Emirates Airlines: Management, Leadership, Diversity, And Motivation

About Emirates Airlines

Question:

Discuss about the Emirates Embraces Motivation on Organizational.

Emirates Airlines is a leading airline that is based in Dubai. The government-owned airline is an emirates group’s subsidiary and it remains the largest airline in the region. According to various studies, Emirates operates about 3,600 flights to over 81 countries around the world on the weekly basis (The Emirates Group 2017). Dubai International Airport is its main hub and it takes flights to 140 cities. Interestingly, the company uses Emirates SkyCargo for its cargo activities. This airline operates a different fleet of Boeing wide-body aircraft and Airbus. Emirates has over 64,768 employees worldwide and headed by the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Ahmed bin Saeed Al Maktoum and the president, Tim Clark (The Emirates Group 2013). The company has diversified its operations into various sectors and industries including engineering, airport services, tour operator, and catering operations (Presler 2013). Today, the parent company operates over fifty subsidiaries while Emirates has over seven subsidiaries (The Emirates Group 2017). Interestingly, Emirates airline values its employees as it offers them various benefits including paid sick and maternity leave and comprehensive health plan. As part of its performance management, the company uses merit pay and profit sharing programs. Given these benefits, it becomes necessary to analyze the motivational policy of the company.

Leadership and management have become necessary factors to determine the success of any business. Leadership focuses on the influencing people and creating a good environment where people can follow directions willingly (The Emirates Group 2013).  The leader is expected to guide the followers and give a clear vision for the organization. Similarly, management ensures things are done through others. The managers must work through or with others to realize the objectives of the organization. To this effect, management controls direct, organizes, and plans resources based on the moral standing of the organization. Indisputably, both management and leadership can make organizations successful.

Management and leadership help an organization to achieve its goals. At Emirates, management and leadership processes have defined the continued success of the Airlines. Currently, the Sheik Ahmed Saeed, who serves as the CEO and chairperson of the company, heads the organization (Goodson 2017). Sheik Ahmed bin Saeed leads the senior management team that has made the airline to make remarkable economic development. Sheik Ahmed, who doubles as the chair and CEO, has successfully spearheaded the expansion of Emirates by formulating fiscal, investment, and economic policies and strategies. The senior leadership has transformed Emirates into an international airline thus serves over 160 destinations. Therefore, the firm’s talented leaders have used their highly skilled diverse employees, quality customer services, and management techniques to make it the largest airline in the world. These leaders have demonstrated their ability to lead Emirates economically and effectively (Gale 2009). The management of the company has remained responsible for treating people equally and prioritizing the company’s goals. Leaders of Emirates believe in hard work, honesty, and planning thus connect workforce in managing change. These leaders have made the company attractive to customers to make it a success.

The Importance of Management and Leadership

Emirates Airline is an international company, which operates across the world. As a multinational organization, it serves different customers. Within the company, there are over 160 nationalities. This implies that the company has attracted people with different religions, origin, tradition, and race. These people must interact and live together. Nonetheless, the company’s working language is English (Goodson 2017). The company’s continued to manage the culturally diverse employees and workplace has made it effective and successful. The company has adopted the best diversity evaluation process in managing its operations. The company believes that the 160 nationalities have unique strengths thus giving it an international status. The diverse workforce brings new ideas, thinking, and innovative styles to bolster its business (Bamber et al. 2009). The company continuously promoted and recruited workers without discrimination. It has further emphasized the significance of treating people with dignity and respect thus allows workers to maximize their potential. The company has thus embraced cultural diversity through communication, recruitment, and equal opportunity.

Emirates Airlines has promoted the management of culturally diverse customers (Mayasandra 2011). This is because customers define the success of this business. Since the company flies to over 60 countries and 100 destinations worldwide, it stands to serve customers of a different background. The company seems to be concerned with the needs of customers. To this effect, it tries to communicate with them effectively. It has continuously listened to the needs of its stakeholders including suppliers, investors, and bankers (Gale 2009). It has established an understandable communication through international language to serve the clients. To this effect, English has ensured it serves its customers prudently. The company also embraces Arabic style food services (Goodson 2017). The tastes of the Middle Eastern culture regarding food attract people of different backgrounds. It has ensured that its employees use the Islamic procedures of handling food. This implies that customers rarely served with alcohol. Sometimes the company offers customers iftar as part of their pride.

Motivation remains an important process of influencing and encouraging people to do the right thing and maximize their potential. Motivation, as a factor, is based on the relationship of variables thus explains the persistence, amplitude, and direction of a person’s behavior (Robescu & Lancu 2017). Although their many theories explaining and demonstrating motivation, the most important ones include Herzberg’s motivator-hygiene theory, Alderfer’s existence-relatedness-growth theory, and Maslow’s hierarchy of needs (Osabiya 2014). These theories have emerged to be necessary for motivating people thus help management to understand the significance of motivating the workforce. The Maslow motivation theory has defined the human motivation. According to this theory, the management needs to satisfy the employee’s psychological and basic needs (Robescu & Lancu 2017). The low- and high-level needs including self-actualization are essential in meeting the needs of workers.

