Australian Postal Corporation which operates in the industry with the name of Australia Post is an organization which is owned by the government and is known for providing postal services in the country. The head office of the organization is located in Melbourne which is also able to serve as a post office. Australia Post was the first company that was known for providing postal services in the country. The rates of postage were thereby fixed by the government in the year 1825 which was helpful in organising the services that were offered by the organization (Auspost.com.au, 2018). The delivery of letters had started in the year 1828 and the posting boxes had started appearing in 1831.
The essay will be based on the analysis of changes which have taken place within the organizational processes and the different driving forces that had played a major role in the implementation of changes. The strategies related to people development based strategies which have been implemented by the company will also be a major part of the analysis made in the report. The discussion will also be based on the alignment of future strategies with the process of managing innovation and changes.
(a) Outlining the key reforms and changes that have been implemented by Australian Post
According to Al-Haddad and Kotnour (2015), Australia Post has been operating in the industry for a long term and the organization has thereby gone through huge number of changes based on its operations. The changes and reforms have been able to sustain the profits of the company in the industry. The resignation of Ahmed Fahour from the post of Managing Director and Group CEO in the year 2017 had further led to the appointment of Mr. John Stanhope as the Chairman of the organization. Mr. Fahour had been appointed in the position in the year 2010 and was able to serve in Australia Post for seven years. The appointment of the new leader of Australia Post had further led to changes in the strategies which have been implemented in the company. The use of letters in the Australian community had reduced a lot in the past few years and this has led to the decline of the organization. The organization had made huge amounts of investment in the delivery of Parcels and the ecommerce based business (Anderson, 2016).
Australia Post has thereby made effective levels of investments in different activities which include, acquiring remaining half of the StarTrack from the partner named Qantas. The capacity of its Melbourne and Sydney parcel centres have been increased. Installation of the 24/7 Parcel Lockers which can be situated in 264 sites (Auspost.com.au, 2018). Australia Post has also partnered with the retail organization named Woolworths in order to install Lockers in 500 sites. The company has thereby aimed at developing an innovative platform named MyPost which have enabled the Australians to register the different delivery based preferences online (Bailey & Raelin, 2015). Finally, Australia Post has aimed at making an investment and thereby formed an alliance with Aramex for international ecommerce. These reforms have thereby been able to increase the revenues and the profits of Australia Post in an effective manner under the leadership of Mr. Fahour. The strategies based on reforms had been helpful for the company to maintain its position in the industry (Bolman & Deal, 2017).
According to the change management theory discussed by Kuipers et al. (2014), the implementation of change is able to play a major role in maintaining the success position in the industry. The decision which was taken by the Federal Government of Australia had been able to affect Australia Post and further introduce the additional speed related to service that is provided to senders of mail. The cheaper options were also provided to the customers with the help of Regular service (Auspost.com.au, 2018). Priority services were provided to customers who aimed at sending the mails faster to the selected destinations. Another major service that was able to attract the customers was known as the Express Post. This service is based on the next day delivery based services that are offered to the customers. The reforms and changes are thereby able to increase the current revenues of the company and further maintain the position of Australia Post in the industry (Cameron & Green, 2015).
(b) Driving factors that have contributed to reforms
According to Cavusgil & Knight, (2015), the reforms which have been implemented in Australia Post are based on the different driving factors that are present in the external environment. The rise that has been depicted by the digital communication based activities in the industry has played a major role in steps that have been taken by Australia Post in order to improve the speed of its services. The fall of the number of letters that are developed in different households in the country from the year 2008 has led to changes which have been made in the organization. The volumes of letter have also declined in a huge manner by around 8.2% in the financial year 2015.
This fall has led to the forecast of huge losses in the organization for the next few years. The government based reports have also depicted that the lack of reforms within the organization can further lead to increase of levels of losses that are already being faced by Australia Post. The organization and its business based operations are self-funded in nature and has received no funding based on the tax payers (Auspost.com.au, 2018). It is thereby important for the organization to implement the reforms in such a manner which will help them to maintain the position and revenues as well. The organization has thereby welcomed the changes which have been suggested by the government (Cullen et al., 2014).
According to the management of Australia Post the changes will thereby be helpful in continuing the operations of the company. The growth in the losses which have been experienced in the mail services have affected the behaviour of the consumers and the business organization as a whole. The major driving force was thereby based on the ways by which the company was planning to provide world class mailing services to the consumers in Australia (Doppelt, 2017).
