Strategic Issues of Globalisation and Liberalisation - Essay Example

Working The proposed dissertation is “A Strategic Analysis of Royal Mail: An Exploratory Study of the Strategic Issues of Globalisation,Privatisation, and Liberalisation.” Introduction This dissertation proposal indicates the initial plans for the completion of the full dissertation and consists of three parts. Part 1 provides a background, literature review, and the aims and objectives of the dissertation. Part 2 focuses on identifying factors associated with how the researcher intends to approach this study, explaining methods of data collection and data analysis to be adopted. Part 3 enumerates resources required to conduct the study, a preliminary bibliography, and a table that shows the time scale of activities involved in this investigation. Part 1: Background, Aims, and Review of Literature Background of the Study This researcher’s interest in the topic was aroused after reading several news articles on “the biggest turnaround in UK corporate history”, accounts on how a former supermarket executive and a former head of the English Football Association rescued a business firm by converting £318 million in losses into a £540 million profit, sacking 30,000 staff, closing 2,500 branches, and improving service efficiency. The firm was the Royal Mail, Britain’s government-owned, 350-year old postal services monopoly that had record revenues and profits after three years of corporate restructuring. As a positive sign of the turnaround, the government announced that it would allow full competition in postal services by January 2006, a year ahead of schedule, in time for full EU market liberalisation by January 2009. Aside from learning that what seemed as a dreary business such as postal services is an exciting field, what was intriguing to the researcher was understanding the strategic management issues faced by the government and Royal Mail: full EU liberalisation, the effects of globalisation on the postal services sector, and the pros and cons of privatisation. More intriguing is knowing that the government and Royal Mail acted on these strategic issues, prompting this researcher to investigate and discover how these strategic issues became the bases for their subsequent management decisions and actions. Relevance of the Study The study will show how a firm’s external and internal environments affected organisational performance and managerial decisions, and how utilising existing strengths and weaknesses helped the firm take advantage of opportunities and minimise the negative effects of threats. This is what strategic management is all about. Research Aims and Objectives The research study will be conducted in the following context: 1) Evaluate strategic decision-making process and the influences that led to the liberalisation of postal services in the UK and the privatisation of the Royal Mail. 2) Assess the impact of strategic decisions upon the organisation’s functional areas. 3) Apply fundamental tools of analysis to develop an appreciation of the organisations strategic position before and after liberalisation and privatisation. 4) Evaluate the strategic options confronted by the Royal Mail. 5) Critically evaluate why Royal Mail pursued particular strategies: i. Why did Royal Mail lose money? ii. Was Royal Mail poorly managed or defective in its structure? iii. What are the issues of globalisation, privatisation, and liberalisation? Why did the EU and the UK embrace these concepts? iv. Do other firms confront these three strategic issues, and why? v. What effects do these have on firms? And why are these effects caused? vi. How did Royal Mail address these issues, and are their actions consistent with sound strategic management principles? Did they react in the best way possible, or were there other options open to them? vii. What lessons can governments and firms learn from the experience? Are these lessons transferable to other firms and governments? This dissertation brings the reader inside the mind of government policymakers and Royal Mail executives who made key decisions before, during, and after the period of the firm’s history under consideration, namely the years prior to 2002 and up to early 2006. Literature Review The study includes a critical review of available literature on the research topic. Aside from UK newspaper articles, the study covers available literature on topics of globalisation, market liberalisation, and privatisation to come up with a critical review of contemporary strategic management issues facing government firms. The organisation will be subjected to strategic analysis using popular frameworks like SWOT-PESTEL and the stakeholder approach. The literature review will discuss tools developed by Ansoff, the Boston Consulting Group, Porter, and Kaplan and Norton. A number of Internet sites will be assessed and analysed to know the strategic issues facing Royal Mail, its UK regulatory agency (the Postal Commission or Postcomm), the EU, and all other stakeholders. A list of the books and Internet sites are included in Part 3 under the sub-heading Preliminary Bibliography. Part 2: Methodology of Research, Data Collection and Analysis Theoretical Research Frameworks Research Philosophy: Positivism and Interpretivism Positivism recognizes “working with an observable social reality and that the end product of such research can be law-like generalisations similar to those produced by the physical and natural scientists” (Remenyi et al., 1998, cited in Saunders et al., 2003, p.83). Interpretivism approach argues that there is far too much, ever changing complexity to be defined by “laws” (Saunders et al., 2003, p.84). The dissertation will consider both philosophies since “the practical reality is that research rarely falls neatly into only one philosophical domain” (Saunders et al., 2003, p. 85) as well as the combination of both is common in research. Inductive and Deductive Reasoning Inductive reasoning is when data is collected first and then theories developed as a result of the data analysis. This associates mostly with interpretivism. Deductive reasoning is the development of a theory and hypothesis (or hypotheses) and