Operational Challenges Faced by Postal Services Organizations in New Zealand

This paper examines the operational challenges faced by postal services organizations in New Zealand, focusing on technology, human resources, dynamic business environment, and supply chain management. It analyzes the challenges faced by New Zealand Post and compares them with other postal services companies.

Running Head: BUSINESS CLIMATE OF NEW ZEALAND POSTAL SERVICE
ORGANIZATIONS 1
BUSINESS CLIMATE OF NEW ZEALAND POSTAL SERVICE ORGANIZATIONS
Student’s Name
Institutional Affiliation
Date

BUSINESS CLIMATE OF NEW ZEALAND POSTAL SERVICE ORGANIZATIONS 1
Contents
Executive Summary
Introduction......................................................................................................................................0
Body.................................................................................................................................................0
Operational Challenges faced by Postal Services Organizations in New Zealand......................0
Technology...............................................................................................................................0
Human Resources.....................................................................................................................0
Dynamic Business Environment..............................................................................................0
Supply Chain Management......................................................................................................0
Operational Issues and Challenges faced by New Zealand Post.................................................0
Technology...............................................................................................................................0
Human Resources.....................................................................................................................0
Dynamic Business Environment..............................................................................................0
Supply Chain Management......................................................................................................0
Comparison..................................................................................................................................0
Technology...............................................................................................................................0
Human Resource......................................................................................................................0
Dynamic Business Environment..............................................................................................0
Supply Chain Management......................................................................................................0
Conclusion.......................................................................................................................................0
Introduction......................................................................................................................................0
Body.................................................................................................................................................0
Operational Management Principles............................................................................................0
Reality......................................................................................................................................0

BUSINESS CLIMATE OF NEW ZEALAND POSTAL SERVICE ORGANIZATIONS 2
Organization.............................................................................................................................0
Success.....................................................................................................................................0
Accountability..........................................................................................................................0
Change......................................................................................................................................0
Operational Management Practices.............................................................................................0
Core Practices...........................................................................................................................0
Facilitating Practices................................................................................................................0
Operational Techniques............................................................................................................0
Internal and External Compliance requirements for New Zealand Post......................................0
Internal Compliance.................................................................................................................0
External Compliance................................................................................................................0
Conclusions......................................................................................................................................0
Recommendation of an operations management plan.....................................................................0
References........................................................................................................................................0

BUSINESS CLIMATE OF NEW ZEALAND POSTAL SERVICE ORGANIZATIONS 3
Executive Summary
This paper focuses on the examination of operational challenges faced by the Postal Services
Organizations in New Zealand. The main challenges faced by the postal organizations resonates
around technology, human resources, dynamic business environment and supply chain
management. With an environment that has changed a lot, the postal Services have had problems
with transition to meet the growing demands of the digital age. To better understand the
operational challenges in perspective, the paper analyzed the operational challenges faced by the
New Zealand Post under the topic areas of human resources, technology, supply chain
management and the dynamic business environment.

BUSINESS CLIMATE OF NEW ZEALAND POSTAL SERVICE ORGANIZATIONS 4
Introduction
New Zealand Postal Services came to full effect in the market competition in the year
1998. The postal market of New Zealand is responsible for regulations and laws that relate to
postal services. The main role of the postal market’s postal policy is to ensure that the regulatory
environment that includes postal services competition is supportive of an efficient New Zealand
postal market.
The New Zealand Post Office was initially a government department up to the year 1987.
It was founded in the year 1881 and headquartered in Wellington, New Zealand. The New
Zealand Post did well at the beginning of the 20th century as a government department bearing
more than 1700 branches. The department rapidly grew serving a big role as telephone exchange,
post office and savings bank, cementing its place in the society of New Zealand. Some of the
landmark events that cemented the future of New Zealand Post include; private telephone’s
growth in people’s homes and the international and internal airmail services.
Steps were taken in the 1960s and 1970s for the betterment of management of the rising
international and national mail volumes. However, there was the abolishment of the department
under the Postal Services Act 1987. It was later replaced by the following state-owned
enterprises; New Zealand Post Limited, Post Office Bank Limited and the Telecom New Zealand
Limited. The research aims at discussing operational challenges and issues that New Zealand
Post faces.
Body
Operational Challenges faced by Postal Services Organizations in New Zealand
Technology

