Introduction To Management - FedEx Assignment

Introduction To Management
1.0 Introduction
I choose Federal Express @FedEx as the company of my choice for the assignment because
in it is one of the leading supply chain provider in Singapore. FedEx began its operations on
1984 when it purchased Europe based courier company named Gelco Express International
and established its first Data Centre and hub for IT Services here in Singapore during 1990-
1999. Now in Singapore FedEx serving in Top 10 Best Employer in Singapore and
successfully established a under the company's worldwide network, a total of 12 air networks.
(FedEx,2020)
2.0 Strength ,Weakness , Opportunity and Threat Analysis
S.W.O.T Analysis refers to Strength Weakness Opportunity Threats Analysis (Anon,n.d.)
2.1) Strengths
a) Reputation of company
b) Strong financing
2.2) Weakness
a) Staffs behaviour
2.3) Opportunities
a) Emerging global market
b) Innovative ideas
2.4) Threats
a) Tendency of competitor
b) Unstable economy
2.1 Strengths
a) FedEx as an international company has a strong reputation in global logistics market that
makes them stronger Logistics Company in Singapore .
b) FedEx as an Multi National Company is financially independent and can expend its
business to more countries .
2.2 Weakness
a) FedEx cannot achieve success without staffs commitment to solve raising shipment issues
and promptness in attending to customers queries .
2.3 Opportunities
a) The demand for global supply chain increases , the opportunity for FedEx to expand its
business as all levels of consumers and manufactures are depending on the supply chain
from one another .
b) FedEx is continuously creating innovating technology as in self parcel tracking , Block
Chain Technology to reduce fraudulence and so on .
2.4 Threats
a) Tendency of competitor such as Dalsey, Hillblom and Lynn (known as DHL Supply
chain) is creating new schemes to attract customers and it can be new threat to lose
existing FedEx customers with lower charges and so on.
b) Current downturn economy due to Coronavirus Disease 2019 (Covid-19) became a
biggest threat to the economy and logistics and FedEx must come out with innovative
ideas to sustain in this crisis .
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3.0 Business Ethics
Business ethics are the moral values that govern the way a company handles itself and its
transactions. (Moriarty.J,2016)
FedEx is following rights approach in promoting their ethical conduct which they are
making decisions for the benefits of a group of large number of peoples not based on personal
interest .Recently due to Covid-19 , FedEx helped their Malaysian employees to
accommodate in Singapore due to movement control order from Malaysian Government.
They had to make this to protect the wellbeing and welfare of their employees while retain
them in work as many other companies choose to retrench their employees as their final
choice .
4.0 Corporate Social Responsibility
Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is a constant social commitment towards socio-
economic development while improving the livelihood quality of stakeholders .
(Chen.J,2020)
Accommodation approach is that when management decide to accept social responsibility
for business decision after facing critics from stakeholders (Bateman et al.2018). FedEx is an
accommodating level CSR implemented company that committed to the zero-tolerance
policies implemented by the U.S. and other governments to tackle slavery or trafficking in
persons for whatever reason. FedEx forbids trade in human beings, and they want their
suppliers and vendors to respect these vital values.
5.0 Planning
5.1 Objective
Planning is the process is thinking about the activities to achieve desired goals. (Riya.K,n.d.)
In order for companies to success, they must have practiced these 4 planning key elements
which are they must have a clear Objective, taking Action, must have or accessible to
Resources and Implement their Plan.
As we know earlier, FedEx is a successfully running Supply Chain company for the current
Era, they must have clear and futuristic plans in order to maintain their success in the future.
FedEx is planning to increase their Earnings Per Share (EPS) by 10-15% per financial year
(FedEx,2020) . For FedEx to achieve this objective ,they must look out for ways to grow their
sales by giving a better service that giving satisfaction to customers . For example , timely
follow up with shipment status and updating regularly to their customers would increase
trustworthy on FedEx’s services and their guarantee of timely dispatching of parcels to their
customers .
5.2 Action
After having a clear objective, FedEx must come up with actions to initiate the objectives
they drawn up. FedEx came up with innovative plans in automated delivery using Drone
technology, Robotic driving and Overnight Express delivery to boost the company services .
FedEx initiated overnight express delivery that other freight forwarding companies have
never tried before to gain customer’s trust on them .This will enable for customers to send
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their shipments to recipient as soon as less than one day in the event of no any natural disaster
or severe climate turbulence .
