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BMA583 Managing People and the Employment Relationship

Case Study: Unitel

Unitel is one of the largest telecommunications companies (telcos) in the Asia-Pacific region. Like most large telcos it was formerly government owned, but was privatised in the early 1990s. Since privatisation, however, Unitel has faced increased competition from foreign and local competitors. Unitel remains profitable, but the telecommunications industry has seen considerable innovation in terms of both products and services in recent years. Automation and increased competition have also become pronounced features of the industry. Senior management at Unitel are concerned that the firm’s culture needs to be improved if the telco is going to continue to grow its presence and maintain its profitability in a continually developing and changing market.

Last year, Unitel senior management unveiled a new corporate strategy to guide Unitel into the next decade. Called “Vision 2022”, it is an ambitious program which aims “to place customers in a pivotal position” and to seek “excellence in products, customer service, product delivery and corporate image”. Developed by an external management consulting firm, Vision 2022 aims to reposition Unitel as the “best enterprise in the region” by developing “action teams” and “change teams” whose role is to encourage “possibility thinking” and “customer comes first values” in the large industry incumbent.

Vision 2022 has been enthusiastically embraced by many senior managers at Unitel. “It is bringing field staff and high-level management together for the first time”, remarked one plant coordinator. “Problems are heard, solutions sought and once found their implementation is pursued”. “Unitel has a lot of internal problems”, said another manager, “and I see in Vision 2022 the possibility of salvation”. “I don’t see anything wrong in trying to produce more trust in the company” commented a technical officer. “The regular Vision 2022 de-briefings help to let all staff know what is going on and offer all of us a chance to have input into things”.

Some managers see Vision 2022 as creating a “bottom-to-top” communication system and inaugurating a new style of management founded on a renewed commitment to staff, getting employee involvement in problem-solving, improving customer service and creating a “family-type” environment. Yet there is also a considerable degree of scepticism about Vision 2022 among Unitel’s 32,000 staff. “I don’t think Vision 2022 is accepted by my workmates”, observed one customer service operator – “they generally regard it as a joke”.

It is clear that Vision 2022 has many critics at Unitel. As one senior technical officer commented “I hold a serious concern that some managers and staff have an almost fanatical and single-minded belief in the ability of Vision 2022 to save the company.” “They do not tolerate others who do not share their views”, remarked another. “I believe a climate is being generated where people who dissent are marked out and discriminated against” he concluded.

Assignment Details

Assignment Objectives

The objective of this assessment is for you to critically analyse the human resources situation in the case provided (“Unitel”). We expect you to identify key HR and ER issues, using the theories and knowledge that you have gained from this unit, and develop well-supported recommendations for changes/improvements to the current HRM practices employed at the firm using those theories. Your analysis and recommendations need to include a description and explanation of at least four HRM and ER theories or principles studied in this unit.

Analysis and recommendations based substantially on theories and principles taken from other units (Leadership and Change, Strategic Management etc.) will not receive any marks

Report Narrative

It is important to remember that reports differ according to the audience for which they are written. For this assessment task, we would like you to act as if you were an HR consultant who has been contracted to develop a plan to reform Unitel’s approach to managing its staff. As such, your report should be prepared as if it were to be delivered to Unitel’s board of directors. Your report therefore needs to be written in a way that will encourage the directors to implement the recommendations you develop.

Assignment Structure

The expected format of this assignment is a recommendation report. See the below table for more guidance

Title Page

(not included in the word count)

This page should include: The report Title

Your name and student ID

Executive Summary

(not included in the word count)

A paragraph of 150-200 words that provides a quick overview of the entire report, including its purpose, major findings and recommendations- (with reference to some theories and authors used)

Table of Contents

(not included in the word count)

The table of contents lists the main headings used in the report and includes the page on which the headings appear. Any tables, diagrams or illustrations should be listed separately in a Table of Figures which comes after the Table of Contents.

Introduction

The introduction should explain the purpose of the report, and the analysis/description that will be provided to the reader (it only needs to be brief;

a short paragraph). No discussion about theories here.

Body

The body of the report contains the substance of the report. It should be separated into topic/discussion areas using numbered headings and subheadings. You may use broad level headings to separate different elements of analysis. Then use sub- headings to break down your analysis under each heading according to different issues/sub-topics.

The body of the report will need to identify and critically analyse the key HR and ER issues that arise in the case using relevant HR and ER Theories. You will also demonstrate your understanding of the ramifications of those issues for the company and provide justified course of action that you would recommend, using at least 4 HR and ER Theories studied in this unit.

You will need to answer the following questions:

1. What are the issues faced by the organisation and what is their impact upon the operation and competitiveness of the organisation?

2. What does the HR and ER literature tell us about these issues and their potential ramifications for organisations?

3. What are some of the recommendations based in HR and ER literature that would assist the organisation to improve their HRM practices?

Please avoid using the term Body as a heading. Use the topic you are going to discuss in this section.

Conclusion and Recommendations

Needs to provide a brief summary of the key findings and a list of key recommendations for improving the HR management of the firm.

Reference List

(not included in the word count)

Please reference all material cited in the report using the Australian Harvard Referencing Style (make sure to include references to any images used).

Appendices (not included in the word count)

The appendices should contain any additional supporting information (e.g. pictures, graphs, tables) that are relevant, but are included at the end of the report, so as not to distract the reader from the ideas in the main section of the report.

The appendices should be clearly set out and numbered in the order they are

mentioned in the text and provided in the table of contents.

Assignment formatting

Your Case Study Report should be professionally presented using of fonts that are easy to read –

Times New Roman, Palatino, Calibri, Arial or the like (12 points in general)

Double spacing
Headings can be bold without any underlining
Numbered pages

Assessment Rubric

Please ensure that you review the assessment rubric prior to submitting your assignment.

Referencing

The principles of academic integrity are highly valued at the University of Tasmania. You are expected to maintain academic integrity by correctly referencing other scholars’ work and not copying others work without attribution. If in any doubt, we recommend that you make yourselves aware of the following resources: