Organizational Behavior Concepts of at&T Essay Example

Diversity Inc magazine. (2006) Among America's "Top Companies for Minorities" by The Diversity Network and Fortune magazine. (2006) Among "50 Top Employers for Minorities" by Fortune magazine. (2005) Among the "Top 50 Companies for Hispanics" by Hispanic Business magazine. 2005 — 2006) Among "America's Top Corporations for Women's Business Enterprises" by the Women's Business Enterprise National Council.

(1999 — 2006) The company's philosophy is to provide employees with continued opportunities to grow and develop their careers. Management is charged with successful implementation of various diversity initiatives as part of this philosophy. AT leaders are expected to understand the importance of cultural competency. AT is an organization that has a culture of people oriented practices.Employees are not expected to deliver extraordinary results with an ordinary culture. AT & T clearly recognizes and acknowledges that employees are the key to success.

The invitation to apply for employment on the company’s web site indicates the value of employees identified by management. “Realizing that talented, dedicated people are key to a company's success, AT&T employees receive a competitive benefits package that provides security, value and protection. AT&T's benefits are designed to help employees reach their career objectives and their personal goals” (AT . om). Contests and activities are just two examples of how the company ensures their culture meets expectations. The power to make an impact resides in the hands of the employees.

They are challenged, rewarded, and given many opportunities to deliver visible results. The company thinks that the employee’s individual success contributes to the overall success of the organization. A statement directly from the company’s website supports what I have said so far. “We believe in the

power of diversity—recognizing it as a business imperative and an investment in our future.

We celebrate and respect the rich culture of our employees, customers, business partners, and communities in which we do business. In principle and in practice, AT is driven as an industry leader to promote an inclusive environment that maximizes individual and organizational contributions in the workplace, community, and marketplace” (AT, 2008). This organization encourages the development of a comprehensive work environment where all employees are respected and can achieve at their fullest potential. AT has a very strong culture and their values are not only shared with management, but by all employees.While mergers are known to affect an organization’s culture, AT & T has proven success with at least three mergers.

In October of 2004 AT completed a merger with Cingular to become AT wireless. In November of 2005, SBC and AT finalized their union and with that AT Corporation became AT Incorporated. The organization became the largest phone company in the United States when they acquired SBC, serving 13 states in the western and southwestern part of the U. S. Their latest acquisition came in Mar of 2006 when Bellsouth was purchased "AT&T Inc. " Notable Corporate Chronologies Online Version, 2006).

With the merger of Bellsouth, AT picked up another nine states in the Southeast to provide available service in a total of 22 states (Reardon, 2006). The merger of AT and BellSouth, along with the consolidation of Cingular Wireless, will continue advancement in the communications and entertainment industry, where they will continue to invent new resolutions for consumers and businesses. These accomplishments prove that AT has a successful organizational culture.Organizational

structure for the largest provider in communication clearly uses the implemented concepts to an advantage to remain the largest provider. AT successfully uses the concept to conquer the consumer and employees of interest.

An organizational structure pertains to how job tasks are formally separated, grouped, and matched. There are six key elements that managers need to address when they design their organization’s structure. These are: work specialization, departmentalization, chain of command, span of control, centralization and decentralization, and formalization.With the acquisition of other companies positive attributes are an ensured result.

Acquisitions are expected and intended to promote increased revenue and a broadened customer base. Acquisitions changed the structure of the business by incorporating departments that specialize in specific products of AT. Additionally, separation into different areas of expertise allowed an area that handles all of the wireless business that the company has. The company’s wireless business is the largest network in the nation, supplying voice and data services. AT serves 70.

1 million wireless customers, more than any other U.S. wireless service provider (AT, 2008). Organizational structure changes brought implementation of another department that specializes in local and long distance calls as well as high speed internet. The last segment handles directory publishing and advertising services. AT operates the nation's largest directory publisher, delivering print directories to more than 83 million residences and businesses a year and publishing more than 1,250 different directories in 22 states.

AT&T Yellow Pages is the nation's most seen, most used and most trusted Yellow Pages.Yellow Pages. com is a leading web site for directory assistance. However there must be mention of the negative side to most acquisitions that guarantees

downsizing or the elimination of jobs. Reducing the layers of management will enable the AT leadership team to make quicker decisions based on customer needs.

AT today announced that it is streamlining its organizational structure to better serve customers and speed decision-making. The management realignment will result in some job changes and eliminations as it is implemented.Changes support a more customer –focus approach to running the organization (Wire, 2003). Review of the organization’s structure changes three years later reveals little change. With the merger of Bellsouth, the structural change was planned to eliminate up to 10,000 jobs.

The work force reduction would take place over three years. The 10,000 planned job cuts are in addition to the 26,000 cuts AT has already announced — 13,000 due to SBC’s acquisition of AT Corp. , which closed in November, and 13,000 due to shifting priorities in the business.The combined SBC-AT took the name AT Inc (Press, 2006). While there are negatives to argue against nearly every positive aspect in business, AT uses the company’s organizational structure to promote growth and to maintain the nation’s largest telecommunication provider.

Communication is an important part of any organization and serves major functions such as control, information, and motivation. Communication provides stimulus by clarifying and communicating to employees expectations to ensure positive growth and to ascertain employment.Information that is communicated serves departments and individuals with a means to make decisions and choices. The company took a new approach to engaging employees. This was streamlined to include repeated message in different forms (website, email, posters and etc) of key messages.

The approach paid off and its success was evidenced. Within the year

the employee’s awareness of the organization doubled. AT has successfully communicated with their employees and the public through its history. All possible mergers have been announced publicly, such as Bellsouth and Cingular wireless.The company makes practice of announcing the mergers and any insight of organizational change or structural changes to the company employees before media can be allowed to inform outsiders of the inside changes expected. There has also been negative communication that has made media head line involving this organization.

There were federal charges brought against AT and other phone companies for providing to the National Security Agency a database of calling records, illegally to increase its observation capabilities after the September 11th attacks.The company openly agreed to provide assistance to governmental authorities to help ensure security within the nation. The company’s website announced plans openly to aid the FBI as needed. “The FBI's general counsel, Valerie Caproni, testified today on Capitol Hill that the FBI entered into contracts with AT&T, Verizon and MCI to harvest phone records on American citizens under a national security letter program that has come under fire from Congress and the Justice Department's Office of Inspector General for circumventing privacy laws” (AT. om). AT & T publishes all organizational and structural changes publicly.

The information is attainable through the company website. Additionally the benefit packages and procedural policies are available for prospective employees and active employees to review at will though the company information. Company information made available to public viewers, company investors, and employees ensures review by any interested party if the organizational behavior makes the company successful.In conclusion, this company has had some setbacks at some points,

but not enough to say that they have been a failure at practicing organizational behavior concepts. Organizational behavior that highlights organizational structure, organizational culture and communication within the giant telecommunication provider, AT, successfully uses the concepts to an advantage to promote positive growth for the company as well as offer outstanding opportunities for employment.

References "AT&T Inc. Notable Corporate Chronologies Online Version. (2006). Retrieved Februrary 22, 2008, from Business & Company Resource Center: http://galenet. galegroup. com.

ezproxy. apollolibrary. com/servlet/BCRC? vrsn=162&locID=apollo&srchtp=glbc&cc=4&c=1&mode=c&ste=74&tbst=tsCM&tab=4&ccmp=AT+and+T+Inc. &mst=T&n=25&docNum=I2501150152&bConts=9149 AT&T. (2008, Januray). Retrieved Februrary 21, 2008, from AT&T Inc Web Site: http://www.

wireless. att. com/about/careers/culture. jsp Markoff, J. (2006, May