Explaining the change management at British Airways

Explaining the change management at British Airways This report focuses on explaining the change management at corporations. It includes the example of British Airways that has once successfully applied change management in their corporation. Change Management is the concept organizations apply in order to deal systematically with change. When British Airways was formed after its merger, it wasnt doing well. This was mainly because of the cultural and status differences of the employees of the corporations that were merged. There was no leadership and the company lacked the required competence to deal with the emerging problems. In order to deal with that dilemma it was decided to appoint a new Chairperson and Lord King was appointed. He later on, appointed King Marshall as the Chief Executive. Both the leaders knew that change was needed within the company. They saw that valuable resources were being wasted, company was working inefficiently, cultures differences existed, needs of the customers were not identified correctly and attitudes within the company were to be changed. They took major change management steps and came up with different programs and strategies to deal with the situation. It was made sure that the employees are fully supported during the process of change and needs of everyone are catered. Hence, a successful change management was implemented that helped the company to come out of crisis and emerge as a strong competitor in the airline industry. Introduction: Change Management is a word heard often now in most of the corporations. It has been around for a while now, but is famous in corporations that are interested in initiating a change to their processes which includes both culture and work tasks. Change management is defined commonly as employed set of the processes to ensure that considerable changes are implemented in a systematic, controlled and orderly fashion to result in organizational change. (Hiatt Creasey 2003) Five principles of Change: While implementing change management there are five basic principles that the managers need to keep in mind: Different people tend to react in a different way to the change. Everyones fundamentals needs are to be met. Change also involves loss at times and people need to go through the loss curve. The expectations of all are to be met in a realistic way. Fears of all are to be dealt with. Organizational Change Management: According to organizational change management both the tools used by managers and the processes are to be taken into consideration. Mostly organizations want the change to be implemented with least resistance. For this to happen change must be implemented with a structured approach so that the transition of one behavior to another is as smooth as possible. Managements Role in the Organizational change: It is the responsibility of the management to spot out the behaviors and processes that are not proficient and come up with new ones that are more effective for the organization. Once these changes have been identified, managers should estimate the impact it will have on the organization and its employees. Management should also assess the reaction of employees to the implemented change and try to understand the reaction as well. It is the job of the management to completely support their workers through the process of change. Finally the management should help employees to accept these changes and help them to adjust well and effectively once the changes are implemented. (Hiatt Creasey 2003) British Airways: British Airways is the flag carrier airline for the United Kingdom with its head quarters in Waterside. The main hub of British Airline is at the Heathrow Airport of London; its second hub is at Gatwick Airport and the third one is at London City Airport which is served through BA CityFlyer a fully owned subsidiary of British Airways. British Airlines happens to be the largest airline of UK on the basis of its international flights and destinations and their fleet size. In the year 1971 British Airways board was formed to manage the two airline corporations, BEA and BOAC, and relatively two smaller regional airlines Northeast Airlines from Newcastle and Cambrian Airways from Cardiff. But in the year 1974 all these airlines were dissolved to form one major airline British Airways (BA). The airline was created aiming at being the worldwide network and achieving economies of scale. The merger of these airlines resulted in 50,000 staff members and 215 aircraft, which are considered to be grossly overstaffed along with many levels incompatible management structure. Problems were being created because of the cultural differences between the airlines along with a class distinction amongst the staff members. When the middle oil crisis arrived in the world and resulted in reduction of market, it left the already overstaffed BA airline with massive losses, a very poor service reputation and 20,000 potential redundancies. The union was so strong in the company that it made difficult for the company to take any remedial measures. By the year 1980 the fleet was downsized to 174 aircrafts but still the company was loosing money at the rate of  £200 pounds per minute. With the government supporting the company, there was no internal urgency for the change to take place and outside competition to be adapted. (Lundy Cowling 1996) By the year 1981 British Airways appeared to be a failing company making