BUSINESS CLIMATE OF NEW ZEALAND POSTAL SERVICE ORGANIZATIONS 5
The emergence of new technology has completely transformed the nature and landscape
of communication. The advances and diffusion of information technologies have changed the
way people communicate, undertake the transportation of products and goods and how they carry
out the transactions of finances. Internet dominance in undertaking the transactions above have
played a big role in reducing the role of the postal services in New Zealand. In that case, the
postal services companies in New Zealand are bracing for changes in the manner in which they
conduct business (Binsfeld, Whalley & Pugalis, 2016). Many postal services companies in New
Zealand use the technology of Snail Mail. However, this has a disadvantage over the new
technologies like e-mail. For one, the speed of delivery of snail mail as compared to email is
very slow, in addition to bearing a much higher cost of delivery over that of e-mail. The access
cost of snail mail is also very low but has an advantage of high security. Considering the
comparison of the capabilities of the snail mail and the e-mail, it is evident that e-mail
technology will continue to have high dominance in New Zealand. The postal industry in New
Zealand also continues to hold on to the traditional means of sending letters, utilizing the small
market that still lingers. The problem, however, is that the market for physical letters and parcels
continues to decline and therefore, postal companies in New Zealand should restructure its core
business function to meet the technological needs of consumers (Duggan, 2017).
Human Resources
Due to the new restructuring processes of moving the digital age compliance, the postal
service industries in New Zealand have cut down on the number of employees. The business of
communication was booming back then when the inception of the internet had not sufficed.
Communication, transportation, and financial transactions were the hotbed of postal services
companies in New Zealand. At that time, many people were employed by postal services
organizations.

BUSINESS CLIMATE OF NEW ZEALAND POSTAL SERVICE ORGANIZATIONS 6
However, after the digital age, many consumers relied mostly on the use of the internet to
undertake the businesses that postal industries would be the beneficiaries. Thus, the postal
services industries started to realize a massive decrease in profitability. The human resources in
New Zealand postal services faced new challenges. First, there was a need to restructured its
employees to meet the current situation (Rasmussen, Foster & Farr, 2016). Another problem was
that there was a need for undertaking retrenchment exercise to curb the wage bill that could no
longer be supported by the meager returns. There was also a need to train employees on the new
ways of transacting business. Because of the infusion of technology, there was a need to shift
from the traditional modes of operation thus requiring new job description and training (Khazabi,
2017). The staff was also given the opportunity to access career support initiatives. All the
changes that needed to be made needed additional cost at the time the postal services in New
Zealand were struggling to stay afloat.
Dynamic Business Environment
For a long time, postal services industries enjoyed a monopoly in the transportation,
communication, and financial transaction sector. Later, electronic mail dominated the market in
New Zealand. E-mail, fax and instant messaging technologies like WhatsApp completely
replaced the huge market of communication that the postal service industries enjoyed. The
financial transaction sector has also been greatly affected by the ever-changing technological
world (Crew & Brennan, 2016). In the past, the postal services companies did the work of
transporting money from one point to another. That has been replaced by electronic money
transfer technologies. The banking sector with the use of ATMs affected the need to send money
through postal services companies. People could visit the ATM machines with their cards and
withdraw money at any particular time they thought. After the ATM, came the credit card
technologies where the money would be transferred at the click of a button. Other technologies
like PayPal made it even easier to send and receive money electronically (Erturk &Fail, 2015).
The recent technology of bit coins shows that the postal service’s industry's role in money
transfer continues to diminish.

BUSINESS CLIMATE OF NEW ZEALAND POSTAL SERVICE ORGANIZATIONS 7
Supply Chain Management
The New Zealand Postal Services industry faces a lot of challenges in its supply chain
management. One of the challenges it faces is lack of goods to distribute. One of the segments of
supply chain management is the strategic sourcing of raw materials (Alexander & Merkert,
2018). Many consumers have substituted the use of postal services to the use of other means like
the internet. Therefore, the postal services in New Zealand have run short of raw materials which
are in the form of transportation products (Mann, 2017). With the inadequacy of raw materials,
the whole process of supply chain management is affected.
Operational Issues and Challenges faced by New Zealand Post
Technology
With the disruption of the physical mail business which was the cornerstone of the
company, by the electronic communication and methods of payment, New Zealand Post had to
employ other strategies to stay afloat. One of the strategies of the group was to shift from the
product-oriented kind of business to a service-oriented business model which gives more
attention to its customers. Another strategy was to grow the logistics and parcels business. Since
the disruption of the electronic means, there was a need for using innovative ways to popularize
the parcel and logistics business. Another means was to leverage on technology to boost the
interaction of New Zealand Post with its consumers. The strategies employed by New Zealand
Post faces a risk of failing because the transition in technology cannot go back however much
effort is put. The aim of popularizing the parcel and logistics business means that consumers
would have to abandon the use of electronic means which is a pipe dream for the company.
Human Resources

