Founded in 1 July 1945, Telstra is one of the biggest Telecom operators in Australia. As a matter of specification, it deals with the provision of mobile, internet access, television and other services. It is one of the ASX listed companies with the headquarters in Melbourne, Australia. According to the annual reports of 2017, the total revenue is 2600 crores AUD. The major drive behind this is the hard efforts of 32000 employees (Telstra.com.au, 2018). Its subsidiaries are Foxtel, Pacnet, and Ooyala among others. The company operates in and around Australia with the focus on the expanding the scope and arena of the customer relationship.
Recently, Telstra has announced the plan of cutting 8000 jobs. This is in terms of coping up with the increasing cost of the services. At this point, the objective of reducing the costs by 2.5 billion Australian dollars by 2022 seems appropriate. On the other hand, the staffs need to provide equal attention to the security of the employment of the staffs. One of the other objectives is the plan for selling off the assets for coping up with the debt (Telstra.com.au, 2018). On one hand, these plans are appropriate in terms of stabilizing the financial parameter. On the other hand, these plans can deprive the clients and the customers of quality telecommunication facilities. The employment of the staffs are at stake, as there are plans for eliminating the jobs of the executive and managers of the middle level. Negligence towards strategic approach would adversely affect employee performance. Making plans without assessing its feasibility might prove harmful for both the employees and the management of Telstra as a whole. The managers need to consider effective theories and models for resolving the issue. Identifying the capability of the managers to achieve effective solutions would be the main focus of the research.
Action plan helps in systematizing the research related activities according to their priorities. The tabular format of the plan enhances the awareness regarding the weeks by which the activities need to be completed (Creswell & Creswell, 2017). This is applicable for all of researches. Preparing action plan would assist the Telstra staffs to systematize the business activities. The following action plan can be of great help:
Activities |
Week 1 |
Week 2 |
Week 3 |
Week 4 |
Week 5 |
Week 6 |
Week 7 |
Week 8 |
Meeting for identification of main issue |
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Developing aims and objectives |
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Collecting data on how to solve the issues |
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Market research for gaining insight into the latest trends of the contemporary brands |
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Developing policies |
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Evaluation |
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Customer feedback and survey |
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Implementing the policies |
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Evaluating the effectiveness of the implementation process |
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Making the necessary changes |
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Final round evaluation |
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Final submission and closure |
According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, the employment growth was positive, however, in the last phases it was weaker. This was due to the emergence of part time employment, which proved difficult for the companies in terms of labor maintenance. With the rise in the working hours, the employees are encountered dilemma in continuing their jobs (Hartley, 2017). This brought significant reduction in the unemployment levels, a positive sign for the companies in terms of completing the projects. As a matter of specification, employment rate increased by 19800 (0.2%). Of these, full time increased 6100 and part time increased 13700.
Under such scenario, plans regarding job cut offs contradict the aspect of professional growth. Employees are recruited, so that teamwork would enhance the productivity. Plans regarding the job cut offs are examples of reasoned action in terms of coping up with the financial instabilities. Along with this, it is also a planned action in terms of retaining the customers into the services. Job cut offs can also be considered as “labor underutilization”, as the staffs are eliminated from their posts. This demoralizes the staffs, necessitating the need for motivation. According to the report of the Australian Bureau of Statistics, the total labor underutilization rate was 13.6% (Abs.gov.au, 2018).
Currently, technology is one of the tools, which has radically altered the nature of jobs within the telecommunication industry in Australia. However, plans regarding dividing the infrastructural operations into separate units has adversely affected the aspect of customer satisfaction. The CEO of the companies under telecommunication industries feel that not being active in the transaction process aggravates the risks within the business. Collapse in the stock prices has made significant contributions in reduction of the market prices. This reflects the instabilities in the financial parameter. Restructuring requires additional financial resources, which strains the economy (Duval & Furceri, 2018).
Sudden rise in the full time employment has declined the job employment rate in Australia. As a matter of specification, the reduction rate was 5.5%, compelling the critics to lose in their statements, for whom the collapse rate of the jobs was 5.7%. The critics were of the view that creation of the jobs would add momentum to employment. With this, both the consumers and the business are affected. The Reserve bank is exposing disinterest in terms of lifting up the rates. However, they point to the possibility of taking off the rate cuts from the tables, charts and graphs (Wadhwa & Tripathi, 2018).