multimillion pound losses. It gained the reputation of being a major international airline giving the worst service. The only solution than was seen to make a change in the culture of the staff. For 13 years it remained a nationalized company and in February 1987 it became privatized as a plan of the conservative government of that time. Major Problems being faced after the merger: When British Airways was formed after the merger it faced a number of problems and issues. Main problem was encountered in terms of the culture differences of the companies. When the members of organizations belonging to different and diverse cultures interact with each other and one of the cultures is required to adapt the practices and methods of another culture it results in disruptive tensions. Same situation took place between he employees of BEA and BOAC the two emerging industries of that time. This problem can be explained as a culture clash or acculturative stress. Another issue arrived in terms of the management system being imposed in the company. BA implemented a very inflexible, preoccupied and hierarchical management system creating status differences which was also evident from their uniforms. The company also had problems being rule oriented. The new management had problems in identifying and addressing the needs of their customers. The company emphasized more on their inward looking management approach and on maintaining their various routes and all this resulted in customers being unsatisfied. Change in direction: In the year 1979 Mrs. Thatchers new conservative government took the decision to privatize the airline. At that time the European airline market was developed majorly and most of the airlines were state owned. A whole process was put in place for the privatization of airline. Eight years of time was taken to make it happen, stand on its own feet and emerge to succeed as a commercial body. This included a whole process of culture change and cost cutting. Hence the different models of change process were being applied in the form of Theory O (through focusing on changing the behavior and culture) and Theory E (through cost cutting). Because of the restructuring of the airline there was a reduction in the number of routes served, the college of air training was closed, catering operations were transferred to outside contractors and property interests were divested. (Horner Swarbrooke 2004) The airline was shown to be a peasant class of travel and showing general subservience to the pressures of trade unions. However, the internal studies showed that jobs of the managers of highly specialized, communications in between the departments were highly poor and technically the airline was bankrupt. Major management changes were being considered in order to change this reputation of poor services. This was known to be the change management which is incorporating change in to the working systems so that the company becomes more efficient is satisfying the needs of customers or clients. This served as a basis for the appointment of Lord King as chairman and as Chief Executive King Marshall was appointed in the year 1980. Hence, first change took place in the form of leadership change where these leaders with their authority, later on made organizational changes. When this Chairperson started working, noticed that a lot of valuable resources were being wasted and the company was working inefficiently. In order to make the company more profitable, it was decided to restructure the whole organization and change methodology change management plan was seen as the best way to do that. Measures of Change Management: The second most important change took place at the group level in the form of operational change when it was identified by the leaders that there was inefficiency existing in the system. Measures like reducing staff level and cut in production costs were taking place and this change can be classified as fine-tuning. (i.e. Scale Type 1 of Dunphy and Stace (1993)). The company started decreasing their workforce very systematically. But before doing so, through the change management leadership of the chairperson, Lord King gave reasons for the privatization and restructuring so that the employees get prepared for the up coming changes. (Horner Swarbrooke 2004) In order to investigate the ways of improving customer service in the year 1983 a steering group was established in the British Airways. It was identified that for British Airways offering customer service is the key cornerstone in the market place. Two courses of actions were then recommended by the steering group which changed the way the company decisions were made. A marketing policy group was created for the re-organization of the company. Also, by the name of Putting People First a program of courses was employed throughout the whole organization. This program was aimed at improving self image, to achieve the greatest possible standards of customer care and to change attitude towards the external and internal customers. Another program with the name of Managing People First covering the perception of the contact staff and their managers was started. (Lundy Cowling 1996) After identifying the inward looking rigid culture existing at the top of management hierarchy, the Chief Executive appointed a new top management team whose job was to strength customer oriented culture within the company. Transformation in the management, culture, strategy and operations took place