BUSINESS CLIMATE OF NEW ZEALAND POSTAL SERVICE ORGANIZATIONS 8
To improve its human resource management, New Zealand Post employed the use of
front line leadership which was meant to have a direct role in the recruitment, motivation,
retention, and development of the workforce. However, the strategy of placement of front line
leaders seemed futile. The results of the performance of fort line leadership were inconsistent.
This was followed by a string of problems; the implementation of new initiatives was difficult to
implement, there was a consistent recurrence of employment-related issues because of the fact
that issues were not dealt with on time. Also, their confidence was lacking on the frontline
leaders by the senior management on the ability to handle changes that would emerge in the near
future.
Dynamic Business Environment
The 1998 deregulation of the New Zealand Post presented more challenges. For one, it
greatly reduced the monopoly of the New Zealand Post to a $1.75 limit and 500 grams. Shortly
after that, came the effect of the internet which changed the landscape of communication and
financial transactions. Hardly had the New Zealand Post recovered from the effect of the Postal
Service Act 1987 than the electronic means of communication and financial transactions
presented as new challenges. The original purpose of the New Zealand Post was the distribution
of physical parcels. However much it tries to salvage the tradition of physical parcel transfer, the
dynamic business environment moves in the direction of the digital age placing the New Zealand
Post company in a dilemma.
Supply Chain Management
New Zealand Post has faced a lot of challenges in its supply chain management. For one,
there was an increment in the delivery of items that were purchased through the web. That was
also accompanied by direct marketing growth. Therefore, the number of items that were
processed annually remains at a high level. The problem with that was that the volumes of items
sent declined as items became bulkier, heavier and more diverse. That made the process of
delivery of goods more expensive. Another issue that arose was the delivery point’s increment
that resulted in social and demographic changes and subsequently increasing pressures on cost
and productivity.

BUSINESS CLIMATE OF NEW ZEALAND POSTAL SERVICE ORGANIZATIONS 9
Comparison
Technology
Both the New Zealand Post and the postal services industries in New Zealand faced the
impact of the internet. Since both relied on communication, transport and money transfer, they
all lost the dominance in those areas. E-mail, electronic money transfer technologies are faster,
cheaper and convenient thus luring the consumers of postal services industries. However, New
Zealand Post contrast with the other postal services industries in that due to its popularity and
dominance, it was able to enter into partnership with renowned companies like KFC for the
delivery of products to consumers. Therefore, it remained relevant in the digital world.
Human Resource
In terms of human resource, the postal services industries and the New Zealand Post
faced the problem of restructuring its workforce as a result of low workload and reduced
profitability (Luan, 2016). The New Zealand Post distinguished itself from other companies by
putting its employees into training programs to equip them for the changing needs of the market.
Dynamic Business Environment
The ever changing nature of transacting business through financial transaction,
communication and transportation was a universal problem that was common to the postal
services industries (Kool et al., 2017). However, because of massive infrastructure and
investments it had accumulated over the years, New Zealand Post had enough resources to match
the changing climate of business transactions and invest in infrastructure that was needed for the
same (Hopkins & McCarthy, 2016).
Supply Chain Management
The problems of facing the changed nature of products for transmission were common to
New Zealand Post and other postal service companies in New Zealand. Most of the goods to be
sent were no longer as light as letters but were heavier and bulkier because they were goods
bought from online shops (Lovelock & Patterson, 2015). With the investment of requisite
infrastructure, New Zealand Post was able to distinguish itself from the other industries.

BUSINESS CLIMATE OF NEW ZEALAND POSTAL SERVICE ORGANIZATIONS 10
Conclusion
The New Zealand Postal Services industry faces a lot of challenges but two of them are
outstanding. For one, maintaining relevance in the ever-changing digital world is quite a hurdle
for the postal services industry. Since the industry was originally designed to send physical
parcels, transforming them to handle the digital needs requires a lot of resources and
infrastructure. It is also worthy to understand that digital space has been dominated by other
companies. Therefore, the Postal Service industry hangs in the balance. Another crucial
challenge is the infrastructural transition. A lot of resources is required to transform the postal
service industry to meet the needs of transportation of bulky products. The reduced income as a
result of technology makes it even harder for these industries to purchase new infrastructure. The
New Zealand Post challenge of managing its human resources in the wake of its restructuring
process distinguishes it from the rest. The strategy of frontline leadership was meant to improve
the workforce in the transition process but ended up creating more problems. The frontline
leaders were found to lack the capacity to manage the workforce and new strategic goals and
objectives. That dilemma put the company in a difficult position because the human resource
was crucial in the transition process. Another challenge was that New Zealand Post face is
leveraging on technology to remain relevant. So far, the group has found solace in partnering
with technological companies but that is inadequate.

