Key Functions Of Managers And Organizational Analysis: A Case Study Of FedEx

Identify key functions of managers within organizations.
Identify control systems used in management.
Research environmental influences that managers encounter.
Analyze elements in the strategic planning process.
Analyze elements of organizational structure and design.
Examine motivational strategies used by managers within organizational settings.

FedEx is one of the most accomplished companies in the provision of logistics services across the globe. It has four companies operating under the FedEx brand umbrella: FedEx Services, FedEx Ground, FedEx Express and FedEx Freight. The company leverages its global presence and brand to provide connections support to individuals and companies in over 200 countries in the world. The origins of FedEx can be traced to the frustrations experienced by a former Marine pilot delivering packages. In 1971, the Marine decided to start a business that can be able to deliver packages conveniently and effectively, thus coming up with the idea of Federal Express (CSI Market, 2018).

The report will analyze ways in which the company can leverage its strengths to overcome the weaknesses and threats to its system and also enable it to take advantage of the opportunities available for it to expand its operations in service to its customers and grow value for its stakeholders. Also, the report will analyze the various aspects of the FedEx business including the company structure, stakeholders, competition, employees, motivation and environment constraints and their impacts on the company’s activities and profitability.

S.W.O.T. – Formulating Strategies

Strengths

FedEx has many strengths including a strong brand recognition, global presence, strong financial muscle, and innovative personnel and leadership. I will use these strengths to ensure that the company provides their customers across the world with the highest quality services possible.

Weaknesses

The weakness identified in the company include the high cost of services and labor disputes, all which drive business towards the competitors. One of the things that I would do is to strategically streamline the company operations and remove wastes in a bid to bring the cost of operating the business down. The savings can then be used to lower the cost of services to the customers.

Opportunities

The online spheres have expanded the companies reach and simplified the communication process between individuals and businesses. FedEx is mainly a B2B company that should leverage e-commerce to expand its businesses across the world. The company should also capitalize on the available business opportunities for making strategic alliances in foreign countries which would lower the cost of establishing businesses.

Threats

The company faces stiff competition from companies such as UPS and DHL who offer similar services and are enlarging their operations across the globe. To beat the competition, FedEx needs to offer high-quality services and find ways of lowering the cost of those services.

Environmental Constraints

FedEx operates in many parts of the world with different legal, political, economic and socio-cultural features. The company’s global presence means that the company operates in a complex business environment full of challenges and opportunities. The legal environment is one of the most challenging factors that FedEx deals with, especially concerning the issue of unions (Kalyani, 2017). The company is registered under different rules, but there are moves to bring it under different rules that would mandate it to allow unionization of employees. The company needs to lobby Congress to ensure the status quo remains as unions have the power to force companies into increasing the wages of concerned employees to an unsustainable level (FedEx, 2018).

S.W.O.T. – Formulating Strategies

Stakeholders

Stakeholders are groups and individuals that affect and gets affected by the operations of a business (Ananthan, Appannaiah, & Reddy, 2010). The basic FedEx stakeholders include suppliers, consumers, shareholders, the government, the management. The government regulates the industry that FedEx operates in enabling the company to make profits and sometimes making the business less profitable. Also, the government benefits from taxes levied on the company’s operations. On their part, suppliers determine the cost of raw materials and affect the consumer prices of the company’s services. The management/Board of directors control every aspect of the business and are important cogs in the functioning of the company.

The stakeholders that the company should manage and give the most priority to is the customers. Without customers, a company is not in business. A FedEx depends on the customers to purchase its services so that it can make some profits. Serving the customer and giving them quality services and at affordable prices should rank as the most important aspects of s business (Ireland, Hoskisson, & Hitt, 2012)

FedEx Organization Structure and Design

The organization structure in the FedEx Company is mechanistic in nature Mechanistic organization structure is characterized by hierarchical relationships between the management and the rest of the employees with the management making all the decisions which are later communicated with the rest of the employees (Baligh, 2011). Mechanistic structure of FedEx provides stability to the company but makes it hard for it to respond easily to changes in the business operating environment (Pride, Hughes, & Kapoor, 2012). At FedEx, there is a high degree of job specialization, for instance, the delivery employees only deliver parcels and don’t get involved in preparations of inventories. At the same time, people working at closely related jobs are grouped together under common leadership meaning that it is highly departmentalized. In the same Most decisions at FedEx are made by senior management thus the company has centralized decision making.      