5.3 Resources
Resources are main factor to consider and give attention when companies planning to do
something or continue what they have been doing .Companies must have continuous access
to resources such as manpower ,finance and machinery availability in order to perform their
daily task completely .
As such , FedEx as an Multi National Company (MNC) has a strong influence of finance and
also mid-level technology based machineries for sorting of items in their hubs currently .As
this will take a lot of time to sort their shipments based on destination mainly, they must be
equipped with latest technological sorting machines to ease their work and requires less
manpower and supervision.
By having a clear objective ,launching actions and having sufficient resources will make
them to achieve what they wanted and can be no.1 freight forwarding company in world.
6.0 Corporate Culture
Corporate culture refers to behaviours and procedures that define how workers and
management of a company interact and perform actions outside the workplace..
(Evan.T,2020)
FedEx is a company that gives importance to the needs of their employees .FedEx adopted
visible culture as part of their corporate culture. FedEx employees will have to wear their
company uniform and lanyard that consists of company’s name that which will their
employees a confidence when working .
Visible culture is very significant aspect because it instil the oneness of employees and give
them the motivation and reminder that they are working for the company that liked by most
of all .
7.0 Designing Organisational Structure
An organizational structure is a framework that specifies the course of such operations in
order to accomplish an organization's objectives. Laws, duties , and obligations should be
used in these tasks.( Kenton.W ,2020)
Unity of command plays the most important role in channelling workers in a more
convenient, inspired, and results-driven. In FedEx management ,there is only one leader
whom is assigned to the small group of people in a department and this make easier
communication. It shouldn't be a group of superiors for a single subordinate or a single team
working for a company, according to the Concept of Unity of Command.
Span on control refers to the number of subordinates that supervisors or managers in an
organization can manage effectively and effectively. FedEx strongly believe that wide span
on control is really worked for them to work and encourages employee empowerment by
giving them greater transparency, delegation and right to determine .
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Centralization and Decentralization refers to the input of decision from one level or various
levels of employees .FedEx have various departments that have their own format of decision
making .For instance ,operations team would totally rely on operations support team on all
decision making whether to cancel or continue their shipment which is centralization format
as for management level regarding customer relations they are following decentralization to
enable sharing of ideas to make a final decision for the betterment of company .
Formalization refers to the degree to which it reflects on tasks and positions rather than on
individuals in positions. (Webster,A.L ,2019). Formalization of the corporate system is
usually introduced in an effort to streamline the decision-making process. The formalized
organization is vital to the organization in which problems are known and improvements
are made slowly and deliberately. FedEx have to follow low formalization sometimes the
stricter and high control over their employees make them less motivated and adhere to
stricter rules rather than that of giving freedom with lesser rules and be more innovative
during their work .
The most appropriate organisation structure for FedEx is Matrix structure . A combination
of two or more types of organizational structures is the matrix organizational structure.
The framework uniting all other hierarchical frameworks to give them equilibrium is the
matrix organization. There are usually two command lines, where project team members
have two supervisors or superiors.(Westland.J ,2018)
There are few strategy factors to consider that making Matrix structure is the best for
FedEx. FedEx have latest technology that making them a high tech company to cooperate
and collaborate with regional team to provide support and oversee each other. In the sense
of Organisational size FedEx have more than 400,000 employees globally according to
FedEx (FedEx,2020) that makes them to choose matrix structure and also conglomerate
divisional structure which they have few subsidiaries such FedEx Freight , FedEx Ground,
FedEx Office and etc. (FedEx,2020)
8.0 Leadership and Motivation
8.1 Leadership Theory
FedEx is adopted to Transformational contemporary theory to lead and Quality of Work Life
Programs (QWL) to motivate their employees.
Transformations theory applies to leadership that encourages, motivates and motivates
employees to innovate and advance in order to maximize and impact the future output of the
business. (Sarah.K.W,2018)
FedEx using this model to lead its employees. FedEx has their team leaders well skilled to
lead their subordinates as this logistics industry is a high challenging as there are many
competitors to grab the opportunity that FedEx has. FedEx won National Business Awards
winner for Customer Focus in South Africa in 2008 (FedEx,2018).FedEx believes that every
success of them is due to the hard work of their employees whom relentlessly working day
and night to bring success and its purely depending on the effort and leading of team leaders
and managers.