BUSINESS CLIMATE OF NEW ZEALAND POSTAL SERVICE ORGANIZATIONS 11
References
Alexander, D., & Merkert, R. (2018). The air cargo industry. In The Routledge Companion to
Air Transport Management (pp. 57-75). Routledge.
Binsfeld, N., Whalley, J., & Pugalis, L. (2016). Competing against yourself: State duopoly in the
Luxembourg telecommunications industry. Telecommunications Policy, 40(8), 791-803.
Crew, M. A., & Brennan, T. J. (Eds.). (2015). Postal and Delivery Innovation in the Digital
Economy (pp. 323-325). Springer International Publishing.
Duggan, A. J. (2017). Postal Reform in Japan: A Comparative New Zealand–Japan Study of
Economic Issues in Privatising a Postal System (Doctoral dissertation, University of
Waikato).
Erturk, E., & Fail, D. (2015). Information technology in New Zealand: Review of emerging
social trends, current issues, and policies. arXiv preprint arXiv: 1504.07012.
Hopkins, D., & McCarthy, A. (2016). Change trends in urban freight delivery: A qualitative
inquiry. Geoforum, 74, 158-170.
Khazabi, M. (2017). Postal service markets: an international comparison analysis. Journal of
Public Affairs, 17(3), e1599.
Kool, B., Ameratunga, S., Scott, N., Lawrenson, R., & Christey, G. (2017). The epidemiology of
work-related injury admissions to hospitals in the Midland region of New
Zealand. Injury, 48(11), 2478-2484.
Lovelock, C., & Patterson, P. (2015). Services marketing. Pearson Australia.
Luan, J. (2016, August). A Comparative Study on Replacing Business Tax with Value-added
Tax of Domestic and Foreign Telecommunication Industry. In International Conference
on Judicial, Administrative and Humanitarian Problems of State Structures and
Economical Subjects (JAHP 2016). Atlantis Press.

BUSINESS CLIMATE OF NEW ZEALAND POSTAL SERVICE ORGANIZATIONS 12
Mann, M. (2017). Exploratory Estimates of US International Services by Mode of Supply. US
Department of Commerce (USDOC), Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) Working
Paper.
Rasmussen, E., Foster, B., & Farr, D. (2016). The battle over employers’ demand for “more
flexibility” Attitudes of New Zealand employers. Employee Relations, 38(6), 886-906.

BUSINESS CLIMATE OF NEW ZEALAND POSTAL SERVICE ORGANIZATIONS 13
Part 2
Introduction
New Zealand Post prides itself as one of the oldest organizations in New Zealand, dating
back to the 1840s. In 1987, it was changed to a state-owned enterprise after running as a
government department from the time of its inception. The company has been very beneficial to
the state remitting more than a billion to the government in dividends and taxes. It is now one of
the largest firms in New Zealand being directly responsible for approximately 10,000 employees
and a further 7,000 others being employed in the affiliate operations countrywide. Some of the
businesses that the group operates in New Zealand include; payment services, banking,
information management, logistics, and goods distribution and the traditional mail delivery. The
processing and delivery of domestic mail is New Zealand’s core business. There are about 120
sites around the country with around 2,300 postal workers. They distribute mail to about 1.4
million addresses in the urban areas. Its deregulation in the year 1998 was one of New Zealand’s
greatest challenge. That problem led to an increment of the competitive pressures owing to the
fact that New Zealand Post was obliged to operate a universal service. Another main challenge
that the firm faced was the impact of the internet (Goncharuk & Lazareva, 2017).
The internet came in as a disadvantage for New Zealand Post because it reduced the
traffic of mail as a result of the digital transfer and email substitution. The company opted for the
investment of new hardware, upgrading of the systems of mail processing and equipment to the
latest available technology. Another response was to rationalize the capacity of mail processing
nationally. In that case, there was the introduction of new sorting machines at six processing
sites. Despite the intervention of the new ways of operations, New Zealand Post still faced a
myriad of challenges in terms of moving back to its former state of profit making but better
strategies were employed (Ryall & Blumenfeld, 2015).
Body
Operational Management Principles

