wider management fl

8/4/2019 Wider Management Fl

1/28

Date: 09-April-2011

City of London College

Management in Wider Environment

BTEC APDMS

Level 7

EDEXCEL

Presented To:Mr Coker

Presented By:

Adil Arif

Student ID:

000105081


2/28

Date: 09-April-2011

Table of Contents

Introduction

TASK 1:

1.1.1 Define Globalization and its effect on the national economies and discuss the

influence of international institution such IMF and WTO. Discuss also how the

EU Membership of Britain affects organization.

TASK 2:

2.1 Discuss the needs to adopt and the benefits of adopting polices of environmental

awareness and maintaining the environment using your organization as an

example. What specific measures are available to improve the health & safety ofthe workforce?

TASK 3:

3.1 Examine the responsibilities of the organization and regulatory forces affecting

the organization at national, EU and Global levels. Discuss the issues of managingdiversity and compare the policies of adopting diversity in your organization with

another?

TASK 4:

References


3/28

Date: 09-April-2011


4/28

Date: 09-April-2011

Introduction:

Virgin Media:

Virgin Media, Inc. is one of the largest British company serving television, telephone andbroadband internet services to millions of domestic and business customers in UK, that

are delivered primarily through its fibre-optic cable network. The company boasts up of

more than 30,000 employees, the majority of them are located at the operating centers inUK. The company was formerly known as ntl: Telewest following the merger of NTL

Incorporated with Telewest Global, inc. A further merger with Virgin Mobiles UK arm

in 2006 brought the first quadruple-play Media Company in the United Kingdomproviding television, internet, mobile and fixed-line telephone services all together.

Being a major cable company in the United Kingdom, it competes primarily with the

other top notch pay-TV operator, statellite-based British Sky Broadcasting companieswhich currently have more channels than any other provider in the UK and with

Freeview, the free-to-air terrestrial service. Virgin Media only operates in the United

Kingdom, with headquarters in Hook, Hampshire and its financial base is located inBradford.

Virgin Media, Inc. deals in four major operations such as TV, Broadband, Mobile and

telephone.

1) Virgin Media Broadband

Virgin Media TV

Virgin Media Mobile

Virgin Media Phone

Task 1:


5/28

Date: 09-April-2011

Define Globalization and its effect on the national economies and discuss theinfluence of international institution such IMF and WTO. Discuss also how the

EU Membership of Britain affects organization.

1) Identify the effects of Globalization on national economics.

Globalization:

Globalization is a widely-used term that can be defined in a number of different ways.

When used in an economic context, it refers to the reduction and removal of barriersbetween national borders in order to facilitate the flow of goods, capital, services and

labor. Al though considerable barriers remain to the flow of labor. According to IMF,globalization is the process through which an increasingly free flow of ideas, people,goods and services leads to the integration of economies and societies. Globalization is

not a new phenomenon. It began in the late nineteenth century, but it slowed down during

the period from the start of the First World War until the third quarter of the twentieth

century.

Conceptual Globalization:

Knowledge of globalization is substantially a function of how the concept is defined.

After tracing the history of global vocabulary, this paper suggests several principles that

should inform the way globality (the condition) and globalization (the trend) are defined.On this basis four common conceptions of the term are rejected in favour of a fifth that

identifies globalization as the spread of transplanetary, and in recent times more

particularly supraterritorial, connections between people. Half a dozen qualifications areincorporated into this definition to distinguish it from globalist exaggerations.

The Rise of Globe-Talk

Although the term globalization was not coined until the second half of the twentieth

century, it has a longer pedigree. In the English language, the noun globe began to

denote the planet several hundred years ago, once it was determined that the earth was

round.The adjective global began to designate world scale in the late nineteenthcentury, in addition to its earlier meaning of spherical.The verb globalize appeared in

the 1940s, together with the word globalism.Globalization first entered a dictionary(of American English) in 1961.Notions of globality, as a condition, have begun to

circulate more recently. The vocabulary of globalization has also spread in other

languages over the past several decades. The many examples include lil alam in Arabic,quanqiuhua in Chinese, mondialisation in French,globalizatsia in Russian andglobalizacin in Spanish. Among the major world languages, only Swahili has not (yet)

acquired a globalization concept, and that exception is perhaps largely explained by the

widespread use of English in elite circles of the African countries concerned. In minorlanguages, too, we now findglobalisaatio in Finnish, bishwavyapikaran in Nepalese,

luan bootin Timorese, and so on.


6/28

Date: 09-April-2011

Levels of Globalization:

There are four levels of Globalization.