(c) People development strategies that have been implemented by Australian Post in order to overcome the resistance to change
As discussed by Elmes & Barry, (2017), the people or employees are considered to be the most important part of the business operations that are conducted by Australia post. The employees are thereby able to provide the effective levels of services that are expected by the Australian consumers. The major priority of the company has always been on making effective levels of investment in the people. Australia Post has employed more than 50,000 people in the country which include, licensees and principle delivery based contractors as well. The most significant strategy which has been employed by the management in the year 2017 was the equal gender pay.
The management is also committed in a serious manner to the Diversity and Inclusion based activities. Another major people management strategy which has been implemented by Australia Post is the new Australia Post Enterprise Agreement 2017 that was approved officially by the Fair Work Commission in August. This agreement was approved with the effective support that has been provided by the employees (Auspost.com.au, 2018). The wellbeing and safety of the employees have been provided with utmost importance by the organization. The culture in the organization was developed in such a manner which makes the employees feel that they own the responsibilities related to safety (Engert, Rauter & Baumgartner, 2016).
The third Reconciliation Action Plan or RAP was developed for the year 2017 to 2020 with the aim of including the indigenous population of the community within the social responsibilities of the company. Gender equality has proved to be a major responsibility that has been undertaken by the organization. The pay that is thereby provided to the male and the female employees are aimed to be kept at par in Australia Post (Auspost.com.au, 2018). The organization has extended the support which is provided to women beyond the actual workforce. The women who belong to the community are also provided with effective levels of support by different programs which have been organized by the organization (Helfat & Martin, 2015).
Australia Post has also been working in a collaborative manner with the Delivery Partners who are considered to be the extended workforce. The management has aimed at providing highest levels of support to the Delivery Partners as they have direct interaction with the customers on behalf of the company. Different compliance based activities have been introduced by Australia Post for the Delivery Partners so that they are able to understand the expectations of the company (Hornstein, 2015). A survey has been conducted by the organization named “say2action” which provided the Delivery Partners with an opportunity to provide their opinions to the management. The communication levels between the Delivery Partners and the management of Australia Post has been improved effectively with the help of the portal developed by the company.
(d) Ways by which Australia Post has aligned the future strategies to manage the innovation and change to lead in the global business environment
The major aim related to the operations of Australia Post was to keep people connected by delivering their letters with the help of various post offices. The Future Ready Strategy was developed by Australia Post in the year 2010-2014. The innovation based agenda that has been developed by the organization is considered to be a major factor that has been able to affect the future related strategies (Auspost.com.au, 2018). The trusted services are provided by the organization to the customers. Australia Post provides opportunities of developing digital identity with the help of government support. The Digital ID based platform that has been developed by the organization is able to provide more options to the customers so that they are able to prove the identity (Kipping & Üsdiken, 2014).
Another innovation which has been made by the company is known as the Bill Scanner which is considered to be an easy method to pay the bills. PayHive is an opportunity which is provided by the company to web developers. Secure Document Delivery is a process which has been implemented by Australia Post in order provide secure, fast and affordable delivery service of the documents (Kuipers et al., 2014).
The Innovation at Post is mainly based on the changes which have taken place in the acceleration of ecommerce based opportunities with the help of connections developed with the customers. Innovation has thereby been made an important part of the operations of Australia Post. The employees have been able to play a major role in the innovation activities that have been performed by Australia Post (Auspost.com.au, 2018). The company has thereby been able to develop the future strategies with the help of effective levels of innovation in order to lead the industry. Australia Post has been able to develop its innovative activities with the proper collaboration with the employees (Auspost.com.au, 2018).
(e) Lessons learnt after the analysis of Australia Post case study
The case study has been able to teach us the implementation of changes and reforms within the organizations plays a major role in their development regardless of their industry of operations. The support provided by government is also an important factor in the sustainable operations of the companies. Australia Post has been able to operate in the environment in a profitable manner in spite of the lack of usage of services that were originally provided by them. The ways by which Australia Post has been able to implement effective reforms have been able to maintain the profitability based levels.
Conclusion
The analysis of the case study of Australia Post has been able to depict that the organization was successful in developing its position in the industry with the help of proper strategies. The proper reforms have also been implemented in organizational process that have played a major role in organizational development. Employees have been provided with utmost levels of importance by the organization which has been able to play a major role in the proper operations of Australia Post. The levels of profitability of Australia Post was also increased effectively with the help of services that have been offered by the employees.
References
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Anderson, D. L. (2016). Organization development: The process of leading organizational change. Sage Publications.
Auspost.com.au (2018). [online] Auspost.com.au. Available at: https://auspost.com.au/content/dam/auspost_corp/media/documents/Annual-Report-2017.pdf [Accessed 27 Sep. 2018].
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