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At & T

AT&T's roots stretch back to 1875, with founder Alexander Graham Bell's invention of the telephone. During the 19th century, AT&T became the parent company of the Bell System, the American telephone monopoly. The Bell System provided what was by all accounts the best telephone service in the world. The system broke up into eight companies in 1984 by agreement between AT&T and the U.S. Department of Justice. From 1984 until 1996 AT&T was an integrated telecommunications services and equipment company, succeeding in a newly competitive environment. In 2000, AT&T was named the largest cable company in the U.S. Today, AT&T is a global networking leader, focused on building user's trust and confidence.
Beginning in 1998, AT&T developed a plan to assist in restructuring it’s management team. They were set to lay off one fourth of its 50,000-manager population. AT&T was concerned with the effects this would have on the employees who would be forced into retirement. The current plan was costly and it didn’t provide the best benefits. In order to accomplish this goal a new benefit plan needed to be developed so the managers who were eligible could retire. With much research, AT&T found the use of a cash balance plan not only a better retirement plan for its workers, but this plan was gaining favor across corporate America. AT&T hoped this plan would create an incentive for employees that didn’t retire to stay with the company long term.
Since lifetime employment is not guaranteed, employees need to learn sooner rather than later the worth of their investments. Having greater control also necessitates developing more sophisticated knowledge. (Burlingame & Gulotta, 1998). Any company that is reorganizing benefits must devote substantial time and effort to communication. AT&T has made that a priority. In the months leading up to the introduction of the cash balance plan, AT&T took many steps to communicate with employees. (Burlingame & Gulotta, 1998). Its primary goal was...