on a large scale. These changes were both organizational and strategic. An external audit company conducted a two way audit that covered the perception of customers of the services being offered by BA. The frontline employees were awarded with the required authority and also the information to deal with the customers. The process was started by eliminating layers of the management structure and emphasize from divisional was changed to a functional structure. The personnel function was restructured by Marshall and for the mammoth task ahead a human resource department was created. To give a break from the old BA image Chief Executives two main image fronts which were the uniforms of customer contact staff and the company livery, were improvised. (Lundy Cowling 1996) But changing external face is never enough so attitudes within the company were to be changed. Time Management International designed a training program for BA in order to respond to the needs identified in the audit. The final step and the logical step which was taken was linking performance with pay. Strong leaders were recruited as a part of the change management. The segmentation policies were clearly defined and these were targeted in well developed branding programs. (Horner Swarbrooke 2004) All the actions can be seen as an amalgamation of both planning (revolutionary) and incremental (evolutionary) change. The evolutionary change is seen valuable in the short to medium term and revolutionary in the long term. These changes emerged to work for the company in the form of delivering excellent service and quality to the customers and developing relationships with them and in the long run the company appeared to be the largest airline for UK. (Clarke 2001) Stakeholders Analysis: In order to facilitate the stakeholders during the process of change the leaders gave their full support and time. The Chief executive and the Chairperson acted as the change agents for the company. The heavy support from the top management (Marshall attended a number of staff and management programs and spent 20% of his time in this activity) and the continued training softened the harsh impact of cultural and organizational change. Although this change was bumpy incremental as there were staff cuts this type of change is called Adaptation by Balogun and Hope-Hailey (2004). As a part of the cultural change program two days were given to the employees and five to the managers. Around 40,000 of the workforce were put through this program and this was fully supported through evaluation and compensation in the form of bonus payments. (Clarke 2001) The leadership style here was democratic and the leader Other supported measures included, action groups, updated performance management, implementing total quality management (TQM), educational seminars and the staff newspaper British Airways News. (Lundy Cowling 1996) Success of the Change Management: The main objectives of imposing the changes were to become competitive in the airline industry and survive in the market place. The changes which were implemented by British Airways helped it to become more customer oriented by delivering excellent services and quality to the customers. Also, these changes helped the company to improve their relationship with the employees as well as the relationship of the employees with the customers. The expensive and time consuming investments which were a part of the change taking place also paid off when the company won in the year 1989 the award of Worlds Best Airline which is a prestigious business traveler award. The company after changes became more competitive in the UK market. The implemented human resource management and the strategies served as a basis to help the company emerge as a strong competitor in the airline industry. (Lundy Cowling 1996) The company achieved reduction in their costs through savage labor cuts, concentrating on key strategic business areas and slimming down of the business. All the moves taken by the company and the programs being conducted resulted in revue of the management structure. The overall age profile of the team was decreased and only those were chosen having entrepreneurial abilities. The major aspect of success for the airline was their marketing strategies. Some of these were campaign of the Advertiser of the year, Fly the Flag and We take more care of you promotion, Red eye advertisement etc. All this and much more helped the company to come out of the difficult times. (Horner Swarbrooke 2004) Conclusion: The leadership of the company directed it through difficult times by applying a change management in the company. British Airways still happen to be the major global airline but now its reputation is declining. This can be because of the inappropriate decisions taken by the management, but mostly it reflects the hard times and the difficult business environment that exits for all the airline companies. The management again aims at implementing new strategies and programs within the company through a marketing communication in order to create a better image. Also, the current management realizes the need of leadership and entrepreneurial competence which could wipeout all the problems from the company. For the company to fully run again on the track of success the management should identify the problems existing within the company. They should try to resolve the issues and come up with effective change management programs that can again benefit the company.