BUSINESS CLIMATE OF NEW ZEALAND POSTAL SERVICE ORGANIZATIONS 14
Operational management principles refer to the important adjustments that are made for
the support of the company to arrive at its strategic goals. The application of the principles below
will realize the company’s ability to reach the strategic goals;

BUSINESS CLIMATE OF NEW ZEALAND POSTAL SERVICE ORGANIZATIONS 15
Reality
With this principle, there is a huge need for the company, organization or institution to
focus on the overall challenge or problem other than the techniques. The reason for that is that no
tool can lead to a universal solution. Every challenge needs to be tackled with the kind of angle
that is requisite for it. The changing economic times have forced New Zealand Post to apply
drastic changes to its operations. For instance, the inception of the technology of direct
messaging and electronic mails reduced the dependency of people on letters. In 2011, the New
Zealand Post projected the recovery of losses through opening up 280 PostShop Kiwibank stores
and 910 postal outlets. This was after it shut and downgraded dozens of its branches nationwide.
The company also planned the installation of new kiosks that are self-service and like the ATMs
for purposes of handling parcels, payment of bills and letter handling (Crew & Brennan, 2015).
The partnership of the New Zealand Post with other companies is also another strategy employed
to compensate for the lost revenue as a result of a few activities in sending letters. For example,
working with KFC for the delivery of food to customers in Newland is an example of applying
reality principle to tackle its problems. Therefore, the New Zealand Post has been successful in
the application of the reality principle in mitigating the risk of losing revenue as a result of a few
people sending letters.
Organization

BUSINESS CLIMATE OF NEW ZEALAND POSTAL SERVICE ORGANIZATIONS 16
There is an interconnection of everything within a facility of production. In that case, all the
elements have to be predictable and consistent otherwise the operation will fail to achieve a
profitable outcome. The Newland Post Company was met by a sudden shock after losing a lot of
profits amid other challenges. In as much as it had its operations consistent, it did not perform
well in terms of predictability. The reason for that is, the company was never proactive enough to
predict and thereafter plan and organize itself for the inception of the internet. The changes that
the company has made to catch up with the changing trends and the inception of the internet
were not based on prediction (Dempsey et al., 2018). New Zealand Post faced a myriad of
challenges and struggled with organizing itself to face the challenges at hand. For example, the
solutions that the company strived to implement include; the investment of new hardware, mail
processing equipment, and systems upgrade to the latest technology and the rationalization of the
capacity of mail processing nationally. All the solutions are elements of organizing the
operations to meet the challenges at hand (Flynn & Harris, 2015).
Success
In business, the most relevant and substantial definition of success is keeping the interest
of customers above other interests. Making and keeping the customers happy will be the best
strategy of succeeding. The New Zealand Post employs key strategies in ensuring happy
customers through better management of customer communications. Through its strategic
segment of Customer Communications Management (CCM), the company strives to provide
better experiences to customers. CCM has three departments or sections; Email, Print and Mail,
Integrated Archive Solution and Direct Marketing eMarketing. In the Integrated Archive
Solution section, the main focus is effective communication and automatic archive (Gootiiz &
Mattoo, 2017). The company has invested in fast retrieval of documents and integrated services
that include; email, mobile and HTML5 dynamic documents. The company, through CCM also
provides a comprehensive mail and print services. They also specialize in statement solutions
and billing. The company also offers a marketing service for addressed mail with handline, print
and mail support that allows a range of direct messaging solutions. The strategies above are
employed by New Zealand Post specifically for purposes of improving customer services and
communication that later leads to success.

