Internal & external factors contextual factors which influenced the introduction of strategic changes at BAA British Airways is one of the leading airline companies which have a good reputation in airline market, they are 13,500 of flight attendants and 12,000 of them are member of Unite. Due to the financial crisis, BAA started facing financial problems and at year 2009, the company has announced Pre- tax 401 million Euro lost. To cope with the business down fall and external changes, BAA top management decided some strategy changes for cost cutting.
However, because the change strategies didn’t get approval from union and without most cabin crews’ willingness to accept, huge wave of rejection from staffs side and followed by a long bitter fight which is mostly centered by payment ND welfare/well-being. Not only BAA and its staffs but also thousands of travelers were affected. Government, media and the whole society were involved in this Issue. PESTLE factors analysis: Economy: * Due to the economy crisis, world growth was only 2% at year 2009. Pound was very weak towards Euro. Less people traveling and many travelers change to low-cost airline. Business class customers declined sharply which is the main profit source of BAA. *Fuel prices arise ($110/ bottom). Cost of flying increased 8. 7%. * Financial years lost. 401 million Euro lost at 2008-2009. Social population facing aging problem. Bargaining power from employee increasing. Technological *More people use price-comparison sites, consumer awareness and bargaining power all increased. *Online booking and check in become more common, might lose some elder customer who are not willing to learn this method.
Environmental/Ethical * Energy consumption controls and noise pollution controls increasing operation cost and concern. * Compensation and responsibility of baggage damage and loss as well as flights cancellation. * This particular period is within a climate of high unemployment rate, the threat of losing jobs worries the whole public. On he ones who work during the walk outs. It is because of the passengers who have to wait and can not fly off as they planned. They are angry and they think that the ones who work during the walk-outs are responsible for their nuisances, but it is not because of them.
Because of they are strike breakers they have a conflict with the staff members who are on strike. According to the BBC, if they solve the conflict and everything will be finished the next thing which they have to decide is that they have to find a way to restructure the relationship between the employees and management and among the employees. A strike attendant said: “We will still do a good job for the passengers but I do think it will be a bare minimum because, whatever we do, you do not get anything back from the company (BBC 2010)”.
The employee motivation is suffering but not just because of the disputes among people. The fact that British Airways asked its employees for a free work for one month, just increased the dissatisfaction of the staff. Of course, they do it, because they do not have other choice. But the unite could not express its anger when they heard about this request, with the fact that the boss Willie Walsh earns 100. 00 pounds per month (CNN 2010). How British Airways tries to motivate its employees The management of British Airways has already recognized that because of the disputes the employee motivation is suffering.
According to British Airways annual report and accounts 2009/10, they try to solve the problem. First they have to find a way against conflict and motivate their employees. I’ve already mentioned how serious is this situation and how many people is effected because of it. As they stated, they know that their business is multicultural and that is why they need to find more ways to help everybody within the company. The three most powerful way to motivate employees is focusing on employee relations, rewarding and training. First of all, British Airways focuses on training and development.
In the last year 2009/2010, the days of training were raised by almost 50%. This high number of training means that the airline company still puts an effort on high quality of costumer service. This allows people to develop themselves and reach new goals. Another way to motivate people is to tell them, what is happening within the company. According to a survey more than half of British Aristocracy’s think that they are well informed about British Airways, his survey shows that more than 90% of them are conscious of the financial situation of the company.
British Airways tries to focus on communication that is why they organize meetings where employees can ask questions, suggest ideas and complain. But face-to face meeting are not the only way to inform the staff other communication channels include a personalized Internet, mobile SMS messaging, video and a variety of Company-wide and local newsletter” . Focusing on employee relations is one of the most beneficial way in this situation. ћ We continue to work towards resolving the cabin crew dispute and, longer term, we ant to work with the unions to create a new modern framework for industrial relations within British Airways ћ. Annual Report of BAA 2010) Conclusion and Recommendation As everyone know the disputes started one year ago, but the relationship between the two parties is still miffed. According to the latest news (Guardian 2010), ћ BAA crew step nearer strike vote after suspension over Christmas collection. Union’s ‘dismay and anger’ after a woman is sent home for collecting money for sacked and suspended colleague” Because of that the majority of the staff voted for strike, it can be held before Christmas.