1) Multi-domestic Company

2) International Company3) Transnational Company

4) Truly Global Company

Globalization refers to the increasing degree of connection between various countries and

their economies. One more light to the Globalization is that it involves the efforts of

businesses to expand their operations into foreign markets. This introduction has gainedimportance with the advent of internet, which gives all companies the potential to achieve

global reach in their operations. As per the quote businesses generally operate at one of

the four basic levels of globalization. The very first level is a multidomestic company.At this level, the business consists of several independent units that operate in different

countries with little communication between them. The second level is that an

international company, maintains headquarter in one country and operates branch in othercountries. At this level the company is likely to impose its home country in other markets

rather than making a true effort to integrate into the global economy.

The third level of globalization, a transnational company, consists of loosely integrated

business units in several countries. At this level, the company makes a greater effort toaddress the local needs of operations in each country. The fourth level of globalization is

a truly global company. This type of business views the world as a single market,

develops an overall strategy for its various operations around the works, and applies thelessons of each country to ensure its global success.

Globalization Levels in Virgin Media:

Virgin Media has been performing their major steps on the basis of the above discussed

four levels for the globalization of company.

Here is an example of how Globalization levels are being performed in VirginMedia:

Originally, Virgin Media is a British company but their major operations are being

performed all over the Europe and not only in UK. For an instance, their main services

like Wireless Broadband Connections are being provided to customers in UK only buttheir connectivity services and all the other back end work is being done all over the

Europe. Their Call Center agents for online Support are also working from outside

Europe in the countries like India and so on for every product of theirs.

Globalization and its impact on National Economies:


7/28

Date: 09-April-2011Globalisation is the new buzzword that has come to dominate the world since the nineties

of the last century with the end of the cold war and the break-up of the former SovietUnion and the global trend towards the rolling ball. The frontiers of the state with

increased reliance on the market economy and renewed faith in the private capital andresources, a process of structural adjustment spurred by the studies and influences of the

World Bank and other International organisations have started in many of the developing

countries. Also Globalisation has brought in new opportunities to developing countries.Greater access to developed country markets and technology transfer hold out promise

improved productivity and higher living standard. But globalisation has also thrown up

new challenges like growing inequality across and within nations, volatility in financialmarket and environmental deteriorations. Another negative aspect of globalisation is that

a great majority of developing countries remain removed from the process. Till the

nineties the process of globalisation of the European economy was constrained by thesome of the barriers to trade and investment liberalisation of trade, investment and

financial flows initiated in the nineties has progressively lowered the barriers to

competition and hastened the pace of globalisation

Globalisation and Poverty:

Globalisation in the form of increased integration though trade and investment is animportant reason why much progress has been made in reducing poverty and global

inequality over recent decades. But it is not the only reason for this often unrecognised

progress, good national polices, sound institutions and domestic political stability also

does matter.

Despite this progress, poverty remains one of the most serious international challenges

we face up to 1.2 billion of the developing world 4.8 billion people still live in extremepoverty.

But the proportion of the world population living in poverty has been steadily decliningand since 1980 the absolute number of poor people has stopped rising and appears to

have fallen in recent years despite strong population growth in poor countries. If the

proportion living in poverty had not fallen since 1987 alone a further 215million peoplewould be living in extreme poverty today.

The areas like technological entrepreneurship, new business openings for small andmedium enterprises, importance of quality management, new prospects and privatisation

of financial institutions plays important part for the development of good national

economy.

Understanding the current status of globalisation is necessary for setting course for

future. For all nations to reap the full benefits of globalisation it is essential to create a

level playing field. President Bush's proposal to eliminate all tariffs on all manufacturedgoods by 2015 will do it. In fact it may exacerbate the prevalent inequalities. According

to this proposal, tariffs of 5% or less on all manufactured goods will be eliminated by

2005 and higher than 5% will be lowered to 8%. Starting 2010 the 8% tariffs will belowered each year until they are eliminated by 2015.


8/28

Date: 09-April-2011

Globalization has had significant impacts on all economies of the world:

1) It effects investment both in physical and human capital. The growth of foreigndirect investment (FDI) at a prodigious rate, one that is much greater than the

growth in the world trade. Such investment plays a key role in technology

transfer, in industrial restructuring, and in the formation of global enterprises, all

of which have major impacts at eh national level. Foreign direct investmentincreased from 6.5 percent to 31.8 percent in 2006.

2) It does affect the production of goods and services. The growth of trade in

services, including communication services have become mainstay ofinternational commerce. The value of trade as a percentage of world cup

increased 42.1 percent to 62.1 percent.3) It affects technology and results in the diffusion of technology from initiative

nations to other nations. New Mobile technologies and internet technologies have

already been noted that.

4) It has major effects on efficiency, productivity, and competitiveness. The growthin global market has helped to promote efficiency through competition and the

division of labor.

