Introduction

Principles of management have been a crucial aspect of decision making in any organization. Through management skills, an organization can ensure operating under a going concern basis. The Principles of Management are the foundation of a successful management team.  Significantly, great leaders are a virtual towards the great and successful managerial team. Thus, as an aspect of the Principles of Management, leaders’ responsibilities and virtues plays a more significant role in enforcing accountability within a team (Abishovna, 2016). Therefore, leadership is a virtual through which individuals have different capabilities that influence individuals towards a common goal.

A leader is an individual guiding a team to achieve their optimized goals over a given period. Therefore, the paper seeks to scrutinize the concept of change management with specific reference to the AT&T company.

Summary of Article(s)

AT&T is shaking up the executive wing at Warner Media just nine months after acquiring the business for $85.4 billion. AT&T moved quickly to stamp its authority over some of Hollywood’s most valuable assets, creating a new entertainment unit to include HBO and TNT and hiring an outsider to run it, just days after its Time Warner takeover cleared its last legal hurdle (Nicolaou, 2019). Former NBC Entertainment and Showtime chief Bob Greenblatt will be the new chairperson of WarnerMedia Entertainment. Greenblatt will oversee HBO, TNT, TBS, and TruTV as well as streaming services, the company said.

Mr. Zucker will head a combined news and sports division, which will fold CNN in with Turner’s sports network, AT&T regional sports channels, and the Bleacher Report website. Mr. Tsujihara will keep the Warner Bros studio and will add oversight of Turner’s animation channels, such as Cartoon Network and Adult Swim (Nicolaou, 2019). The move could lead to cost-cutting that would undoubtedly be applauded on Wall Street. Investors have worried in recent months about the level of AT&T debt, and the consolidation appears aimed at making the company’s entertainment products more cost-effective.

Analysis of New Event

AT&T’s acquisition of Time Warner gives its distribution system access to a massive amount of content. The announced changes are designed to provide the combined companies the agility and flexibility needed to build WarnerMedia’s brands across a variety of evolving distribution models with an emphasis on the company’s original programming. John Stankey, an AT&T veteran who was put in charge of Warner Media at the time of the acquisition, is the executive behind the moves, which show that the company is serious about tearing up old ways and putting its stamp on its new properties (Lee & Koblin, 2019). Throughout, the company has had two primary virtues which are facing challenges as other companies rise into the technological world. Rising competition from rival companies such as Amazon has caused lots of upheaval in the operations of the company.

Change management results from a changed leader who is an aspect through which the organization enhances improved leadership. New leaders are expected to have their tactics through which they conduct their managerial roles within an organization (Lee, 2018). Therefore, through change management, an organization can regain its market niche as well as operate in a going concern basis which is the primary goal of every organization. Leaders are expected to be supportive, action-oriented, instrumental and motivating to their team members. Therefore, through the change management process, the leaders are said to be challenging and creating new techniques to enhance their performances in the organization.

Following the change in the management of AT&T, there has been tremendous changes and shifts in their share price which was priory warned. As discussed in the article, the investors brought the share down to nearly 4% in the recent trading; this has been due to the changes made in the management without consultations and agreements with the stakeholders.  Consultation with the management is a step that helps in solving and avoiding conflicts within the team s new changes are being enacted in the system. Therefore, whenever a change in management is expected, there should be consultations with the key stakeholders within the organization be it the customers, investors, suppliers, and employees. Therefore, lack of communication can be attributed to the conflicts in the management.

Subordination and Unity of Direction

Significantly, the managerial team should always exclude personal interests when dealing with company goals and expectations. Personal interests are failures towards great leadership within an organization. Without the conflict of own interests, a leader can share his or her vision with the team members thus ensuring effectiveness in their achievement. This leads to a common goal among the team members which is a step towards achieving set objectives within all the departments of the organization. However, there are several factors that leaders need to consider before enforcing change management techniques in the organization. Business evaluation is a step that should be priory done to ensure accommodation of new managerial technologies within the business setup. For an instant, AT&T should have considered their operations within the current market niche before the adoption of new administrative team to ensure their continuity in business as well as minimized negativity from their set of leadership experts being incorporated to the new management.

The Degree of Centralization

Different companies have varying central leadership responsibilities towards their set goals and objectives. Through a centralized form of leadership, the critical decisions are made by the top leaders in the management(Abishovna, 2016). Therefore, though crucial for a company, centralized administration should be applied for necessary decisions regarding the operations of the business. Unlike other companies, AT&T did not involve a centralized form of command for some of their choices. Instead, departmental administration took charge thus new leaders enacted into position an attempt that left our stakeholders expected to lead in such decision unaware of the move. Subsequently, this has negative energy towards their operations and thus conflicts n the management.

Change leaders should be involved the team members who help in achieving their goals. As the organization gets more emergent in self-organization, changes within the management are thus rampant and take place at least expected instances. Therefore, there needs to be a culture where leaders are often observing their innovations and disrupting the existing performance trends to enhance growth and expansion. This has been seen with the new team at AT&T where every leader has been mandated with his or her role in the departments to ensure a common goal. However, this was demeaned by the poor communication techniques within the organization. Primarily, communication is a critical model in a thriving organization.

Use of Initiative for Leadership

Application of initiatives within the operations of an organization is a crucial aspect for s successful venture. Employees initiative is a source of motivation for the team members at their various work stations. Through motives, employees are more productive thus increasing the productivity within the organization (Campbell, 2013). Motivations among the employees make them feel appreciated and willing to remain in the company to achieve higher ranks through promotion. Therefore, while enhancing employees interests towards company operations, a capable leader can eliminate challenges and resistance to prevailing changes by increasing motivation. Additionally, a leader should be open-minded to accommodate the opinion of other team members within the organization.

Conclusion

Concisely, though there has been a growing operation at AT&T company, emerging issues have been undermining their move for change management techniques thus being a threat to their emerging new leadership techniques. Although communication has highly contributed to the challenges, there has been a different look out for the changes owing to the greater good of the company. Through change management, a team can incorporate new techniques in their operations hence improved performance. Betterment of the services depends on emerging technologies in leadership where core decisions on the operations are held. However, although change leadership is a technique that leads to emerging trends within the organizational processes, there are key aspects that should be considered for comprehensiveness in decision making. Consultations among the stakeholders should be a priority. Therefore, different managerial perspectives are crucial for a thriving business.

References

Abishovna, B. (2016). The Principle of Effective Marketing Management. Procedia – Social And Behavioral Sciences, 109(3), 1322-1325. DOI: 10.1016/j.sbspro.2013.12.632: Retrievable at https://bit.ly/2VEVJDe

Campbell, P. (2013). Nursing Management: Principles and Practice Nursing Management: Principles and Practice. Nursing Management, 20(3), 9-9. DOI: 10.7748/nm2013.06.20.3.9.s15: Retrievable from https://bit.ly/2EW9SGI

Lee, E., & Koblin, J. (2019, March 5). AT&T Assembles a Media Team, Joining a Battle With Giants. Retrieved from https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/04/business/media/att-warner-greenblatt.html

Lee, Y. (2018). Modern management and the demand for technical skill. Labor Economics, 55(5), 328-343. DOI: 10.1016/j.labeco.2018.11.001: Retrievable at https://bit.ly/2EOtZFM

Nicolaou, A. (2019, March 4). AT&T shakes up its new Hollywood assets. Retrieved from https://www.ft.com/content/796726e4-3e8b-11e9-b896-fe36ec32aece