Transforming the Postal Service

Transforming the Postal Service Name: Institution Introduction “The United States Postal Service is an agency of the United States federal government providing postal services to America. In fact, it is crucial to point out that the current postal service emerged during the postal reorganization act of 1970” (Slentz, and McCann 2009, p.14). Like many enterprises, the postal service faced challenges that began in the poor economic growth period of the 1990s. These challenges forced the agency to transform its operations by utilizing management and leadership abilities within the organization. What is the meaning of leadership and management? Leadership is the process of providing guidelines, motivation, and direction to a team with shared goals while management is the act of coordinating and controlling people with an aim of attaining a common objective. This paper discusses identifies, differentiates, and discusses the managerial and leadership aspects applied in the transformation of the US Postal Service. Managerial Aspects The Postal service utilized three managerial aspects that helped in the transformation from the postal reorganization act of 1970. The three essential aspects utilized by the postal service organization include free delivery, a marketing strategy, and strategies used in controlling and improving productivity. For instance, the Postal service (USPS) delivered 213 billion pieces to 146 million residences (Shafritz, Russell, and Borick, 2013). This owes to the reality that the United States Postal Service (2008) reveals that free delivery of mails by salaried letter carriers improved the deliveries by promoting public convenience. In addition, the institution provided free home delivery to rural Americans in the 1890s. A marketing strategy was applied as a managerial tool in the transformation of the USPS. The agency introduced the use of iconic celebrities and political leaders as a marketing strategy. For example, US issued adhesive postage that had portraits of Benjamin Franklin and George Washington in 1847. They later changed to Elvis Presley a rock ‘n’ roll star. This strategy attracted new customers and improved USPS’s market potential because people who had no interest in this service started collecting stamps (Shafritz, Russell, and Borick, 2013). Additionally, the management aimed to control and improve productivity by reducing working hours and retrenchment of the employees (Carbaugh, n.d). Initially, this strategy achieved excellent results by reducing the costs and improving productivity. However, it did not last long because it became difficult to contain the strategy owing to the continuous escalation of wages and health benefit costs. Leadership Aspects The process of transforming USPS used leadership elements such as alignment of individual expectations with organizational goals, engaging stakeholders and innovating. USPS was innovative because the United States postal service (2008) reveals that innovative customer service expediency was introduced in 1863. This is where its leadership team introduced innovative ideas like free home delivery for rural dwellers, speeding delivery, and parcel posts (Shafritz, Russell, and Borick, 2013). Innovation was evident when the leaders embraced entrepreneurial activities such as the introduction of postal stamps w...