Position Argument on Medical Marijuana

There seems to be a constant need to provide conflict in our society. Everywhere you turn you will find articles fighting against the legalization of medical marijuana, which in this state, is already legal. What an interesting concept having to continue to defend the legality and why it should be legal in the first place. Heaven forbid we have something that actually helps people tolerate the pain they have to constantly live with. Why would we want to give them some relief? We are actually putting some income back into the economy instead of throwing it away to some criminal or helping the Mexican Cartel make a profit. Now why in the world would we want to do that? These are the questions that come to my mind when I hear about everything going on with the cannabis issue. Let’s get down to some brass tactics as they say on everything that is being said against this issue. First off you hear, it is a gateway drug to addictive drugs like cocaine and heroin. Well that is funny, because if you survey the people hooked on cocaine and heroin, in most instances you will find that they actually abused beer and alcohol first. They did not start with marijuana. This is according to polls taken by a number of organizations looking into the addictiveness of this type of pain killer. There is no evidence that marijuana is addictive. People like to use marijuana because it makes them feel good. Now it has been proven to be an effective pain killer. What is the problem then? Look at all the people sitting in jail right now for using marijuana or trying to distribute marijuana. Our tax dollars pay for all these people sitting in jail for using marijuana simply because our government went and listed it as a Schedule 1 drug way back in the 1950’s. Even though it has been proven that it is not addictive and should not be listed this way-we can’t seem to get them to change this. The only reason it seems that this isn’t being done is because the pharmaceutical companies have our politicians and government in their back pocket. They support them financially. Well that, of course, is way more important than maybe providing someone with pain relief. Our economy is in the toilet right now. I’m just thinking about how many new jobs would become available if we were opening medical marijuana dispensaries all over the country. That doesn’t ven include the growers and caregivers that would now have an income coming in. Instead, they continue to keep marijuana illegal in most states. How many farmers could continue to stay in business if they could legally grow marijuana as a crop for sale? It just doesn’t make any sense when you look at all the people on unemployment or who have lost everything because there just isn’t enough work out there. Yet, there is millions and millions of dollars spent every year on illegal marijuana. There is also millions and millions of dollars every year spent on trying to stop the drug cartels bringing in marijuana for illegal sales. Then there are millions and millions of dollars spent every year on putting people in jail and maintaining them for the use or sale of marijuana. All of this money going out and no profit coming in. Who is making the profit? The drug cartels make the profits. What do they do for us? Well, let’s see, they kill and exploit people. There was a report that said 6,000 people were murdered by the cartels last year, many of them were innocent children, police officers, reporters and politicians. Shouldn’t we spend our money legally and help the people of our country earn a living, instead of helping these drug cartels make a profit. What do you think? Now we have to touch on the issue that it isn’t a medical pain killer. Where do people think â€Å"Marinol†, the product used to assist cancer patients, came from? It uses THC which is derived from the marijuana plant. The FDA approved this drug. Did you know that the use of this drug can cause hallucinations? Smoking a â€Å"joint† doesn’t do that. Yet they just don’t want to approve marijuana itself. Whose pocket do you think they are being held by? The excuses are that it is smoked not ingested. Who cares? If it relieves pain by the natural use of this plant, then let us use it! Especially since they are not finding any terrible side effects like they do with most of the other pain killers people are addicted to like vicadin and methadone. What about the cocaine and morphine that is prescribed by many doctors? Do you know the history of marijuana? It goes back to 2737 B. C. where an emperor in China used marijuana for treatments of gout, malaria and poor memory. Ancient cultures in Egypt, Rome, Greece, Asia, the Middle East, Africa and India had many uses for marijuana. It was used for religious purposes, stress and pain relief. We actually used marijuana hemp seeds and roots for inflamed skin and V. D. in the late 18th century according to our American history. It became illegal, except for medical use, by â€Å"The Marihuana Tax Act of 1937† and of course you had to pay a tax to use it. It only became illegal in these United States in the 1950’s when the FDA listed it as a Schedule 1 substance. This means it is suppose to be a high value for abuse with no medical value at all. Research has proven so differently. There have been many attempts to change this by various reform groups over the past 30 years but the FDA still has not responded. It is amazing, that our own federal government grew & supplied a number of medical patients with medical marijuana in 1978. Why is this even an issue now? There are more deaths from alcohol or tobacco use than ever reported by use of marijuana. Alcohol abuse can cause death to the user or unfortunately to the innocent people that end up in a car crash with the abuser. Alcohol abuser’s can end up with a destroyed liver. Alcohol abuse is usually the main cause of domestic violence acts. Yet, alcohol is legal. How many of these types of incidents have you heard of from marijuana use? You’ve heard of violence from cocaine and heroin users, but marijuana, I think not. Now we go to tobacco. Addictive, yes highly, just ask the millions of people that can’t quit but would love to. How healthy is this? You hear all the time of the problems caused by â€Å"second hand† smoke. That isn’t even the problems caused for the actual smoker. Cancer and breathing disorders are on the top of the list of disease caused by the use of tobacco. Again, this is legal. Does this make any sense to you? Marijuana does not cause violence, addiction, death, cancer or breathing disorders. Yet, it is an illegal drug? It should not even be a drug. It should be classified the same as tobacco and alcohol at the least or put with the list of â€Å"herbal† remedies used today. After all it is a plant. Personally, I believe there seems to be too much controversy over this subject. Just legalize it and be done with it. Now people have jobs and patients have an alternative pain medicine to use. Put it in the category it belongs. Give us the money the drug cartels get and help put our economy back on its feet. Isn’t this what living the American Dream is all about anyways?

