COMM 545

Communication and Global Competition

OVERVIEW

Organizations increasingly use information and communication resources to secure or maintain a competitive edge. Researchers and practitioners are directing considerable attention to the changes being wrought within and across industries through advanced communication systems. This course reviews this literature and presents a synthesis of the major ways in which information and communication processes and technologies can energize these changes.

Competitive strategy involves crafting goals, policies and plans that identify how an organization positions itself in its competitive environment. These policies are under the purview of top management, yet all parts of the organization at all levels have the opportunity contribute to their development. Middle managers can best contribute to this important process from a base that includes a thorough understanding of business policy-making goals and processes.

The course reviews four major approaches to global competitive advantage.  The first is the traditional industry structure view.  In this view there are two key concerns in the process of strategy formulation: industry structure and competitive position. Industry structure is the features of the industry or industries in which the organization locates itself and how they are changing. Key features include intensity of rivalry, bargaining power of buyers, bargaining power of suppliers, threats of entry from other organizations, and threats of new substitute products or services. Industry structure may be more or less favorable for competition. Competitive position is firm’s position within the structure of the industry. Proper positioning can assist an organization in successfully negotiating even less structurally attractive industries. Conversely, poor positioning can impair competitive performance of an organization even in structurally favorable industries.

The second is the resource-based view.  In this view competitive advantage has less to do with industry structure than with the ability of the firm to maintain a mix of nonimitable assets.  These serve as resources that firms can leverage to secure a unique advantage.  A firm's own core competencies take center stage. 

The third is the game theoretic view. Action and "moves" by players within a market or industry are viewed as a series of dynamic, interdependent choices. Like a chess game, organizations must choose their moves carefully in the context of potential moves by competitors in the same market.  Moves communicate intentions that then are interpreted and acted upon by others. 

The fourth is complexity theory approach.  Drawing on the basic of complexity theory and chaos theory, this approach prescribes that firms operate in the mid-range where the world they face are neither stable unstable.  Firms must operate "on the edge of chaos."  Many predictions from this approach fly in the face of traditional notions of strategy as based in forward planning and the need to reduce uncertainty.  Rather, plans are seen as arising from completed or in-process action and from the deliberate search for a reasonable level of uncertainty.

Regardless of theoretical approach, communication and information technologies are shown to be instrumental in helping firms to identify and implement innovations that keep an organization one step ahead of the competition. When carefully envisioned and implemented, programs for innovation through communication and information technologies and processes can be a source of dynamic global competitive advantage.

The course is designed to help the middle manager to become an astute observer and analyzer of the role of communication in competition. This outcome requires development of a perspective on communication and competition at the industry level and mastery of analytical skills needed to understand strategic choices. Sources of competitive advantage through communication are everywhere in an organization. All employees can contribute to assisting organizations in employing information and communication process and technologies in the service of obtaining and sustaining competitive advantage through communication.