Gap Analysis: Global Communications

Gap Analysis: Global Communications

University of Phoenix

June 17, 2008

Gap Analysis: Global Communications

This Gap Analysis will identify the issues and opportunities confronting Global Communications (GC) followed by the ethical dilemmas faced by the stockholders and company's end state goals. It will address GC’s challenges, where it stands today as a business and what the future will hold for them in the global resource telecommunication industry. This paper will address the need for GC to create an effective long-term company goal, while maintaining a productive line of communication with employees and stockholders.

Situation Analysis

Issue and Opportunity Identification

There are multiple obstacles that GC faces in this scenario. The first obstacle is the major concern of falling stock prices. History of stock pricing for GC was $28 three years ago, down to a current $11 holding over a 50% depreciation value. Stockholders and the Board of Directors will be following this closely and will want to see immediate resolution. The second obstacle is the stiff competition that GC is facing. The competition has a direct effect on the continued falling stock prices. This can be a difficult task to attack, since competitors are aboard and can include traditional and non-traditional competitors. Another obvious obstacle is the unresolved issue of employee layoffs. This fallout turned out to be counterproductive for something that was planned and poorly executed. Internal communications with employees is an area of much needed improvement. As a company GC will need to place its efforts in decision-making for the future employees and company’s best interest. Low morale will have a direct impact on productivity. As a company, GC will have to find ways to prove itself and resolve past and current personnel issues. In a cost reduction effort, it has opted to move the call center to India and Ireland in order to remain competitive. This movement is necessary to save the company even if this is at the cost of human capital.

Stakeholder Perspectives/Ethical Dilemmas

At this time GC’s current state s is one of falling stock prices and it will need to climb back into the game. The plummeting of stock prices from $28 to $11 is mainly attributed to competition. The GC senior leadership group has proposed that it must act to increase revenue by introducing new services to small business and consumers and embrace costs reductions to improve profitability. These combined initiatives will maximize and allow an aggressive, marketable approach. The senior leadership team decided on outsourcing call centers currently hosted in the United States overseas to India and Ireland. However, management did not involve the Technology Workers Union in this decision and now the union is threatening to take legal action with both government and other resources.

Another ethical dilemma that GC has is with many workers faced with either job losses or a reduction in salary, employee morale is at an all-time low. Communication is necessary in order to maintain work relationships. According to Forte (2008), “More than 60 percent of all problems happen due to faulty communication; therefore, it must be a high priority to be understood and to understand others.” Management will need to tackle this issue immediately and start negotiation with the union and come to an agreement that is clearly beneficial to both parties.

End-State Goals

Global Communications is experiencing an explosion of competition and will need to overcome all obstacles. The intentions of GC are to position itself into the global market to gain positive exposure. They are willing to provide better telecommunications services to their small business and consumer customers. Global Communications has even partnered with a wireless provider to allow for better connectivity and accessibility for their customers. In addition, the senior management has looked into ways to cut cost that will increase company profits and increase its marketability. This way company can achieve and start to see milestones if they are measure all of the realistic goals they set in place. GC will increase profits by