Child Factors Essay

The first child factor that was found out to be the source of challenging Behavior is Temperament (Douglas, 1989, p. 3). Bates 1980 as cited from Douglas (1989, p. 3-4) have defined temperament as having a â€Å"constitutional basis†, in addition, such a behavior is perceived to appear even in early childhood, and could even persist on the latter part of one’s life. In addition, it is perceived as to be one of the â€Å"definable characteristics of the individual† and finally, is greatly affected by the environment. Thomas et al (1968) and Thomas and Chess (1977) as cited from Douglas (1989, p.4) claimed that there are two types of temperamental characteristics in children. The first is the difficult temperament child and the second is the easy temperament child (p. 5). The first cluster involves children who are â€Å"negative in mood, avoid/withdraw, non-rhythmical and settle slowly† (Douglas, 1989, p. 5). On the other hand, easily temperament children are more â€Å"positive in mood, approach new events and people, rhythmical in schedule and adjust quickly to new surroundings (p. 5). In addition with this, the temperamental difficulty has been viewed by the research of Thomas et al (1983) as cited from Douglas (1989, p.5) as something that is biological in nature, as it has been perceived as part of a child’s biological make up. However, criticisms emerge if such a temperamental behavior indeed stem out of the child’s biology or is a result of the mother’s perception among the child. Tomas et al has claimed that there might be a so-called â€Å"self-fulfilling prophecies† that mothers bestow among their children, every time that they perceive their child as badly tempered; most especially on the early days of childhood (Bates, 1980 as cited from Douglas, 1989, p. 4-5).

The Adverse Effects Of Advertising On Children - 1428 Words

The Adverse Effects of Advertising on Children By: David Tran Advance Placement Psychology Mr. Cuetara 6/4/2015 Abstract Advertisers have been targeting children to market their products to for years now. The purpose of this report is to expose the advertisers and large corporations’ adverse effects on children all for the sake of making an extra buck. The targeting of children by advertisers has left us with a â€Å"obesity epidemic† which means that over time more and more children are growing up being obese and becoming adults with the same eating habits. Advertisers also have been manipulating the thoughts of children since early childhood since many television channels feature advertisements aimed at kids and this conditions them to support specific brands and shaping shopping habits. Finally there is the dangerous psychological disorders that stem from television advertisements such as bulimia, anorexia and compulsive shopping all of which are detrimental to the lives of the person affected and their families and friends. All of this suggests that there needs to be major reform in a dvertising, perhaps through strict regulation by congress or the FCC. For many years now advertisers have been targeting children. Children growing up in this age of modern technology have seen many of these advertisements. Children are often advertised to at an early age since many parents tend to place their children in front ofShow MoreRelatedThe Frightening Effects of Aggressive Advertising Targeting Children1386 Words   |  5 PagesFrightening Effects of Aggressive Advertising Targeting Children Modern society in the United States is driven by consumerism, advertising is key. For this reason companies have been increasingly targeting children in an effort to increase sales and loyalty to their brands. Brand loyalty is key to their future sales and greatly increases future revenues. For this reason large corporations have been studying and working with large advertising firms in an effort to capture children attention andRead MoreShould Banned Be Banned For Minors? Essay1739 Words   |  7 Pagestheir products continuously to approved quality required. (Merriam-Webster, (n.d)). Numerous avenues are often used for marketing different products to children using television, radio, internet and print media. Selling food products carry over a large space of these media and generally concentrating on junk food products. Recently, more and more children between four and eleven years old are bombarded with unhealthy food advertisements during watching television or running online games which earn a legitimateRead More alcohol and advertising Essay627 Words   |  3 Pages