances to be heard by management. According to Fossum (2012), “forming a union creates a collective voice to influence change at work” (p. 7). The collective voice of workers in a union holds much more power than any single employee’s voice. It can loudly draw attention to mistreatment or abuse of workers. The organized collective voice of workers demands to be treated in a fair way by its management in terms of wages, hours, benefits, and working conditions.
This Gap Analysis will show the situation analysis on Global Communications and the company’s issues and opportunities as to move forward into the future by focusing on customer satisfaction. I will attempt to show the stakeholder perspectives of the company with the workers Union and the consumer marketing and sales division.
Despite attempting to predict the eventual outcome of the negotiation, I did not anticipate the confrontations between Local H-56 and the management of Hotel Zinnia. Although they initially agreed to engage in integrative bargaining, the union and management subsequently entered an intense negotiation. When Local H-56 presented its proposal of wage increases and health insurance, management immediately responded with a counterproposal that surprised the union. Both the union and management eventually behaved confrontationally, accusing each other of bargaining unreasonably and focusing on the trivial aspects of the negotiation. Moreover, as the union and management felt increasingly frustrated, they suffered from a lack of unity in their teams. The union could not fulfill its objectives because its lead negotiator prevented other team members from contributing to the negotiation. On the other hand, several team members of management struggled to assert their authority as the lead negotiator. After observing these issues, I ultimately believe that the union and management failed to achieve their individual objectives. Moreover, by approaching the negotiation with a zero-sum strategy, I assert that the union and management failed to reach a mutually beneficial contract. At the same time, both sides of the bargaining table lacked cohesive teams and therefore struggled under the pressure of the negotiation.
... a reality. Big and small companies alike are starting look more at the labor union as a whole and not the individuals that make up the union. As stated earlier labor unions were formed to protect the rights of individuals and to keep businesses from taking advantage of their employees. Blacks now have many of the same rights because they stuck through the hard times to gain their reward. There are many people to thank for the state and make up of labor unions in America today. The next big hurdle, now that we are starting to front are problems with labor unions here in the U.S., is international labor unions. Maybe 80 to 90 years from now the same will be said about international labor unions as was said about interracial labor unions. America and the world are an ever-changing place. The make up of labor unions has taken many steps from all white or black to interracial to possibly international in the future. Thanks to the studies and the history of labor union diversity we can better handle the possibilities of an international labor union. Some may say change is bad, but I believe that the changes of the work force and labor unions are better for our economy and our society.
The ethical issue in this situation is the willingness of the company’s director to prevent the employees from organizing in union. Among others, the company’s director try to use unfair tactic like diversion, intimidation, manipulation, termination of job contract and threat to shut down the company leading to massive loss of job. In an ethical standpoint, these tactics are wrong.
Regarding to Kidman (2010), nowadays 88 percent of customers prefer to use multiple channels through internet data, including call centre, search and social networking, to resolve the problems and Telstra announces that there are decreasing the number of clients who contact call centre and customer service via phone. Telstra’s customers are changing the way they source the information. They are more likely to use digital channel. Thus, 24-hour call centre, which operates remotely, will not only reduce cost to the organisation, but also respond to the new generation lifestyle and increase the customer’s satisfaction.
Unions have an extensive history of standing up for workers. They have advocated rights of steelworkers, coal miners, clothing factory employees, teachers, health care workers, and many others. The labor movement is based on the idea that organized workers as a group have more power than individuals would have on their own. The key purpose of any union is to negotiate contracts, making sure workers are respected and fairly compensated for their work. “In theory” unions are democratic organizations, resulting in varying inner authority. Workers look for security within a job a...
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.
The events that led to the changes Global Communications are making came about with the shift in technology and the competition within the telecommunications industry. With companies able to compete globally, there is too much competition within the industry from other telecommunications companies as well as cable companies who can offer all the same services. With increased companies offering a wide range of services, Global is forced to cut costs in order to compete effectively and increase profitability. To this end, Global Communications senior management has come up with an approach to outsource some of their call centers to India and Ireland and expand new services to small business and consumer customers. Global also joined with a satellite provider to offer video services and a satellite version of broadband. This will mean job cuts and a reduction in salary for employees who remain and are relocated. The plan was accepted quickly and now management is under the gun to communicate the changes effectively to the employees without risking a morale problem that could affect productivity. Also, since the employees belong to a trade union and the union was not involved in the process of negotiating these changes, Global has to consider the legal and public relation implications of not fulfilling their contractual obligation to the trade union.
management will tell the union what it can pay the workers and still be earning
A mere nine per cent of the nation's 11 million workers are unionized and this figure is far from that of nations like Japan, the United Kingdom and Singapore.”
Traditional literature in the field of labor relations has focused immensely on its benefit towards the employer and in the process equating it to working rules. This has been so despite the field being expected to cover the process of, labor management, union formation, and collective bargain; all which are anticipated to create a positive employer-employee relationship. This relationship is said to be positive if there exist a balance between employment functions and the rights of the laborer. Also important to note, is that this relation is equally important to the public sector as it is to the private one. Therefore, to ensure a mutually conducive labor environment exists, effective labor management process and inclusive negotiation program should be adopted (Mulve 2006; Walton, 2008).