Discussion of the Firm

This research paper will address the market share, principle goods and services, key competitors, and geographic locations. It would also identify the leadership and management philosophies of the company. This research paper discusses the human resource management strategies such as the use of recruitment strategies and local area labour market. It would also describe the organizational design and marketing strategies for the company. It will also illustrate the ways to manage the ethical and cultural issues by United Technologies Corporation throughout the world. This research paper assesses the recent and on-going strategies associated with global operations for the company. It also describes the entry modes into markets to gain market share for their goods and services. This research paper also illustrates the company’s e-commerce initiatives and describes whether or not these strategies have improved the growth of the firm. It also explains the political environment for UTC and its impact on the import of principle goods and services.

In this research paper, secondary data collection method will be used for gathering the information. These data would be collected through different sources such as peer-reviewed articles, textbooks,and academic publication. Secondary data would be evaluated by using the content analysis.

The United Technologies Corporationis a Connecticut-headquartered corporation that offers a variety of high-technology products and services to the international aerospace and industries of the building system. In the year of 2013, the multinational company generates net revenues of over 60 billion U.S. dollars and hired over 200,000 people. In this, certain 63,500 worked at theOtis Elevator Company and over 42,000 employed in UTC Aerospace Systems. UTC is presently ranked as the third largest multinational in the globe in General Electric and Siemens with a market value of over 108 billion U.S. dollars. In the year of 2013, the diversified corporation was also the second largest defense and aerospace manufacturer in the United States.

There are different competitors in the sale ofaircraft engines such as Pratt & Whitney’s, Turbomeca,Rolls-Royce,Honeywell, CFM International,and Turbomeca. Along with this, key competitors of UTC Aerospace Systems such as Honeywell and Parker Hannifin. Main competitors of Sikorsky’s are Airbus Helicopters and Bell Helicopter.  

Transformational leadership is used by UTC to encourage the employees. In this strategy, transformational leader of UTC usesthe inspirational and visionary approach in order to motivate and lead the employees with members of the team. A transformational leader has certain features in UTC such as charismatic and motivational, and stimulating team members to follow their behavior. Moreover, they offer a shared vision for the outlook and motivate members to surpass their own self-interests for sake of team and organization. They not only encourage but also challenge team members for stimulating idea-sharing, open dialogue,and sharing of the idea. They also participate group members at an individual level, listening to the viewpoint of each individual, feeling and acting as a guide to each member (Bolden, 2016).

The strategy of transformation leadership in UTC is to arrive at each workforce and motivates them for best efforts. In UTC, an inspirational supervisor spends time with each individual for discussing the methods to develop an easier job for employees and supporting to generate a plan for building the career of the workforce. This individual concentrationthatis provided through transformational leader aids to generate a strong liaison amid managers and their workforces that would decline turnover of employees in UTC (Sparrow, Hird, and Cooper, 2015).

Firm’s Leadership and Management Philosophies

Firm’s management philosophies

Management by objectives is a personnel management tool in which employees and managers work together to record, develop and assess goals for a particular time period. This management model aims to enhance the performance of UTC by clearly illustrating objectives that are agreed by both employees and management. As per this theory, UTC sets their goals and action plans in order to lead participation and commitment between workforces and linking objectives across the company (Armstrong, and Taylor, 2014). MBO is the development of a management information system that compares the actual performance and achievements with the defined objectives. Along with this, practitioners claim that the key advantages of using MBO in UTC are that it enhances the commitment and motivation of workforces and permits for better interaction amid employees and management. But, key weakness is that MBO highly focuses on developing the goals for attaining the objectives as compared to working on the systematic plan to perform activities (Brewster, and Hegewisch, 2017). 

This research reflects that in UTC, human resource policies and the process is a significant aspect for solving the issues of workforces. These policies are used to protect the workforces, offer instruction to management and makes sure that companies obey the regulations and mandates of government. These policies also aid to make sure the consistency and avoiding subjectivity at the atmosphere of UTC (Bratton, and Gold, 2017). 

