S Organizational Change The NBC Universal Comcast Merger
Welcome message from author
This document is posted to help you gain knowledge. Please leave a comment to let me know what you think about it! Share it to your friends and learn new things together.
Transcript
S
Organizational Change
The NBC Universal Comcast Merger
Organizational Change
Organizational Change at its most basic level is change that occurs within an organization. We need to look at reasons why this change occurs, what's the need for it, What are the benefits, How does this change effect others and does that have any influence on the change?
Deeper Look
In order to more clearly understand what Organizational change looks like we’re going to dig deeper into a company who has recently gone through Organizational Change
NBC And Change
In the last few years, NBC has gone through a pretty major Change when it merged with Comcast. This merger caused a lot of controversy. We are going to look at how NBC dealt with the change
Reason
First we have to understand that NBC was not Comcast's first choice, The decided to look into merging with NBC after deals fell through with Disney. So at this point it seems they are merging just to become larger and untouchable. However Comcast Executive Brian Roberts would have us believe otherwise.
Brian Roberts
“This Transaction Creates The Ideal entertainment and Distribution company”
Brian Roberts is saying that the reason for the merger is that they are creating something that is ultimately beneficial to the consumer.
Who’s Opposed
When dealing with Organizational Change, we expect possible opposition from the employees, in this case from NBC and Comcast employees in particular. However, NBC nor Comcast employees didn't’t have a big issue with it. It might be because of this letter given to all of them once the wheels were in motion.
The Letter
Once things started to move, NBC and Comcast employees found a letter and gift pack giving them
. 25 shares of stock in the Comcast corperation
.Family passes to universal Theme Parks
.Big Ideas Book to write their thoughts in.
The Letter
While this seems like just a nice gesture, NBC and Comcast were doing something really important in the Organizational Change Process. They were mitigating what is possibly the biggest hang up on Organizational Change, unhappy employees.
Dealing with Employees
Management has many options when dealing with employees during Organizational Change. In this particular instance, it would seem that NBC went with the “Tell and Sell” Method. This method occurs when Management tells the employees what they are dealing with and then Sells them on the reasons as to why they made that choice.
Who's Opposed
With employees happy, there doesn’t seem to be a huge opposition to the merger, However in this Organizational Change process, the company's had to deal with opposition from almost everyone else.
Al Franken
One of the biggest Fighters that NBC had to deal with was former SNL cast member turned Politician Al Franken.
Al Franken
Al Franken was against the merger to the point that he became the biggest contributor against it. Al believed that Comcast would become too big and ultimately monopolize the entertainment industry.
Al Franken
“What I know from my previous career gives me reason to be concerned, and let me phrase that, Very concerned… When the same company who is producing our programs runs the pipes that brings us those programs, we have a reason to be nervous.
Al seemed to be worried about leadership, howWould it run and Organizational Change always Deals with leadership
LEADERSHIP
NBC Universal and Comcast also made it very clear how things would run, they have a very basic top down structure and at the top of it all, Steve burke.
Leadership
Underneath Burke, They set up the company's to basically run individually under one umbrella. With everyone reporting to burke Burke.
Robert Greenbalt- Oversees Entertainment Programming at NBC
Tom Harbert- Oversees Comcast's west coast based stations
Leadership
In any instance of organizational Change, Leadership is key. In this instance, many executives kept their current positions on both sides of the company making it easier for people to know who to report to. This is a smart decision because it takes away from people needing to learn a new management style.
Al Franken now
Though Al was so opposed, the merger ended up still going through. However he does not hide his distain for this. Its reported that at a meeting with Comcast CEO’s and his old boss Lorne Michaels Al walked up and made it clear he tried to make sure this never happened. SNL creator Lorne then said he didn’t say anything bad about it the rest of the night
Overview
As we can see a lot goes into any Organizational Change. Business must look at the reason as to why the change is occurring. The main thing is facing opposition and dealing with it either internally with employees by buying them over or externally like with Al Franken. Whenever a company such as NBC faces Organizational Change, many factors must be considered
Work Cited
Reuters.com “Comcast Completes NBC Universal Merger” Jan 29th 2011
Szalai, George “ Comcast Universal New NBC Management Structure” Hollywood Reporter. Nov. 18th 2012
Andreeva, Nellie. “ Merger Giveaway, NBCU employees get Comcast Shares, Universal Studio Passes” Jan 27th 2011
Related Documents
