Productivity in the U.S. Postal Service

This purpose of this study was to examine productivity in the United States Postal Service. The USPS Postal Service Center located in Bentonville, Arkansas was the setting for this study. Marginal morale, poor organization, and outmoded decision-making practices lower the productivity of this organization. Local management has been apathetic toward suggested change.

The option selected for this study was an alternative policy proposal to the decision-making authority in the USPS. An organizational design intervention would have been the preferred option; however, the USPS managers exercising decision-making authority over the USPS Postal Service Center, Bentonville, Arkansas would not accept the intervention option.

Three alternative strategies were evaluated in this study. These alternatives were as follows:

1. The first alternative approach to the solution to the productivity problem involving the mail sorting and distribution functions at the Bentonville Post Office was to work within the existing system. Essentially, the system in place at the Bentonville Post Office is the same system that has been used by the USPS for decades.

2. The second alternative approach to the solution of the productivity problem involving the mail sorting and distribution functions at the Bentonville Post Office is the development of work teams within the existing organizational structure.

3. The third alternative approach to the solution of the productivity problem invo

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ausing the team, in effect, to become almost a separate company within a company (Owens, 1991, pp. 53-65). The self-managed work team tends to affect three aspects of organizational structure. The affected aspects of structure are lines of managerial authority within an organization, responsibility and accountability within the organization, and the informal organization within the organizational structure. The development of an effective team-based organization depends on the addressing of issues related to each of these characteristics of an organization. Strong leadership is necessary for the effective functioning of SMWTs (Barton, 1991, pp. 58-59). Such leadership is essential if SMWTs are to hire, train, and assign new employees, determine work schedules, provide instruction in various skills, and make decisions related to bonus compensation and employee terminations. To foster strong leadership in SMWTs, organizational management must relinquish control over details, concrete problems, and day-to-day activities (Barton, pp. 58-59). Organizational management then devotes its energies to broader responsibilities, such as planning, and providing direction and support for SMWTs. Within such an organizational environme

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