Contextual Factors
The external environment of a business is extremely complex It consists of a variety of players, which influence the business With the advent the digital era, parcel industry has been facing a variety of problems (Dalkir & Beaulieu, 2017).
This presentation will concentrate on :
Contextual factors
definition and meaning Background of United Parcel services Application of Knowledge Management and E-commerce as a contextual factor on the chosen
Contextual Factors
Contextual factors can be define as those characteristics of the environment which are related to the functioning of a business enterprise.Contextual Factors can be defined as certain elements of external environment that are important to the business.Contextual factors may relate to any area of the business which may lead to a problem in the business environment of a firm (Hislop, 2013).
These factors may include:
Governance Innovation and Entrepreneurship Knowledge Management and e-Commerce Contextual factors in the discussion In the presentation, the primary contextual factor with respect to which the company is being discussed is : Knowledge Management and E-commerce.
About the organization
United Parcel Services is an American multinational package company which provides companies with supply chain management solutions (Jones & Sallis, 2013). The company is headquartered in Greater Atlanta in the United States. The company as found b James Casey in 1907.
Operations
The following services are offered by the company: United States Domestic Package International Package (Liebowitz & Frank, 2016).Supply Chain & Freight
Problems affecting UPS
Problems relating to the work load during the peak season:
During the peak season, especially Christmas, the company deals with increased number of packages which then leads to :
Elevated level of packages over a short period of time On time deliveries (Sultan, 2013). Dipping profit margins
Problems relating to Capital Spending
The second issue that the company has been facing is due to the increase in the online sales with the advent of e-commerce:
Ecommerce has caused: Increased pressure New infrastructure (Slack, 2015). Building Delivery capabilities
Application of Knowledge Management.
Hence, the company has been facing problems with respect to the given areas: Unable to manage their information and resources carefully. They are unable to apply knowledge management in their system.They are not being able to cope up with the e-commerce sales with respect to increase in volume (Wheelen et al., 2017).The application of knowledge management and e-commerce will come handy in the given scenario.Knowledge management can be described as the creating, storing and continuously updating the knowledge base of the company to adapt to the environment.
Conclusion
Therefore, The company United Parcel Services has been in business almost for a century. It has been facing problems with respect to the increased volume of business due to e-commerce.The management has been unable to manage the information dissemination and the resources of the company
Recommendations
How to apply knowledge management and e-commerce into business? A good knowledge management program increases the productivity of the business, increases staff morale and delivers consistency.It involves People, Process, Technology and structure into the business organization (Barney & Hesterly ,2015).There is a 8 step recommendation plan to apply the factor in the organization to solve the various problems. These are :
Step 1: Establishing the Program Objectives
Step 2: Preparing for the Change
Step 3: High-Level Process Definition
Step 4: Determining and prioritizing the Technological Needs
Step 5: Measuring Current Status
Step 6: Forming an implementation road map
Step 7: Implementing the program
Step 8: Testing and improving the program of Knowledge Management.(Rothaermel, 2015).
Hence, if the United Parcel Service, takes these recommendations and implements the plan. It will achieve success.It may also hire useful and professional workforce to complement their plan.
References
Barney, J. B., & Hesterly, W. (2015). Strategic management and competitive advantage concepts and cases. Pearson.
Dalkir, K., & Beaulieu, M. (2017). Knowledge management in theory and practice. MIT press.
Hislop, D. (2013). Knowledge management in organizations: A critical introduction. Oxford University Press.
Home: UPS. (2018). Ups.com. Retrieved 1 February 2018,
Jones, G., & Sallis, E. (2013). Knowledge management in education: Enhancing learning & education. Routledge.
Liebowitz, J., & Frank, M. (Eds.). (2016). Knowledge management and e-learning. CRC press.
Rothaermel, F. T. (2015). Strategic management. McGraw-Hill Education.
Slack, N. (2015). Operations strategy. John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Sultan, N. (2013). Knowledge management in the age of cloud computing and Web 2.0: Experiencing the power of disruptive innovations. International journal of information management, 33(1), 160-165.
Wheelen, T. L., Hunger, J. D., Hoffman, A. N., & Bamford, C. E. (2017). Strategic management and business policy. pearson.
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