Recent labor disputes

There are about 200 employees are off the job within United Technologies Corporation that provides a facility in Cheshire, Conn., after the aerospace division of a corporation is unable to arrive at a contract with the union of employees. Lead negotiator for International Association of Machinists Local 62A stated thata number of relationship aspect included in the negotiations such as high health care expenses and low wages. This has been found in the recent years that employees at Cheshire stated that average hourly rate of $20 is lowest between the aerospace plants of the company (Gillespie, and Riddle, 2015). 

Compensation policies

Human resources staffer exercises an integration of job assessment tool and market survey for assessing the amount to compensate a staff as it would be beneficial for competitive within employees. The assessment shows that the department develops the policies that identify the management and evaluation of workforce’s performance. In UTC, it was found that policies do not demonstrate the amount an individual receive, but it defines that the employees are compensated as per their efforts, scope,and proficiency of accountabilities (Ottman, 2017). This creates the awareness among workforces regarding basis of compensation.

Recruitment and Employment

It was found that advertising for recruiting employees is a key role of HR. In UTC, it was identified that the policies of the human resource involve elements that should be used in the selection and recruitment procedure and that would inform the workforces about the process and expectation of UTC. Thus, it is significant when workforces expect to refer a job applicant in UTC (Burton, Obel, Håkonsson, 2015). 

The use of the local area labor market

Firm’s Management Philosophies

The analysis shows that in UTC, local area labor market helps to gain competitive benefits. The market is the integration of those companies and businesses from which UTC would rationally recruit to employees. It would aid to cover the local area market as employees would be able to understand the local language of customers and can effectively solve the issues. It is found that UTC is restricted by local and national laws of nations where company deals (Albers, Wohlgezogen, and Zajac, 2016).It is found that the legal department must be consulted when a conflict creates with regards to feasible laws amid nations. It is found that UTC is accountable for a corporate citizen of the communities worldwide in which it deals. The company will abide by all local and national laws and it would also strive to enhance the well-being of communities via different factors. These are the protection of natural resources, corporate philanthropy, and employee participation in charitable and civicaffairs (Trevino, and Nelson, 2016).

Organization design entails the creation of processes, roles together with structures to make sure that the goal of the company can be attained. The analysis shows that a hierarchical organization structure used by UTC where, it involves a direct chain of command from the top of an organization to the bottom. In addition, senior management makes all critical decision that is then passed down through the secondary level of management. It is found that UTC can use a hierarchical structure to develop clear lines of communication (Ferrell, and Fraedrich, 2015). In addition, it is assessed that workforces receive their policy direction together with day to day assignments from their direct execute, who evaluates orders from the top. In addition, workforces send the data regarding their performance and ideas up the hierarchical structure and reporting first to their direct supervisor. This structure creates an easyto plan and executes the business strategies that is, when workforces stick to develop patterns of communication (Hickman, and Silva, 2018). 

Marketing strategies

Online Marketing

It is found that online marketing is a key marketing strategy that is used by the UTC. It is assessed that there isa high number of internet users as it could be a new form of marketing. From online posters to those frustrating pop-ups, the online marketer has attempted to obtain their customer attention any manner they can. Moreover, in current times, online strategic marketing efforts are used as an integration of growth hacking strategies and different tactics of awareness that leads attention.  A very significant online marketer is UTC that directly connects with the user to penetrate into new marker with effective savings (Lasserre, 2017). 

B2B Marketing

It is found that business to business marketing is the key marketing practices of UTC. It permits the businesses to trade its products and services to other corporation.Since, it would be beneficial for re-selling the same products and services, aids to enhance their own products with services and improve internal functions. Statistics demonstrated that 53% of B2B marketers define that e-mail is a significant technique that leads generation tactics. Hence, it would be beneficial for UTC to expand the business (De Villa, Rajwani, and Lawton, 2015).

Human Resource Management Policies

B2C Marketing

The key goal of B2C marketing is to move shoppers into purchasers as aggressively and constantly as feasible. In UTC, B2C marketers engaged the merchandising practices such as displays, coupons, special offers,andstorefront to attract the specified market to purchase. It is found that UTC focuses on a B2C marketing campaign as it is beneficial for making a transaction in the minimum time period. But, the analysis shows that UTC needs to identify the interest of customers instantly (Laufs, and Schwens, 2014). These campaigns provide special discounts, deals,and vouchers that are offered in both online and in the stores.  

