Gap Analysis: Global Communications

Gap Analysis: Global Communications

Business in the telecommunication industry fluctuates tremendously fast. It is very important to keep up with the competition. To maintain an advantage takes even more work. The “grow or die” mentality is very alive in the telecommunication industry world. To simply stay at a stand still in the business would be committing business suicide.

Global Communications is a company that sees itself as a company in need of growth to survive. The current fall in its stock has the company thinking globally to help fix its current downslide. The current corporate leaders have devised a plan that would solve the company’s problems, but cause conflict with the current Union workers.

This is gap analysis of Global Communications. This analysis will go into detail about the ethical situation that has come into play since the proposal of Global Communications new business direction. This analysis will also go into the presentation of the new plan to the Union, and how the Union responded to the new plan.

Situation Analysis

Issue and Opportunity Identification

The current decline in Global Communication stocks have been devastation over the last three years. Once a powerhouse in the industry, Global Communications has seen its stock fall from twenty eight dollars a share to eleven dollars a share, and knows the current down slide will get worse if some changes are not made. The increase in competitors and the decrease in the company revenues forced the senior executives to devise a new plan to increase profits, cut company costs, and regain a competitive edge in the telecommunication industry.

To help rejuvenate the company senior leadership decided on a two prong reconstruction of the company.

Step one was the introduction of new services, focusing on small business and consumer customers. This would allow them to be served locally and with long-distance markets across the country. Global Communication also joined a satellite provider to offer video services as well as a satellite version of broadband. This move would allow the small business owner anytime Internet access.

In step two, cost-cutting measures were identified to improve profit. These cuts were found in the company’s labor. The proposal of moving some of its technical call centers to Ireland and India would reduce costs of handling calls up to 40% alone. This move would have a dramatic effect on current labor, with thousands of domestic workers losing there jobs or having to take a 10% pay cut, to those employees kept, to move to other call centers.

Global Communication plans on completing these two objectives by having a more aggressive marketing plan on an international market. The senior leadership hope this plan with make them a global resource. The leadership thought it was good to hold off telling the plan to anyone until it was approved by the board. Now that the plan has been approved and is in its starting phases the Union is unhappy and tension has started to arise.

Stakeholder Perspectives/Ethical Dilemmas

There are two major stakeholders in Global Communication, the shareholders and the employees, both the Union and senior leadership. The Shareholders want the business to do well to have a high return on their financial investment in the company. The shareholders defiantly want to see a turn around from the 50% depreciation in their stock. The losses create urgency for the company to turn its financial state around as quick as possible. Senior leadership knows it has to turn around the company soon. By making these dramatic changes they hope to do that. If the company does not turn around they will find themselves looking for work along side the Union workers.

The Union workers are also stakeholders and have been though pay cuts before. This show of loyalty to stay (after a 20% cut in their heath and education benefits) shows they support Global Communication and its future. The Union workers are highly upset with the fact that Global Communications wants to give domestic Union employment to foreign workers after the sacrifices the Union has already made for the company.

The ethical dilemma then finds itself with the senior leadership. The other two stakeholders