5) It also affects the employment of labor and technical professional and any other

inputs into the production process. The number of foreign workers has increasedfrom 78% to 191 million people.

6) On a positive note, it helps generate more revenue since European residents are

more than keen to get user friendly packages and work.

2) Discuss the influence of International Institutions:

Role of IMF:

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) is an international organization responsible formanaging the global financial system and for providing loans to its member states to help

alleviate balance of payments problems. Part of its mission is to help countries that

experience serious economic difficulties. In return, the countries who are helped areobliged to launch certain reforms also known as Washington Consensus such as

privatizations of Government enterprises.

IMF is an organization of 184 countries, working to foster global monetary cooperation,

secure financial stability, facilitate international trade, promote high employment andsustainable economic growth, and reduce poverty.

The IMFs purpose is to work for financial stability. In simple terms, this means ensuring

that the various macroeconomic variables in a country - the exchange rate, inflation, the

budget deficit, for instance, are dealt with in such a way that the economy can runsmoothly and efficiently. A stable economy allows people to think in a long-term way

when they invest and consume. Without stability, it is not possible to create sustainable

growth.


9/28

Date: 09-April-2011

Role of WTO:

In the late 1990s, much of the controversy over globalization focused on the World Trade

Organization (WTO). The WTO was established in 1995 to facilitate world trade and

resolve disputes between nations. Headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland, the WTO had134 member nations in 1999, three-quarters of which were developing nations.

According to Simon J. Evenett in an article forFinance and Development, the WTO

"serves the developing countries' interests by facilitating trade reform, providing amechanism for settling disputes, strengthening the credibility of trade reforms, and

promoting transparent trade regimes that lower transaction costs."

Shortly after it was established, the WTO became a lightning rod for controversy over

globalization. "Seen through one lens, the World Trade Organization is a benevolentUnited Nations of trade, with just enough enforcement powers to help nations work out

their differences," Steve Wilhelm wrote in thePugetSound Business Journal. "Seen

through another lens, the WTO is a menacing, corporate-dominated world government of

trade in which the legislative body and the courts operate outside the scrutiny of anyonewho's not a government leader or corporate lawyer. From this viewpoint, the

organization's power to adjudicate trade disputes also gives it the power to

override national laws, including environmental protections. In a sense, it compromisesthe sovereignty of its member nations."

The two main issues embraced by anti-WTO activists are the rights of laborers and

protection of the environment. "As production and consumption grow around the world,many impacts fall on the people who supply labor to produce things, and the environmentthat supplies the raw materials and absorbs the effluent," Wilhelm noted. Those who

oppose the WTO worry that global free trade will threaten hard-fought labor and

environmental victories in the United States and other developed nations. For example,activists protested thatunder WTO rulesthe United States could not prevent the

import of shrimp caught in nets that also caught an endangered species of sea turtle.

Protesters were also concerned about the loss of American jobs overseas and the poor

social and environmental records of multinational corporations operating in developingcountries. "The heady, unrealistic days of globalization appear to be over,"Business

Weeknoted. "Where once it was promised that the simple spread of markets would meltpoverty, dissolve dictatorships, and integrate diverse cultures, today the mere mention ofglobalization generates anger, discord, and accusations."

3) Role and Responsibilities of EU membership on the work place?

The European Union market is very important to Virgin Media as it is the worlds secondlargest market, consisting of 375 million consumers. More consumers means increased

profits which can be used to further float the services and products and keep edge over

competition.

Characteristics of the EU


10/28

Date: 09-April-2011

Customs Union

Common Market

Economies of Scale:

This is a reduction in long run unit costs which arise from an increase in production.

Economies of scale occur when larger firms are able to lower their unit costs. This

may happen for a variety of reasons.

Internal Economies of Scale:

Internal Economies of Scale is how efficient a firm is at producing. Internal economies ofscale relates to the change in average production cost for a firm as it increases its total

output. As output increases, the average cost per unit will fall until the firm reaches its

minimum efficient scale, where the firm has maximized its efficiency in production and

any additional unit will cause the average cost to rise. In such, a firm in a competitivemarket will hypothetically produce at its Minimum Efficient Scale (MES); a point where

its long run average total cost is the lowest.

External Economies of Scale:

The lowering of a firm's costs due to external factors. External economies of scalewill increase the productivity of an entire industry, geographical area or economy. The

external factors are outside the control of a particular company, and encompass positive

externalities that reduce the firm's costs.

Internal Diseconomies of Scale:

These are the things that occurs only when the firm has grown too large and notperforming efficiently. As the firm increases the production, average cost gets

raised as well.

It happens, when disadvantage of the division of labor takes place.

