Essay about Changing the Culture at British Airways

Changing the Culture at British Airways Changing the Culture at British Airways The British Airways case study was a very interesting case to read. It proves that not all people can be leaders, especially the chairman, board and chief executives of British European Airways (BEA) and British Overseas Airways Corporation (BOAC.) According to the case study of British Airways, the life at the â€Å"old† British Airways was â€Å"bloody awful† (Changing the Culture of British Airways, 1990, p. 1). There definitely was a crisis happening in that airline. They didn’t seem to have a cohesive culture and it seemed as if they continued down this path they would no longer have a business either. British Airways had this divide between BEA and BOAC.†¦show more content†¦3) And another mindset was, â€Å"If you’re providing service at no cost to the taxpayer, then you’re doing quite well† (Changing the Culture of British Airways, 1990, p. 3). If you had to compare this philosophy to Kotter’s book, The Heart of Change, this company was in huge trouble. There was definitely no leadership—just really greedy chairman, in my opinion. There was definitely no sense of urgency and such a lack of vision. The unfortunate this was it still remained the same even when reorganization occurred in 1976, by Sir Frank McFadzean. According to the study, divisional loyalties prevented the carrier from attaining a common focus (Changing the Culture of British Airways, 1990, pp. 3-4). It was not until February 1981, where things began to look up for British Airways. It was when Sir John King became chairman. Sir King made radial steps by reducing staff significantly, freezing pay increases, closing several airline routes, online stations, and engineering bases. In addition, halting cargo-only services, and selling the fleet, and inflicting massive cuts upon offices, administrative services and staff clubs (Changing the Culture of British Airways, 1990, p. 4). Although you would think this would have caused a lot of fear and negativity with employees—my impression of what I read, Sir King alleviated this byShow MoreRelatedChanging the Culture at British Airways Essay990 Words   |  4 PagesChanging the Culture at British Airways Question #1 Life at â€Å"old† British Airways lacked a unifying corporate culture. The 1971 merger of British European Airways (BEA) and British Overseas Airways Corporation (BOAC), by the British Airways Board, only succeeded in putting an umbrella over two separate mature entities. The focus of the BEA had been to build a European airline infrastructure. BOAS was an innovator and pioneered the first jet passenger service. Neither company was concerned withRead MoreChanging the Culture at British Airways Essay956 Words   |  4 Pages1. What was life like at old British Airways? †¢ Employees were embarrassed to mention they worked for the company. †¢ British Airways stumbled into its 1979 state of inefficiency in large part because of its history and culture. †¢ British Airways faced the worst crisis in its history in the late 1970’s early 1980’s. †¢ Unless they took immediate action they were heading for a loss of at least  £100 million within that present financial year. †¢ They faced the potential that by that followingRead MoreChanging the Culture at British Airways Essay1112 Words   |  5 PagesChanging the Culture at British Airways 1. Problems you identified from the case Macro: The first problem changing the culture at British Airways was the merger of the BOAC and BEA. In 1971, the Civil Aviation Act became law and the board was to control policy over British Airways but both BOAC and BEA remained autonomous, each with its own chairman, board, and chief executive. This caused a split within British Airways throughout the 1970s and in the mid-1980. The second problem BA faced wasRead MoreBritish Airlines Change 647 Words   |  3 Pages British Airways have been the symbol of the United Kingdom and its airlines for many years. They are the largest airline in the UK and have the largest amount of international flights and destinations. British Airways was formed in 1974 after four UK airlines, BEA, BOAC, Northeast Airlines, and Newcastle, were dissolved. The airline aimed at being a worldwide network and achieving economies of scale. This joining of four different organizations caused the airlines to have over 50,000 staffRead MoreThe Case Of British Airways841 Words   |  4 PagesDiscussion Board # 1 Johan Rivera Liberty University British Airways (BA) is a company that encountered several difficulties back in the 1970’s and 1980’s. The poor performances of the organization, was leading the company to failure. BA was offering a service that even though it accomplished the mission of the company, was not providing customer satisfaction. The organization was not taking into consideration the needs of the costumer and was not providing an acceptable customer service experienceRead MoreBritish Airways Case Study1363 Words   |  6 Pagesre-energize a mature organization, and change corporate culture provide the basis for analyzing British Airways’ (BA) transformation and the difficulties encountered in making an organizational change. Identification of critical factors leading to British Airways successful transformation as well as steps, sequence, and risks taken to transform the organization and personal assessment is provided for this case study. Connection of British Airways case to re-energizing the mature organization How wasRead MoreBritish Airways Case Study1409 Words   |  6 Pagesorganization, and change corporate culture, provide the basis for analyzing British Airways’ (BA) transformation and the challenges encountered in making an organizational change. Identification of critical factors leading to their successful transformation as well as the steps, sequence, and risks taken to transform the organization and personal assessment of what could have been done differently is provided in this case study. Connection of British Airways case to re-energizing the mature organizationRead MoreDialogue As A Form Of Communication1073 Words   |  5 Pages (William Isaacs, past director, MIT’s Dialogue Project) The work dialogue stems from the Greek roots ‘dia’ and ‘logos’ which means â€Å"through meaning†. Dialogue serve as a great part in bringing a drastic change in the organisational culture of the companies on my levels. David Bohm s (1996) popular book, On Dialogue, defines dialogue as a form of communication from which something new emerges; participants must evidence a relaxed, non-judgmental curiosity, with the aim of seeing thingsRead MoreCross Cultural Perspectives Of Culture Essay1550 Words   |  7 PagesCross-Cultural Perspectives-900 words Culture refers to the values, rules, norms and behaviour as well as their products that govern the lifestyles of an individual or group. Cultural rules and behaviour are inherited from past generations, may be learned from others and are transmitted to other generation. Additionally, they embody the symbols and systems through which communication, attitudes and knowledge about life takes place. The set a certain group of people apart from others because the manifestationRead MoreThe Historical View of Privatization and Nationalization in America1039 Words   |  5 Pagesthe central social institution. The meaning is the government own business but increase function of the private more than before or sale at least fifty percentage of the shares to private sector (Drucker, 1969). So the purpose of privatization is changing the business to the better ways for reduce the problem of the government, bring more benefit to the people in their countries and be received services in the reason able price. Privatization has many levels to develop organization or enterprise.