The present business environment is highly dynamic and competitive, and to ensure business growth and advancement in such an environment it is required that the organization has an effective focus towards managing and monitoring internal effectiveness. Such internal effectiveness of the organization is further dependent over the ability and the capabilities of the management, as well as the CEO, appointed, as they constitute to be the part of the senior management and further holds the power to make required decisions within the organization (Fleisher & Bensoussan, 2015). As the tools and approaches being adopted by the CEO contribute towards motivating the employees as well as influencing the change process having a final impact over the organizational performance in the competitive marketplace (D’Angelo & Presutti, 2019).
This discussion is focused on evaluating the key approaches and practices that are being adopted by Sean Doyle, CEO of British Airways. The discussion will include the focus towards the leadership style being adopted by the CEO, the contributions made by the CEO towards the business changes and performance improvement. Such approaches and practices will be justified by focusing towards the corporate examples of British Airways and further based on the discussions key recommendations will be provided that can be adopted by the CEO to ensure overall business growth and advancement in the present complex business environment.
British Airways is among the leading brands across the international aviation sector, the brand is being recognized for its premium services and high customer satisfaction within the industry. British Airways was formed in 1974 through the merger of leading brands including the British Overseas Airways Corporation (BOAC) and British European Airways (BEA) (BA, 2021). It has more than 40,000 employees working across international routes and serving more than 40 million customers a year. British Airways can actively be identified to be working towards improving customer satisfaction as well as social development in the international market (British Airways, 2021).
The present CEO of British Airways is Sean Doyle, who has been present in the aviation industry for more than 20 years. He joined British Airways as finance manager in 1998 and remained with the company till Dec. 2018, further he worked with Aer Lingus as CEO, the national airline of Ireland, for almost 1 year 10 months and again it joined British Airways in 2020 as CEO for the organization (LinkedIn, 2022). Doyle can be identified to have an effective understanding of the market needs as well as the challenges being faced and further focuses towards identifying innovative and advanced approaches to decision making in the industry (Capa, 2021).
Sean Doyle has been associated with British Airways for more than two decades, hence he has a better understanding of the business as well as the industry needs and requirements and accordingly adopts a democratic leadership style. As it can be identified that considering the industry as well as the business requirements, Doyle influences the employees to contribute towards the identification of the innovative and advanced approaches that can contribute towards business growth and development (Cozmuta, 2021). Such leadership style of Doyle can be defined through focusing on the reviews of the people who have worked with him. The professionals reflected that Doyle has a nature aligned with that of the radical changes within the workplace which can ultimately contribute towards rebuilding brand and company image as well as relations within the market (Georgiadis & Hollinger, 2020).
The effectiveness of the leadership/managerial style of Sean Doyle can further be evaluated by focusing towards Fiedler’s view of leadership style. The author has reflected that in the industry environment the leader’s style or approach should be aligned with that of the situational needs and requirements (Cozmuta, 2021). The researcher reflects that in the industry environment the leader’s role or personality should be aligned with either that of the tasks/job role or improving the relationships at the workplace (Fortin?Bergeron, et al., 2018). Considering the management or the leadership style being adopted by Doyle at British Airways it can be reflected that at the workplace, has undergone various job roles and profiles which has helped him understand the key challenges and issues associated with every job role within the aviation sector and further based on such he ensures that positive relations can be established with the employees at the workplace (Georgiadis, 2022).
It can be reflected that along with that of the industrial relations, Doyle actively focuses towards ensuring that efforts can be made to improve business performance. As being the CEO of British Airways as well as a leader, Doyle actively led the employees during the covid-19 and has introduced internal restructuring to ensure that the organization is able to deal with that of environmental or external industry challenges or issues. Based on such it can be defined and further can be justified that Sean Doyle has an effective managerial or leadership style within the organization (Sillars, 2020).
British Airways can be identified to have an effective and well-defined organizational culture as well as structure. It can be identified that British Airways is a leading brand within the aviation industry that ensures that it can provide the best and quality services to its passengers. To achieve such a strategic goal of providing quality services to its passengers, the management at British airways ensures investing in improving the internal effectiveness of the organization as well as developing effective internal culture (Mills, 2017). The corporate culture of British Airways can be identified to be influenced by creativity, diversity, ethics, sustainability and open-mindedness. It can be reflected that the management at British Airways ensures that the business approaches towards integrating the nation’s culture with that of the business culture can be ensured so that the strategies being adopted can contribute towards improved stakeholder support and satisfaction within the industry (BR, 2021).