The plans regarding the job cut offs reduces the value of the Australian dollar, which boosted up to 76.30 US cents.
Based on the current situation, the following objectives can be developed:
Based on the objectives and questions, the thesis statement of the research proposal would be assessing the impact of the job cut offs on the overall performance of Telstra, Australia.
Research philosophy
The research conducts a research with adherence to one particular philosophy. Usually, in a research, there are three kinds of philosophies, which assists the researcher to philosophize the facts. As a matter of specification, these philosophies are positivism, post-positivism and interpretivism. Positivism philosophy helps in the establishment of the real and scientific knowledge about the subject matter of the research (Mackey and Gass, 2015). Post-positivism studies the cause and effect of establishing the knowledge. Interpretivism philosophy deals with interpreting new facts ad theories related to the scientific and objective facts established. Persons intending to conduct research regarding the impact of job cuts on the overall performance of Telstra, would take the assistance of positivism philosophy. Selecting positivism philosophy would assist in the establishment of scientific facts relevant to employee performance.
Every researcher is bound to follow an integrated design for conducting a research. This is in terms of deducing conclusions and recommendations efficiently and effectively. Explorative, explanatory and descriptive are the three main designs, which assists the researcher to design the research properly (Taylor, Bogdan and DeVault 2015). Exploratory design relates to the exploration of the unknown facts related to the subject matter of the research. Explanatory design requires explanation of every minute details related with the research topic. Descriptive design possesses similarity with explanatory design. This is in terms of the functionality it performs within the research. In this research, the researcher would select the explorative design for exploring the unexplored realms of employment job cuts and their impact on the overall productivity.
When a researcher starts a research, he possesses a particular approach towards the completion. Specifically, there are two kinds of research approach-inductive and deductive. Inductive approach means inducing new facts and theories related to the subject matter, which have not been proposed earlier in the previous research (Brannen, 2017). On the other hand, deductive approach relates to deducing relevant conclusions from the gathered facts related to the subject matter. Inductive approach is time consuming, as it needs elaborate research. Therefore, the researcher would select deductive approach for deducing relevant conclusions regarding job cuts and their impact on the overall performance of Telstra.
Collecting data helps in making efficient and effective propositions related to the research topic. Data can be collected through primary and secondary, which further has subdivisions-quantitative and qualitative. In the primary quantitative, survey is conducted on the selected samples. This can be telephonic, interviews, Skype conversations, video conferencing and others (Creswell & Creswell, 2017). In the primary qualitative, interviews are conducted on the managers of company, which is the main focus in the research. In secondary method, data is collected from the journal articles and websites. In this research, the relevant data would be collected through both the primary and the secondary methods. Surveys would be conducted on the samples and the managers would be interviewed.
The collected data needs to be analysed for deducing relevant recommendations. Primary and secondary methods assist the researcher to analyse the collected data. These methods have subdivisions- primary and secondary. In the primary method, the data is analysed through the preparation of questionnaires. The responses of the samples are projected through the means of charts, graphs and tables (Barnham, 2015). Graphical representation of the responses prove beneficial in deducing relevant conclusions. The researcher would analyse the collected data through the development of relevant themes in the secondary method. Quantitative method would be selected for the analysing the responses of the samples. This is in terms of assessing the approaches of the staffs regarding the job cut offs.
The whole population is directly or indirectly are the samples for the research. However, in order to cope up with the time and the financial constraints, the researcher needs to select a particular sample size. This is done through three techniques- simple, random and probability. Simple and random techniques relate to the sample selection without any calculations (Alvesson & Sköldberg, 2017). On the other hand, the probability sample technique involves selection of the samples with calculations and tests regarding efficiency and sound knowledge of the subject matter. In this research, the researcher would select the probability sampling technique for selecting the samples. This is necessary in terms of gaining an insight into the approaches of 50 employees of Telstra, whose jobs would be eliminated.
