Organisation Behaviour in FedEx - Research Paper Example

Organisation Behaviour Introduction The study of organisational behaviour relates to individuals and groups working in teams in an organisation. The said studies would be supported by gathering information through scientific approaches under controlled conditions. With the aim of fulfilling the needs of people, such organisations need to be growth oriented. Managers have to analyse the structures of the organisation and conditions surrounding it to come up with appropriate strategies of ensuring sustainable competitive advantage. Among the many approaches employed by managers from different organisations, metaphors could be used to vividly explain the structures of such organisations in a way that managers would find it easy to understand the organisation and come up with solutions to its define problems. Three out of the metaphors identified by Morgan (1998) form the basis of this paper with FedEx guiding the discussion as the organisation of choice for illustration. The modern ground and air express delivery service was pioneered in 1971 with the founding of Federal Express, known as FedEx Corporation since early 2000. With its headquarters in Memphis, Tennessee, the American based logistical services firm founded by Fredrick W. Smith, the current Chairman, President and CEO, serves over 220 countries employing over 100,000 employees worldwide. It offers transportation and e-commerce services to both individuals and organisations. The objective of its formation was to provide a remedy to the then inefficient distribution system in air freight (FedEx 2012). Since then, FedEx has been widely accredited for revolutionising speed, reliability and general business practices in the industry. Analysis of FedEx Using Metaphors For effectiveness in such an organisation, Morgan (1998) argues the need for managers to possess the needed skills in reading the organisation from various perspectives that would in turn guide on what action strategies to undertake. Such managers would be open and flexible and would make judgements based on comprehensive review of underlying situations. Metaphors have been often viewed as devices used in embellishment of language discourse. Nonetheless, the significance they have could be far reaching. The primal force that would cause humans to create meaning through an element of experience used to understand another is referred to as a metaphor. It provokes deeper thinking and inspires new approach to issues. Therefore, metaphor could be considered as an important tool in the creation and understanding of organisations and management. With this regard, FedEx could be compared to various images. The first image created of FedEx is what Morgan (1998) terms as organisations as organisms. FedEx could be viewed as an organisation that constantly seeks to adapt and survive in the turbulent environment hence a critical perspective in helping the management of the company flow with change. Similarly, the company could be considered as a machine because of its detailed rules and regulations and division of tasks that makes administration routine. Finally, FedEx as brains considers the organisations’ ability to learn and how intelligence could be distributed in the organisation and information technology used to enhance its functions. Having revolutionised business operations in express delivery in the world, these three metaphors give an effective indication of an organisation as a change agent as compared to the other Morgan’s metaphors. Other metaphors such as organisation as a political system and organisation as culture would limit the analysis more to the normal operations in the organisation. 1. FedEx as a machine Morgan (1998) points out at Max Weber’s bureaucracy which includes efficiency, speed, clarity, precision, reliability and regularity as a result of supervision, hierarchy, given division of tasks and detailed organisational rules and regulations. Weber, an organisational theorist observed the direct relationship between mechanisation and bureaucracy in organisations. This bureaucracy made administration process routine just as machines would make production process a routine. This erodes human spirit and subsequent capacity to act spontaneously. At FedEx, operations have been made routine particularly with the incorporation of information technology into its processes. Typically, a FedEx agent would take a package and scan it, giving it a unique identification number as it goes through the system. Together with similar packages, these would be delivered to the hub or sorting area with the use of trucks. There would be between 500 and 1,000 workers at the sorting centres who ensure that each package passes through a system of conveyor belts that have been fitted with gadgets to sort the packages. There would be workers making sure that the packages coming from the sorting centre pass through the dimensional scanner that determines the dimensions – length and width – and the weight of each package so as to determine the cost of shipping. More so, the scanner would read the barcodes on the scanner and separate them depending on the destination. There could be some packages to be sorted manually by the workers. Workers operating forklifts would then place the packages into boxes ensuring that these boxes occupy the least possible space in the aircrafts transporting them. There would be couriers to receive the packages at the destination and hand deliver to their respective destinations. Here, they would again scan the package to complete the delivery cycle (FedEx 2012). Arguments by some theorists including Henri Fayol, Col. Lyndall Urwick and F. W. Mooney indicate that the process of planning, organising, coordinating, commanding and controlling form key ingredients of successful organisations (Morgan 1998). This explains the