Strategies to manage culture issues

Communication

This research exhibits that good communication is a keymethod for UTC to organize diversity within an organization. This technique could be used by UTC to motivate employees in order to share their issues as they have. Each workforce should feel equally important in the workplace. It is found that UTC should keep open door policy. In this way, it should be open with workforces so they feel comfortable to share their issue both work and non-work related concerns like diversity (Gubik, and Karajz, 2014). In addition, the analysis shows that a friendly approach will also help the company to decline the conflicts as this strategy makes feel important to each workforce within an organization.

Conflict Resolution Skills

The finding shows that conflict resolution skills are another strategy to manage culture issues. Disagreements that arise due to cultural differences should be handled rapidly as it may create the issue in increasing the productivity within an organization.  The analysis shows that the company should develop objective. It is found that while investigating a disagreement, the company should be objective, fair and factual in the procedure (Ulrich, Hollensen, and Boyd, 2014). It should also ask each employee regarding what happened to them and makes note consequently. This could be beneficial for arriving at the key cause of issue and UTC would enable to understand issue rather than blaming on one person. However, UTC should ensure that each individual knows the significance of accepting everyone and appreciating their role in the office (Hernández, and Nieto, 2015).

Strategies to manage ethical issues

Train Employees

This research paper identifies that there are certain strategies to manage the ethical issue. It is found that UTC should offer workplace ethics training to workforces. It should also utilize different instruction technique to engage workforces in learning how to resolve ethical issues. In addition, experiential learning is a significant technique to provide ethical training within an organization. For example, workplace ethics simulations entail scenarios regarding the misuse of company’s fund, individual values associated with offensive workplace associations and the obedience of organization with regulatory controls (Turban, Outland, King, Lee, Liang, and Turban, 2017).

Set Expectations

The analysis shows that the company should develop a workplace by considering mission statement, code of conduct and their philosophy. It is found that company should incorporate the policy into the performance management initiatives to hold employees accountable for their actions and alert them to their responsibilities to sustain the professional standards via their job performance and communication with supervisors and peers. The company assessment indicates that UTC should revise the employee’s handbook such as involve the policy and offers the duplicate of the revised handbook to workforces (Cui, and Pan, 2015). Thus, it is assessed that acquired signed acknowledgment forms from workforces indicate they have received and comprehend the ethical policies of the organization.

Recent Labor Disputes

The analysis shows that there are different entry modes that could be practiced by UTC to increase market share for their goods and services. These modes will help to expand operations to other geographical fields. These modes could be licensing, franchising, and Greenfield investments (Gubik, and Karajz, 2014).

It is addressed that licensing is a moderately refined arrangement in which a company transfers the rights to utilize the product and service to another company. It is a specifically beneficial strategy when the buyer of the license has a relatively higher market share in the market that it wants to penetrate (Guo, Xu, and Jacobs, 2014). The analysis shows that licensing can be used by UTC for marketing or production.

It is found that franchising is an effective procedure for expanding the market. However, it is increasing traction in other parts of the world. Franchising could be effective for UTC as it has a repeatable business model that could be easily moved into other markets. It is addressed thattwo requirementsshould be considered while practicing the franchise model. The initial requirement is that business model should either be very distinctive or have the strong brand recognition that could be practiced internationally and secondly, UTC can make its future competition in franchisee (Kotabe, Jiang, and Murray, 2017).

The analysis shows that Greenfield investments require higher involvement in global business. Moreover, a Greenfield investment is where UTC can purchase the land, develops the facility, and deals the business on an ongoing basis in an international market. It is certainly costly and maintains the highest risks,however, in some markets; UTC may require undertaking the costs and uncertainty because of regulations of government, competency to access technology and skilled labor, and transportation expenses (Hamilton, and Webster, 2015). 

