Trusting Employees to Do Their Job – Laissez-Faire Management

As my internship progresses, it becomes more interesting to observe the organizational structure at Preferred Freezer Services. Just yesterday I sat down with the person in charge of billing and sending invoices, Kimberly. What I learned is nobody tells her what to do on a daily basis, or at least for the most part. She comes to work and opens the company’s accounting program, Profit Tools, and from there she is able to see all the information she needs to conduct her job. She can see what invoices were not paid, when they should have been paid, who issued the payment, and when to follow up with the client. Her responsibility at the end of the day is to log the appropriate and accurate information regarding billing and organize it according to whether it is LTL or Intermodal transportation. The management and leadership resembles a hands-off, laissez-faire model in the corporate office. Employees are instructed with their responsibilities and expected to get things done on their own without the need for supervision.

The relationships are very strong in the office between employees and with the management. The office is very welcoming, and people are very approachable and looking to help. People are trusted to get their work done, but nobody is riding anybody’s coat tails. The office is very busy especially considering Linear Logistics’ recent acquisition of Preferred Freezer. As the largest cold storage service in the world, the operations at Preferred Freezer are immense and complex. With over a hundred and forty freezers world-wide, and thousands of temperature-controlled freight containers, there are many times when the billing gets messed up. This is where the accounting department in logistics, where I have been spending the majority of my internship, gets to work and corrects the issues at hand. With such a massive operation there are bound to be daily troubles, and although they are difficult to avoid, having a central communication platform would prove to be useful in alleviating those issues. A program that had a main message board and direct message tabs that enabled communication with specific departments would facilitate corporate communication for companies as big as Preferred Freezer Services.