BUSINESS CLIMATE OF NEW ZEALAND POSTAL SERVICE ORGANIZATIONS 17
Accountability
The running of a manufacturing operation needs accountability. Managers need to set
metrics and goals and frequently checking if the goals are being met. New Zealand Post
developed the initiative of Great Operations and Leadership (GOAL). The main aim was to
overcome the tradition of the placement of frontline leaders on the programs of development.
That was after the implementation of a range of programmes that included; coaching,
communicating, performance management, relationship management and other programs that
targeted frontline leaders failed to bear fruits. A framework for best practice and delivery
operation was mapped out and implemented. That involved interventions of reinforcement that
included new recruitment strategies, redefining job roles, the modularization of mentoring and
job training. Also, there was an introduction of an accreditation process for purposes of clearly
identifying the stages of completion and the demonstration of measurable outcomes.
Change
Change in an organization is good because the market is dynamic. Therefore change is
important even for the management of stability in the long run. After the New Zealand Post
faced a myriad of challenges direct mail popularity among others, it decided to re-engineer its
manner of operations (Crew, Parcu, & Brennan, 2017). One of the main strategy of change was
putting more attention to the software performance dimension through the following strategies;
creating a safety culture, development of an operational environment that is world class,
development of high performance leadership, developing and building a high engagement
practice in the workforce and the redesigning of the work and pay systems in meeting the
business changing needs (Liu et al., 2018).
Operational Management Practices
Operational Management Practices refers to the practices employed by a company for an
effective and efficient planning, organization and supervision of its operations. They are divided
into two categories; facilitating operations and core operations. Some of the practices of core
operations include; practices of supply chain strategy, risk management, distribution, logistics
and warehouse management. Some of the facilitating practices include the following practices;
HR, finance/accounting and marketing practices (Shark, 2015). The New Zealand post have
utilized the practices of operational management, which have contributed to its operational

BUSINESS CLIMATE OF NEW ZEALAND POSTAL SERVICE ORGANIZATIONS 18
effectiveness and efficiency. New Zealand Post has utilized the core operations for improving its
operations.
Core Practices
Supply Chain Strategy Practices
New Zealand Post has made great strides in boosting its agility, responsiveness and
efficiency of its supply chain by paving digital routes for traders to access the Chinese market.
Considering the fact that the largest volume of transactions come from China, New Zealand Post
has developed a strategy that is specific for that market (Kelsey, 2015). To boost its
responsiveness and agility to the international markets, New Zealand Post has collaborated with
China Post for postal operations. Another strategy was to engage in commercial partnerships
with the platforms of e-commerce and the operators of third-party-logistics fulfillment
(Karagedikli et al., 2016). The company can provide the exporters of New Zealand whole supply
chain solutions.
International Regulations
New Zealand Post is also able to comply with international regulations. It can handle
pick-ups, storage, delivery and handling of custom clearance and regulations of country to which
products are exported to. The group is also moving to Brazil and other Southeast Asian
countries, demonstrating the fact that it has mastered the art of international regulation
compliance (Horrocks, 2016).
Distribution
New Zealand Post takes its mode of transportation or distribution seriously. That is seen
through the huge investment that the group is making in the distribution processes. To
substantiate that, New Zealand Post invested a total of $ 8m at Christchurch Airport. That is
despite its loss of millions of dollars monthly on the postal business (Fraser, 2018). The
investment will also include the technology of parcel-sorting. Another significant investment was
the company taking on new aircrafts. New Zealand Post took on three Boeing737-400 freighter
aircraft for the purposes of boosting its overnight service delivery for parcels and packets.

BUSINESS CLIMATE OF NEW ZEALAND POSTAL SERVICE ORGANIZATIONS 19
Customer Relationship Management
The management of customer relationship is one of the strength of New Zealand Post. To
demonstrate that claim, the group has a program that maintains and manages eight languages. It
has a support center in Kuala Lumpur, which provides technical support for eight languages. The
company has also increased the flexibility in which the customers can transact business (Jaag,
Moyano,&Trinkner, 2016). For instance, it has increased the options for businesses and
consumers on when and how their parcels are to be delivered. That is a big strategy that lets the
consumers chose on how to be treated.
Facilitating Practices
Human Resource Practices
For purposes of the establishment of consistency, sustainability and standardization
processes and results across the network of postal delivery, New Zealand Post invested in the
creation of a high performance culture. Other strategies that were employed include; the
redesigning of the pay and work systems in meeting the business changing needs, building of a
workforce that is highly engaged, development of a safety culture, creation of an operation
environment that is world class and developing leaders to be highly performing.
Marketing Practices
New Zealand Post have been in the market for the longest time as compared to any postal
business in New Zealand. The company is well renowned in New Zealand as a parcel and freight
company. Its traditional activities of sending letters are what is in the heads of consumers (Seelig
& Nichols, 2017). That is despite the company morphing to other digital processes of conducting
businesses. The company needs to market itself to the New Zealand market, as the leader in
digital services to remain relevant.
Operational Techniques
Six Sigma
This refers to the methods that provide organizations with the necessary tools for the
improvement of their business processes capabilities. It therefore leads to a decrease in process
and increase in performance which helps in the boost in profits, employee morale, defect
reduction and an improvement of the quality of services and products. The inputs of the teams

