Boeing Organizational Environment and Behavior - Essay Example

Introduction

Boeing Company is an American leader in the aerospace industry that manufactures military aircraft, defense systems, commercial airplanes, satellites, and security systems. The company was founded in the year 1916 (Musi, 2016). During the world wars, Boeing was the leading supplier of the United States military airplanes. As the biggest manufacturing exporter of the United States, Boeing supports the U.S., the allied government, and airlines in over 150 countries. Its products and services comprise weapons, launch systems, performance-based logistics, information and communication systems, and training. The company has a long tradition of innovation and leadership in aerospace, and it continually expands its broad product and service lines to meet customer needs. The company's capabilities are creating advanced technology solutions, designing and building both defense systems and military platforms, creating members of its commercial airplane family, and arranging innovative service and financing options for its customers. The company's success is credited to its ability to leverage talents through its highly trained workforce in all its departments. Also, it has enhanced innovation and, at the same time, embraced both talent and diversity in its more than 170 000 employees in the U.S. Boeing's organization has been divided into three major business units: Boeing defense, security, and space; Boeing commercial airplanes; and Boeing Global Services (Musi, 2016). The three major units are supplemented by other multinational departments such as Boeing Capital Corporation, the provider of financing solutions globally, and Boeing Operations, Engineering, and Technology. Additionally, the functional organizations that work across the company engaged in operations such as productivity and quality improvement, finance, development -program and technology execution, program management and engineering, and advanced manufacturing and design systems.

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The paper discusses the company's organizational structure and leadership, communication networks, organizational change, politics, and power, then the organization's negotiation process, culture and innovation, design, goals, technology, and strategy. Also, the company's risk management, conflict resolution process, training programs, decision-making environment, and the company's business environment are discussed.

Boeing Leadership and Organizational Structure

The top leadership of the company is represented by a president and a Chief Executive Officer. The two leaders ensure the organization formulates policies that will place the company on top of its industry, and that support and enhance its competitive advantage. They also oversee the company's strategic direction that heads towards achieving its mission. More so, the president and the CEO facilitate and lead the long-term decision-making process for the entire organization by integrating three business units' operations with the supporting departments. The company business is done by corporate officers, employees, and managers, with the CEO being the leader and the board of directors being the oversight team (Petrescu et al., 2017). The current practices and corporate governance principles are periodically reviewed by the organization and nominating committee and the board of governance. In the company, communication is taken seriously as it is considered essential in the process of decision-making and attainment of the company's objectives. The communication process in any company should not be downplayed because of its essentiality in disseminating information since workers need to communicate with the company's managers concerning issues that arise from the workplace. Correspondingly, managers are required to communicate several policies that affect employees in the workplace.

On the other hand, the company shareholders need consistent and constant information concerning company performance. Hence, for consistent and timely dissemination of information, Boeing's senior vice presidents have been assigned to make sure strategic dissemination occurs in the company to all its stakeholders in the entire globe. The stakeholders of Boeing include employees, customers, the government, communities, global partners, and shareholders.

The development of the company's leaders has been enhanced by promoting employees, given a priority by Boeing management. The policy was developed to enhance the growth of employees and to develop their skills. The company management nurtures transformational leadership that enhances the confidence of followers in the business plans of the company. The employee development plans have been done via several capacity-building forums, development opportunities, and pieces of training. These actions increase employees' job satisfaction and increase their performance (Petrescu et al., 2017). The transformational leadership type supported by the company has increased the motivation of workers leading to improvement in the inclusive efficiency and performance of the company. The policy adopted by the company on its employees assisted the company to a greater extent through the attraction of a more talented workforce that has improved competitiveness realized through innovation.

