Usps Business Practices
USPS Business Practices
John Tuttle
MGT 330
Alfred Wilfong
February 5, 2012
The United States Postal Service has been in business since 1775. It employs over half a million people, and is the second largest civilian employer in the United States. Without the aid of tax payer dollars, the USPS has been profitable every year until 2008. With the congressional mandated 5+ billion dollar prefunded health care payment, along with the rise of other forms of communication (E-mail, Facebook etc) the USPS found itself in a deep sea of red ink. With a future of uncertainty and an antiquated business model, can the Post Office survive?
The management practices of Planning, Leading, Organizing, Staffing and controlling will be reviewed from the Post Office perspective…or how the Post Office does business. The mission of the Postal Service is to provide the American public with trusted universal postal service at affordable prices.
The Post Office Leaders had to set goals. “Company leaders establish goals and objectives on at least three levels: (a) strategic goals, (b) tactical goals, and (c) operational goals.” (Reilly, 2011) The main focus was to deliver the mail to the citizens of the United States, effectively, and efficiently. That goal was tough, but achievable. The growing of the business in the early days wasn’t as complex, as the Post Office was the only game in town. As the technology age dawned the Post Office found itself in a bad position. Due to the amount of communication via other sources, mail volumes plummeted and sent the Post Office reeling.
New goals were required in order to get the USPS out of the red and into the black once again. This would require drastic changes that would affect not only the company itself, but the public it served. We will come to those changes throughout this paper. The next piece of the puzzle is leading.
Leading has two basic components: Leading and Managing. Employees see a leader as someone that
John Tuttle
MGT 330
Alfred Wilfong
February 5, 2012
The United States Postal Service has been in business since 1775. It employs over half a million people, and is the second largest civilian employer in the United States. Without the aid of tax payer dollars, the USPS has been profitable every year until 2008. With the congressional mandated 5+ billion dollar prefunded health care payment, along with the rise of other forms of communication (E-mail, Facebook etc) the USPS found itself in a deep sea of red ink. With a future of uncertainty and an antiquated business model, can the Post Office survive?
The management practices of Planning, Leading, Organizing, Staffing and controlling will be reviewed from the Post Office perspective…or how the Post Office does business. The mission of the Postal Service is to provide the American public with trusted universal postal service at affordable prices.
The Post Office Leaders had to set goals. “Company leaders establish goals and objectives on at least three levels: (a) strategic goals, (b) tactical goals, and (c) operational goals.” (Reilly, 2011) The main focus was to deliver the mail to the citizens of the United States, effectively, and efficiently. That goal was tough, but achievable. The growing of the business in the early days wasn’t as complex, as the Post Office was the only game in town. As the technology age dawned the Post Office found itself in a bad position. Due to the amount of communication via other sources, mail volumes plummeted and sent the Post Office reeling.
New goals were required in order to get the USPS out of the red and into the black once again. This would require drastic changes that would affect not only the company itself, but the public it served. We will come to those changes throughout this paper. The next piece of the puzzle is leading.
Leading has two basic components: Leading and Managing. Employees see a leader as someone that
References: Reilly,M., Minnick,C., & Baack, D.(2011). The Five Functions of Effective Management. San Diego, CA, Bridgepoint Education. Retrieved from https://content.ashford.edu/books/AUMGT330.11.1 Rothbauer-Wanesh, H. (2009). Four functions of management. Business Management Suite 101. Retrieved February 5, 2012, from http://heather-rothbauer-wanish.suite101.com/four-functions-of-management-a113463#ixzz1lYtoNftb Juneja, Himanshu (2008). The staffing function. The Management Study Guide. Retrieved February 5, 2012, from http://www.managementstudyguide.com/staffing-function.htm