BUSINESS CLIMATE OF NEW ZEALAND POSTAL SERVICE ORGANIZATIONS 20
bear a direct effect on the bottom line of the organization. It also involves the definition,
measurement, analysis, improvement and control approach to problem solving. Since the original
functions and purposes of the New Zealand Post were leaned on the traditional technological
environment, it needs to apply the six sigma model to continue to thrive in the changing
technological environment. With the tidal wave of the internet, the company has been struggling
to regain its former dominance in New Zealand letter transit. Many changes have been effected,
including; reduction of the number of employees, partnership with other companies like KFC in
the delivery of goods, introduction of digital freight services among others. These new changes
bear a direct effect on the company in boosting profitability (Trombitas, Lau & Yates, 2018).
Therefore, New Zealand Post has done well in the application of the six sigma approach.
Lean Management
Lean management refers to the approach that an organization uses in running itself
through a continuous improvement concept. This approach is long term and systematic in the
achievement of small and incremental process changes for the purposes of improving quality and
efficiency. Lean management is resourceful in the elimination of the wastage of effort, money
and time. The process of waste minimization comes as a result of the identification of each
business step process and then eliminating the steps that add no value. The new changes effected
by the New Zealand company needs a continuous review and monitoring to ensure it accrues
success. In that case, New Zealand should be careful in applying changes in its organization by
utilizing the lean management process (Mohamad et al., 2017). In particular is the expansion to
other international markets like Brazil and South Eastern Asian countries. For better
performance, New Zealand Post should first concentrate on few countries to check if the process
of expansion works efficiently.
Just in Time
This refers to an inventory management technique and lean methodology type that is
designed for the increment in efficiency, costs cutting and decrease of waste through the
receivership of goods only on the basis of need. This technique plays a big role in reducing times
within the system of production and the time of response from suppliers to consumers. Since
New Zealand Post is concentrated on sending parcels and goods, this technique could come in
handy in reducing the wastage of time and increasing revenue in the process (Steenkamp, 2018).

BUSINESS CLIMATE OF NEW ZEALAND POSTAL SERVICE ORGANIZATIONS 21
For example, going into partnership with online shopping companies could be the best strategy
towards the application of Just in Time approach. That is because; the online shops are dedicated
towards the shipment of goods to consumers. Therefore, as long as New Zealand Post is in
partnership with such companies, it will always be in business.
Total Quality Management
This refers to the structural approach to the overall management of an organization. The
main focus in this case, is the improvement of the quality of the output of an organization,
including goods and services through the continuous improvement of the internal processes. That
includes the development of a conducive environment for employees to produce the best results.
The journey and efforts that the company underwent through its quest improve its internal
operation structures such as the introduction of frontline leadership was one of the ways that
TQM helped its management processes.
Plan-Do-Check-Act
Plan
Identification of an opportunity and planning for change
Do
Implementation of the change on a small scale
Check
Utilization of data for analysis of the change results and determining if there were any
differences.
Act
The effectiveness of the change would mean its application on a wider scale and the continuous
assessment of results.
The technique above should be used by New Zealand Post in managing the new changes
it has made. For example, the plans of the company to move beyond New Zealand need a lot of
checking and action. The reason for that is that the company has faced a lot of challenges and

BUSINESS CLIMATE OF NEW ZEALAND POSTAL SERVICE ORGANIZATIONS 22
losses due to the changing technological times. Rapid expansion could be fatal if not carefully
checked because it could lead to wastage of resources as a result of lack of reciprocating profit
making effect (Parcu, Brennan & Glass, 2018).
The 5 Whys
The 5 whys refer to the tool for thinking that identifies the root cause of the problem.
This tool is very important in helping teams go beyond blame games, think beyond the problem
context and identify a proper and sustainable solution to a problem. For a better understanding of
the challenges faced by the company, it will be necessary to narrow down to the reasons why
problems arise. That will be possible if the technique of the 5 whys is employed in every level of
management. The necessity of this technique could better suffice with the hitches in the
implementation of new changes to cope with the digital age.
Internal and External Compliance requirements for New Zealand Post
Internal Compliance
Internal Quality Standards
New Zealand Post is compliant to the Certified Measurement And Reduction Scheme,
CEMARS certification. CEMARS certification is awarded for the utilization of process and
activities that improve the impact on the environment (Pomeroy, 2017). The company also has
the certification of Enviro-Mark platinum that recognizes its environmental management
systems. It is also a member of the following organizations that promote sustainable
development; WasteMINZ, Climate Leaders Coalition, Sustainable Business Council,
Sustainable Business Network among others.
Ethical Behavior Requirements
New Zealand Post has a code of conduct that is geared towards ensuring that suppliers
conduct their business activities according to all the applicable regulations, laws and ethical
standards of the country in which they conduct business (Parcu, Brennan& Glass, 2019). That is
inclusive of fair laws of trading, insider laws of trading, environmental regulations and laws and
anti-corruption laws of the countries they conduct business (Whincop, 2017). The code of
conduct is also meant at ensuring that all suppliers do not engage in any form of corruption that
includes; money laundering, facilitation payments or bribery and any other corruption means