design of a research strategy to test the hypothesis” (Saunders et al., 2003, p.85). This mainly associates with positivism. The dissertation will consider both processes of reasoning. Exploratory Studies Exploratory studies are a valuable means of finding out what is happening; to seek new insights; to ask questions and to assess phenomena in a new light (Robson, 2002, cited in Saunders et al., 2003, p.96) and will be considered for the purpose of this study. This is particularly useful as the researcher wishes to clarify the understanding of a problem, namely the strategic management issues facing the Royal Mail and its reactions to these issues. There are also three basic types of questions that a research project can address: causal (to determine whether a variable causes or affects another), relational (to look at the relationships between two or more variables), or descriptive (to describe what is going on or what exists). The dissertation will be a descriptive exploratory study. Methods of Data Collection Quantitative and Qualitative Research Data Having provided a theoretical framework upon which this dissertation is based that will guide the research investigation, two forms of research data will be gathered. Quantitative data will be in the form of Royal Mail’s financial reports and government statistics for the postal services industry, both from the UK and the EU. Qualitative data will be in the form of position papers from the various stakeholders – governments, managers, workers, labour unions, competitors, and other interested third-party groups – affected by the strategic issues faced by the firm. Methods of Data Analysis The quantitative and qualitative data collected will be analysed according to the researcher’s best knowledge, “whatever the nature of the data, the task of interpretation falls squarely on the shoulders of the researcher” (Moser, 1971 cited in Chisnall, 2001, p.421). The quantitative and qualitative data sets will be subject to consistent forms of data analysis that will assess the validity of the firm’s reaction to the forces of globalisation, privatisation, and liberalisation. The data analysis aims to answer the research questions asked in this study. Terms of Reference The dissertation will be an exploratory study to understand the strategic management decision-making process that led to the turnaround of Royal Mail. It will also explore the various stakeholders of the organisation – the government through the regulatory agency known as Postcomm, and the management, workers, customers, and labour unions of Royal Mail – and their roles in the strategic management process. The influence of the European Union and its policies on the firm will also be discussed. Current discussions on globalisation and the privatisation of Royal Mail will likewise be analysed. Part 3: Potential Problems, Resources, Timetable, and Bibliography Potential Problems The only problem foreseen is a change in government policies, both at the EU and UK levels, that will invalidate previous baselines for the study to be conducted. Resources The researcher will use the resources available at the library and will access websites and on-line documents from various locations. Timetable The proposed timetable is as follows: Week 1 Dissertation proposal submission Week 3 Approval of dissertation proposal Weeks 1-12 Conduct of research Weeks 13-17 Writing of the dissertation Week 18 Submission of preliminary draft Weeks 19-23 Revision and finalisation of draft Week 24 Final draft submission Bibliography The preliminary bibliography that starts on the next page includes secondary research sources from library and the Internet consisting of newspaper articles, books, journals, and relevant websites. The dissertation will be drafted following the recommended writing style. Quotations and original ideas from other sources will be cited following the Harvard referencing system, which will be used in preparing the Bibliography list in the final draft. Preliminary Bibliography News Articles BBC News (2003). Profile: Adam Crozier. September 17. Economist, The. (2003). Irregular. March 27. Economist, The. (2005). Delivering results. May 19. Guardian, The (2005). Return to sender. May 14. Observer, The (2004). Trouble at mail. May 23. Books Andrews, K. (1987). The concept of corporate strategy (3rd ed.). Homewood: Irwin. Ansoff, H I. (1965). Corporate strategy: an analytic approach to business policy for growth and expansion. London: Pelican. Chandler, Jr., A. D. (1962). Strategy and structure. Cambridge: MIT Press. Frontier Economics Group (2002) The impact of liberalisation on efficiency: a survey (A report for Postcomm). London: Frontier Economics Group. Harrison A, Dalkiran E & Elsey E (2000) International business, global competition from a European perspective. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Learned, E. P., Christensen, C. R., Andrews, K. R., and Guth, W. D. (1965). Business policy: text and cases. Homewood, IL: Richard D. Irwin, 1965. Postcomm (2005). Competitive market review: proposals for tackling barriers to entry for postal services. London: Postal Services Commission. Remenyi, D., Williams, B., Money, A., Swartz, E. (1998). Doing research in business and management: An introduction to process and method. London: Sage Robson, C. (2002). Real world research: A resource for social scientists and practitioner-researchers (2nd ed.). Oxford: Blackwell. Saunders, M.N.K., Lewis, P., Thornhill, A. (2003). Research methods for business students (3rd ed.). Harlow: FT Prentice Hall. Stiglitz, J. (2002). Globalisation and its discontents. London: Allen Lane. Journals Jensen, Michael C. (2001). Value maximization, stakeholder theory, and the corporate objective function. European Management Journal, 7 (3), p. 297-317. Kaplan, Robert S. & Norton, David P. (1992). The balanced scorecard – measures that drive performance. Harvard Business Review, January-February, p. 71-79. Porter, Michael E. (1996). What is Strategy? Harvard Business Review, November-December, p. 61-78. Websites Europa (2005). New Postal Directive. Brussels: European Union. Retrieved from . Royal Mail (2006). Official Website. Retrieved from . Read More