Handling the Human Resource at AT&T

Introduction

AT&T is mostly a reconstitution of the original Bell Systems. The company retained 10 of the 22 companies that operated under Bell. The only retaining partially owned company from the former Bell Systems is the Southern New England Telephone company. Indeed, AT&T continues to enjoy almost a similar market share as Bell Systems used to. This is partially due to the retained company structure. The company Board of Directors constitutes the Chief Executive Officer, the Chief Technology Officer, the Director in charge of Shared services, the Director in charge of Corporate Strategy and Development, the Director in charge if Diversified business, the Director in charge of Business Solutions, the Advanced Enterprise mobility Director, the Operations Director, the External and Legal Affairs Director, the Marketing Director and the Human Resource Director (Organizational Structure of AT&T., 2011, February 02). Each of the Director may have other directors and/or managers under them, depending on the size of the department they lead. 

Problems with the Management Structure at AT&T

As AT&T continues to develop, it requires new ideologies that drive the agenda required by the management. The current management structure requires a lot of restructuring nonetheless. This is because, there are too many departments for the organization’s good. This structure places many individuals in decision-making roles and capacities. Eventually, they are unable to offer the necessary development and growth the organization requires to cap the dipping stock prices and interests. Too many personnel in the management of the organization is definitely detrimental to the organization (Lengnick-Hall, Beck, & Lengnick-Hall, 2011). There is need to restructure the organization’s top management, to minimize the duplicity of decisions among departments and ensure better coordination among employees.

How the Organization should look like in 12-36 Months

The departments in the organization should include; Human Resource, Marketing, Innovation, Sales, Analytics, Manufacturing and Research and Development. The Human Resource department will hire all staff, and will include a lean number of professionals. The marketing department will include many interns and contracted marketers, but will have a significant number of employees with performance based contracts. The innovation department will include key engineers and developers, who will be given projects to work on every month. The sales and analytics departments will explore the performance of the firm and boost the sales. Manufacturing will develop any commodity manufactured by the firm including possible partnerships with other manufacturers. The research and development team will present projects to the innovation team occasionally for them to develop new ideas. Indeed, every IT sector organization needs to innovate (Boudreau & Ziskin, 2011).

Maintaining Key Organizational Values

The concept of ‘how work is done around here’ has seen the organization retain a redundant human resource. The guise that human resource is meant to replace a certain aspect of the organization similar to how one replaces a punctured tire needs to change. Technology-oriented organizations have to grow in order to meet market demands on an annual basis (Boudreau & Ziskin, 2011). For instance, the investment in streaming services is slowly beating the age-old television programming. Even with electronic program guides (EPGs), it is still apparent that in technology, anything rigid is outdated and unwanted. It is thus critical that every employee at AT&T only retain their jobs based on merit and need. Indeed, the organization should offer proper retrenchment packages, good reviews and even possible alternatives to redundant employees in order to minimize investment in non-essential human resource (Organizational Structure of AT&T., 2011, February 02).

Strategic Talent Development and Motivation

The new departments at the organization as envisioned in the growth plan shall be; Human Resource, Marketing, Innovation, Sales, Analytics, Manufacturing and Research and Development. The reason behind this is to ensure that there is ample opportunity for talent development and employee motivation. With regard to talent development, most of these departments shall include creative individuals, working in very small teams, expected to offer solutions to the entire organization. Talented decision makers will thus be challenged by the greater responsibilities accorded to them (Salomo, Weise, & Gemünden, 2007). The new structure envisages a leaner human resource. Nonetheless, salary reviews shall be made to compensate each employee based on the market standard, and guarantee that the pay is considerably satiable based on professional human resource consultations. Employees shall also be entitled to bonuses and more off days. This will enable them feel motivated to exercise the most critical role of strategic decision-making in their various departments (Farndale, Scullion, & Sparrow, 2010).

Conclusion

Indeed, AT&T needs to reorganize into a structure that not only favors the management but the clientele as well. There is need to have a lean structure that imminently discourages repetitive human resource. This will greatly reduce the possibility of social loafing among employees. While it is important to have sufficient human resource for the sake of the clientele, it is also important to ensure that the employees at the organization present a significant opportunity for the growth of the organization. They will be better remunerated but more tasks will be expected of them. This is the best strategy to improve the human resource at AT&T.

References

Boudreau, J. W., & Ziskin, I. (2011). The future of HR and effective organizations. Organizational Dynamics, 40(4), 255-266.

Farndale, E., Scullion, H., & Sparrow, P. (2010). The role of the corporate HR function in global talent management. Journal of world business, 45(2), 161-168.

Lengnick-Hall, C. A., Beck, T. E., & Lengnick-Hall, M. L. (2011). Developing a capacity for organizational resilience through strategic human resource management. Human Resource Management Review, 21(3), 243-255.

Organizational Structure of AT&T. (2011, February 02). Retrieved November 29, 2017, from http://www.managementparadise.com/forums/human-resources-management-h-r/214644-organisational-structure-t.htm

Salomo, S., Weise, J., & Gemünden, H. G. (2007). NPD planning activities and innovation performance: the mediating role of process management and the moderating effect of product innovativeness. Journal of product innovation management, 24(4), 285-302.