External Diseconomies of Scale:

These things occur when too many firms / competition have been located in an

area. Unit cost increases up to some extent.

Labor wages are not up to the mark as well. They can lead to a new job if they arenot getting extra money while working at night.

How does Virgin Media benefit from Economies of Scale?

Virgin Media benefits from trading in Europe in the below given ways:

1) Internal Benefits:


11/28

Date: 09-April-2011

2) External Benefits:

The Four Freedoms

The European Single Market means the establishment of the four basic freedoms:

The free movement of goods

The free movement of persons

The free movement of capital

The free movement of services

Business Life Cycle of Virgin Media

The business cycle consists of four parts:

Boom

Recession

Slump Recovery

Boom:

A big boast occurs when national output is rising strongly at a rate faster than the trend

rate of growth (or long-term growth rate) of about 2.5% per year. In boom conditions,output and employment are both expanding and the level of aggregate demand for goods

and services is very high. Typically, Virgin Media would use this opportunity of a boom

to raise their output and also widen their profit margins.

Recession:

A slowdown occurs when the rate of growth decelerates - but national output is still

rising. If the economy continues to grow (although at a slower rate) without falling into

outright recession, this is known as a soft-landing.

Slump:

A slump means a fall in the level of real national output (i.e. a period when the rate ofeconomic growth is negative). National output declines leading to a contraction in

employment, incomes and profits. At this point, Vodafone played sensibly by Virgin

Media to cut back on production and services. It will layoff employees and invest less.


12/28

Date: 09-April-2011The last slump in Britain lasted from the summer of 1990 through to the autumn of 1992.

When real GDP reaches a low point at the end of the recession, the economy has reachedthe trough - economic recovery is approaching.

Recovery:

The last slump in the UK ended in the autumn of 1992. A much lower exchange ratefollowing sterling's departure from the exchange rate mechanism, plus a sharp fall in

interest rates provided a big stimulus to demand. National output grew by more than 3%

in 1993 and over 4% in 1994 - a forceful rebound from the effects of the 1990-92 slumps.

Recovery

Boom/Peak

GDP

Slump

Recession

Time

How Competitive is the Market?

In order to establish how competitive the market is for Virgin Media, it is crucial to

distinguish the kind of market Virgin Media would be in. This can be done by taking alook at the market of foreign countries.

Characteristics of Price-Makers:

There is only one firm which supplies the products to the entire market, buyersand consumers. The firm sells a unique product, which has no close substitutes.

The firm has market power (Price is Controllable)

There are quite few barriers to enter a market:

High cost to enter a market that can support only one business, e.g. the supply ofwater and electricity etc.

A monopoly may be created by the state making it legal. A well-known and

popular trademark could ensure consumer loyalty, e.g. Pepsi.


13/28

Date: 09-April-2011

What market does Virgin Media operate in?

Looking at the Spectrum of Market Structures, it would be right to assume that Virgin

Media operates in an Oligopoly market. Although Virgin Media have many small

competitors in each country, but there main competitors are:

Orange

Vodafone

T-mobile

How do Virgin Media respond to such competition?

It is a common knowledge that communication is the most competitive business in terms

of facilities to the customers through their products. With such competitive companies it

is quite difficult to keep yourself ahead, but Virgin media has been doing this by makingconstant improvements in the system and packages. One of Virgin Medias key strategies

is to advertise heavily on Internet using different online marketing techniques. Not only

do they advertise on television and newspapers, but they also have an active, high-profilesponsorship program, supporting large and small organizations throughout the world.

Below are some of the highly successful sponsorship deals made by Three Monil.

Manchester United

English Cricket Local sponsorship

What has been the impact of EU treaties upon UK businesses and Vodafone?

The single European Act:

The single European Act was adopted by 12 member states including:

Belgium

Spain

Italy United Kingdom

Germany

France

Luxembourg

Netherlands

Denmark

Ireland

Greece

Benefits of UK from EU membership:


14/28

Date: 09-April-2011The EU budget for 2001 showed that the UK benefited from EU membership by 750m.

The accounts showed that the previous year the UK contributed 2.9bn to EU coffers andreceived 3.6bn in various subsidies, notably payments for farming and fishing and in the

form of structural funds.

British consumers have also benefited from EU membership. They benefit from cheaper

prices, higher quality and more choice. There is, for example, easier access to lowerpriced cards and white goods across the EU.

By joining a market of over 350 million people the UK has become part of the largest

single market in the world.

Comparative Advantage:

Since Virgin Media is not a tangible product, it can provide its service from anywhere.Therefore it would be right to assume that the theory of comparative advantage would not

be relevant to Virgin Media as it does not require any specific raw materials.

