This paper will discuss the challenges and changes that occurred within British Airways during the 1980’s. It will explore the relevant methods used to re-energize the organization during this period. As a matter of history, included in this paper are the change-resistant elements of the British Airways culture prior to the 1980s challenges. Next, it will identify the critical success factors and several of the steps that leaders took to transform the company. Finally, there is a personal element, considering what I may have done differently in the same situation.
Key Words: change, restructuring, culture, customer service, innovation, Changing British Airways A contributing factor to the struggles at British Airways during the 1980’s
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However, it did not take long for poor customer service and external changes to create a decline in profit. With an attempt at transitioning from governmental to a private organization, it became clear that the organization was frozen into inflexible business practices and cultural norms. This resulted in a stalled organization that teetered near the edge of bankruptcy.
It had focused on building infrastructure but neglected to envision the need for market development to sustain growth. The organization endeavored to innovate, being the first to offer jet passenger services, but did not plan for innovation’s high cost. At the same time, the organization lost sight of longer term employee and customer needs. Employees were united by culture but not by a common goal focused on customer satisfaction. Lower level leaders were neither empowered nor
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King was influential and understood many of the elements of the “Organizational Life Cycle and Change Challenge” (Beatty & Ulrich, 1991, p. 38). His restructuring began with drastic improvements to the financial strength of the organization by a total reduction of a quarter of the original staff by 1983 (Jick & Peiperl, 2011, p. 29).
Also internally, he focused on cultural change and employee empowerment by taking actions to change the perception of the workforce that they were inconsequential to highly valuable and able to make decisions. He executed internal training that helped employees and managers understand the service industry’s mission to satisfy customers. A 1985 study found that the impact of the “Managing People First” training for managers resulted in 60% of those interviewed being fully committed to the training goals (Poulet & Moult,
Unlike most corporations, Southwest has an inverted pyramid structure with employees at the top, a higher priority than any other stakeholder. Customers come second, as Southwest President Colleen Barrett describes it: "If we treat them [employees] right, and give them proactive customer service, they...will in turn assure that our second most important group, [the passengers]...receive the same proactive customer service." (Barrett, Colleen. Interview. Knowledge @ Wharton. Wharton School of Management: 8 Jul 2008. Podcast). Barrett and her colleagues are demonstrating conceptualization, or the ability to distinguish what are their top short and long term goals. They hope to create a continuous wheel of service where employees at the top ensure that passengers below them are always satisfied. To complete the organization pyramid, management is at the bottom. This further embodies the spirit of servant leadership, where the focus is on increased services to others rather then to
The pros of an airline implementing a policy that bigger customers need to buy a second seat is that the weight capacity regulations will be followed to. As well as the cons of an airline implementing a policy that larger customers need to buy a second seat would result in a bigger people who travelling will not uses that airlines anymore, airlines would be glowered on by family or relatives of larger customers, airline’s policies could be vigorously monitored for discriminatory actions against overweight persons. As mentioned in the book there are no federal laws prohibiting discrimination against obese individual, although there are some places such as Wisconsin, DC, and California provide legal protection. (Harvey & Allard , 2012, p. 234)
In today's competitive marketplace, all firms are seeking ways to improve their overall performance. One such method of improvement, recently adopted by many firms, is benchmarking. Benchmarking is a technique used to evaluate internal business processes. "In this analysis, managers determine the firm's critical processes and outputs, baseline those processes, then compare the performance of each process against a standard outside the industry" (Bounds, Yorks, Adams, & Ranney 1994). To effectively improve a business process to world-class quality, managers must find a firm that is recognized as a global leader, not just the industry standard. Successful benchmarking requires tailor-made solutions, not just blind copying of another organization. Measurement and interpretation of data collected is the key to creating business process solutions.
Innovation is an essential ingredient in today’s competitive landscape (Denning, 2011). Unless innovation moves beyond initiative and becomes part of an organization’s DNA, innovation is doomed to fail. Southwest Airlines (NYSE: LUV) has embrace innovation as an essential part of its culture. The innovation and importance of the Southwest culture is demonstrated throughout customer service, business strategy and green initiatives.
This cell-like structure was heavily influenced by the philosophy of Graham Turner, the founder and CEO of Flight Centre (Dunford et al, 2002). His ideas of rewarding initiative, empowering employees and fostering the spirit of a large tribe throughout the company were developed into the organizational culture. Flight Centre’s culture was formed first and it is comprised of their values, such as their people, their customers, the brightness of future, taking responsibility and egalitarianism and unity (Flight Centre, 2017). Its culture influenced the creation of their unique structure. They had to consider major factors, such as whether the organization would be mechanistic or organic, whether it would stress differentiation or integration, and how its strategy would affect its structure.
