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British Airways "corporate strategy
Summary of british airways
Summary of british airways
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1.1INTRODUCTION
British Airways came into existence in 1935, when smaller privately owned UK airlines merged. Another change occurred when the Government nationalised British Airways and Imperial Airways to form BOAC - The British Overseas Airways Corporation.
During this period, external markets were more stable and predictable and there was no real need for BA to adopt competitive strategies, being that there was little competition from rivals. There appears to be little in the way of strategy formulation and strategy implementation. This was mainly due to the established strategy and organisation environment remaining largely unchanged. Any change in BA's strategy would have developed in an incremental fashion, an almost natural progression. However, due to nationalisation in 1935, this resulted in a fundamental change imposing strategy within BA, and therefore subject to Government policies and machinations of the time.
In 1946, BE was established as a separate statutory corporation, its main core competency being a domestic network.
In 1973, the BOAC and BEA merged to form British Airways, leaving the airline over-staffed.
Between 1981 and 1983 BA response to this was strategic downsizing which reduced staff numbers by 40%. This included senior staff (Barsoux & Manzoni 1997a). Until 1984 BA operated a reactive style of operational and personnel management.
Pre-privatisation (1987) BA faced little competition on many routes. It controlled 60% of the UK domestic markets and only experienced competition on 9% of routes in and out of the UK (Monopolies and Mergers Commission 1987). This was mainly due to European markets being tightly regulated and market share was often dependent on negotiation skills as opposed to competitive success. Thus BA was able to charge customers what they liked.
However, all was not well within BA. In 1980, a survey by the International Airline Passenger Association put BA at the top of the list of airlines to be avoided (Blyton & Turnball 1998). This customer satisfaction was mainly due to uncomfortable journeys and lack of punctuality. Thus BA recorded financial losses of £140 million (Warhurst 1995). With BA's maturity, it had appeared to go into autopilot and had assumed that the strategies of the past would continue to prosper the company. They had clearly failed to recognise the necessity for change within t...
... middle of paper ...
...apting and changing?
E.V.R. ANALYSIS FOR BA
Environment:-
Turbulent Environment
Competition associated with 'no frills'
Fuel prices
Legislation
Resources:-
Routes and Airport slots
People
Information Systems (e-commerce)
Image and Reputation
Values:-
Customer Care and Values
Recognised as being friendly and efficient
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Barsoux, J-L and Manzoni, J-F (1997a)
'Becoming the World's Favourite Airline'
British Airways 1980-1993. Bedford: European case clearing house
Storey, J, (1992) Developments in Management of Human Resources. Oxford. Blaxwell.
(www.Britishairways.com/inside/factfile/overview/docs/history.shtml.)
Blyton, P and Turnball, P (1998) The Dynamics of Employee Relations (2nd edition). Macmillan.
Mullins, Lg (2002) Management & Organisational Behaviour (6th edition). Prentice Hall.
Corke, A. (1986) British Airways 'The Path to Profitability', London: Frances Pinter
Warhurst, R. (1995) 'Converging on HRM? Change and Continuity in European Airlines' Industrial Relations' European Journal of Indistrial Relations 1(2) pp259 & p279.
Bridges, W. (1991). Managing transitions, making the most of cha DW.Reading.MA, Wesley publishing company
People who work hard enough become successful and build a good life for themselves and their family. Millions of Americans and others who admire America have believed this for generations. However, is this still true? Brandon King debates his interpretation of the American Dream in his published work, “The American Dream: Dead, Alive, or on Hold?” During his essay, the speaker highlights how important the American Dream is to the economy and providing a distance from inequality. The speaker emphasizes his belief that the American Dream is still alive within America and that people must work hard to achieve it. When discussing the American Dream, King will agree that the idea is alive and thriving in the minds of Americans; yet, I argue that the idea is on hold within American society due to lack of upward social independence and economic mobility.
Managing Human Resources (11th ed.). Mason, OH: South-Western. Jones, D. (2005, July 15). Pilot seniority a hot issue at merging airlines. In FAPA.Aero.
No matter how a business operates, change is inevitable and affects all businesses. CAMERON SMITH investigates the changes Qantas have had to undergo in order to keep up with their competitors, whilst navigating the challenges of low cost of fares.
In fact, even educated Americans have begun to give up on the idea of achieving prosperity. For instance, 24 percent of young college graduates define the “American Dream” as “not being in debt” (McClelland 553). To further illustrate the decline of the “American Dream,” McClelland observes that “between 1970 and today, the share of the nation’s income that went to the middle class—households earning two-thirds to double the national median—fell from 62 percent to 35 percent” (551). In addition to the falling levels of middle class income since the 1970s, the minimum wage has also remained stagnant, and very low. Author Paul Krugman goes on to report that despite worker productivity doubling, “for about four decades, increases in the minimum wage have consistently fallen behind inflation, so that in real terms the minimum wage is substantially lower than it was in the 1960s” (Krugman). The days of blue-collar minimum wage workers being able to make a middle-class living have passed.
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The sense-making approach of unfreezing, changing and freezing (Palmer, Dunford & Akin, 2009) was inappropriate in this scenario. Management has made a decision to reduce their workforce continuously; however, the change does not end with the layoffs, rather, it is a continuous change as they continue to reduce employees and focus on the existing employees’ morale. Middle management predominantly executes sense-making approach by as aligning the company objectives with their employees (Banker, 2012). The sense-making approach may have been the culprit of the communication breakdown between employees and British Airways CEO regarding absenteeism. The processual approach was much more fitting with continuous layoff that will allow them to pursue their next implementation. Processual approach is on-going and focused on long-term results while sense-making approach is a prescriptive change. The sense-making approach might have worked if processual approach was established first during the reduction in force, prior to introducing the swipe card implementation. Preferably, British Airways should have engaged in change management approach first to address the system change in a large scale. Organizational development approach would have assessed the entire organization and discovered that the low morale may
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