wide acceptance of modern management theories such as management by objectives, MBO. Organisations could therefore be taken as some kind of engineering with the idea being borrowed from an engineer designing a machine. As such, organisations are formed by a network of various parts with its structure designed to operate precisely. At FedEx, other than the management that ensures that overall activities run as intended, there would be the workers based at various stations to ensure that business operations flow. There would be workers at the scanning area, sorting zone and the courier who makes the final delivery. All these people work independently but collectively accomplish transactions for FedEx in a precise manner. Additionally, the company’s subsidiaries in various countries and its various business units operate independently but all for the overall benefit of FedEx Corporation. Such classical principles of management limit flexibility through decentralisation of organisations which allows for units to operate semi-autonomously under a general supervision. Going by the old theoretical assumption, with the rightful engineering, the human factor would automatically be aligned. The technical design has further been perfected through scientific management where the contribution of Fredrick Taylor becomes paramount: efficiency at work would be enhanced through breaking down of work into small components (Morgan 1998). This approach has worked well in assembly line businesses where responsibility would be pegged on the manager and not the worker. The best suited worker would be selected, trained and monitored on performance to reinforce procedure and get results. This could explain the placement of workers at different stations of operation at FedEx. Strengths and limitations According to Morgan (1998), this approach has been found effective in conditions under which machines operate well. Take for instance the delivery operations at FedEx. The mechanisation of most tasks through adoption of necessary technologies leveraged by information technology makes processes efficient which has given the company acknowledgement as the leader of technological operations in express delivery services (Harris 2009). The tasks involved are straightforward with consistency and precisions being significant attributes. However, mechanistic approaches have been criticised for creating forms that would be difficult to adapt to changes in the environment (Engen 2004). At FedEx, introduction of a new system of operation could be cumbersome because of the routine already adopted by the employees. It could also call for costly total overhauling of the systems and structures. Similarly, the approach creates unquestioning and mindless bureaucracy where humans would be denied the capacity to develop personal initiatives. Their responses to questions would be ready-made and their views myopic due to exposure to same tasks, performed in the same way every day. That FedEx courier could probably not even understand the reason for scanning the delivered packages but would do that during every other delivery. In case of questions, the response would be the same every other time with no room for contemplation and probably even innovation. 2. FedEx as an organism Organisms are known to always find ways to survive and adapt in changing environments. In the organisational context, organism refers to a system of mutually dependent and connected components that share a life and focus on a live activity (Cornelissen 2006). This perspective could be used in organisations as they would be constantly exposed to changes in both internal and external environments now that Morgan (1998) considers an organisation as an open system. The negative feedback mechanisms seek to maintain a steady state for open systems, a principles referred to as homeostasis by Engen (2008). The theories of contingency and population ecology consider organisations as constantly being in tension and struggle with the environment to come up with an appropriate relationship. The contingency theory particularly observes the perspective of organisations as open systems which need to be carefully managed so as to achieve a balance in its internal needs and to ensure adaptation to its environment. As such, there would be no one best way to organise as the best approach would depend directly on the prevailing environmental conditions. The management should therefore be concerned with alignment. This metaphor gives insight into the interconnectivity of organisations’ technical, human and business needs (Morgan 1998). Managers could utilise this in understanding strategies for corporate survival and development of organic systems that would be open to any emerging challenges. Different environments would favour different organisation species as information and communication technology advancement would favour FedEx. The advent of the Internet and web-based business operations opened doors for major revolution of the global express delivery business with FedEx being the pioneer in offering such capabilities. Harris noted that by 2005, over 6% of Americans conducted their businesses online, a trend that Smith could have foreseen when FedEx chose to adopt web-based operations in 1994 (2009). Customers shipping their packages would always have to go through the task of calling the delivery company to know the status of their shipment. But FedEx introduced an internet based tracking functionality for its customers which enabled customers track their shipment from their desktop terminals. More so, customers did not have to physically drop their packages at the nearest FedEx offices. Instead, the customers could order for pick up via the web. The website for the firm has the capacity to give unique barcodes used to individualise each shipment hence making it easier for customers to track their