8.2 Motivation Theory
FedEx is company that encourages their employees to be highly motivated in order to
produce better quality work. FedEx follows Quality of Work Life Programs which is refers to
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the level to which an employee is pleased with the job he or she performs and the overall
work situation. (Wordpress,2020)
Business researchers also do research on QWL programs in which the nature of the program
is influenced by the self-interest of business to promote profitability. Organizations have
shown that employee efficiency and work performance can be improved by measures
designed to improve job satisfaction and inspire workers. Higher efficiency and output
standards, in essence, help to improve the effectiveness of the company. Much study has
centered on
particular QWL systems based on this viewpoint, to analyse the influence on employee
efficiency as well as work satisfaction of these systems.
FedEx will provide their employees a special bonus in the mid of every year based on their
employees performance ,and this kind of performance appraisal bonus will motivate their
employees to be more concentrated and complete their task in a timely manner and high
quality .These kinds kind initiatives should be given by companies to their employees to
make them highly motivated .
9.0 Recommendations
I would like to recommend for the 5 years ahead that FedEx must take into
consideration to successfully run their company. MNC’s like FedEx they have must
have a more efficient Staff Appraisal system so that the employees would be highly
motivated and produce quality work .Besides that, being a diversified environment
would benefit FedEx more than the current pattern as it will improve the international
competition among same industry peers . Working in teams will be great idea because
it will tighten the bond among the employees and they will be more cooperative and
can help other when one don’t know how to settle a problem .Finally there must be a
feedback based that FedEx don’t have to grade their staff service and improve their
self-motivation . I hope by following few of this recommendation that FedEx will be
ahead in the industry and will be a successful company in the near future.
10.0 Conclusion
Based on SWOT analysis, FedEx has more opportunities and strengths than weakness and
threats. FedEx as a part of giving back to society they are doing CSR programs to help the
needy while being a right approached to help accommodate their employees during the global
outbreak of COVID-19. Being visible to outside world is what make them stronger among
same industry and keep motivating them to be a leading supply chain provider in Singapore
and also globally by following their purple promise to their customers .Their long term goal
of achieving their share value can be attained by having a appropriate objective with
sufficient resources and taking the right action at the right time . Leadership and motivation
make them the highly motivated entity and to make their service a pleasant experience to
everyone. I hope to FedEx success even more in the future.
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References
Anon ( n.d.) . SWOT Analysis @How to Develop a strategy for Success, Retrieved from :
https://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/newTMC_05.htm
Chen.J (2020). Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), Retrieved from :
https://www.investopedia.com/terms/c/corp-social-responsibility.asp
Evan.T (2020). Corporate Culture , Retrieved from :
https://www.investopedia.com/terms/c/corporate-culture.asp
FedEx (2018) , FedEx Express is 2018 National Business Awards Winner For Customer
Focus in South Africa ,Retrieved from :
https://newsroom.fedex.com/newsroom/fedex-express-is-2018-national-business-awards-
winner-for-customer-focus-in-south-africa/
FedEx (2020). About FedEx, Retrieved from :
https://www.fedex.com/en-sg/about.html
FedEx (2020). Mission and Goals , Retrieved from :
https://investors.fedex.com/company-overview/mission-and-goals/default.aspx
Kenton,W (2020) . What is an Organisational Structure ?.Retrieved from :
https://www.investopedia.com/terms/o/organizational-structure.asp
Moriarty.J (2016). Standard Encyclopedia of Philosophy @ Business Ethics, Retrieved
from:
https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/ethics-business/
Riya.K ,(n.d.). Definition of Business Planning , Retrieved from :
https://www.businessmanagementideas.com/management/planning-management/planning-
definition/20529
Sarah,K.W (2018). What is Tranformational Leadership ?A Model for Motivating
Innovation,Retrieved from :
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https://www.cio.com/article/3257184/what-is-transformational-leadership-a-model-for-
motivating-innovation.html
Westland.J (2018) . Matrix Organisational Structure – A Quick Guide .Retrieved from :
https://www.projectmanager.com/blog/matrix-organizational-structure-quick-guide
Wordpress (2020). Quality of Work Life Programs, Retrieved from :
http://career.iresearchnet.com/career-development/quality-of-work-life-qwl/
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