BUSINESS CLIMATE OF NEW ZEALAND POSTAL SERVICE ORGANIZATIONS 23
(Nel, & Stevenson, 2019). The need for transparency about their practices and active engagement
of sustainable processes and policies is also encouraged in the code of conduct.
External Compliance
Environmental Management Compliance
New Zealand Post has complied with the international bodies in environmental
management. Some of the ways that the company have been compliant with the environment
management include the following activities; Recycling packaging (Singh, 2015). The Company
works best in minimizing the impact of its packaging products. It also makes it easy for the
customers to play their part in keeping the planet clean, working through partnerships (Ratna &
Kim, 2018). New Zealand Post also play an important role in sharing its commitment to a
sustainable planet by working with customers, suppliers and other partners for improved
outcomes in sustainability, measurement of value it creates (Archie, Chapman & Flood,
2018).New Zealand Post measures and reports the value of business across non-financial and
financial measures by using the framework of integrated reporting.
Financial Compliance Requirements
New Zealand Post uses the international Integrated Reporting Framework for financial
reporting on the business dimensions. The company has contributed greatly not only to the
economic progress of New Zealand but also to the world (Parcu & Silvestri, 2017). The evidence
of that is the exceptional award that the company has received. For example, New Zealand Post
was awarded the 2018 New Zealand Procurement Excellence Awards. It was also awarded the
2017 NZI Sustainable Business Network Awards among other numerous awards (Parkes, 2018).
That creates an indication of the amount of contribution that New Zealand Post makes
financially, to the global business world.
Conclusions
New Zealand has survived an unstable business environment through its right application
of the management principles, practices, techniques, and models as discussed above. Through the
application of operations management principles, New Zealand Post has been able to survive
through the period of morphing from the traditional business environment dominance of sending
letters to the harsh digital environment of mail. Also, the operational management practices

BUSINESS CLIMATE OF NEW ZEALAND POSTAL SERVICE ORGANIZATIONS 24
provided the company with the right tools and techniques to manage the new ways of doing
things. It was also helpful for the expansion of the business to international countries. Since New
Zealand Post had gone international, it had to comply with the international rules and regulations
pertaining to financial compliance, environmental compliance and the code of ethics. Through
the numerous awards that the company has received, it goes without saying that the company has
been able to comply with both the national and international rules and regulations in the
management of its business.
Recommendation of an operations management plan
Strategic Goal 1
Tactical Goal: For NZ Post to be the best in playing the role of reducing global warming
Tactical objectives:
- Eliminating all the non-degradable materials used by New Zealand
Post affiliates, consumers or suppliers.
- Having 98 percent of airsheds to meet the annual mean PM10 ambient air quality
guideline
- New Zealand to be ranked 1st out of 29 OECD countries for Sulphur oxide (SOx)
emissions per unit of GDP.
Strategic Goal 2
Tactical Goal: Having New Zealand with the best quality of fresh water
Tactical Objectives:
-New Zealand to rank 1st out of 30 OECD countries in terms of water withdrawals as a
percentage of the gross annual availability.
- To have water quality at 80 percent out of the 230 swimming spots that are monitored.

BUSINESS CLIMATE OF NEW ZEALAND POSTAL SERVICE ORGANIZATIONS 25
The strategic goal above is in line with the global goals for regulations of having the global
emissions to drop 55 percent by the year 2030. New Zealand could play a critical role towards
the achievement of the global goals by achieving the goals above.

BUSINESS CLIMATE OF NEW ZEALAND POSTAL SERVICE ORGANIZATIONS 26
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