The three business units of the company which include, Boeing Defense, security, and Space; Boeing Commercial Airplanes, and Boeing Global Services, are supplemented by both internal and global departments. The major global department of the company is Boeing Engineering, Operations, and Technology, which enhances technical and functional efficiency via the use of modern technology. It also defines and then implements the company's corporate strategies. The department ensures quality assurance, enhances the management of the environment, maintains safety and health, and develops information technology systems in the company's global operations. The other international department is the Boeing Capital Corporation, which is responsible for financing the company internationally. Shared Group Services is another important supplement department of the company. It allows the three business units to focus on profitability by enhancing global activities through the provision of infrastructural services. The services offered by the group include global sales and acquisition of properties; facilitates management, site preparation, and construction; and offers comprehensive travel services.

Boeing Business Environment

The business environment of Boeing is developed and managed to remain competitive and with the urge to provide services and products that meet the needs of its customers. Being the world aerospace leader, the company has formulated a policy that develops models that change with the shift in customer needs of aerospace, and that ensures both security and safety of air transport. The growth of technology is a vital area that provides the potential for company growth. Thus, through its global department of Boeing Engineering, Technology, and Operations, the company has adopted a sustainable modern technology that increases its competitive advantage. The U.S. government has given Boeing enormous support, which has created various opportunities for the company (Pao, 2013). A good political will has been created between the government and the company, which has enabled the company to acquire information concerning the current and emerging trends in both space and defense security. Security in air travel has been a current trend in the aviation industry because of the increase in terrorism, which, through their activities, affects air travel, which has forced Boeing company to implement innovations that improve air travel security. The company has launched new information systems and satellites because of the increased use of satellites by several companies and countries to facilitate information.

The company has placed a major concern on its global business environment because of its operations worldwide. Boeing has to predict any potential areas and future growth that boosts its competitive advantage. The evaluation of the current global business environment data determines the prediction of the company's future environment. Hence, it puts more effort into evaluating data taken from the demand for its products and services and data on the global freight demand. The company's market success offers several high-value aerospace employment opportunities all over the United States and across its supply chain. The company partners with over 12,000 businesses, and it supports above one million supplier-related employment opportunities (Lawrence & Thornton, 2017). The business that the company supports includes non-production vendors, subsidiaries of other firms, and product suppliers.

Boeing Decision-Making and Communication Networks

In the globalizing economies, most organizations have changed their process of making decisions and managing information because such organizations face a dynamic business environment; for a company to make decisions that are efficient and enhance competitive advantage, the company has to gather data and information. Thus, the decision-making process and information management need to collaborate to enhance competitive advantage. Boeing Company has adopted modern techniques of managing information and making it consistent and available promptly to assist in the decision-making process. Organizations are usually faced with a lot of decisions to make to boost their competitiveness. Some of the decisions comprise operational decisions, strategic decisions, programmed decisions, non-programmed decisions, and tactical decisions. For Boeing company, priority has been placed adoption of modern management information systems that enable the company to get updated on the performance of the global market and current trends in the global business.

Boeing has also adopted an inclusive decision-making process in which its employees participate in the process; therefore, it enhances acceptance of the business plan that the company formulates in the process. The involvement has boosted the performance of employees and, at the same time, increased their productivity resulting in more improvement in the overall efficiency of the company. The employees are involved in programmed decisions, operational and tactical decisions, despite the fact that every department makes different decisions depending on its operations (Lawrence & Thornton, 2017). The development of employees through the decision-making process at Boeing is mostly facilitated by the transformational leadership approach used by the company. For example, the company CEO acknowledged the participation of employees in the production of Dream Liner. In Boeing, the decision-making process has been facilitated by the development of information technology.

In the Boeing company, strategic decision-making is done by the president, the Chief Executive Officer, and the Senior managers. Most of the strategic decisions impact the company's long-term performance, especially in the global market. It involves decisions related to the acquisition of foreign branches, new product development, and formulation of a long-term marketing strategy. The strategic decision is made based on the operational decision, which is continuously made within the company.

Communication networks in the Boeing company involve the dissemination of information vertically and horizontally. The horizontal network is where the company employees in the same department communicate with other employees from different departments but of the same rank.