A Model for Diagnosing Organizational Behavior - Case Study Example

Introduction Founded back in 1907, United Parcel Service (UPS) is a US-based company that provides the public with package delivery services to as much as 200 countries and territories all over the world (UPS a). To enable the company to cater the needs and wants of its long-term customers, UPS continuously expand its services by investing on necessary transportation, communications, and logistics facilities and other related equipments. Upon reading “A Model for Diagnosing Organizational Behavior” (Nadler and Tushman), the most critical input of UPS under each category known as: (1) environment; (2) resources; (3) organizational history; and (4) strategy will be provided followed by discussing the reasons why these inputs are considered the most critical. Eventually, the impact of the identified inputs towards the organization including the any forms of potential problems that are significantly associated with insuring the availability of the identified inputs will be tackled. Prior to conclusion, several ways in which the identified inputs interact with each other will be explained in details. The Most Critical Input and Impact of the Identified Inputs on UPS Environmental Input Given that UPS serves the world market, the most critical environmental input is the customers. Given that UPS is offer its services around the world, the company needs to have a large-based of regular customers to enable the company to compensate with its daily operational expenses associated with the need to establish several offices around the world, investments on its official website and other mode of global communication including the employment of approximately 240,000 full- and part-time employees around the world (UPS b) among others. Back in 1990s, UPS was able to gather as much as 1 million regular customers (UPS c). Resources Input Under the category of resources, the most critical input in the case of UPS is the investment on information and communication technology (ICT). With the use of ICT which includes UPS official website and the use of handheld Delivery Information Acquisition Devices (DIAD) (UPS c), it is easier to manage, operate, and keep track of its daily business transactions such as the shipment and delivery schedules around the world on a real-time basis. The company will also have a way to maintain the company’s relationship with its existing customers. Basically, the use of efficient ICT enables the company to deliver competitive services to each of its customers. In the absence of having reliable ICT, UPS will have trouble managing and keeping track of all business transactions. The company may also end up needing a larger number of employees to do the paper works associated with not having a stable and well-functioning ICT. Organizational History Input According to Nadler and Tushman, a large number of evidences suggest that the past organizational events significantly affect the way modern business organization functions today (Nadler and Tushman, p. 41). For many years, UPS managed to establish organizational norms and values that fully recognizes the importance of work diversity. In line with this matter, UPS management strongly believes in the principle that diversity at work does not only uplife employees’ moreal but also contributes on encouragng its people to work well with other races (UPS d, p. 31). Aside from increasing the work effeciency of its employees, giving importance on work diversity enables the company to prevent possible internal conflict which may arise out of the cultural differences of its employees around the world. Without the work diversity norms and values, it would be difficult on the part of UPS management to deal with not only its global customers but also in managing employees around the world. Strategy Input One of the most important business strategy used by UPS is to maintain a strong community engagement at all times. (UPS d, p. 46) Basically, maintaining a strong relationship with the community through charity contribution allows more people to become familiar with UPS. As a result, the company is able to capture a larger market share by keeping its existing customers loyal with the company. As of 2007, UPS global financial contribution has reached a total of US$97.9 million (US$46.4 million around the world and US$51.5 million for employees) (UPS d, p. 47). As a result of strengthening UPS’ relationship with the community, the company is able to easily get hold onto its existing employees and customers. For this reason, the company is able to avoid unnecessary operational expenses associated with a high organizational turn over rate. In the absence of such strategic input, UPS will easily lose its existing employees and customers to other companies that renders the same service in the global market. Potential Problems Associated with Insuring the Availability of the Identified Inputs In the absence of having a large network of regular customers, UPS as the biggest package delivery company will not be able to continuously provide its global service. Because of the high operational cost associated with delivering global service, the company would easily have a serious financial problems in case the demand for its service suddenly declines due to external environmental factors such as a global financial crisis or economic recession. Investment on ICT such as the UPS official website and the use of handheld Delivery Information Acquisition Devices (DIAD) requires a large sum of money. For this reason, UPS management should monitor and ensure that the company maintains a good credit line with the local and international creditors to ensure that necessary ICT devices are in place to assist employees in delivering a real-time service to its customers. Upon implementing the application of ICT, UPS managers should also provide training programs to ensure that each employee is able to make full use of these technological equipments. Establishing organizational norms and values related to the importance of work diversity can trigger internal conflicts coming from employees who are against the promotion of such concept. To avoid any forms of organizational conflicts, UPS managers should be able to communicate the importance and reasons behind the need to develop a culture that promotes work diversity. Aside from having a good communication skill, UPS managers are also required to have a competitive leadership skill to allow them to easily manage a large group of work force. Similar to establishing organizational norms and values related to the importance of work diversity, UPS managers also requires a good communication and leadership skill to avoid wasting money on community engagement programs. In the absence of good public relation using appropriate leadership skill, it is possible for UPS to continuously invest money on community engagement without winning the loyalty of the people who are benefiting out of each charitable project. Ways in which the Identified Inputs Interact with Each Other Resources input like ICT combined with organizational history input like the promotion of work diversity enables UPS employees to easily address the specific needs and wants of each customer aside from being able to monitor real-time delivery service to customers and prevent organizational conflicts among the employees. With the use of ICT together with strategy input like community engagement, UPS can easily increase the number of environmental input like customers which is necessary for the success of the business. Conclusion The organizational input model as discussed by Nadler and Tushman is useful in terms of enabling the managers to easily analyze and identify the most critical input that can significantly affect the long term business performance of UPS. In the absence of such business model, it would be very difficult for managers to accurately identify significant business inputs that can either affect the business positvely or negatively. References: Nadler, David A. and Michael L. Tushman. A Model for Diagnosing Organizational Behavior. In 'Organizational Dynamics'. AMACOM, 1980. "UPS." 2008a. About UPS. 16 October 2008 . "UPS." 2008b. 2007 Press Releases . 16 October 2008 . "UPS." 2008c. 1991-1999: Embracing Technology. 16 October 2008 . "UPS." August 2008d. Operating in Unison: Centennial Edition - 2007 UPS Corporate Sustainability Report. 16 October 2008 . Read More