BA Business Management: UPS Culture and Structure Report - Semester 1

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of the organizational culture and structure of United Parcel Service (UPS). It begins with an introduction defining organizational culture and structure, then delves into the main body, which explores how UPS's structure dictates its culture, distinguishing between horizontal and vertical dimensions. The report highlights UPS's management structure, including the roles of key executives like the CEO, COO, and senior vice presidents, and how these roles contribute to the company's operations. It also examines UPS's organizational culture, emphasizing employee value, professional development, and strategic planning. The report also discusses how UPS has developed an organizational culture where employers value each other and also focuses on improving the customer satisfaction within the service delivery and packaging industry. Various theories of organizational culture are also discussed, including the seven key elements that constitute organizational culture. The report concludes by emphasizing the importance of a formal structure for achieving organizational goals and objectives, the interconnection between organizational culture and structure, and the influence of cultural models on individual behavior. It also contrasts functional, divisional, and matrix organizational structures. References are provided at the end of the report.

United Parcel Service UPS -
Culture and Structure

TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................1
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................5
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................6

INTRODUCTION
Organization culture in turn tends to effectively define organizational structure which in
turn helps in defining the culture of the company (Smircich, 2017). The key structure of the
organization in turn is very useful in determining how the culture must be implemented. United
Parcel Service is considered to be one of the American multinational supply chain and package
delivery organization. This company was founded in the year 1907 by James E. Casey. This
company is headquartered in Sandy Springs, in Georgia, United States. The key products and
services within which United Parcel Service deals mainly includes logistics services, courier
express services and freight forwarding services.
MAIN BODY
The structure of the organization is very useful in effectively dictating how the organization must
be structured. The culture of the company tends to effectively define the structure of the
organization effectively and efficiently. The culture of the organization is likely to be
distinguished between horizontal and vertical dimensions. The vertical set of organization
structure in turn tends to have various different level of authority and responsibility with the
management of the organization (Giorgi, Lockwood and Glynn, 2015). A narrow span of control
in turn results in better handing of the tasks and it also helps in better communication. On the
other hand, horizontal organization structure in turn is largely based on having wide degree of
control. This in turn states that there are large number of subordinates under one specific
supervisor. Organizational structure in turn is considered to be one of the most effective measure
because it helps in determining the roles and responsibilities which in turn is useful in free flow
of the communication. The decentralized structure in turn is considered to be very useful in
delegating power to the subordinates which in turn is considered to be very useful in increasing
the job satisfaction while carrying out operations of the business. Organisational culture within
the organisation is based on the specified norms, values, education, believe, et cetera which in
turn has been shared by the group of people and individuals within the organisational setting
(Körner and et.al., 2015).
UPS organisational structure is largely set up by the management committee who in turn is
responsible for managing daily operations and activities of the United Parcel Service company.
The structure of the UPS meaning in prices of chief executive officer, chief operating officer and
chairman (DiCuccio, 2015). Chairman and CEO of the UPS in turn are largely responsible for
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carrying out internal functions and operations of the UPS company. On the other hand CEO of
UPS company is highly responsible for expanding the business and also creating new range of
businesses for higher growth and sustainability. This new range of services will help in
complimenting the already existing global package delivery operations of the organisation
(Young and Ghoshal, 2016). The chief operating officer in turn is largely responsible for
monitoring all the operations and services associated with the delivery of around 15.8 million
documents and packages across the globe. The senior vice president of the UPS company is
responsible for managing marketing and sales. They are also responsible for managing customer
service and customer relationship development, directing electronic commerce and also focuses
on development of the various range of products. The senior vice president of sustainability and
supply Chain of the UPS Company is responsible for implementation of the corporate strategy. It
also focuses on managing various engineering functions and also tends to oversee the
environmental activities of the UPS (Chang and Lin, 2015). The senior vice president of the
globe transportation services into focuses on managing inter modal network of transportation
which is useful in quick pick up and delivery services across the globe. The Chief financial
officer of the UPS company in turn is largely is responsible for managing activities related with
the auditing, finance, taxes, planning, financial planning, budgeting, etc. The senior vice
President of the organization in turn is considered to be one of the effective person who in turn is
largely responsible for managing public and complying with legal activities.
