Sbc And Pacific Bell example essay topic

Organizational Analysis Pacific Bell Pacific Bell as it is now, is a subsidiary of Southwestern Bell Corporation (SBC). The history of the company dates back almost 125 years to the actual invention of the first telephone by Alexander Graham Bell on March 10, 1876. Bell Telephone Company was the first formal phone company and it developed rapidly throughout the United States. In 1878 they re-organized and started the beginnings of what we now know as regional phone companies by creating New England Telephone. Then within 2 years the company incorporated as National Bell Telephone only to change its name to American Bell the following year 1880.

It would be only five years later that the first long distance company was started. (Farley) AT & T American Telephone & Telegraph was created in 1885. American Bell was able to buy out the competition Western Electric Telephone (a company owned by Western Union) and eliminate its only real competition to capitalize and strengthen their market place. Only AT&T provided long distance to American Telephone and only American Telephone users were able to connect to the AT&T network. The system was complete and a true monopoly was created and it wouldn't be broken for over 100 years. (Brooks) Over the course of the next twenty the years the company would criss-cross the country and secure a firm place in the industry.

The industry was ever changing but change was at relatively slow pace compared to technology today. The real breakthrough happened in the late 1940's with the unveiling of the Bell Laboratories transistor. No one knew how much that would change the face of technology and the world, as they knew it. (Farley) Bell American (Bell) had already begun to branch out and by now they had a local phone company in every region of the United States (US) and many other companies tied to them. Bell provided 90% of all local and long distance service in the US.

Growing technology meant overseas calls and you bet AT&T was on the cutting edge and the first and only carrier for several years to provide intercontinental long distance. (Brooks) Bell Laboratories was on a mission to develop the transistor, and in the mid 50's launched Essex Research. Essex was entirely devoted to developing a computer switching system. In 1956 they succeeded and by the early 60's had launched Private Exchange Network (PBX). A PBX would allow the customer to manually control his own calls. In essence giving large businesses there own central phone office, and thus revolutionizing the business communications industry.

They could now pass calls around the office to and from each other. Bell was on the cutting edge and ready to expand its market. It was at this time the government applied pressure on the company to not develop into other industries and in return they wouldn't push to break up the monopoly. Bell agreed to use their now vast computer expertise in the phone industry only, in order keep away from the anti-monopoly spotlight for a few more years. (Farley) The next 20 years included much business and data advancement but people saw little change in their home phones. Then as the eighties rolled in everything started to change.

After seven years of law suits AT&T and Bell Systems were ordered to split apart. On August 24, 1982 Bell systems divested itself. (Brooks) Judge Harold Greene issued the Modified Final Judgment (MFJ). In MFJ " [... ] AT&T kept their long distance service, Western Electric, Bell Labs, the newly formed AT&T Technologies and AT&T Consumer Products" (Farley) AT&T got their most profitable companies and spun off the Regional Bell Operating Companies (Rboc).

The complete divestiture of Bell and its companies took place on January 1, 1984. (Farley) Seven RBOC's were created from divestiture; Ameritech, Bell Atlantic, Bell South, NY NEX, Southwestern Bell, US West and Pacific Telesis. They are now known as the baby Bells. By the order of Judge Greene the RBOC's couldn't provide long distance service and AT&T couldn't provide local service. (SBC) Pacific Telesis carried on and developed its own subsidiaries including Pacific Bell. There are many different pieces to the Pacific Bell pie and the company continued to grow and profit into the 90's.

In the mid 1990's the company began to struggle. While AT&T and other carriers were allowed back into the local market and with technology changing constantly the company infrastructure was struggling to maintain. (SBC) Since the divestiture in 1984 Southwestern Bell had gained a major foothold in their region and was even able to merge and buy out other local and regional companies in the Midwest. In the Mid 1990's they were able to merge with Pacific Telesis and Pacific Bell. In essence they bought the floundering California company. (Temple) SBC was able to invest in company infrastructure and hired thousands of employees helping build back a waiviering public opinion of the utility.

