The Chairman of Golden-tone Telecommunications PLC (GT), Steve Wright, had come under increasing pressure from the shareholders because of the company's poor performance. GT has gone from being one of the most successful telecommunications companies of the 1980s and 1990s when the company was asset rich, to a position where it has accumulated an enormous debt.
Much of the responsibility for this dreadful decline in the fortunes of GT has been attributed to Steve Wright.
Business analysts of the telecommunications industry have suggested a number of reasons why the company's performance has deteriorated.
They include:
GT did not introduce new technology quickly enough and did not adapt to the changes in the consumer telecommunications market; for example, the rapid changes that have occurred in the mobile phone industry.
The competition in the telecommunications sector has dramatically increased. This reduced GT's market share and weakened its competitive position.
The competition responded faster to the changes in the market.
GT is still organised in a traditional hierarchical structure, as it has always been.
Decision making is still made by committees, which take far too long to make the necessary decisions in a rapidly changing environment.
GT's competitors have far more responsive organisation structures, which allow decisions to be made within days.
Analysts also pointed out that Steve Wright does not have the leadership skills that a modern company requires. They said he is more of a traditional manager, who is more concerned with maintaining and controlling GT.
These skills, they argue, are more suited to organisations of the past, which did not need to respond quickly to the changes in the market place.
Key readings areas for support in completing this assignment are as follows:
Boddy, D., (2011), Management - An Introduction, 5th edn., Harlow, Essex, Pearson Education Ltd.
Linstead, S., Fulop, L., Lilley, S., (2009), Management and Organisation: A Critical Text, 2nd edn., Basingstoke, Hants, Palgrave Macmillan.
Mullins L., J., Christy., G. (2013) Management & Organisational Behaviour 10th ed., prentice Hall
Naylor, J., (2004), Management, 2nd edn., Harlow, Essex, Pearson Education.
Reeves, R., (2004), Real Leaders Just Do It, Management Today, June, p29.
Robbins., S., P. & Judge., T., A. (2014) Essentials of Organizational Behaviour 12th ed., prentice Hall
Part 1:-
Produce a business report that would provide Steve Wright with the advice he requires on how to change GT and enable it to respond to the increased competition.
The report should address the following questions.
(1) Briefly describe five characteristics of a manager. Explain why with the use of examples, Steve Wright should become much more of a leader as opposed to just being a manager.
expected to provide explanations and considerations which include the need to motivate and inspire workers, make decisions more quickly, formulate a vision and have good people skills.
(2) Briefly describe five characteristics of a leader. Explain with the use of examples, the points that demonstrate successful leaders/leadership.
expected to relate this to the first part of the case and answers should include characteristics such as charisma, good communication skills and the ability to motivate and inspire, empathy, etc.
(3) This company has a hierarchical organisation structure, discuss an appropriate alternative structure. Explain the differences between the two.
expected to discuss and evaluate the Hierarchical structures as on which can slow decision-making within a company and can adversely affect internal communications. Students will discuss Organisations that are too bureaucratic can be inflexible and rigid, and so consequently not respond quickly to change.
Part 2:-
In your opinion explain five benefits and the need for a more responsive organisation structure and give reasons why you are also to provide recommendations and suggest how GT can achieve this goal.
expected to recommend that there is need for a flatter structure, or one that can be justified, an organisation culture that is output focused and greater trust by managers of employees.A more responsive organisation structure should result in more responsiveness to customer needs and market demands, better external and internal communications, improved customer interface and service to the customers.
Make sure report has the following:
A conclusion 200 words
A detailed bibliography of all citations used not included in the word count.