Postal Service Solicits New Ideas
Steve Musacco
The United States Postal Service (USPS) is actively soliciting for new concepts, business ideas, and innovation to improve its viability and overall organizational effectiveness. This solicitation can be accessed at www.usps.com/innovations/. In the following, I offer some specific innovations to assist in this endeavor.
In response to the national recession and the related, dramatic dwindling of mail volumes and revenues, particularly 3rd class mailings, the USPS has devised and will accelerate strategic, change management plans to downsize it workforce. Unfortunately, the USPS has not and most likely will continue devising and implementing these plans without the input and voice of the four national unions and three management associations. In any significant, corporate downsizing effort, it is imperative that an organization use all of its major stakeholders to improve the success of targeted actions and to buffer some of the negative consequences for its employees. Moving in this direction would be a dramatic departure from the USPS’ historical approach to large scale, change management initiatives, but it’s not too late to forge these alliances.
The change management actions that the USPS has taken in the last month and action yet to be announced and implemented will affect the postal culture for years to come. If it continues to take unilateral action in its strategic, change management initiatives, it will serve to further solidify, an already highly toxic organizational culture. Furthermore, the risk for injury to employees’ physical and psychological health will rise and so will the potential for serious workplace violence.
How about real, dramatic, and strategic reform of the postal culture? How about investigation of excesses and fraud committed at the highest levels of the organization? Taking bold actions in these two areas will improve the viability of the organization and serve to improve the organizational commitment and well-being of its employees.
As I stated in previous writings, it will take sweeping congressional intervention to ensure that these types of actions are implemented and sustained to shift the USPS from an unhealthy organization to a safe and healthy one. Congress has responded with the right action to ensure that core postal operations are not privatized, particularly in the last several years. Now is the time for Congress to implement legislation to reform the postal culture. Postal employees, regardless of rank or position, deserve a postal culture in which the core values of respect, fairness, and validation of dignity, are not empty slogans, but instead are the reality of organizational life.
April 2nd, 2009 at 7:58 pm
Stephen’s book is revelatory and informative of the true condition of USPS. Reform is indispensable so that the service’s management and effectiveness is optimized. The culture is “toxic” and in need of bottom up reform so that the production workforce plays a vital role in its day to day operations. Currently, craft people are treated as 2nd class citizens. One essential reform at the top would be to include the Union Presidents on the Board of Governors, or at a minimum two so that worker participation is assured! Also, board members should be compelled to visit facilities to inspect plant equipment and interview craft people on the job. I suspect their eyes would be opended! instead of tightly closed, as they are now.
April 3rd, 2009 at 9:18 pm
Excessing employees, reassessing limited duty employees, offering Voluntary Early Retirements, and having a reduction-in-force of those employees with less than 6 years seniority, will reduce costs, but at the cost of reduced customer service.
The core management style that needs repair wouldn’t be addressed since the Postal Service is only driven by corporate goals and figures, irregardless of the moral of employees.
Even the NALC and APWU has sold out it’s employees, letting this harassment and intimidation by management prevail for countless years.
Thank God I’m retired…this is going to get real ugly in the future.