Aviation Assignment SMART Research Questions assignment. UNDERSTANDING ORGANISATIONS Organisation Australia Post – 3500 words 3-4 social theories Institutional theory

Aviation Assignment SMART Research Questions assignment

I need you to complete the SMART Research Questions assignment. I will attach a powerpoint and research question example as a guideline. Do not use outside sources to complete this assignment just write in words and where u will find such information and in which data. The example will help u complete the paper in a right way but please don’t write exactly the same. In the example it shows that they used survey data, I won’t use survey. Please review the powerpoint slides.

UNDERSTANDING ORGANISATIONS

Organisation Australia Post – 3500 words

• 3-4 social theories

• Institutional theory

• Addresses question of why all organisations in a field tend to look and act the same
• Organisational structures tend to acquire meaning & achieve stability in their own right, rather than effectiveness & efficiency in achieving desired ends (e.g. mission and goals of org)
• Over time there is homogenity in organisational structures & practices
• Institutions are critical component to environment

• Contingency theory
• Actor network theory

– Refers to transformations among entities in relations/ interactions with each other

• Power/ politics

• Managing implies power → involves governing the conduct of oneself and others

• Summarise theories and analysis
• Make recommendations for future direction of organisation

• Show application of organisation theory in real-world setting
• Writing report for managers on organisation’s future directions
• In order to make recommendations → Reflect on current and present practices using organisation theories from the first half of the semester

1. Critically review past & present practices of organisation:

1. Analyse & discuss social-cultural, environmental, political, technological, economic issues & or legislative requirements

2. Present recommendations which address the future challenges that might be faced by the organisation

1. Recommendations must anticipate future challenges & suggest how the organisation may implement change to cope with these challenges

TITLE PAGE

• Title
• Prepared for ORGANISATION/ TEAM/ DEPARTMENT
• Prepared by: … GROUP NAMES
• Submission date: 16/09/18

Table of contents

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY (1 page)

• Content & purpose of the report
• Methods of data collection & analysis
• Findings
• Recommendations

INTRODUCTION (500 words)

• Aims & scope of report  (i.e. what the report does and does not do and why it was written)
• Briefly identify the organisation setting (but bear in mind the intended audience – managers who already know the organisation)
• Briefly describe the main theories chosen for the analysis
• An outline of the report’s structure

BODY (2000 words)

INSTITUTIONAL THEORY

• Organizations are still becoming more homogeneous, and bureaucracy remains the common organizational form
• Structural change in organisations is now more driven by processes that make organisations more similar without necessarily making them more efficient
• Bureaucratization and other forms of homogenization emerge, we argue, out of the structuration (Giddens, 1979) of organizational fields
• Aldrich (1979:265) has argued, “the major factors that organizations must take into account are other organizations.”
• Organizations compete not just for resources and customers, but for political power and institutional legitimacy, for social as well as economic fitness.
• Three mechanisms where institutional ismorphic change occurs:

• Coercive ismorphism – stems from political influence and legitimacy
• Mimetic ismorphism – responses to uncertainty

• mimetic change may refiect environmentally constructed uncertainties

• For example, external actors may induce an organization to conform to its peers by requiring it to perform a particular task and specifying the profession responsible for its performance.
•  organizational change is a direct response to government mandate
• The existence of a common legal environment affects many aspects of an organization’s behavior and structure
• Other legal and technical requirements of the state—^the vicissitudes of the budget cycle, the ubiquity of certain fiscal years, annual reports, and financial reporting requirements that ensure eligibility for the receipt of federal contracts or funds—also shape organizations in similar ways
• organizations are increasingly homogeneous within given domains and increasingly organized around rituals of conformity to wider institutions
• Uncertainty is a powerful force that encourages imitation

• When organizational technologies are poorly understood (March and Olsen, 1976), when goals are ambiguous, or when the environment creates symbolic uncertainty, organizations may model themselves on other organizations

• More generally, the wider the population of personnel employed by, or customers served by, an organization, the stronger the pressure felt by the organization to provide the programs and services offered by other organizations
• Organizations tend to model themselves after similar organizations in their field that they perceive to be more legitimate or successful.
• Organizational-level predictors. There is variability in the extent to and rate at which organizations in a field change to become more like their peers. Some organizations respond to extemal pressures quickly; others change only after a long period of resistance
• Hypothesis A-1: The greater the dependence of an organization on another organization, ihe more similar it will become to that organization in structure, climate, and behavioral focus.

• A position of dependence leads to isomorphic change

• Hypothesis A-2: The greater the centralization of organization A’s resource supply, the greater the extent to which organization A will change isomorphic ally to resemble the organizations on which it depends for resources → link to changing to meet internet demands and online shopping etc.
• Hypothesis A-3: The more uncertain the relationship between means and ends the greater the extent to which an organization will model itself after organizations it perceives to be successful.

• mimetic thought process involved in the search for models is characteristic of change in organizations in which key technologies are only poorly understood (March and Cohen, 1974)

• Hypothesis A-4: The more ambiguous the goals of an organization, the greater the extent to which the organization will model itself after organizations that it perceives to be successful.

• Organisations that copy other organisations often have no competitive advantage
•  in most situations, reliance on established, legitimated procedures enhances organizational legitimacy and survival characteristics
• A second reason for modeling behavior is found in situations where conflict over organizational goals is repressed in the interest of harmony; thus participants find it easier to mimic other organizations than to make decisions on the basis of systematic analyses of goals since such analyses would prove painful or disruptive.

