The continuing economic recession that began in 2008 in the United States greatly exacerbated that revenue problem as people reduced their unnecessary use of postal services and increased their use of private-sector competitors such as United Parcel Service (UPS) and Federal Express (FedEx). To date, the USPS has been slow to respond to competition, particularly in relation to the adoption of the bar coding system that has long been in use by UPS and FedEx and that is considered to have been instrumental in their increase of the market share (Brewster & Dalzell, 2007).
The USPS already has formal plans to adopt such mechanisms by the year 2013, but those plans preceded the economic crisis of 2008 and the precipitous nature of funding issues affecting its operations in the current political climate. In that regard, the USPS is also saddled with significant pension obligations that have inspired considerable attention in…...

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References

Anonymous. (2011). Personal Interview Conducted by the Researcher on November 2,

2001 with a current USPS employee working as a Letter Carrier since 2000. The

Interview was conducted on the strict condition of absolute anonymity.

Brewster, M. And Dalzell, F. (2007). Driving Change: The UPS Approach to Business.

Anthrax: An Attack on the United States
Anthrax is an acute disease that is caused by a bacteria known as bacillus anthracis. Anthrax most commonly occurs in lower-level vertebrates both wild and domestic, such as cows, goats, sheep, and camels. However, anthrax infection can also occur in humans when they are exposed to animals that are infected, or to tissue from these animals ("Anthrax," 2003). The anthrax infection in humans can take three forms: cutaneous, inhalation, or gastrointestinal. This paper examines the signs and symptoms of anthrax, as well as looks at the circumstances of the most current outbreak of anthrax in the United States.

Anthrax is not very common in the United States, at least not anymore. Anthrax is primarily a disease of agricultural countries where contact with and exposure to animals is a common, daily occurrence. When anthrax infects a human being, it is normally through contact with an infected…...

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References

Anthrax." (2003). CDC. Retreived on June 25, 2003 at  

United States Postal Service (USPS) is an independent body of the federal government that is mandated with the responsibility of providing postal service in America. The agency was known as the U.S. Post Office Department in 1971 when it was totally managed by the United States government. In addition to be referred to as Post Office, Postal Service or U.S. Mail, USPS is one of the few agencies of the government that are clearly authorized by the U.S. Constitution. Since its inception, the United States Postal Service has developed to an extent that it is the largest post in the world since it provides more mail to more addresses in a bigger geographical region. The success of this organization can partly be attributed to its strategy to fulfill or realize its mission, organization design and structure, and its organizational culture and its cultural values.
USPS Mission and Strategy

The United States Postal…...

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References

Matsch, R.P. (2013, July 9). In the United States District Court for the District of Colorado.

Retrieved October 4, 2014 from  http://smartgunlaws.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/Bonidy-Docket-Version.pdf 

United States Postal Service. (2014, April 3). ELM Revision: Organizational Structure Policies

and Job Evaluation Processes. Retrieved October 4, 2014, from  http://about.usps.com/postal-bulletin/2014/pb22386/html/updt_005.htm

Some feel that this is a union backed bailout and that the union has no interest in protecting the American tax payer. These people feel that the USPS should be left to sink or swim and that if they fail this would be the beginning of government employee reduction. Other believe that it has been proven that things cannot go on the way they are ultimately, far-reaching changes are essential for survival.
Rebuttal to Reasons for Non-Passage

The passage of HR 1351 is a good first step in enabling the USPS to survive. The current crisis is basically a result of HR 6407. In 2006, the United States Congress passed the Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act of 2006 (PAEA). This bill required that the USPS prepay its potential health care benefit payments to retirees for the next seventy five years in a ten-year time span. The deep hole of debt that…...

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Works Cited

"H.R. 1351: United States Postal Service Pension Obligation Recalculation and Restoration

Act of 2011." 2011. Web. 3 November 2011. Available at:

 http://www.govtrack.us/congress/bill.xpd?bill=h112-1351&tab=summary 

Nader, R. (2011). "Letter to Congress."  http://nader.org/uploads/USPS-ltr.pdf

49% which shows that the company is able to earn $22 by investing $100 which is certainly a sign of financial healthy company. After analyzing the profitability ratio, let's now examine the efficiency ratios of the company.
Efficiency atio Analysis

Efficiency ratios (E) are the ratios which used to assess the effectiveness of a company. The specific rations come under the ambit of E are eturn on Asset (OA) and eturn on Equity (OE) (Daniel, 1992). Let's examine both the ratios.

