T-Mobile essay

Introduction

Today, the development of the contemporary business environment is characterized by the growing impact of mergers and acquisitions, which are used by many companies to accelerate their business development and to expand their market share. In this regard, it is possible to refer to the planning merger of AT&T and T-Mobile, the major operators in the mobile phone market, which attempt to enhance their position in the market through the merger. In actuality, the merger of the two companies can have a significant impact on the further business development of the companies as well as on the market at large because the merger of two behemoths of the mobile phone industry naturally contribute to consistent changes in the market. On the other hand, companies should come prepared to the change because the merger is likely to bring numerous challenges and problems associated with the restructuring of the new company, adaptation of organizational cultures of both companies and formation of the homogeneous organizational culture. In such a context, both companies should pay a particular attention to the development of the quality management to maintain their competitive position and to keep customers using their services after the merger. In fact, the main point of the merger is to enhance the position of the new company in the market, whereas problems and challenges accompanying the merger may deteriorate the position of the company in a short-run perspective. In such a situation, T-Mobile and AT&T should plan the merger carefully and cope with possible challenges through the focus on the quality and knowledge management, which are key to the success in the accomplishment of the merger and positive marketing performance of the new company.

Functional and dysfunctional control systems

The development of efficient control systems within organizations has always been one of the major priorities in the development of T-Mobile. The company used its control system to control the quality of its products and services and to maintain internal business operations running smoothly. In this regard, it is worth mentioning the fact that the development of effective control systems is still one of the major goals of T-Mobile and the organizational is likely to stay focused on the maintenance of its control systems as well as their improvement, which may be essential after the merger of T-Mobile and AT&T.

At this point, it is important to distinguish functional and dysfunctional control systems applied by T-Mobile. In fact, the functional control system in T-Mobile tends to automation of control functions to increase the effectiveness of control and to minimize the risk of error being made by humans. In the past, the company employed control officers to maintain the control system and to control functions of employees working within the company. In such a way, T-Mobile tends to the automation of the process of functional control that will increase the effectiveness of the functional control and positive effects of the functional control on the quality of products and services delivered to customers of T-Mobile. At the same time, in case of merger of T-Mobile with AT&T, the new company should also enhance the automation of functional control process that facilitate the control and increase its effectiveness. Obviously, the employment of control officers is costly, taking into consideration the size of the new company, whereas their work in regard to functional control may be not as effective as the automated control.

In stark contrast, the dysfunctional control does need control officers, which T-Mobile employs to maintain the dysfunctional control. In fact, control officers can identify problems occurring in different internal business processes of the company. In case of merger of T-Mobile and AT&T, the new company should also maintain the control officers because their work is very important in regard to dysfunctional control. In fact, the automated system cannot identify causes of failure of some functions or internal business operations within the company. Instead, the company can identify causes of problems and develop effective solutions due to the work of control officers, who can identify and analyzes causes of problems as well as suggest possible solutions.

Criteria for developing and evaluating control systems

In such a situation, the company has to elaborate effective and adequate criteria for conducting and evaluating control within the company. In this regard, it is worth mentioning the fact that criteria elaborated for T-Mobile may be applied successfully to the new company after the merger of T-Mobile and AT&T, although the criteria may need certain adaptation to meet needs and traditional organizational structure of AT&T as well as possible changes that may be introduced in the course of restructuring of the new company.

In this regard, it is important to dwell upon key criteria the control systems of T-Mobile should meet. First of all, the major criterion of the control system is its effectiveness. What is meant here is the fact that a good control system has the high effectiveness because it provides ample opportunities for the company to control the quality of products and services and to minimize the risk of error that may occur in the production process, or in the course of the delivery of services to customers, or in other internal business operations. In such a way, the company can optimize its performance on the condition that the criterion of the effectiveness of its control system is met. This criterion may be successfully extrapolated on the control system in the new company, if T-Mobile completes the merger with AT&T successfully.

Furthermore, the reliability of the control system is another important criterion which both functional and dysfunctional control systems of the company should meet. In this regard, it should be said that the reliability of the control system means its stable functioning without any substantial failures and consistent changes in short-run perspective. In fact, the reliability of control systems of the company contributes to the overall reliability of the performance of the organization and to the stability of its performance.

Today, it is also extremely important to remember about the protection from intrusion and high security level of control systems. What is meant here is the fact that the development of new technologies increases the risk of information breaches and other problems related to the violation of the security of control systems of organizations. In such a situation, T-Mobile is particularly vulnerable to external intrusions, taking into consideration personal data the company has access to. In fact, the company should protect the private information of its customers and provide customers with the high level of security. In this regard, the control system plays a particularly important role because it is the control system that should ensure the reliability and security of information system of the company and the full protection of data stored or transmitted to or from the company.