SBC is " a global leader in the telecommunications industry" and is one of the top five-telecommunication companies in the world. (Wilkins) Under SBC leadership Pacific Bell has thrived becoming the most profitable company in the corporation. Pacific Bell employs over 90 thousand people and is the second largest employer in the sate of California. Only the state itself employs more people. Pacific Bell is the largest regional phone company in the US and serves over 13 million California business and residence customers. Pacific Bell provides cutting edge service as well as basic phone service.

SBC and Pacific Bell are leading the industry in data with over 1 million customers subscribing to the company's state of the art high speed "DSL Internet" (Digital Subscriber Line). (Wilkins) SBC and its subsidiaries offer a wide range of services "including local and long-distance telephone service, wireless communications, paging, Internet access, and messaging, as well as telecommunications equipment, and directory advertising and publishing" (SBC). In today's slow economy SBC is faced with it's first possible layoff since divestiture. In order to maintain stakeholder profit the company has said it needs to eliminate "several thousand jobs" (Temple). This creating a fear among it's employees, and has some wondering how secure the company is. SBC states it is "financially secure but with the years events they must make changes" (Young).

It looks as though the corporation will make it through and be able to continue on with the latest in technological advances. They may have to go a slower than they had hoped but the plan is to proceed. (Wilkins) Most non-management positions are union positions and that has created a sense of security among most employees. The unions enable employees to receive top quality benefits and excellent wages. Many employees may complain about various things but wages are one thing that most of them realize they wouldn't have with out the union negotiating on their behalf. There are several unions representing the thousands of employees and each job title has its own wage scale.

The unions help to maintain an equal and fair work environment. In todays society when many people do not see a need for the unions. I like to remind them that without organized labor they could be making much less than they are. SBC union employees are very well paid and, aside from recent event, do have job security. When you work for SBC or Pacific Bell is a career not just a short-term job. SBC stresses community involvement from its employees to the various company names.

SBC encourages community service and has matching funds available for employee's who give charitable donations. They are involved in almost every city that they provide service to. The corporation funds or helps sponsor everything from school events and improvements to professional stadiums. SBC and Pacific Bell are community friendly and even in today economic slump they have continued to give generously. As we head into the future the company sights are on the long distance market. Pacific Bell is waiting for final approval from the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) to enter into the long distance market in California.

When this happens it will be full circle. Once again the company will be a one stop shop, able to provide a complete and total solution to the customer. California's long distance market represents 25% of all long distance in the US. The company's break into the long distance market will be worth billions of dollars. (Wilkins) I would like to see a more family friendly approach to the way the company does business. It would be my ideal to see child care incentives and better sick leave.

The company has great vacation and health benefits, but when it comes to sick leave, well don't get sick, the policy is using a vacation day. When a person use vacation in lieu of sick leave it may exacerbate the problem later. While I make excellent money have good benefits my job is very stressful, and I need my vacation to truly unwind. If the employee or their child gets sick and they use their vacation it is very possible their work performance will suffer later. Most changes I would recommend would revolve around my position not the company as a whole. It seems that in today's workplace it is sell sell sell or work work work.

It is all about the bottom line and this is causing stress in greater proportions. Americans work more now than ever before and have more stress and that is affecting our quality of life. (Orman) People are more productive when they are happy. So it seems it would be to the benefit of all business to try and maintain as stress-free an environment as possible. Cites Brooks, John. "Telephone: The First Hundred Years", Harper and Row 1975, New York Farley, Thomas".

Telephone History 1856-NOW", Sound waves, Aslan Technologies Inc. 1999 Orman, Morton. "Stress Facts", National Health, The Health Resource Network, 2000 SBC Pacific Bell, "Still Using The Phone Just To Talk?" , News Center, About Pacific Bell, March 25, 1998 Temple, James. "SBC to cut 'several thousand' jobs", San Francisco Business Times, American City Business Journals Inc. October 29, 2001 web Young Shawn. "SBC Says Profit Fell 31% in 3rd Quarter, Plans Lay Offs, Cuts in Capital Spending", The Wall St Journal, October 23, 2001 Wilkins, Raymond, Whit acre, Ed., and various unnamed company personnel, "The SBC Story", In the Loop, SBC Inc.

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