Further focusing towards that of the business/organizational structure of British Airways it can be identified that the organization has a functional-based organizational structure, i.e., the internal structure has been divided into different groups including that of the management board, the operations and the customer executive (Tckhakaia, et al., 2015). Every department or the team has their well-defined roles and responsibilities within the organization, i.e., the management ensures the development of strategic and advanced decisions for the organizational growth, the operations executive ensures that the strategies being developed can be aligned with that of the operational activities, and further the customer executives ensure customer satisfaction and further retention within the competitive marketplace (Capa, 2021).
The internal structure as well as the corporate culture can be identified to be highly influenced by that of the external industry factors and accordingly the management ensures timely restructuring and change implementation so that the business strategic position in the industry can be retained (Sari, et al., 2018). In the process, the CEO can be identified to have an important role, as, during the covid-19, efforts have been made to restructure the internal structure by workforce planning and employee satisfaction depending upon the industry needs and requirements. The CEO assigned at British Airways ensures that proper industry research is being conducted and further based on such the strategies regarding the change in the organizational culture as well as structure can be made so that it can ensure maintaining a balance between the organizational needs and stakeholder satisfaction within the industry (BA, 2020).
As it has been discussed and defined that Sean Doyle has been associated with British Airways for about two decades, hence he has a better understanding of the organization’s vision and mission as well as its strategic goal in the competitive marketplace. Considering such, Doyle ensures that key business strategies and approaches can be adopted which can contribute towards business growth and advancement (Boon, 2021). Focusing towards that of the entrepreneurial strategy being adopted by Doyle, he ensures that a positive and collaborative relationship can be established across the organization so that the customers or the passengers can be provided with the premium service within the industry. In the industry environment, it can be reflected that British airways were facing a major issue or challenge to retain their competitive position in the industry environment (Maszczynski, 2022).
As the ineffective decisions of the previous CEO of British Airways as well as the unfavored business environment resulted in having a major impact on the business operations of the British airways. Hence, Doyle had the key challenge to ensure that such brand image can be rebuilt and further business advancement can be focused upon (TOI, 2020). Focusing towards that of the corporate governance strategy being adopted by the CEO at British Airways it can be reflected that Doyle ensures the adoption of a well-defined and controlled approach to corporate governance within the industry (ET, 2020).
Doyle become CEO of British Airways in a situation when the organization was facing heavy downfall, therefore, to ensure recovery of the organization from such a challenging situation Doyle has ensured internal restructuring which was a challenging decision, as it resulted in the layoff of over 75% of the employees of the organization (PM, 2020). Such a decision would have resulted in having a major impact on the brand image of British Airways along with the declining operational performance. But despite such external challenges, the management, as well as the CEO, influenced the management as well as the organizational stakeholders to act towards such strategy with an approach to ensure re-establishment of the business strategic positioning in the marketplace. Doyle’s approach towards corporate governance ensures proper communication and interaction with that of the stakeholder groups involved so that the diversified needs and interests within the industry can be identified and accordingly the decisions can be made (Arlidge, 2021).
It can be reflected that the CEO has a major influence over the change management being implemented within the organization. Focusing towards the case of British airways it can be reflected that Sean Doyle has actively contributed towards introducing key changes in the internal operations of the organization considering the industry as well as the organizational needs and to ensure that the business goal of serving their customers with the premium services can be ensured (Li, et al., 2018). As it can be identified that covid-19 has been the key challenge being faced by every sector across the international market and further it also had a major impact over the business operations of British Airways (Schlappig, 2022).
The change being introduced by Doyle is the introduction of the restricting measures which resulted in having a major impact over the business. Accordingly, the strategy being adopted by Doyle to lay off about 30,000 employees resulted in a conflicting scenario and further faced major criticism in the industry. Despite such criticism and the industry challenges, the CEO was able to influence the stakeholders including that of the investors, customers and social groups about the need for such change and its impact on the organization and its contribution towards economic growth (BS, 2020).