Motivating employees

There are various theories that a company can use to base its motivation principles on including Hertzberg’s Two-Factor Theory, Maslow’s Hierarchy of needs, Hawthorne’s effect, Expectancy theory. In the most appropriate theory in the FedEx’s case is the Two Factor theory based on psychologist Frederick Herzberg research on accountants and engineers.  According to the theory, the employees’ motivation and satisfaction should be based on two factors: Increasing motivator factors and reducing hygiene factors (Hyun, 2009). In FedEx, I will endeavor to ensure that the motivators’ factors are taken care of including ensuring job satisfaction, providing a clear career progression path and recognizing employees input. At the same time, it will serve the company well to reduce the hygiene factors through activities such as providing competitive salaries and benefits and improving the relationships between workers and managers.    

The issue currently posing a threat to FedEx is the issue of high cost of its services, and failure to address the problem will result in the company losing market share to its competitors. The company needs to leverage its online and on the ground presence to streamline its operations to cut down on expenses. The savings would enable the company to provide quality service to its comers at subsidized prices. Competitive prices for the company’s services will ensure loyal customers continue patronizing the business and at the same time attract new customers (Hansen, & Mowen, 2015).

Control and monitoring constitute some of the most important processes in a project. Monitoring ensures that the processes run seamlessly and that any shortcomings are addressed through control function for better results (Madura, 2010). The most appropriate control and monitoring measures to use in the project are the concurrent and feedback controls as they deal with streamlining of operation processes and giving value for money to the client. Concurrent controls processes will include management by walking around, tracking employee performance controls and bureaucratic controls. Every manager would be charged with physically supervising the people under him or her and noting the areas where more efficiency is required. At the same time, the company will use various metrics to track the employees’ performance.

Any project’s success or failure can only be ascertained after a thorough evaluation and analysis of the processes and end results. The current project’s measure will be how well the processes results in a reduction in the costs of operation and the effect it has on overall consumer satisfaction. The hypothesis is that the streamlining of company operations will result in higher consumer satisfaction levels. The recommendations will, therefore, have two effects: saving the company money and increased levels of customer satisfaction.

References

Ananthan, B. R., Appannaiah, H. R., & Reddy, P. N. (2010). Business Management. New Delhi: Himalaya Pub. House.     

Baligh, H. H. (2011). Organization structures: Theory and design, analysis and prescription. New York, N.Y: Springer.

CSI Market. (2018). FedEx Corporation. Retrieved from https://csimarket.com/stocks/ compet_glance.php?code=FDX

FedEx. (2018). Compensation and rewards. Retrieved from https://www.fedex.com/cn_english/ careers/compensation.html

Hansen, D. R., & Mowen, M. M. (2015). Cornerstones of cost management. Mason, OH: SouthWestern Cengage Learning.

Hyun, S. (2009). Re-examination of Herzberg's Two-Factor Theory of Motivation in the Korean Army foodservice operations. Ames, Iowa: Iowa State University.

Ireland, R. D., Hoskisson, R. E., & Hitt, A. M. (2012). Understanding business strategy (3rd ed.). Mason, OH: South-Western Cengage Learning.

Kalyani, D. (2017, August). IBISWorld industry report 49222: Couriers & local delivery services in the US. Retrieved from IBISWorld database.

Madura, J. (2010). Introduction to business. St. Paul, MN: Paradigm Pub.

Pride, W. M., Hughes, R. J., & Kapoor, J. R. (2012). Introduction to business. Australia: South-Western Cengage Learning.