Analysis Of British Airways

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British Airways (BA) is the main and largest carrier airline of the United Kingdom. It’s headquarter is located in Waterside. The British Airways Group was established in 1972. It included British Overseas Airways Corporation (BOAC) and British European Airways (BEA). In 1974 British Airways was formed after the dissolution of BOAC and BEA (British Airways, 2015). In 1981 British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher instructed Lord King, the chairman of the BA, to prepare the airline for privatization. In fact, the company had a lot of problems and it was impossible to convert the airline quickly from unprofitable, stated-own to profitable, private company. By 1981British Airways had strong financial difficulties as it lost £200 per a minute. …show more content…

The change agents of British Airways behaved like coaches. They deliberately shaped the BA’s capabilities, created the proper set of values and skills to reach the intended outcomes. During the implementation of change, John King and Colin Marshall acted like coaches as they assisted to “structure activities to help the organization members solve their own problems and learn to do that better” (French & Bell, 1995, p.4). In addition, Mr. Marshall (1984) said in Financial Times: In an industry like ours, where there are no production lines, people are our most important asset and everything depends on how they work as part of a team. This means that, to get the best results, managers have to care about how they live and function, not just about how they work and produce. This statement confirms that the image of managing of BA’s change agents was coaching as they supported the employees to achieve the best results for the company. 3.2. The …show more content…

The experienced change was as a reaction to the external environment and influenced organizational strategy, the company’s leadership, and culture. This large-scale change led to a new state of being (thinking and acting). 3.5. The Methods for Implementing Change The coaching as image of managing is supported by Organizational Development (OD) theory. According to Beckhard (1969), the OD approach is planned, top-management committed, aimed to improve the effectiveness, long-term, action-oriented, focused on groups and teams. Each of these characteristics could be seen in interventions during the implementation of the change in British Airways. One of the change models of Organizational Development was created by Kurt Lewin. It includes three phases: unfreeze, move or change, and refreeze (Lewin, 1951, 1958). Lewin’s model recognizes the impormance of changing the people in organization and the role of top management involvement to overcome the resistance of change. Organizational change can happen at three levels: 1) changing the individuals in the company (their skills, values, attitudes, and behavior). On this case, the changes are considered to be instrumental to organizational

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