Effects of EU Membership on Virgin Media:

Its obvious that UK has benefited from EU membership; one would argue that it also hasits disadvantages. Here are some of the main effects / disadvantages:

The Social Policy under the Amsterdam treaty of 1998 forces employers to abideby a series of social measurements some of which include: Vocational training for

employees, Health protection and safety in the work place etc. Although this is an

advantage for employees it can be seen as a disadvantage for employers as itincreases costs which may cause them to make reductions elsewhere.

Increased competition in the UK market from other EU businesses.

UK increasingly has to take environmental measures that conform to European

requirements. These are not always popular with businesses since they are seen to

increase operating costs.

Uncontrollable imports

Environmental dumping

Economic Effect

Political Effect

Technological Effect


15/28

Date: 09-April-2011

Economic and Monetary Union:

Economic and Monetary Union is the long-term project for the unification of Europe

which began with the Maastricht Treaty of 1992. A major milestone in that is the creation

of the "euro", the new single currency for Europe.

The Impact of European Social Chapter Policy:

The EU has developed several policies that create an environment in which the free

market can operate.

The Social Chapter which is also a part of this treaty gives certain rights to employees

which have an impact on Virgin Media that includes:

Equality of men and women Virgin Media is giving equal rights to men andwomen. Virgin Media is developing opportunities for equality for both men and

women in access to employment, remuneration, working conditions, social

protection, education, vocation training and career development. Measures shouldalso be developed enabling men and women to reconcile their occupational and

family obligations.

Strong Business relationship between different countries.

Proper wages for employment.

Improvement of living and working conditions The completion of the internal

market must lead to an improvement in the living and working conditions ofworkers in the European Union. This process must result from an approximation

of these conditions while the improvement is being maintained, as regards in

particular the duration and organization of working time and forms of

employment other than open-ended contracts, such as fixed-term contracts, part-time working, temporary work and seasonal work.

Employment policy.

Life policy including Labor standards, the modernisation of work and thedevelopment of social dialogue.

Social Protection.

Social Inclusion.

Equal opportunities and anti-discrimination.

Freedom of movement.

Employment and remuneration.

Freedom of association and collective bargaining.

Vocational training.

Information, consultation and participation of workers.

Health protection and safety at the workplace.

Protection of children and adolescents.

Elderly persons.

Disabled person.

EU Directives / Policies:


16/28

Date: 09-April-2011

For the improvement of UK employment rights EU have practiced some majordirectives that are give below:

Equality in the payment

Protection of data

Transfer of Undertaking

Discrimination

Health and Safety

Protection of Pregnant Womens

Protection of young workers

Information and Consultation for both National and European Redundancies

Protection of Atypical workers

Impact of the Social Policy on Virgin Media:

Negative Impact:

Virgin Media like other businesses are forced by law to give employees certain

rights which cost them extra money.

Positive Impacts:

Although training employees will incur great costs upon Virgin Media, on the

positive side it will ensure employees know how to use the system. If the

employee is not trained to use the equipment, and incorrect transactions aremade, this will still cost Virgin Media some money. Therefore providing training

can be seen as beneficial for Virgin Media.

Health and the safety is less expensive than other elements of this policy. If heathand safety rules are carried out appropriately this could save the lives of their

employees else it could lead workers to spend extra time to recover.

Workplace Issues:

The EU policy relating to the workplace is contained in the series of documents translated

into the Social Chapter of the Maastricht treaty. These rights include:

Fair remuneration for employment

Freedom of movement

Improvement in living and working conditions

Social protection

Freedom of association

Vocational training Equal treatment


17/28

Date: 09-April-2011

For treatment for the disabled

Appropriate protection in the workplace

Information, consultation and participation of the workforce

Impact of Workplace issues on Virgin Media:

Negative impact:

The implementation of these rights could involve extra cost to Virgin Media.

Positive impacts:

The implementation of these rights could improve Virgin Medias

competitiveness as their workforce becomes more skilled through training.

Workers become motivated through fair treatment and involvement at work.

TASK 2:

Discuss needs to adopt and benefits of adopting policies of environmentalawareness and maintaining the environment using your organization as an


18/28

Date: 09-April-2011example. What specific measures are available to improve health and safety of

the work force?

Climate Change:

Climate change emerged as an issue to virgin media. The growing evidence led to the

establishment of potential damaging impacts leading to the establishment of the UnFramework Convention for climate change and the Kyoto protocol.

Environmental Management Taking Action

Virgin Media is committed to understanding the impact of its business on the

environment. Taking steps to reduce this impact is high on our agenda.

