United Parcel Service (UPS) in 1987 faced serious challenges to its long-standing policies of on-the-job training and promotion from within. Increased competition in its traditional business of ground transport found UPS lagging in computerization and in need of technical expertise it could not simply cull from within its ranks. Whether, when, and how the new people were to be hired and assimilated, and to what extent the UPS culture and/or the new people would have to adapt, were the key questions.

With expansion into other countries (Germany), new areas of service (air express), and new ventures (two small acquisitions), UPS had to decide how to adjust its human resource policies to businesses and people which were substantially different from its traditional ones. The objective is to examine the tradeoffs in changing strong cultures and well established hiring, promotion, and reward practices to meet business needs.