The UPS company has developed an organisational culture where employers value each other
and also focuses on improving the customer satisfaction within the service delivery and
packaging industry. The UPS company believes that employee satisfaction is the core of the
organisation because it leads to better organisation performance and productivity (Brettel,
Chomik and Flatten, 2015). The UPS company has highly invested in the development of
professional skills of the employees and also focus on promoting employees of the organisation
up at the ranks within the organisational structure. This helps employees in moving up within the
professional ranks of the company. The key strategic planning of the UPS culture is to provide a
clear career path to the employees. This helps in motivating employees to work better within the
specified task. All the employees within the organisation are unionised and work in a
collaborative manner in order to create an effective and positive work culture and environment in
order to move up the ladder within the organisation (Christensen, Lægreid and Rovik, 2020).
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Treating employees fairly and giving proper training and development sessions to the employees
and lowering turnover rates and increasing loyalty of employees towards the organisation. UPS
company tends to focus on creating unique work culture and environment with diverse group of
people with different culture, education, background, values, beliefs which results in higher
success to the organisation (Spigel, 2017).
United parcel services in turn has always provided great opportunity to the managers in order to
grow professionally. One of the unusual management practices followed by the UPS company is
that it tends to support various divisional structure within the organisation and also results in
business development. UPS is highly known for the development of high quality leadership in
order to commit to provide effective encouraging services to its customers. UPS has become one
of the top delivery and packaging company across the globe by integrating with the core value
system and vision and mission of the company. UPS company also tends to specialise within
domestic ground delivery services and also pioneer in expressing packaged delivery services.
UPS company in turn always work on developing their technology because it helps in improving
their supply chain management and logistics (Steers and Sánchez‐Runde, 2017). This company
has also pioneered at tracking their packages which is considered to be a great customer service
to the customers.
The organisation culture theory mainly on for size on that culture is considered to be a set of
dues, believes, attitude, education, et cetera which in turn are important for the employees and
group of people within the organisation. The organisation culture is come price of seven key
elements which includes structural stability, depth, breadth, visible artifacts, integration,
espoused norms, underlying assumptions. All cultures within the organisation are in turn held all
together within the organisation. It is useful in identifying various groups and also helps in
resisting change within the organisation (Kim, Watkins and Lu, 2017). Culture is considered to
be very pervasive within every single part of the company. Every individual within the company
tends to adhere with the generally acceptable principles within organisation. Then all the
individual people within the organisation intends to exhibit same culture and behaviour over the
specific period of time helps in creating a coherent culture within UPS company. Organizational
culture in turn helps in attaining higher operational growth and efficiency within the organization
(UPS’ Innovation Culture Is A Model For Industry And Defense. 2017). This way it helps in
improving the culture and employees of the people within the organization. This eventually leads
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to high degree of customer satisfaction and motivation among employees of the UPS company.
This way it helps in enhancing the organizational performance of the UPS company. The culture
artifacts of the United Parcel Services organization are varied (Pilch and Turska, 2015). Culture
tends to largely influence the work within the organization. This way it is very useful in
enhancing the operational performance and efficiency of the organization. The culture of the
organisation is classified into hierarchy, clan, market and Adhocracy.
Hierarchy culture within the company is considered to be stable. It is referred to as a very
formal culture which international and for size on controlling and giving authority in order to
keep company runs smoothly. Such type of culture within the organisation intends to offer
stability and security.
Market culture also focuses on stability and security but is also driven by the results. It is
considered to Work with and competitive environment and is largely focused on higher set of
production.
Clan culture tends to focus on employees of the company. It tends to create a friendly
environment in order to work with utmost efficiency. This type of culture tends to emphasise on
loyalty and also ask employees to express their views openly. High degree of importance is given
to the team work within the set of culture.
Adhocracy culture in turn largely put high degree of emphasis on thinking outside of the box.
Employees within the organisation are given bit of latitude in order to think out of the box. This
type of culture helps in encouraging creativity and appreciation (Christensen, Lægreid and
Rovik, 2020). This type of culture does not define roles and tends to have dynamic atmosphere.