shipments. In addition, customers and shipment recipients could print their shipment documentation from the company’s website. The company could use this information technology capability to print barcode labels and produce invoices without the need of engaging FedEx employees. With time, this capability could not fully meet the customer needs as times had seen the birth of a mobile generation. In response, FedEx had to also adopt strategies that would adapt to the mobility of its customers and satisfy them. The company’s wireless solution was thus developed so as to enable customers virtually track their shipment or engage with the company through personal data assistance, PDAs, from any location. The company engaged the services of w-Technologies Inc. to develop this website in a way to make it available on common wireless devices including cell phones, iPads and other mobile web-based gadgets (Harris 2009). With this, FedEx tended towards a real time data transmission operation. This caused the company’s capacity to increase and give a capability of processing over 4.5 million transactions per day coming from over 5,000 trading partners around the world. Being an open system, FedEx could be forced to invest in using its Facebook fan page and join other social media sites so as to engage more with its customers now that there has been so much business activities streaming in from social media sites. Though the company could be in some of these sites, future trends indicate massive activity from this end. As Morgan (1998) indicates, competition would push organisations to seek to align themselves to the environment in which they operate. But Morgan (1998) also explains the criticism on the contingency theory which argues that the proposition based on organisations adapting to the environment attributes excessive flexibility to organisations and thus the need to consider how the environment itself selects organisations. Population ecology perspective argues that organisations, like natural organisms, would have their survival largely depend on their ability to amass adequate resources to sustain existence. There would be competition for resources, which are scarce by nature and only the fittest would survive. With competition for the market from DHL, UPS and TNT, FedEx has had to device strategies to acquire adequate resources to compete effectively for the global market share of which the four companies combined control 90% including being the pioneer in web-based express delivery technologies (Harris 2009). Operating as an adhocracy as per the definition of Morgan (1998), then FedEx would be expected to be concerned with the needs of its people. Modern organisations do not operate as machines where pay serves as the only motivation for workers. After all, Abraham Maslow suggested the hierarchy of needs that motivate humans in an organisation. Managers thus seek to create opportunities for personal growth among its employees that would steer organisations towards achieving their objectives. In fact, according to FedEx (2012), its employees are the ones that have made the company continuously recognised with its frequent placement among the Fortune 100 Best Companies to Work For. With openness, communication and teamwork, the company seeks to offer the best to its employees in terms of professional growth. The tuition reimbursement program offers opportunities for personal other than professional growth. As such, FedEx appreciates the need for discovering its needs. Being an international organisation, politics plays an important role in shaping the business activities of FedEx. The organisation should seek to align itself with its political environment. In fact, Morgan is a proponent of viewing organisations from political perspective and how organisations employ different power sources to their advantage (1998). At FedEx, the power that the company possess in its magnitude has been used to influence the State and Departments of Transportation. This power has been effectively used by the firm to broker for entry into other countries globally. The various regulatory and governmental requirements could perhaps cause the firm not to operate in some countries. As an adaptation, FedEx developed cordial relationship with the US State that gave the firm the capability to pioneer the market in Russia and the former Eastern and Central Europe communist nations among other markets. It is this adaptation that also opened up the opportunity for the company to spearhead open skies deregulation to open new markets. In addition, the firm took advantage of the Asian countries that have shown recent dominance in the global economy. For example, China was majorly an exporter but has been transformed to a large importer and FedEx has thus opened its operations in over 300 cities within the nation since 1984 (Harris 2009). Strengths and weaknesses The organism metaphor enhances attention to external environments by various organisations. Competitors being part of the external environment would thus be in the knowledge of such an organisation and strategies to gain advantage over such competition would be constantly developed. The concern would be survival and evolution so as to sustain the already gained competitive advantage. It would be the role of managers to make sure that organisations achieve the desired congruence with the environment. Similarly, the perspective of organisations as organisms contributes to organisational development theory and practice. It gives new insights into organisational ecology identifying the environment in which organisations operate. However, Engen (2008) argues that organisations should not be considered as organisms as they operate in environmental conditions considered to be less concrete than presumed by the organism metaphor. This metaphor overstates the position on functional unity and the internal cohesion found in organisations and Morgan (1998) points out at its lack of political dimension. This could make the metaphor to be considered as an ideology. Critics of Morgan’s theory of organism indicate that the metaphor only describes a mechanism that would enable managers to understand and analyse organisations but fail to give guidelines to design organism metaphor organisations (Cornellisen 2006). 