It is found that search engine optimization is key e-commerce initiatives that aided to enhance the growth of UTTC. The analysis shows that search engine optimization standard is significant in current times as compared to ensure that the website is constantly updated with relevant and rich content. It could be used by UTC to endorse a good user experience and could be optimized to become as error-free as feasible (Bloomberg, 2018).

The analysis shows that the content within the websites should be reliable, rich and offers data to the public that is beneficial and appropriate to what customers are looking for. For instance, when a company has an e-commerce store selling camping supplies then it is wise to offer detailed data about the product. This strategy is used to promote websites by a high amount of content that discusses on the topic of supplies, camping, and associated subjects (Statista, 2018). UTC should use keyword wherein content in an authentic manner will also flag the websites as a matching outcome in search engines when users are seeking something detailed.

It is addressed that social media marketing is a powerful technique that permits business to communicate with the customers, industry,and market in an individual manner. In current times, it is found that UTC can utilize social media for generating interaction and engagement, enhance traffic to websites and creates a larger foundation of customers. The analysis shows that UTC should use different social media channel for different purposes as it generates a rich presence for the company (Kotabe, Jiang, and Murray, 2017). It diversifies the efforts, ability and will eventually support business in terms of addressing the needs of the customer in a way that grows business over time.

Compensation Policies

It is addressed that there are certain multi-national free trade blocs such as ASEAN Free Trade Area (AFTA), North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and MERCOSUR. It is assessed that free trade agreement will enable UTC to offer higher quality products and services to customers in all nations at the lower rate. This could be beneficial for different such as competition increases. The taking away of tariffs, quotas,and other restrictions permits UTC to compete on equal footing with national corporations. There is a competitionof lower rates that can enhance the quality by itself (Guo, Xu, and Jacobs, 2014). For example, NAFTA helps to keep the prices of shoes, lumber, goods and textile law. It is not true in all cases due to some rigid free trade blocs, higher tariffs and other restrictions on goods and services from outside the nations in the bloc. It is addressed that both EU and MERCOSUR has generated higher tariffs for goods coming from outside. It keeps the prices unnaturally high. It is also examined that cost of production for goods and services could be declined by UTC by focusing on lower labor cost, easier access to quality services, cheaper natural services and specialized understanding (Hernández, and Nieto, 2015).

It is addressed that both non-tariff and tariff can present when exporting to nations in Latin America and the Caribbean. Furthermore, UTC is advised to address barriers such as high tariffs for some products, import requirements of licensing, anti-dumping and countervailing duty measures (Turban, Outland, King, Lee, Liang, and Turban, 2017). 

It is addressed that NAFTA is the largest free trade area in the world. It involves Mexico, United States, and Canada. It is analyzed that all tariffs amid three nations were eliminated as of January 1, 2008. It is assessed that between 1993 and 2009, trade has been tripled from $297 billion to $1.6 trillion. NAFTA reveals how trade agreements have an impact on these nations. As a result, it would be beneficial for UTC to deal into these nations (Cui, and Pan, 2015).

It was found that CAFTA was developed on August 5, 2004, by the United States and six nations. These six nations were Honduras, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Dominican Republic, and Guatemala. This trade agreement avoided tariffs on over 80% of US export. These exports increased to $26.3 billion by the year of 2008. It has opened U.S. trade restrictions for Central American textile, sugar, and apparel imports. It declined the costs of these products for American consumers (Hernández, and Nieto, 2015). Along with this, total trade between the CAFTA ad US signatories was $60 billion in the year of 2013.

Conclusion

From the above interpretation, it can be concluded that United Technologies Corporation uses transformational leadership philosophies and MBO management philosophies. It also uses hierarchical organizational design and different marketing strategies like online marketing, B2B and B2C. Communication and Conflict Resolution Skills are used to manage cultural issues. Along with this, it can be summarised that training and set expectation is a strategy to avoid ethical issues.Licensing, franchising, and Greenfield investments are modes of entry that could be used by UTCto increase market share for their goods or services. Search Engine Optimization and social media are the company’se-commerce initiatives.It can be also summarised that the political environment has an effect on import/exports of the principal goods or services of UTC.

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