From my point of view, the strategic of BAA focuses on increasing the employee motivation and it should work, but the problem is that the communication between the management and the employees does not work well and because of that they don not listen to each other. References 12 Management. 2010. Mascots theory. [online] Available from: http://www. Manage. Com [Accessed Novembers 7 2010] BAA. 2010. Annual report and accounts 2009/2010. [online] Available from: http://www. Brainwashes. Com/SMS [Accessed November 29 2010] BAA. 2010.
BAA Results for the six months ended 30 June 2010 [online] Available room: http://www. Baa. Com/assets/ [Accessed October 28 2010] BBC. 2010. BBC News. [online] Available at: http://www. BBC. News. Co. UK. [Accessed November 04 2010] CNN. 2010. CNN News. [online] Available at: http://www. CNN. Com [Accessed October 30 2010] Dublin, A. 2009. Essentials of Management. Deed. Mason: South-Western Coinage Learning. Goodman, S. H. , Faint, P. M. , Mismatch, J. F. , Lewis, P. S. 2007. Management Challenges For TomorroWs Leaders. Mason: South-Western Coinage Learning. Guardian. 2010.
Businesses. [online] Available at: http://www. Guardian. Co. UK [Accessed November 22 2010] Mail Online. 010. Mail Online News. [online] Available at: http://www. Dilemma. Co. UK [Accessed October 18 2010] Telegraph. 2010. Telegraph Travel News. [online] Available at: http://www. Telegraph. Co. UK [Accessed October 24 2010] Darlington, D. , Hall, L. And Taylor, S. , 2008. Human Resource Management. Deed. Edinburgh: Prentice Hall of needs is the most useful theory. He divided the needs into 5 categories (Physical, Safety, Love/Belonging, Esteem and Self-actualization needs. . For this topic, the second group is the most important, the safety needs. Safety needs are the impulses for security and stability. So it does not mean just the requirement of the security of the body but the safety of employment. A stressful situation can confuse the emotional stability. Because if we work for a company, which has financial problems it creates a lot of stress. People can not work under pressure for a long period (Goodman et al 2007). Mascots theory is connected to Herbage’s Two Factors theory, which explains the situations more.
According to Frederick Herbage’s motivation-hygiene theory, there are two components, the first is the motivation factors which motivate people for e. G. Esteem, responsibility, recognition, rewarding etc. The second component is the hygiene factors which do not motivate people but if they do not exist it causes discontentment and unhappiness. These components are for e. G. Working conditions, fair pay, time off, working relationships, hours etc. (Drain 2009). The environment of the job belongs to here as well, so if the work atmosphere is not comfortable for the employees because of disputes they get unmotivated.
By British Airways, the real problem is that people feel that they are not respected and not valued enough. The affects of Bas conflicts within the company Every situation has results in both positive and negative way, it is also true for the conflicts. The proper amount of dispute can lead to job performance. If there is the right amount of dispute this can increase the creativity, the effort, the diagnostic information and/or the group cohesion (Darlington et al 2008). But if the amount of the conflict is more than the right amount, the job performance can suffer.
The wrong amount of conflict can lead to limited physical or mental health (stress), wasted resources, sidetracked goals and/or heightened self- interest (Darlington et al 2008). The manager has to see how it is the relationship between the company and employees or among the employees. If the manager notices that the performance is poor, he or she should minimize it. The British Airways strikes have an enormous influence on the tourism industry, on passengers and BAA,as well (BAA Results 2010). The strike actions has also an impact on the ones who work during the walk outs.
It is because of the passengers who have to wait and can not fly off as they planned. They are angry and they think that the ones who work during the walk-outs are responsible for their nuisances, but it is not because of them. Because of they are strike breakers they have a conflict with the staff members who are on strike. According to the BBC, if they solve the conflict and everything will be finished the next thing which they have to decide is that they have to find a way to restructure the relationship between the employees and management and among the employees.