3. FedEx as brains Organisations could be considered as brains by taking into account their learning abilities and processes which affect organisational intelligence. Being an era of knowledge-based economy, learning, information and knowledge should be considered as key resources with the learning brain providing an appropriate image to create organisations that would fit in the digital age. Morgan (1998) acknowledges an organisation as a memory bank and a holographic system. As a holographic system, it should be able to record information and store it in its memory bank. Every other time that FedEx would find its environment changing, then it would operate as a processing brain and being an information system, it would process the necessary information to enable it appropriately come up with a solution. This could perhaps be the functionality that saw the company adopt the web-based technology in its operations. Morgan (1998) argues that electronics provide organisations with a networked intelligence inside and outside an organisation with virtual organisations allowing for distribution of services even on a global scale. Therefore, technology has enabled FedEx network with its five subsidiary companies and many business units distributed globally (FedEx 2012). Even its customers in various parts of the world have benefitted from this capability to engage in effective transactions with the company. But with the rapid changes in the environment of operation, organisations would be challenged in executing tasks rationally and would have to be constantly learning. Self regulatory learning systems would sense, monitor then scan the critical aspects of the environment and relate the collected information to the normal operations. This system would detect any aspects that significantly deviate from these norms and cause an initiation of corrective measures on detection of discrepancies. However, these norms break down learning abilities. Morgan (1998) introduces cybernetics, an interdisciplinary science on information, communication and control, which suggest that learning organisations must be able to scan and foresee changes in the environment and allow for appropriate strategic direction. The cybernetic perspective propagates the view of organisations as information patterns, with focus on how organisations learn through negative feedback. The principle specifies constraints as opposed to goals and control loop. As such, managers would be tasked with understanding the recurring problems and identify the forces behind such problems leading to examination of the current practices and devising better alternatives. Despite the risk involved, FedEx chose to pioneer web-based tracking of shipment for its customers that reduced the engagement of its employees in handling shipment queries and generally make express delivery effective. Strengths and limitations The metaphor on organisations as brains gives guidelines to managers on how to create learning organisations. It gives insights on how information technology supports intelligent evolution to give organisations such as FedEx higher capabilities and capacities to attain competitive business operation practices. The cybernetic aspect acknowledges consideration of organisations away from the traditional machine and organism metaphors. Nonetheless, its limitation is in the requirements needed for learning organisations which could cause a conflict with power and control realities. “Learning for the sake of learning” could just be a creation of another ideology (Morgan 1998, p.109). Conclusion To reflect on the structure of an organisation, diagnostic reading would give comprehensive understanding especially where managers adopt an open mind which would enhance non-judgemental feedback. Metaphors could be used in creating stories for organisations. In spite of the possibility of an organisation having various metaphors, they all could be employed in a functionalist way to generate theories based on the assumption that real organisations would be exposed to a network of cohesive and ordered real relationships ontologically. Organisations could be considered as adaptive with negative feedback, natural selection and loose coupling considered as some of the common adaptive mechanisms. Effective managers would thus seek to acquire the art of reading situations that they attempt to manage or organise. Indeed, FedEx could be said to be a machine due to the mechanical approach to its operations; an organism based on the way the company has been able to adapt to changes in its environment as it seeks for survival; and a brain as it qualifies as a learning organisation. Morgan’s metaphors therefore establish metaphors as a scientific discourse which has caused the development of new insights in organisations as they have been used as initiators of imagination, construction and synthesis. References Cornelissen, JP 2006, Making Sense of Theory Construction: Metaphor and Disciplined Imagination, Organisation Studies, vol. 27, no. 11, 1579 – 1597. Engen, RBV 2008, Metaphor: A Multifaceted Literary Device used by Morgan and Weick to Describe Organisations, Emerging Leadership Journeys, vol. 1, no. 1, 39 – 51. FedEx 2012, viewed 16 April 2012, http://www.fedex.com/gb/ Harris, BF 2009, America, Technology and strategic Culture: A Clausewitzian Assessment, Routledge, Abingdon, Oxon. Morgan, G 1998, Images of Organisation, Sage Publications, Thousand Oaks, CA. Read More