The goals include training on leadership. The objective is for management to gain the proper skills to effectively lead teams, resolve conflicts, and better their management abilities. The training will address employee turnovers to low wages, effective communication strategies, and effective leadership. Management will become more strategic in selecting the right candidates to fill positions. The knowledge and skills attained will be that managers will become better leaders by becoming more empathetic. Employees will begin to feel appreciated and become more motivated. As a result, the company’s morale will be boosted and there will be less consumer complaints about bad customer service.
Southwest Airlines is one of the nations most successful airline travel companies. The company has implemented many measures to gain a positive public opinion. First of all at the foundation of Southwest Airlines is a fantastic mission statement its mission is “the dedication to provide the highest quality of customer service with a sense of warmth, friendliness, and upbeat business spirit.” By continuing with this mission, Southwest Airlines has achieved a stunning thirty-one years consecutive profitable years and many prestigious awards for the fewest complaints by many administrative organizations including the United States Department of Transportation. Another reason for Southwest Airlines success comes from the company’s leader, the
If the short haul passenger was the backbone of Southwest Airlines success, then their 737s were the lifelines that supported it. By choosing the 737 as the airplane for all of Southwest's flights, the company saved time and resources in training its employees. The crew could be easily substituted for one another due to the extensive training on the 737. Low costs and, therefore, low fares are an enormous competitive advantage, when combined with their high-quality and loyal workforce. A very unique culture was found at Southwest Airlines among all of its employees.
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).
Changing situations throughout the world affect all organizations in business today. Therefore, most organizations acknowledge the need to experience change and transformation in order to survive. The key challenges companies face are due to the advancements in technology, the social environment caused by globalization, the pace of competition, and the demands regarding customer expectations. It is difficult to overcome the obstacles involved with change despite all the articles, books, and publications devoted to the topic. People are naturally resistant to fundamental changes and often intimidated by the process; the old traditional patterns and methods are no longer effective.
Since the Jet Age, airlines have been entering and existing the airline industry. Some have been in business since the very beginning. For example, United airlines was founded almost twenty-five years before the jet age took off, and due to an incredible amount of money that the airline had by being one of the first airlines predating the Jet Age, was able to buy new jets and assert itself as one of THE giants of air travel by the late 1950’s. But the introduction of new technology paved the way for issues regarding externalities, and production of these new technologies. ("Assessing the external environment - Responding to a changing external business environment - United Airlines | United Airlines case studies and information | The Times 100", n.d., p. 1) The beginning of the Jet Age offered an intense opportunity for new firms to open or expand, producing new products from jet engines to structural parts, from radar technology, to reclining seats. According to research done by the Air Transportation Action Group, “It has been estimated the airline industry supports a grand total of 29 million jobs” (Hanlon, 2007, p. 1). This statistic proves how dependent the world is on the airline industry, for jobs and travel, as well as r...
Southwest Airlines has come from an underdog to being one of the best airlines in the industry. This reputation translates from its strategic management of resources. The Co-founder and former CEO, Herb Kelleher, established a unique corporate culture that leads to high customer satisfaction, employees’ morale, and one of the most profitable airlines in the industry (Jackson et al., 2012). The corporate culture concentrates on empowerment the workforce. It shows through Southwest Airlines core values that “happy employees lead to happy customers, which create happy shareholders” (Jackson et al., 2012). Since its first grand opening in 1971, Southwest Airlines has shown steady growth, and now carries more passengers than any other low-cost carrier in the world (Wharton, 2010). To expand the business operations, Southwest Airlines took over AirTran in 2010 as a strategy to gain more market share for the Southeast region and international flights. However, the acquisition of AirTran brought upcoming challenges both internally and externally for Southwest Airlines. In this case analysis, the objectives are focusing on the change process post the merger with AirTran, and evaluating alternatives to address the impacts of the merger.
to major airports but later it went down as PE try to grow faster and
Southwest Airlines is an extraordinary business in the history of American airlines. It has been a competitive leader in the airline industry with the legendary. To better analyze the management of change in Southwest Airlines, it is important to understand what is management of change and how it works. Management of Change, or MOC, is a best practice used to ensure that safety, health and environmental risks are controlled when a company makes changes in their facilities, documentation, personnel, or operations (Gabele Eduard, 1981).
Key stakeholders of British Airways include customers, employees, those who have invested in BA by buying shares of the business as well as corporate organizations. To analyze the stake holders in BA the power/interest matrix (Gardner et al, 1986) can be applied in terms of its power and matrix. Brand reputation, economy of scale and cost control are some the key success factors of BA. In addition to Boston Matrix can position BA’s business in terms of short haul (cash cow business) and long haul (star business).