France Telecom S.A. is one of the world's leading and largest telecommunications operators in the world. It is the main telecommunications company in France, and the third largest in Europe. The French Telecom/Orange Group is also a world leader in telecommunications services for multinational companies under the Orange Business Services brand.
Before 1988, France Telecom was known as the “Direction Generale des Telecommunications”, a division of the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications. In 1990, the DGT became autonomous from the French Government: it became a corporation (still public), with an autonomous financing management. Later on, the DGT changed to ‘France Telecom' and was privatized in 2004, leaving the French Government with a 27% stake.
Today, and since the setting up of the “NeXt Plan”, most of France Telecom's activities are gathered under the brand “Orange”. Implemented in 2004, the NeXt Plan aims at reducing the costs and merging all France Telecom's brands under a unique one: Orange; except for the fixed activities that remain under the name “France Telecom”.
To offer customers access to communication, France Telecom uses multiple platforms: fixed line telephone, broadband access, mobile phone telephony and IPTV (Internet Protocol Television).
It didn't take a long time for the French company to become well known across the world. Nowadays, the telecommunications giant is expanding its business and is gradually becoming a global enterprise. In 2007, France Telecom invested in new areas through its geographical presence and services to other areas of business like content, health and the public.
Orange provides mobile, internet and fixed telecommunication services and has 203 million customers in 32 countries. It currently employs about 90,000 people in France and 162,850 worldwide (2010). In 2009, the company's revenue reached €46.19 Billion.
[...] It is a kind of loneliness that settles in the workplace.” (Dejours) Beyond the change in management style, the economic crisis and the increasing number of competitors placed France Telecom in a highly competitive environment, where the employees had to respond to a new logic of profitability where the shareholders' revenue valued the most. Indeed, during the economic crisis even the big groups had to increase their margin to keep their profit. The logic of profitability started to dwarf the human aspect of the company and the employees started drifting away from the company culture. [...]
[...] After, when the crisis grew stronger and when the government had to step in, France Telecom pretended to be more concerned about the situation, but did little to improve it. It promised to “establish a new social contract” where job transfers were frozen. But no serious action was taken to insure that the working conditions are going to improve in the long run. Things don't seem to have improved in the past year, as within less than two weeks suicides were recorded in September France Telecom Response a. [...]
[...] Goals, (Orange) France Telecom's goals are gathered under the plan “Conquetes Orange Business Services wants to become the leader in a world where telecommunications and computing are converging. As a whole, France Telecom has an ambition: to become the world leader in the communication solutions main axe of growth: the cloud computing, the video, the internet for objects and the emerging countries in France: back the transformation of IT and the improvement of the services of communication, from the big companies to the smallest ones. [...]
[...] Take more importance to the doctors' warnings PART Crisis Communication Plan 1. Objectives of the Crisis Communication Plan Although every crisis communication plan is unique, they share common goals which involve providing a general outline on what to do in case of a crisis within the company. There are many explanations defining the key objectives of a good crisis plan. The Colorado's Non-profit Association has a good definition. They say the purpose is effectively manage communications through a formal, clearly defined channel in order to mitigate crisis, or serious negative repercussions for the Association or the sector, and maintain a reputation of leadership and transparency on vital issues and breaking news.”(CAN) They claim the main objective is to minimize the damage done to the companies' reputation by clearly relaying the facts to the public. [...]
[...] Overview of the Crisis In 2008 and 2009, France Telecom faced a major crisis with the suicide of 35 of its employees and 2009 were not the only years where the company had to face crisis with the suicide of employees. It had already experienced high levels of suicide rate in 2000 and 2002, with 28 and 29 people committing suicide respectively. The changes in 2008 and 2009 are the increasing media coverage and the awareness of the people. The suicide notes blaming the workplace climate left behind by desperate employees before committing suicide are published and the public gets strongly interested in the case. [...]
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