eturn on Assets (OA) Analysis

An indicator of how profitable a company is relative to its total assets. OA gives an idea as to how helpful management is at using its assets to produce profit (Groves & Edward, 2004). Calculated by dividing a company's annual wages by its total assets, OA is displayed as a percentage. The computed OA figure and its graph is mentioned below,

UPS OA

Years

Total Assets

Net Profit

OA

in million U.S.$

in million U.S.$

2006

33,210

4,202

12.65

2007

39,042

14,014

35.89

2008

31,879

13,545

42.49

2009

31,883

10,838

33.99

2010

33,597

12,478

37.14

Mean…...

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References

Anthony, G & Cornyn, D (1982), Company Analysis, Pearson Group Publications

Alexander, J (2007), Value Creation and Analysis, Pearson Group Publications

Archand, T (2003), Strategic Company Analysis, John Wiley & Sons Professional Publications

David, P & Hussey, E (2001), Company Analysis: Determining Strategic Capability, McGraw Hill Publications

One global business mentioned in the report as a technology leader with high brand equity was at&T. Customer equity is that value of future business purchased by the customer based on brand equity, which in turn means consumer acceptance of the product, customer relationships and customer perception of the value. The postal service would encounter both retention and value problems and would be viewed as difficult to do business with, bureaucratic and would provide less value than its competitors. If there were no competitors, these would not present as problems under a stable and unchanging environment. However, that would not be the case, as the environment was quite susceptible to change. The Commission report said that consumer experiences registered relatively low customer equity according to his or her perceptions of low value, slow deliveries and inability to meet consumer expectations. The Commission is obligated to provide a strong and…...

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Bibliography

1. Bozman, C. (2003). United Parcel Service. http://www.scs.unr.edu/~bcynthia/UPS.pdf#search='United%20Parcel%20Sercies'

2. Postal Rate Commission. (2001). Report of Consumer Advocate on Quality of Services Provided by the Postal Service to the Public. Postal Rate Commission. http://www.prc.gov/oca/papers/quality/summary.doc

3. Puscas, D and Girard, R. (2003). United Parcel Services. Polar Institute. http://www.polarinstitute.org/corp-profiles/public_services_gate_pdfs/UPS.pdf

4. Sivy, M. (2006). Fed-Ex: Flying Even Higher. Cable News Network LP, LLP.   htmhttp://money.cnn.com/2006/06/27/commentary/sivy/sivy.moneymag/index ,

Total Quality Service: The Last Ten Years
Total quality service has always been an important part of any business relationship, at least from the viewpoint of consumers. However, not all businesses have seen how total quality service can improve the relationships that they have with the customers who purchase their goods and services. In the last ten years, there has been more of a focus on total quality service, and it is definitely important today that it was ten years ago.

The importance of total quality service can be seen by the number of businesses that are implementing policies related to it. For example, the United States Postal Service has recently gotten in on the act. In 1999, the Postal Service implemented a total quality service plan that would improve the quality of service on all levels. The quality of service will be monitored, and the plan is designed not only to…...

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Works Cited

Hendrickson, David L. "Maximizing productivity: improving service in the federal courts." Federal Probation 60 (1996): 11-20.

Magazine world: breakthrough in social relations." Business Wire 8 September 1999.

S. Postal Systems 1775-1993). A third segment of this transcontinental route was established in 1920 and ran from Chicago to Omaha by way of Iowa City, with feeder lines to this primary route being provided from St. Louis and Minneapolis to Chicago (U.S. Postal Systems 1775-1993). The final transcontinental segment was established on September 8, 1920 and ran from Omaha to San Francisco by way of North Platte, Cheyenne, awlins, ock Springs, Salt Lake City, Elko, and eno (U.S. Postal Systems 1775-1993).
One of the more interesting aspects of this early transcontinental route was the need to remove all of the mail from airplanes at the end of the day and place it on trains for continuation of the service at night by trains since these early aircraft were unable to fly at night; despite this added contrast, though, the transcontinental route was truly a "Pony Express" of the era and…...

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References

Boston, G. (2005, August 28). Historic site for aircraft; College Park Aviation Museum. The Washington Times, D04.

