Boeing Company is an American based aerospace and defence company that have been in business since 1916; it has its headquarters at Chicago, Illinois. William E. Boeing, is credited as the founder of the company, its first place of business was in Seattle, Washington as a plane making company; currently it is the world largest plane manufacturing company.
The success that the company has had over the years is attributed to strategic and timely decisions made by its managers. The company specializes in passengers and defence planes (Boeing Company corporate website, 2011). This paper discusses managerial role in the company and factors affecting planning role of the company’s management.
Planning function of management
The success of a business is a function of the quality of its management; there are different roles and functions of management. Planning is the main function of management as it sets the pace for a company into the unpredictable future. Planning ensures that activities are well thought and coordinated. Strategic decisions of various functions of an organization are considered when planning. It involves reflective thinking that consider an organisations goals and deriving methods to attain them.
Boeing is among the world first plane manufacturing companies, the management in earlier years had to plan for the strategy to use venture in the green market with the new products that it had developed. Innovating and inventing of planes called for management to make strategic decisions as well as plan for the future with the resources they had.
Currently the plane making industry has high competition as companies develop products that are responsive to customer needs. Among the competitors of the company are Airbus Plane Company, McDonnell Douglas, and American Lockheed (Boeing Company corporate website, 2011). To remain competitive, the company management planes for the future and develops different strategies to make the company competitive.
After developing a plan, the management goes further and oversees its implementation; in the implementation stage, the management mobilizes resources, controls and monitors the decision made to see its success (Williams, 2001).
Effects of legal issues, ethics, and corporate social responsibility on Boeing planning role of the management
Managerial decisions are affected by internal and external environment that a company operates; when making a decision, both the factors must be put into consideration. Boeing operates in more than one country, through having an assembly point or through selling its products to the country; when making decisions, the company has to consider legal implications of the decisions in different countries. It has to abide to legally accepted behaviours.
For example, the United States has labour laws that give citizens of the country the right to proper working conditions, the company has no choice other than develop appropriate working conditions as specified by the law. In keeping benchmarks, the company is guided by the aerospace safety regulations.
Businesses operate in environments that have external factors that are influenced/ influence the business. With globalisation and increase in people awareness of their rights, there have been calls for conducting business ethically. Ethics in business means conducting a business in socially, economically, politically and environmentally friendly manner.
When coming up with a product the company has to consider what processes and programs are ethically considered just and are acceptable. For example, before manufacturing a plane, the company puts a lot of emphasis on safety and comfort of the facility, it ensures that the plane is working well and can handle the capacity specified effectively. In plane manufacturing, safety and giving assurance that the plane can function effectively is considered ethical.
To create good relations with its customers and the environs it operate in, Boeing has to make decisions that are responsive to the needs and expectations of the communities; the company also engages in corporate social responsibility activities. Corporate social responsibilities are actions that a company commits its self to do, not for its income generation but projects that benefit the society.
The responsibilities that the company has engaged in include; building of medical centres and hospitals, building schools, scholarships to students, developing and financing environmental conservation programs and charity work (Andrew & Dirk, 2004).
Three factors that influence the company’s strategic, tactical, operational, and contingency planning
Planning process involves making decisions that will affect a company into the future; it involves using current and past information to make strategic, tactical, operational, and contingency decisions. Before making a decisions, the management needs to elaborate and understand the problem at had so as they can plan how to tackle the issue. Some factors affect planning at Boeing Company they include:
External factors
Airplane manufacturing industry is highly competitive with each company developing its own unique products and processes to see its success. Before making strategic, tactical, operational, and contingency planning decision, the company has to analyse the external effects that the decision will have.
The major external forces include competition: the company has to consider the level of technology and the kind of products that its competitors have, it aims at being a leader in the industry thus, and it must be a notch higher in innovation, product development and innovation.
Another external force that affects the company’s planning role is the operation of world economies: the company targets both domestic and local markets, the performance of world economies determine the level of market that the company is likely to command. It puts this into consideration when planning to do something.
Corporate goals and objective
The company organisational structure offers some direction that the company has to follow; when making strategic, tactical, operational, and contingency planning decisions, the company has to follow the line of business that it was established to venture into. The decision has to be guided by its mission, vision and corporate plan that it aims to fulfil.
Corporate goals and objectives calls for different planning in the company and shapes the direction of decisions made. Corporate goals and objective include dividends policy, resource distribution policies, share allocation and floating policies among others.
Internal potential
When a plane has been made, its implementation depends with the resources, strength and capacity of the company. Before making a certain plan to do something, the company aims ensures it understands the potential it has so as when a program has been implemented it will be a success. Internal potential include factors like human resources, brand name, intellectual property, or innovativeness (Williams, 2001).
Conclusion
The growth and competitiveness of an organization is influenced by the quality and acceptability of decisions made by its managers; generally, management functions are planning, leading controlling/monitoring and organizing. The success of the Boeing Company is attributed to strategic managerial decisions: the company’s management ensures that it makes responsive, timely and strategic decisions.
References
Andrew, C.,& Dirk, M.(2004). Business Ethics. Oxford: Oxford university Press.
Boeing Company corporate website. (2011). BOEING. Web.
Williams, S. (2001). Making better business decisions: understanding and improving critical thinking and problem-solving skills. London: Sage.