At the same time, one of the most important criterion of the control systems of the company is the ability of its control systems to maintain the two-side communication between control officers and managers to introduce changes in internal business operations, if necessary. What is meant here is the fact that, if control systems identify some problems in internal business operations, for instance, they should convey this information to managers responsible for these operations. Managers should involve control officers to the investigation of the problems to define their causes and elaborate possible solutions to increase the effectiveness of internal business processes and their reliability.

In such a context, the evaluation of the control systems of T-Mobile becomes particularly important because the company should understand the extent to which its control systems are effective and reliable. In such a way, the company can define whether it has to introduce some changes or probably all operations run smoothly within the company. However, the evaluation of control systems may raise certain problems because of the large volume of data to be analyzed. In this regard, the automation of the process of evaluation may help consistently.

In fact, the evaluation of control systems should involve the analysis of the productivity and effectiveness of employees’ performance. In this regard, T-Mobile should conduct detailed analysis of its employees’ performance and to compare the change in their performance in the course of time. Thus, the company will be able to identify any progress its employees have made within the set time. If the productivity and effectiveness of employees’ performance have increased, the control systems of the company apparently function well. Or else, if a number of information breaches or failures of control systems is high, then control systems of the company need changes and improvements.

Furthermore, T-Mobile should take into consideration the customer satisfaction, which proves the effectiveness of the control systems of the company because it is the control systems that define, to a significant extent, the high quality of products and services delivered to customers and their satisfaction. In this regard, the customer loyalty may be another way to evaluate the control systems. If the number of loyal customers grows and if customers use services of the company over and over again, than its control systems function effectively. At this point, the analysis of sales rate statistics may be also very helpful because the growth of sales rates proves that the company performs successfully and all systems function effectively.

Essentials of the quality management

At the same time, T-Mobile as well as the new company that may appear after the merger of T-Mobile and AT&T should pay a lot of attention to the quality management. In fact, T-Mobile traditionally pays a lot of attention to the issue of quality of its products and services and the company has developed effective quality management, which maintains the steady and effective performance of the organization and delivery of services of the high quality to consumers. At this point, it is worth mentioning the fact that T-Mobile focuses not only on the quality of services and products delivered to customers but also to the quality of internal business operations and relationships within the company.

Benchmarking

Benchmarking is also very important for T-Mobile, especially in the context of its possible merger with AT&T. Today, AT&T is planning to merge with T-Mobile, the latest in a string of acquisitions that in effect restores Ma Bell to her former girth yet allows the firm to operate in a looser regulatory environment (Lazarus, 2011). In this regard, customers of the company may face a risk of the deterioration of the quality of services being delivered to them by the new company. Federal regulators should waste no time in welcoming her home with new rules that address the shortcomings of our failed experiment in deregulation. And here’s a place to start: a required “unbundling” of telecom products so that consumers can shop around for the best deal in equipment and service, without facing onerous contracts or fees (Lazarus, 2011). In such a way, T-Mobile should avoid the deterioration of the quality of services because the company needs to maintain positive company-customer relationships, whereas the deterioration of the quality of services may put under a threat the position of the new company in the market. In this regard the company should develop an accurate and effective plan of the merger and further marketing development of the company. The benefits of having a plan with a national carrier include better nationwide coverage and fewer roaming areas. Regional carriers have also complained that bigger competitors like AT&T use their size to leverage deals with handset manufacturers for exclusive rights to sell the best phones (Goldman, 2011).

Knowledge management

Furthermore, the company should pay attention to the development of knowledge management to maintain its competitive position in the market. In addition, knowledge management can contribute to the fast and effective business development of the company. If employees of the company are encouraged to generate new knowledge to introduce innovations, the company can benefit from introducing innovations that put T-Mobile or the new, merged company into an advantageous position compared to its rivals.

Conclusion: Anticipated impact on my personal and professional life

Thus, taking into account all above mentioned, it is important to place emphasis on the fact that T-Mobile has proved to be a successful company that considers the possibility of merger with AT&T. At the moment, T-Mobile has reliable and effective control systems and holds a strong position in the market. The study of the current situation in the company helps me to broaden my eyesight in regard to the development of effective control systems by organizations as well as automation of control systems to increase their effectiveness and to save costs. In addition, the quality management is particularly important in the contemporary business environment and T-Mobile’s experience helps me to understand the role of the quality management in the contemporary business environment.