We're committed to continually develop the way we work, ensuring that we not only

comply with the legal or mandatory requirements, but strive to exceed these. Developing

initiatives to further reduce the impact of our business on the environment and thecommunity is hugely important to us.

Our environmental considerations will encompass everything from the design of ourproducts through to their delivery, use and finally disposal.

We are committed to:

The prevention of pollution from our activities

Follow guidelines recognised as good industry environmental practices in order tominimise our impact on air, land, water and biodiversity

Reduce waste generation and maximise recycling

Promote the use of supplies that are recycled and recyclable wherever possible,

and whose production and use minimises the consumption of natural resources

Procurement of sustainable goods and services taking into account environmental,

social and financial considerations in our supply chain process where practicable

Engage with the local community in a positive and sustainable manner

Impact of Cultural Differences

Culture is about the way people behave as a result of their background and group

association. It has an impact not only on the types of good services that people buy, but

also on the way they do business with partners and suppliers and the way they respond tovarious management techniques.

Employment Law

Unlike the flat rate given by the UK benefit system, many other EU member

states pay social security benefits in relation to previous salary. The majority of EU member states have minimum wage.


19/28

Date: 09-April-2011

Many classify workers, commonly as blue or white collar workers. This can oftenmake a difference to working conditions, generally to the benefit of white collar

workers.

The Importance Of Culture:

As a prospective employee in another EU country, it is essential to deal the culturaldifferences and similarities in the following circumstances:

Applying for a job

Assessing promotion prospects

Day-to-day work

As a Business:

Arranging business meetings

Planning advertisement and promotion

Deciding on best distribution methods

Deciding whether to change a products name

The product itself may need to be adjusted

Deciding whether to emphasis the country of origin

When setting up a foreign production facility and employing local people

Cultural differences between Countries:

The way people carry out business with partners and suppliers often depends on thenational culture. Hofstede did some analysis of countries (excluding Luxembourg) based

on levels of individualism and masculinity.

Cultural Regions:

Some countries are more similar than others, and within countries there can exists wide

cultural differences. This is especially true of the larger European countries.

Language:

Language is one of the defining characteristics of a nation and is a key element in the

cultural mix. Both spoken and unspoken means of communication provides a medium

through which people can communicate with one another, and social norms can betransmitted and maintained.

Religion:

Understanding the dominant religion of a particular country can provide business

managers with a better insight into peoples behaviour and cultural attitudes.


20/28

Date: 09-April-2011

How should Virgin Media adapt to different markets?

Virgin Media need to develop certain strategies in order to succeed in one of the worlds

largest markets, the EU. Virgin Media can do this by creating different marketingstrategies for the 5 clusters of EU countries. Virgin Media Virgin media can and has

adapted its service to meet the needs of customers in the different EU countries in the

following ways:

Operators

Service name

Trade Unions

Placing more emphasis on meeting customer and employee needs

Aggressive competition

Marketing and promotion of the service

Discipline

What common features need to be kept?

Virgin Media provides a communication service, and no matter where you go in the

world, such services will always be needed. Although certain changes need to be made toadapt to the different cultures, the basic feature of providing a communication service

will remain. Certain tariffs, such as Pay as you Go should be kept as they are popular

worldwide. As well as this, Virgin media need to ensure it remains efficient, competitive,and maintains its market leader position.

Health and Safety Improvement at Virgin Media:

At virgin Media, health and safety of each and every employee is top most priority. One

can only work properly if he /she are healthy and safe.

Here are some of the Health and Safety Policies of Virgin Media for Employees:

1) All employees will be provided information and training. Performance will be

monitored on regular basis.2) Treat employees fairly, respecting their individual and collective rights

3) Promote equality of opportunity and encourage diversity in our workforce.4) To achieve highest possible degree of your targets

5) Support the rights of child and will employ anyone under the age of 16 years.

6) Dignity and Honesty at Work.

7) Regular Medical Check Ups8) Disciplined and well equipped with each and every instance of being an employer

with high standard company.

9) Must be presented with good allowances on regular basis.10) Technical training courses must be provided to avoid any problem from technical

aspects11) Should be equipped with latest technology to deal with customers.


21/28

Date: 09-April-2011

TASK 3:

Examine the responsibilities of the organization and regulatory forces affectingthe organization at national, EU, and Global level. Discuss the issues of managing


22/28

Date: 09-April-2011diversity and compare the policies of adopting diversity in your organization with

another.

1) Analyze the responsibilities of organizations to improving workforce welfare.

Employers have a major economic and social impact on society being a worker. They arespending most of their life while working in their respective fields which effects their life

and health and cannot spend any time with family.