The cultural models within the organization helps in developing high
degree of knowledge which eventually leads to higher organizational
performance and productivity. The internal structure of the
organization which in turn is very useful in structuring organization in a
systematic manner. Cultural models in turn tends to play one of the
most crucial role which is very useful influencing the behaviour of the
individual (UPS’ Innovation Culture Is A Model For Industry And Defense, 2017). The
cultural models tends to play one of the most crucial role which helps
in influencing the individual behaviour. But in the functional organisational
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structure the performance of the business is highly affected because it tends to slow down the
organisation process in order to deal with political situation, economy, social factors, new
technology, current issues. Functional organisational structure tends to have a narrow span of
control which in turn tends to result in higher degree of restriction with individual power and
expression. This in turn causes demotivation and low degree of self satisfaction among
employees within the company. If the employees within the organisation tends to possess high
degree of motivation and job satisfaction, this in turn will result in higher organisational
performance which leads to attainment of organisational goals and objectives (Giorgi, Lockwood
and Glynn, 2015). Divisional organisational structure tends to have a high degree of flexibility
because of low degree of management. This structure method helps in better communication and
also helps in initiating power for higher decision making. Matrix organisation structure helps in
redefining past to each individual within the organisation. This helps in better decision making
and also task culture is reflected within such organisational structure. This methodology in turn
results in higher degree of job satisfaction because it leads to higher participation of employees
within organisation.
CONCLUSION
It has been concluded that for organisations to reach a higher goals and objectives it is very
necessary to have a formal structure. It is very crucial to distribute task to various groups of
people in order to ensure that two people are not working on the same project. This helps in
gaining higher results and output. In some or the other way organisation culture tends to define
the organisational structure of the organisation because each employees within the organisation
has different set of culture. The organisational structure is considered to be as a framework in
order to implement appropriate culture within the organisation.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Brettel, M., Chomik, C. and Flatten, T.C., 2015. How organizational culture influences
innovativeness, proactiveness, and risk‐taking: Fostering entrepreneurial orientation in
SMEs. Journal of small business management, 53(4), pp.868-885.
Chang, C.L.H. and Lin, T.C., 2015. The role of organizational culture in the knowledge
management process. Journal of Knowledge management.
Christensen, T., Lægreid, P. and Rovik, K.A., 2020. Organization theory and the public sector:
Instrument, culture and myth. Routledge.
DiCuccio, M.H., 2015. The relationship between patient safety culture and patient outcomes: a
systematic review. Journal of patient safety, 11(3), pp.135-142.
Giorgi, S., Lockwood, C. and Glynn, M.A., 2015. The many faces of culture: Making sense of 30
years of research on culture in organization studies. The academy of management annals, 9(1),
pp.1-54.
Kim, K., Watkins, K.E. and Lu, Z.L., 2017. The impact of a learning organization on
performance. European Journal of Training and Development.
Körner, M and et.al., 2015. Relationship of organizational culture, teamwork and job satisfaction
in interprofessional teams. BMC health services research, 15(1), p.243.
Pilch, I. and Turska, E., 2015. Relationships between Machiavellianism, organizational culture,
and workplace bullying: Emotional abuse from the target’s and the perpetrator’s
perspective. Journal of Business Ethics, 128(1), pp.83-93.
Smircich, L., 2017. Concepts of culture and organizational analysis. In The Anthropology of
Organisations (pp. 255-274). Routledge.
Spigel, B., 2017. The relational organization of entrepreneurial ecosystems. Entrepreneurship
Theory and Practice, 41(1), pp.49-72.
Steers, R.M. and Sánchez‐Runde, C.J., 2017. Culture, motivation, and work behavior. The
Blackwell Handbook of Cross‐Cultural Management, pp.190-216.
Young, C. and Ghoshal, S., 2016. Organization theory and the multinational corporation.
Springer.
Online
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UPS’ Innovation Culture Is A Model For Industry And Defense. 2017. [ONLINE]. Available
through<https://nationalinterest.org/blog/the-buzz/ups%E2%80%99-innovation-culture-model-
industry-defense-21995>
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