The focus of Doyle’s strategic change approaches towards quality services for customers as well as an effective and collaborative internal organizational culture has been the key governance strategies being adopted by Doyle which reflects upon the utilization of power, to further influence the involved stakeholders and to eliminate any of the conflicts emerging within the marketplace. As in implementing the change management a key issue or challenge being faced by Doyle is ensuring the organization competitiveness from Ryanair and Jetstar in terms of the service pricing as well as maintaining the service premium quality in the international marketplace (Boon, 2020). Therefore, to overcome such strategic approaches in the industry environment, Doyle has effectively focused upon the key approaches to align the internal culture with that of the operational needs and preferences so that the employees can be influenced based on such culture and aspects within the industry (PYK, 2020).
The employees within the organization play an important role in contributing towards organizational growth and development. Therefore, it is important for the management to ensure their satisfaction and their interest are aligned with the organizational goals and objectives. To ensure employee satisfaction, it can be reflected that the management adopts several key tools and approaches towards employee motivation and satisfaction at the workplace (Cloutier, et al., 2015). Focusing on the key motivational approaches or tools being adopted by Sean Doyle at British Airways it can be reflected that the management effectively focuses towards both the monetary as well as the non-monetary benefit of the organization so that they can actively be engaged within the business process (Maszczynski, 2022).
Focusing on the need hierarchy theory being defined by Maslow in the industry environment, it can be reflected that Doyle at British Airways follows such a strategic approach to ensure employee satisfaction and to further motivate them to contribute towards organizational goals. As the decision is made by Doyle to lay off 30,000 employees had a major impact over employee satisfaction and their attitude towards the management (N7H, 2022). But to ensure the retention of the remaining employees, Doyle ensured both the financial as well as non-financial approaches to incentivize the employees to recognize their contribution towards the organizational growth. The key approaches being adopted by the management included providing the staff with complementary or concessionary travel benefits, additional leaves as well as providing them with incentives and bonuses for their performances (Georgiadis, 2022).
Doyle reflects that post restructuring; British airways is actively working towards ensuring that the employees can be made an integral part of the organization. Such is being ensured through proper employee engagement in the strategic decision-making process, as well as providing them with recognition and promotion based on their work and job effectiveness (CAPA, 2020). Also, along with the growth of the organization in the international marketplace post covid and after restructuring, the employee’s individual goals and objectives can further be achieved. Such reflects upon the efforts being made by the management at British Airways as well as the CEO Sean Doyle towards ensuring employee motivation and satisfaction within the competitive and dynamic business environment (ET, 2020).
Conclusion
The overall discussion has been focused towards evaluating and discussing the leadership style and the managerial approaches being adopted by the CEO of British Airways i.e., Sean Doyle. It can be reflected that Doyle has been appointed as the CEO in 2020 after the brand was facing declined performance and results due to the ineffective decisions being made by the past CEO. Doyle has been associated with British Airways for more than two decades, hence he effectively understands both the organizational as well as the industry needs and requirements. Doyle can further be identified to be focused towards adopting a democratic and collaborative leadership style under which the employees can actively contribute towards decision making as well as towards the organization’s performance improvement.
The key challenge that has been faced by Doyle in managing the organization is the emergence of covid-19 which resulted in the further downfall of the business revenue and profitability and had a major impact over the brand image. Further to overcome such a challenge, Doyle made an effort towards implementing an internal change focused towards restructuring of the workforce, resulting in lay off of more than 75% of the existing workforce. As it can be reflected that despite of the industry criticism and the challenges being faced by Doyle, it actively contributed towards change management and further influenced the employees and industry shareholders to contribute towards organizational growth. But despite of such, there is a need for the organization to ensure that key efforts and approaches can be adopted towards industry analysis and making decisions accordingly.
It can be recommended that Doyle should focus towards the industry’s need towards premium services and accordingly can lead towards product differentiation, such would help the brand in re-establishing its brand image without having a major impact from that of the service pricing as well as the competitive forces within the industry. Apart from that, it can be recommended that Doyle rather than adopting the approach to lay off about 75% of the workforce, the organization may have adopted the approach to eliminate cost-cutting from other operational processes, or may have provided the employees with employment opportunities in the industry. Such would have contributed towards improved brand image as well as stakeholder satisfaction in the industry.
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