Strategic Change in UK Telecommunications:: Empirical Evidence

Abstract

The global telecommunications marketplace has witnessed considerable and unprecedented changes in the past 25 years culminating in the transformation of industry structures, market-specific structures and the internal structures of incumbent telecommunications operators. Against this backdrop, this paper reports empirically on the evolving behavioural nature of the incumbent UK telecommunications operator (BT) 1 1 Disclaimer: It is not the intention of this study to criticise managerial behaviour or managerial decisions of BT and therefore the study should be viewed from the perspective of assisting in furthering understanding of the impact of UK telecommunications privatisation on the evolving nature of change at the former UK incumbent network operator. since privatisation in 1984 through the implementation of a number of key change initiatives. A case study approach was adopted, with face-to-face interviews being carried out with senior executives, using semi-structured questionnaire checklists. Content analysis was subsequently applied to collected data and results allude to the impact of corporate level strategic decision-making in terms of identifying evolving behavioural characteristics of cultural and structural changes at the firm.