De Syon, G. (2004). Airlines and air mail: The Post Office and the birth of the commercial aviation industry. Air Power History, 51(1), 56/

Duke, J. & Torres, V. (2005). Multifactor productivity change in the air transportation industry: productivity increases in the U.S. airline industry -- the nation's primary intercity mass transportation system-have played a significant role in the industry's cost-containment efforts and its ability to accelerate growth. Monthly Labor Review, 128(3), 32-34.

Facts and figures about the Postal Service. (2008). U.S. Postal Service. [Online]. Available:  http://www.usps.com/communications/newsroom/postalfacts.htm .

Legalization of Marijuana
SHOULD MARIUANA BE LEGALIZED IN THE UNITED STATES?

For over 40 years the United States has struggled with how the use of marijuana should be governed. On one side, proponents argue that it should be legal in the same way alcohol and cigarettes are, or legal in small amounts. They do not feel that people who have small amounts for personal use should be prosecuted in any way. Recently, the prestigious medical journal The Lancet has suggested that keeping marijuana illegal may do more harm to society than its actual use does. They point out that the negative effects from use of alcohol are far greater than any negative effects from the use of marijuana (offee & Yancey, et. al., 2004).

However, those in favor of maintaining marijuana's status as an illegal substance argue that marijuana is not harmless and that in some ways it is very like other drugs…...

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Joffee, Alain, MD, MPH, and Yancey, Samuel, MD., with the Committee on Substance Abuse and the Committe on Adolescence. 2004. "Legalization of Marijuana: Potential Impact on Youth. American Academy of Pediatrics Technical Report." Pediatrics 113:6, June.

Portillo, Ely. 2005. "Web sites selling marijuana, paraphernalia proliferate." Knight-Ridder/Tribune News Serice, July 7.

Staff writers. 2005. "Safety - how alcohol affects the brain." New Straits Times (Science section), December 5.

Economics Discussions
Production Costs

Postal Service (USPS) operates at a loss but its closest competitors -- UPS and FedEx -- both operate at a profit. Suggest how fixed costs have contributed to the situation of the USPS. Provide support for your response.

I would suspect that the fixed costs of contributing to employee's retirement funds (Risk Analysis Research Center, 2009, p. 4) and also their restriction from closing local offices (Slentz and McCann, 2009, p. 12) contributes to higher fixed cost at USPS than FedEx because FedEx is not unionized and while UPS is unionized, and thus experiences a fixed cost that is incurred to the level of union contracts, those contracts are more negotiable for UPS than USPS, and nonexistent or fluid for FedEx. Furthermore while union contracts probably affect the rate of closure for physical facilities for UPS, this would probably be more negotiable than for USPS and FedEx especially if…...

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Lemon Law

5. From the e-Activity, compare and contrast the lemon law in two different states and analyze which offers the best protection for the consumer. Suggest what both states could do to improve their laws. Provide support for your response.

The California and Alaska Lemon Laws are largely the same except the California law (State of California Department of Justice 2012) restricts replacement / compensation to vehicles driven under 18,000 miles within the warranty period but the Alaska law (Carlemon.com, n.d.) does not restrict the warranty period by number of miles driven. All states could benefit from a uniform definition of "reasonable attempt" to replace or refund, which depends upon, and thus also entails, a standardization

TEOISM
COUNTE-TEOISM AND THE DEPATMENT OF HOMELAND SECUITY

Counter-terrorism is popular as antiterrorism and incorporates techniques, practices, strategies, and tactics that militaries, governments, corporations and police departments adopt in attacking terrorist threats and acts either real or imputed. Both governments and insurgents use terror tactics. It is clear that some insurgents do not terror as tactics while others opt not to apply as other tactics have better outcomes for their particular contexts. Individuals may engage in acts of terror, as it was the case with Oklahoma City bombing (Katherine, Darmer & osenbaum, 2004). Where the terrorism acts are part of broader insurgencies, counter-terrorism forms an integral element of security doctrines. However, economic, political, and other measures focus on insurgencies as compared to specific terror acts. The United States uses foreign internal defense doctrine in its military programs to support other nations while attempting to suppress lawlessness, insurgency, or subversion and reduce the…...

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References

Katherine, M.B., Darmer, R.M., & Rosenbaum, S.E. (2004). Civil Liberties vs. National Security in a Post9/11 World. Amherst NY: Prometheus Books.

Nacos, B.L. (2012). Terrorism and Counterterrorism. New York: Longman/Pearson.