• Hypothesis B-1: The greater the extent to which an organizational field is dependent upon a single (or several similar) source of support for vital resources, the higher the level of isomorphism.

• The centralization of resources within a field both directly causes homogenization by placing organizations under similar pressures from resource suppliers, and interacts with uncertainty and goal ambiguity to increase their impact

• Hypothesis B-2: The greater the extent to which the organizations in afield transact with agencies of the state, the greater the extent of isomorphism in the field as a whole.
• Hypothesis B-3: The fewer the number of visible alternative organizational models in a field, the faster the rate of isomorphism in that field
• Hypothesis B-4: The greater the extent to which technologies are uncertain or goals are ambiguous within a field, the greater the rate of isomorphic change.

IRON CAGE REVISITED – WEEK 6

• 32,000 staff across all states and territories
• Decline in performance and profitability of traditional mail service → impacts negatively on overall functioning of business
• Providing core essential service for over 200 years
• Mail volume dropped by 20.1% since 2008
• “Financial problems plaguing australia post”
• Over the period January to June 2014, Australia Post booked its first ever half-year loss since becoming a government owned enterprise in 1989

• Losses in the mail business have largely been driven by declining mail volumes as people and organisations switch from traditional letters mail to digital alternatives

• also substantial costs associated with meeting Australia Post’s Community Service Obligations (CSOs) that govern delivery frequency, delivery timetables, public access, and pricing
• By 2009-10 the reserved mail service section’s annual losses had reached $250m
• According to forecasts prepared by Boston Consulting Group, reserved letter volumes are expected to decline even further at an average rate of between eight and eleven percent between now and 2020
• Without change, it is estimated that the corporation will incur some $12.1 billion in cumulative losses in letters over the next ten years, offsetting profit growth across the rest of the company and resulting in total losses across the whole enterprise of some $6.6 billion
• Australia Post has a loyal and committed workforce. Most staff (95.3 per cent) are employed on a permanent basis with 71.6 per cent employed full time
• If it can’t fix financial situation → outlets will be closed and jobs will be lost
• Aus post holds exclusive rights (monopoly) to carry letters within Australia
• Cost reductions are difficult within the company
• Challenges:

• Fall in no. of letters delivered
• Increase in no. of delivery points
• High performance standards
• Price of letters well below average
•  high level of fixed costs required to meet the service requirement (89 per cent of these costs are fixed)
• Acute competition in the small parcels business from couriers, logistics and road transport companies, freight forwarding businesses and global supply chain integrators
• Small freight and parcel forwarding businesses seeking to provide an alternative to the retail outlets and parcel lockers being offered by Australia Post
• A fall in the annual rate of growth in Australia Post’s parcels and express business from 38 per cent in 2011 to 14 per cent in 2013

• Growth in parcel volumes due to recent surge of online shopping → Approximately 70 per cent of the parcels that Australia Post handles are now generated by an online transaction →  parcel delivery is a highly competitive, international marketplace and Australia Post’s continued growth in this market is not guaranteed
• Competition continuing to intensify → mkaes it more difficult to use these profits to offset losses incurred through letter delivery
• Advances in communications infrastructure, information technology, and mobile applications – giving business, governments and individuals a wide range of options and choices in relation to how they can prepare, convey, and receive written communication.
• The decreasing cost and increasing convenience of digital communication – leading to a rapid decline in physical (letters) mail volumes.

https://mckellinstitute.org.au/app/uploads/The-McKell-Institute-Digital-Post-March-2015.pdf

• Recommendations:

• Partner with other government institutions – ATO, Centrelink medicare
• Expand services it offers – creates opportunity for profit from other departments

•  leverage its trusted brand to deliver new innovative, digital and logistical services
•  leverage its brand and skilled workforce to deliver new products and services to our community

• Grow business in the developing digital environment – capitalise on ops through e-commerce
• Training and redevelopment – encouraging staff to develop the skills, qualifications and experience to work in other, growing, segments of the business.
• Reducing costs – through centralisation and automation in a drive to achieve efficiency and productivity gains
• Leveraging the retail network – to provide a range of trusted services centering on identify verification. This is well established in the area of passports, for example
• Reframe community service obligations, service standards & pricing to match contemporary digital post environment

• CSO’s haven’t been reviewed in 16 years

• enable more effective participation by small business in global markets, Australia Post’s brand and reputation should be leveraged as a credible and dependable provider of e-commerce solutions for micro and small business

https://mckellinstitute.org.au/app/uploads/The-McKell-Institute-Digital-Post-March-2015.pdf

POWER/ POLITICS THEORY

ACTOR NETWORK THEORY

• Describe theories
• Present summary of analysis based on these theories
• Introduce your recommendations for future direction of organisation

• Describe each theory in simple words & explain why it is relevant for the case
• Clarify how each theory helps management to better understand what is going on, what the origin of the problem is, and to plan action
• Define set of recommendations based on evidence & theory

CONCLUSION (1000 words)

• Critical evaluation of how the recommendations identified relate to one another (are they complementary or conflicting?)
• Suggest an implementation timeline (which recommendations are high priorities (and should be implemented immediately)and which are less important?)
• If the recommendations are conflicting, how should the managers select and implement the appropriate recommendations?
• Discuss any limitations of the report (anything report hasn’t addressed that is important to mention)

REFERENCE LIST

APPENDIX