Boeing is known for its commercial airplanes as well as aerospace craft and military defense aircraft. Technology has and will continue to be a major aspect in Boeing management planning. Management planning is affected by legal issues, ethics, and corporate social responsibility. Three factors that influence the company’s strategic, tactical, operational and contingency planning are economic conditions, innovation, and competition.
First, management will analyze the situation. Management needs to examine past events, look at the current situation, and try to “forecast future trends” (Bateman & Snell, 2009). In a situational analysis, Boeing management will also consider the competitive market.
Next, management will set goals and create alternative plans that will aide in the achievement of goals. A specific goal Boeing has is to become the “world’s largest civil aircraft maker once again” (Singapore Press Holdings Ltd., 2010). Management will seek to set goals that are relevant to Boeing’s mission of being the dominant aircraft producer. Plans might include innovative ideas and designs that enable workers to offer products that fit into ever-changing technological and economical aspects. A standing plan management will likely have is to make safety a main priority in aircraft design.
Management will evaluate goals that have been set. Evaluation helps to determine possible effects, disadvantages, and advantages of each goal (Bateman & Snell, 2009). If one goal has been to focus on the production of commercial aircraft and suddenly hard economic times fall on societies all over the world, people may not readily have the resources to travel as much as they used to. Management may need to cut production in commercial aircraft and focus instead on production of another craft that is more in demand.
After evaluating, management will select plans that are most appropriate. When plans are selected, management will decide how to execute the plans. To implement a successful plan, Boeing offered its non-union workers an incentive plan that provides “annual cash rewards” for “the company’s achievement of annual financial performance objectives” (Market Wire, 2010).
Once plans have been implemented, management monitors and controls performance. Management will need to watch over the many levels of its structure. When problems arise, corrective plans will need to be set and instituted to redirect operations toward a desired goal.
Legal issues have impacted Boeing’s management planning. When management plans on a pay scale for employees they need to consider equal pay for equal work. There should be no discrimination involved in deciding employee salary. “In 2000, Boeing was sued over a complicated legal issue involving gender pay differential” (Innovative Thinker, 2008). There was enough evidence of the pay differential that Boeing had no choice but to settle so Boeing would not end up publicly humiliated (Innovative Thinker, 2008).
Boeing management has a written company policy which covers expected ethical business conduct. This code of conduct pertains to all employees, “including subsidiaries, contingent labor, consultants, and others acting for the company” (Boeing, 2010). Boeing management has a goal to create a precedent for ethics and offers ethics “awareness programs” and education (Boeing, 2010).
In 2005, according to The Political Economy Research Institute, Boeing made the list of one “of the largest corporate emitters of toxics in the US” (Baue, 2005). Since Boeing made the list of one of the top 100 culprits, Boeing had a corporate social responsibility to reduce emissions (Baue, 2005). Boeing is currently working toward a “five-year goal” to “reduce greenhouse gas emissions intensity 25 percent from 2008 to 2012” (Boeing, 2009). This goal supports a cleaner environment resulting in social responsibility most consumers are looking for.
Three factors that influence Boeing’s strategic, tactical, operational and contingency planning are economic conditions, innovation, and competition. Since world-wide economic decline, commercial aircraft demand went down. As of February 11, 2010, company chief executive, Jim McNerney said “the economy is showing signs of improvement that will lead to airplane orders” (Peterson & Jacobs, 2010). For Boeing management, this positive outlook brings Boeing out of its economic slump and back to planning for an increased production rate.
To cut costs of production, McNerney says Boeing “is considering putting a new engine in the 737” instead of building a whole new aircraft (Peterson & Jacobs, 2010). Part of the strategy in this plan will be to improve profitability by replacing the engine. This plan will set the stage for tactical planning which may include installation and testing of the new engine in the existing plane (Bateman & Snell, 2009). If all is successful in testing, operational planning might involve making sure there are qualified employees to follow through with the task of installing new engines. Contingency planning might involve coming up with options if the new engine plan fails.
In a world that thrives on technology, Boeing management’s strategic, tactical, operational and contingency planning is impacted by innovation. Especially in the line of defense and security, high performance products are a must for the military. Boeing management set a strategic goal to develop a technologically innovative product for the US Navy (Boeing, 2010). Tactical planning would relate the product to its design. Operational planning would take the design and turn it into the product. In Boeing’s case, this product was the P-8A, which “is the latest military derivative aircraft to benefit from a culture of technical innovation…” (Boeing, 2010.) “On board P-8A, all sensors contribute to a single fused tactical situation display” and grants complete “delivery of information” among coalition forces and US forces (Boeing, 2010).
Most, if not all, businesses are not without competition. Currently, Boeing has a stronghold on its partnership with the US Air Force. On March 20, 2010, The Washington Post reported a Russian firm is planning to compete for the sale of an Air Force tanker (Hedgpeth, 2010).
As a result, Boeing management’s strategic planning may be to set the long-term goal of establishing a continued partnership with the Air Force in regard to this tanker. Tactical planning might involve setting specific plans that reinforce such a partnership. Marketing would be associated with this venture.
Operational planning may engage representatives that enforce the importance of Boeing’s available “training manuals”, spare parts, “maintenance personnel” and “pilot experience” (Hedgpeth, 2010). Representative’s argument may be that the Russian firm has none of these supportive aspects.
Boeing is known for its commercial airplanes as well as aerospace craft and military defense aircraft. Boeing has faced legal issues concerning gender pay differential. Management has an ethics policy that all employees must follow and a corporate social responsibility in regard to environmental standards. The legal issues, ethics, and corporate social responsibility all affect management’s planning. Factors that have influenced management’s strategic, tactical, operational and contingency planning are economic conditions, innovation, and competition. Boeing management will plan its continuance in offering airplane business solutions for commercial and military use. Boeing will strive to be the leader in aircraft manufacturing.
References:
Baue, W. (2005). Toxic 100 uses enhanced release inventory data to list top corporate polluters.
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Boeing. (2010). Defense, space & security. Retrieved from