A researcher is bound to maintain ethics in the research related activities. Consciousness in this direction is assistance in terms of gaining the trust, loyalty and dependence of the readers. In this research, the researcher would implement Data Protection Act (1998) for maintaining the safety and privacy of the responses given by the readers (Ormston et al., 2014). In this stage, the researcher is also conscious towards assuring the respondents that their responses would be solely used for the research purpose rather than for the purpose of commercialization. Along with this, the researcher would expose a liberal approach to the samples. As a matter of specification, the samples would be allowed to withdraw the process at once they feel uncomfortable. Apart from this, the researcher would avoid using the websites, which needs subscription. This would assist the researcher to avert the instance of plagiarism and collusion.
Reliability and validity are the two most important elements resulting in the production of efficient and effective research. Collecting data from relevant sources establishes authenticity in the research. This is one of the best methods for gaining attention of the readers. For establishing reliability and validity, the researchers follow inclusion and exclusion criteria (Fusch & Ness, 2015). In the inclusion criteria, the sources, which has been published not more than 10 years, needs to be included in the research. On the other hand, in the exclusion criteria, the sources, which have been published more than 10 years are excluded. This establishes reliability and validity within the sources referred for proposing the ideas and facts. Inclusion criteria would be followed in terms of incorporating the sources.
Activities |
Week 1 |
Week 2 |
Week 3 |
Week 4 |
Week 5 |
Week 6 |
Week 7 |
Week 8 |
Topic selection |
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Collecting primary data about the topic |
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Collecting data on the topic |
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Identification of the aims and objectives |
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Literature review |
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Methodology |
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Analysis of thee collected data |
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Conclusion and recommendations |
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First round evaluation |
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Modifying the drawbacks |
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Final evaluation |
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Submission and closure |
Table: Action plan for the research
(Source: Created by the author)
Activities |
Amount (AUD) |
Personnel |
70000 |
Consultants |
30000 |
Travel |
10000 |
Material, supplies and equipment |
11000 |
Communication |
5000 |
Overhead |
1000 |
Miscellaneous |
4000 |
Total |
1,31,000 |
Table: Budget for the research
(Source: Created by the researcher)
References
Abs.gov.au (2018), About us, Retrieved 10th August 2018 from https://www.abs.gov.au/
Alvesson, M. & Sköldberg, K., 2017. Reflexive methodology: New vistas for qualitative research. Sage.
Aparicio-Fenoll, A. (2015). The effect of product market competition on job security. Labour Economics, 35, 145-159.
Barnham, C., 2015. Quantitative and qualitative research: Perceptual foundations. International Journal of Market Research, 57(6), pp.837-854.
Brannen, J., 2017. Mixing methods: Qualitative and quantitative research. Routledge.
Co?ar, A. K., Guner, N., & Tybout, J. (2016). Firm dynamics, job turnover, and wage distributions in an open economy. American Economic Review, 106(3), 625-63.
Creswell, J.W. & Creswell, J.D., 2017. Research design: Qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods approaches. Sage publications.
Duval, R., & Furceri, D. (2018). The effects of labor and product market reforms: the role of macroeconomic conditions and policies. IMF Economic Review, 66(1), 31-69.
Fusch, P.I. & Ness, L.R., 2015. Are we there yet? Data saturation in qualitative research. The qualitative report, 20(9), pp.1408-1416.
Hanaysha, J. (2016). Testing the effects of employee empowerment, teamwork, and employee training on employee productivity in higher education sector. International Journal of Learning and Development, 6(1), 164-178.
Hartley, J.R., 2017. Concurrent engineering: shortening lead times, raising quality, and lowering costs. Routledge.
Kianto, A., Vanhala, M., & Heilmann, P. (2016). The impact of knowledge management on job satisfaction. Journal of Knowledge Management, 20(4), 621-636.
Mackey, A. and Gass, S.M., 2015. Second language research: Methodology and design. Routledge.
Ormston, R., Spencer, L., Barnard, M. & Snape, D., 2014. The foundations of qualitative research. Qualitative research practice: A guide for social science students and researchers, 2, pp.52-55.
Taylor, S.J., Bogdan, R. and DeVault, M., 2015. Introduction to qualitative research methods: A guidebook and resource. John Wiley & Sons.
Telstra.com.au (2018), About us, Retrieved 10th August 2018 from https://www.telstra.com.au/
Wadhwa, S., & Tripathi, R. (2018). Driving employee performance through talent management. International Journal of Environment, Workplace and Employment, 4(4), 288-313.
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