Responsibilities of the Organization:

Research studies have repeatedly shown that persistent illness, under performance andstress often has their origins in poor lifestyles, particularly unsuitable diets or lack of

exercise. No company and organisation that depends on the skills, abilities and alertness

of its staff can afford to put its business at risk by ignoring such issues. Therefore, its

important for every organisation to ensure health and safety as these are theresponsibilities of organisation to have their employees working properly. There are

certain plans for every individual employee to identify and overcome health or lifestyle

issues that may be holding back their performance.

Introducing the Workplace Welfare programme to your organisation represents asound long-term investment in your workforce. It produces tangible, quantifiable

results:The Workplace Welfare programme will be to:

Help your organisation falling into place with the legislative obligations,government initiatives and IPD recommendations regarding stress in the

workplace.

Reduce organisational costs associated with sickness and absenteeism of the

employees.

Provide an opportunity for employees for an affordable route to compliance.

As tax deductible expenditure, the programme is within the reach of all SMEs aswell as larger organisations.

Promote a strong Brand image for your organisation and benefit its internalculture by encouraging staff retention and facilitating recruitment.

Enable you to embrace best practice people management skills.

Provide you with a perfect Win-Win situation a service equally valuable to

both employer and employee.

Motivate your employees for best of health, morale and overall well being.


23/28

Date: 09-April-2011

Provide long-term health benefits for employees.

Improve your employees ability to concentrate, percept, focus and actionmore effectively, resulting in reduced stress levels.

Promote a happier, more energetic and vibrant workforce.

Help identify cause and effect of stress through a combination of integrated

technology, professional advice and practical solutions.

Demonstrate that responsibility for health and stress management should

be shared by both employer and employee.

2) Review approaches to the management of diversity:

Managing Diversity:

Diversity is kind of traditional buzz word that is doing the rounds in the training

profession. More often than not, these words are incompletely understood, with the effect

that organizations usually launch into related training programmes with little or no

understanding of why they are doing it, or how they can expect to benefit from it.

Diversity Training and its Scope:

With an increasingly diverse workforce, organizations are finding that a one style fits

all approach to people management is no longer effective. To get the best results, and to

attract the best people, organizations are under pressure to adopt more flexiblemanagement approaches which will:

Respect and respond to the diverse requirements and needs of different

individuals.

Best individuals to make full use of the diverse talents and experiences whichthey bring with them to the workplace.

The purpose of diversity training is to address this need, by helping managers and their

staff to create positive environments which support all people, which value theirdifferences and which enable them to contribute to their fullest potential. A

comprehensive diversity program will aim to:

Raise awareness and understanding of the legal, ethical and strategic reasons for

supporting workplace diversity.

Encourage individuals like managers and staff to value diversity in your

organization and its management.


24/28

Date: 09-April-2011

Make sure that commitment and support from top management for flexible

practices and approaches to working which respond to the various needs ofdifferent working individuals.

Redesigning Employment Policies, Systems and Practices:

Being part of Diversity training, it may be necessary to update and change existing way

of doing stuff. Elements which may need review include:

Recruitment

systems and

practices

Are these designed to:

Encourage applicants from all social groupings?

Minimise the risk of bias in the selection process?

Performance

management

systems

Are these flexible enough to:

Take account of different working patterns?

Allow individuals to use their unique talents to full effect?

Reward good performance in ways which are meaningful to

each individual?

Training plans andmethods

Are opportunities for training made widely accessible and availableto all, through using a mix of training methods and media?

Employment

practices

Include job sharing, part time working, flexitime and other flexible

practices, so individuals can manage their family and other

commitments alongside their work responsibilities?

Needless to say, reviews in these areas need to be carried out as part of the preparationfor more extensive workshop inputs, as any recommendations and/or changes here will

clearly have an impact on workshop content.

Value Diversity:

There is strong research evidence on the internet to support the view that groups which

have a diverse mix of experiences, skills, knowledge and working approaches aregenerally more creative and productive than groups with a more uniform profile.

Diversity is therefore a valuable organizational asset, and needs to be perceived as such.

Individuals are encouraged in workshop inputs to test the validity of this assertion by

comparing and discussing:

The experiences, skills, knowledge and approaches which they themselves bring

to bear in their work with colleagues

The contribution which their colleagues make to their work, in introducingdifferent perspectives and ideas


25/28

Date: 09-April-2011

Ways in which their own personal attributes, and those of their colleagues,

complement one another and work together in delivering the results required.

Training for Managers on how to Manage a Diverse Workforce:

A key issue which may need to be raised in management training is the role of Managers,

in leaving the impact of management on the staff. To encourage and support workplacediversity, managers need to walk and talk, i.e., to demonstrate, through their own style

of management, that they value and respond to the differences in their people.