Alcohol and Advertising Throughout the history of television, viewers have raised many questions about alcohol advertising. Does advertising influence alcohol consumption? Does it has an impact on alcohol abuse or alcohol related disease and death? How is advertising affecting us? The goal of this essay is to collect evidence, both theoretical and empirical, that would address the question of whether advertising affects in any measurable manner alcohol consumption and mortality from alcoholism andRead MoreEssay on The Impact Advertising Has on Children1394 Words   |  6 PagesThe Impact Advertising Has on Children Advertising today focuses on specific targeted demographic groups. There is a direct focus on marketing products to young consumers. This age group sees the commercials, but does not really understand the directed message. This can have an adverse effect on the way children interpret and understand the message being presented to them. The average American child sees more than 40,000 commercials a year, and advertisers spend more than $12 billion annuallyRead MoreThesis: Junk Food Consumption by Children During TV Watching921 Words   |  4 Pagesteachign program to inhibit junk food consumption by children during TV-watching Submitted by: Dr. John Doe Title: Fast food advertisements should not be shown during TV shows for children Topic: Fast food advertisements should not be shown during TV shows for children Research Classification: Applied Objective: to structure an instructional program that would inform paretns about the hazards of fast food advertisements during TV shows for children and how to control childrens eating junk foodsRead MoreAddiction As A Relationship By Jean Kilbourne1288 Words   |  6 PagesThe effect that tobacco and alcohol have over the users is astronomical. People that you have known before to be kind and caring people, under the use of alcohol could be completely different by just one drink. If this isn’t proof enough that this substance should not only be banned from advertisement, but it should also be illegal because of the amount of consumers that become addicted. The research I found said that tobacco and alcohol consumption can be known to have potentially adverse healthRead More Advertising Alcoholic Beverages to Children Essay1302 Words   |  6 PagesAdvertising Alcoholic Beverages to Children Alcohol manufacturers use a variety of unscrupulous techniques to advertise alcoholic beverages to children. Perhaps the worst example is Anheuser-Busch Co., the worlds largest brewer, which uses child-enticing cartoon images of frogs, dogs, penguins and lizards in ads for Budweiser beer. These Budweiser cartoon characters are hugely popular with children, just like Joe Camel ads. A KidCom Marketing study once found these Budweiser cartoon characterRead MoreThe Basic Myth Of Our Culture Is That Consumption Is The Goal Of Life1176 Words   |  5 PagesConsumption is an important aspect of everyday life as we are continuously consuming products. The clothes we wear, the food we eat and the devices we use to communicate with people are produced by companies for our consumption. Companies turn to advertising agencies to come up with ways to effectively market their products and create demand. Advertisement agencies make use of profiling and niche marketing to target the groups of custom ers that the product will appeal to (McFall 5). Advertisers useRead MoreEssay on How Television Impacts our Children1123 Words   |  5 Pagesof television on children began when TV was in its early years. Early on in the 1950s, educators and parents began to ask legislators to do something about the amount of violence on TV. This concern still exists today. Parents have reservations about the quality of television programs intended for children, the amount of advertising aimed at young viewers, and the manner in which television depicts men, women and ethnic minorities. There are also apprehensions about the effects of the amount ofRead MoreTaking a Look at Manipulative Advertising773 Words   |  3 Pages​The meaning of advertising is the act or practice of calling public attention to ones product, service, need, etc(cited in Collins English Dictionary). It has various forms such as televisions, newspapers, magazines, radios, mobiles, books, mailboxes, and through the ne tworks. Advertising has become a part of our daily lives, and it affects our way of life because advertisements are everywhere: in the streets, supermarkets, shops and malls. In fact, advertising is one of the most influential