In this light, the USPS should consider offering all American residents a service that would route their physical mail to an email account.
As a main business strategy, the postal service should concentrate mainly on its core value: universal mail service. According to Pearse and Johnson (2002): "Delivering high-quality service in an era of stagnant mail volumes will require the Postal Service to recognize that as demand for its services contracts, so, too, should the institution. To do so without sacrificing essential services, however, will require the Postal Service to focus on its core value: the reliable, affordable delivery of the mail to every American home and business."

While the Postal Service in recent years has explored numerous new revenue streams far beyond normal postal services, it makes more sense that the USPS focus instead on products and services related to the delivery of letters, newspapers, magazines, advertising mail, and parcels.

According…...

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Bibliography

Pearse, Harry. James, Johnson. (2002). Report of the President's Commission on the United States Postal Service. USPS Final Report.

Miller, Paul. (July 16, 2003). Postal Commission Recommends Changes to USPS. PRIMEDIA Business Magazines & Media Inc.

Organizational Theory
Organizations Environment Each perspective examines organizations perceived relationships environment differently. Describe differences. What enacted features organization's (U.S. Postal Service) environment ways features displayed perceived consistent perspectives? Text: Organization Theory by Mary Jo Hatch.

Each perspective examines organizations and their perceived relationships to the environment differently. For this discussion, describe these differences.

Contingency theory stresses the fact that an organization's decision-making processes are in constant dialogue with the environment. An organization's policies are always contingent upon its particular market situation. This theory of organizational behavior stresses the situational nature of decision-making on the part of organizations. An organization in a 'mature' or perfectly competitive market environment with an established demand for its product will need to make different decisions regarding pricing and marketing than an organization with clear market dominance and a near monopoly. Complexity of the individual organization and rate of change of the external environment will determine how the firm…...

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Reference

Hatch, Mary Jo. (2006). Organization theory. New York: Oxford University Press.

US Postal Service: Vision 2013. (2008). Five-year strategic plan. U.S. Postal Service.

It also seems rather short, and leaves the reader wondering if the researchers could have done more to create a more vital and important document. They did not find the Segway was unsafe, however, and many of the comments of the postal employees who used it were very positive.
Other studies go father than many of the findings in this report, including the safety of the transport itself. Another study notes, "The Segway PT and its rider were found to have the second shortest braking distance, highest sight lines, one of the smallest footprints, and quickest perception-reaction time" (Landis, Petritsch, and Huang, 2004, p. 97-98). These are concrete safety details that seem lacking in the other report, and it seems as if the report could be much more useful if they had included data such as this in the report. In addition, Segways have been recalled due to accidents while…...

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References

Arnold, C. (2003). Safety concerns prompt Segway recall. Retrieved 31 Jan. 2008 from the NPR.org Web site:  http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=1447863 .

Habes, D.J. And Tubbs, R.L. (2004). Topic: Health hazard evaluation report, HETA 2002-0239-2922, United States Postal Service Norman, Oklahoma - Note: Deals with the use of Segway Human Transporter. Retrieved 31 Jan. 2008 from the CDC.gov Web site:  

Ergonomics or human factors is the scientific discipline concerned with the understanding of relations among humans and other elements of a system, and the profession that applies theory, principles, data and methods to design in order to optimize human comfort and overall system performance. Ergonomists add to the design and assessment of tasks, jobs, products, environments and systems in order to make them attuned with the needs, abilities and limitations of people (Helander, 2006).
"Ergonomics is defined as the design of the workplace, equipment, machine, tool, product, environment, and system, taking into consideration the human's physical, physiological, biomechanical, and psychological capabilities, an optimizing the effectiveness and productivity of work systems while assuring the safety, health, and well-being of the workers" (Fernandez, 1995). In general, the aim in ergonomics is to fit the task to the individual person, not the individual person to the task.

Low back injuries, often due to improper manual…...

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References

Helander, M. (2006). A Guide to Human Factors and Ergonomics, 2ed. Boca Raton, FL:

Taylor & Francis Group

HHE Report No. HETA-92-0073-2337, United States Postal Service, General Mail Facility,

Denver, Colorado. (1993). Retrieved from  

The United States Postal Service is, oddly enough, one of the least understood public services. Established in the Constitution, this department is often derided as being non-profitable, but the goal of the USPS is not to make a profit, but to provide a service.  It does so efficiently, delivering mail at a fraction of the cost to consumers of similar private services.  In standard five-paragraph a research paper about the USPS, we would discuss the constitutional mandate for the USPS, the history of the USPS, and the current state of the USPS. 

USPS....