Our experiences have shown us that key concepts which may need to discuss in this

context include:

Identify of what each individual needs from their manager.

Reviewing personal management styles and the messages which these might sent

out about management attitudes to diversity.

Identifying specific actions which may need to take to reinforce managements

visible commitment to encouraging diversity in the workplace.

In addition, managers may need to improve their ability to recognise differences in

peoples working styles, and to respond to these accordingly with appropriately matchedmanagement styles. Different individuals respond more or less positively to different

approaches from their managers. Managers need to understand this, so they are able to

gauge the approach which will work best for each individual.

3) Compare organizational approaches to ensuring positive policies of

workforce diversity.

The Diversity Continuum and Planned Change Approach:

Managing Diversity as Distinct Phenomenal:

Over the last few decades, a myriad of articles have been written on the subjects of

valuing diversity and managing diversity. In some cases, valuing diversity and managingdiversity have been considered, and sometimes used, alternatively when, in fact, they aretwo different phenomena. By the very nature of their definitions, valuing and managing

diversity are distinctly different. Valuing refers to the relative worth, importance, or

significance of something, whereas managing refers to taking charge or coordinating andsupervising situations. Given these definitions, valuing diversity should be considered a

more passive phenomenon, where importance or significance is given to individuals'

differences, which does not automatically lead to visible actions or reactions on the partof the individuals valuing the diversity or differences. Managing diversity, on the other

hand, should be considered an active phenomenon, which involves supervising or

coordinating and directing the diversity or differences individuals bring to the

organization to ensure the organization's strategic goals are being fully and effectivelymet. In other words, it refers to successfully organizing the organizational inputs of


26/28

Date: 09-April-2011individuals with diverse backgrounds. This definition is consistent with the managing

diversity definition given by "a `way of thinking' toward the objective of creating anenvironment that will enable all employees to reach their full potential in pursuit of

organizational objectives".

The Diversity Continuum:

Between the lines of valuing diversity and managing diversity, it is not difficult to

understand why consensus does not exist on the claims of bottom line benefits as a result

of the attempts organizations have made to value and/or manage diversity. In addition tothe confusion, lack of consensus could also be a function of the complexity of the

diversity concept in the organizational context. Given the complexity of diversity within

an organizational setting, it is possible that perceiving it in terms of a set of threeelements that delineates what to do with diversity may serve to simplify or clarify the

confusion in the diversity literature. Therefore, a diversity continuum is offered to guide

researchers and practitioners in moving from the more passive states of acknowledging

diversity and valuing diversity, on through to the more active state of managing diversity.

The three sequential components of the diversity continuum are: acknowledging

diversity; valuing diversity; and managing diversity. Acknowledging diversity, the firstcomponent, refers to recognizing the existence of diversity or the individual differences

individuals bring with them to a particular setting. In order for individuals to truly

acknowledge diversity, they must be exposed to it, experience it, acquire knowledge

about it, and they must develop an understanding of diversity.

The Planned Change Approach:

Rather than being reactive and waiting for a "diversity crisis" to take place before

a change is made (i.e. Virgin Media), an organization should be proactive in systemically

Managing Diversity. Hence, an organization and its members should make the necessarychanges to proactively move from just settling for the first stage of acknowledging

diversity to the final stage of managing diversity.

The Lewin-Schein change model is offered as the theoretical framework to

proactively and systemically facilitate the management of diversity in organizations. Thisplanned change model is based on the premise that the organizational forces propellingchange must subdue the forces resisting change for highly effective change to occur.

Therefore, it is posited in this paper that the Lewin-Schein change model is a framework

that can assist organizations and individuals in moving through the sequential elements ofthe diversity continuum. It is also posited that this model can be applicable at both the

organizational and individual level for managing diversity. While offered the Lewin-

Schein change model as a framework for creating diversity, the model is offered in this

paper as a framework for Managing Diversity. The Lewin-Schein change model involvesthree stages: unfreezing, change (moving), and refreezing (For the organization or

individual to experience successful change, the three stages need to be addressed in

succession.


27/28

Date: 09-April-2011

References:

Title Author Publisher


28/28

Date: 09-April-2011

European Business Harris Mr. Macmillan

International Business Dawes Mr. S Thornes

The European Mosaic Gowland Mr. Pearson

1) www.bized.ac.uk

2) www.ft.com

3) www.europa.com

4) www.tradepartners.gov.uk

5) ec.europa.eu/employment_socia

6) Wikipedia

7) Virgin Media (http://www.virginmedia.com)
http://www.ft.com/http://www.europa.com/http://www.tradepartners.gov.uk/http://www.ft.com/http://www.europa.com/http://www.tradepartners.gov.uk/

wider management fl

Documents