British Airways Case Study

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In this week’s assignment we will discuss some theories on implementing change such as organizational development and change management, and how they relate to the case study of British Airways (BA). First, we will identify some of the key issues from each change perspective that are presented in the case study. Then, I will give my opinion on how I would have handled the change presented in the case study from the perspective as a consultant retained by BA. Then we look at what change perspective or combination of change perspectives provide the best understanding of the issues presented in the case study. Finally, we will discuss what broad conclusions emerge from the analysis of the case study?

From the Change Perspectives What are the Key Issues in the Case Study

For the first part of this week’s assignment let us look at the key issues about the BA strike from each change perspective (organization development (OD), Sense-making, change management, contingency, and processual). In the case study it appears that the BA swipe card change met many aspects of the classical OD perspective presented in our text on pages 192-194 (Palmer Dunford, Akin 2009). In the case study this change (implementation of new swipe card system) was planned and not spontaneous change. The organization’s leadership was committed to the change (BA management introduced the swipe card system). This change was aimed at improving effectiveness of the organization (BA hoped improve the efficient use of the staff).

Now, let us look at the case study from the sense-making perspective. In our text the sense-making model presents an alternate approach to the OD process (Palmer Dunford, Akin, pg. 204, 2009). In this case study I believe that BA did not f...

... middle of paper ...

...case study.

Conclusion

In this week’s assignment we discussed some theories on implementing change such as organizational development and change management and how they relate to the case study of British Airways (BA). First we identified some of the key issues from each change perspective that are presented in the case study. Then looked how I would have handled the change presented in the case study from the perspective as a consultant retained by BA. Then we looked at what change perspective or combination of change perspectives provided the best understanding of the issues presented in the case study. Then finally, we discussed what broad conclusions emerge from the analysis of the case study.

Works Cited

Palmer, I., Dunford, R., & Akin, G. (2009). Managing organizational change: A multiple perspectives approach (2nd ed.). Boston, MA: McGraw Hill

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