Managing a Culturally Diverse Workforce

Maslow theory focuses on the people’s basic requirements, which pleases them effectively. This theory is based on different levels of needs including physiological, social, safety, self-actualization, and esteem needs. In most cases, the employees have met their safety and psychological, but expect the firm to serve their high-level needs. At Emirates, employees are motivated strongly (Osabiya 2014). This has made it an attractive employer of diverse people. The company offers its diverse workforce recognition, rewards, performance programs, and incentives to encourage them. In most cases, many employees have opted to build their careers with the company (Benjamin-Lowry et al. 2013). Emirates Airline believes that well-trained, experienced, and skilled workers would define its business success. To this effect, the organization offers vocational training and development programs to the employees thus help them to be effective and efficient in their duties. For instance, most of the performing and outstanding cabin crews have been promoted to flight purser within a short time. Most of them have also gained specialized skills to become trainers in the cabin services.

Motivation has increased the ability of workers to become effective. The company has gained a competitive position in the market because of the motivated workers. Motivation has had a direct impact on the employee productivity and organizational performance (Bamber et al. 2009). The leaders seem to motivate all stakeholders in achieving their goals because it engages them in making decisions. Drucker and Maciariello (2008) affirm that the leaders continue to motivate workers to inspire them thus enabling them to do their work willingly. This has ensured Emirates get marvelous success. Importantly, people respond situations differently. Currently, the company operates many flights to different destinations (Robescu & Lancu 2017). It has established the best corporate plan that values stakeholder diversity. Based on the diversity, the management uses an approach that befits their needs because it involves clients and community leading to a better performance. With the motivation in Emirates, employees have remained committed thus offer quality services to clients.

Extrinsic and intrinsic motivations are the two types of motivation that companies should try to practice. Importantly, people have distinct needs and require different motivation. Intrinsic motivation involves using motivational stimuli to ensure people perform their tasks and fulfill the desires (Benjamin-Lowry et al. 2013). In most cases, people have different desires that they need to meet and fulfill. The intrinsic motivation is founded on these desires including acceptance, social contact, power, independence, honor, order, and social status. At Emirates, employees are motivated through workplace conditions, promotions, training, appreciation incentives, payment incentives and monetary incentives. Nasibov (2015) affirms that the company has continuously invested in training and developing the workforce. It also creates the comfortable working environment. Its reward system, policies, and salaries are competitive thus make it an attractive employer in the market (Bamber et al. 2009). As part of the intrinsic motivation, the employees are recognized through promotions like allowing the cabin crew to be trainers. Given the current competitive environment, the company continues to train workers on new skills. The company also offer workers paid sick and maternity leave and comprehensive health plans to motivate them.

Management of Culturally Diverse Customers

The company considers employee development and training to be an important process. With training, the company has emphasized the significance of new skills that employees must attain to help improve the services (Jeffs 2008). The company understands that the results of training are incomparable because of the big payoffs including improved competence and productivity (Presler 2013). It has also broken down its training services to meet the expectations of the workers. This is evident where the company allows workers to share their opinion regarding career progression and development. Emirates also value extrinsic motivation, as it believes that employees are motivated by external stimuli. Importantly, the company offers attractive remuneration and rewards to workers (Bamber et al. 2009). The bonuses and organized activities have become necessary in improving workforce performance at Emirates. It further allows workers and management to enjoy merit pay and profit sharing to motivate them.

The company has experienced challenges in its employee training and development programs (Presler 2013). Recently, many stakeholders have criticized the company’s training and development because it is never based on the market needs. This is because the organization has failed to look into the activities of its rivals.

The company has also failed to use its strong image in the industry to maximize employee excellence and innovation through training and development. It has failed to understand that it is its responsibility to offer clients and customers dependable, sage, and friendly transportation. The training programs of the firm are not customer-oriented.

Emirates Airlines should make its training programs to serve the specific setting needs thus guarantee the organization the best results. The company should look into the activities and operations of its rivals and other events externally and internally (Benjamin-Lowry et al. 2013). Such activities will help it know the best strategies for sustaining its comparative advantage regarding its workforce training and development programs. The approach will also allow the airline to maximize its strengths and empower workers.

The company must fight to protect its reputation because it has shaken the global aviation industry. However, with irrelevant training programs, the company might interfere with its long-standing brand in the market (Chernev 2012). Therefore, it needs to improve training programs to make workers excellent and innovative. Through training, the employees will understand that it is their responsibility to offer clients dependable, friendly transportation tags, and sage and related industrial services (The Emirates Group 2017). The training should make it possible for workers to offer memorable customer services because the training is customer-oriented.

Motivation

Emirates Airlines should focus on offering superior services by recruiting the best talents in the market. However, the management must embrace cultural diversity so that it can access relevant ideas that will help the airline to upgrade its services. Emirates airline has the responsibility to empower employees to achieve maintain its competitive and profitable position (Goel 2009). This should involve sending some staff to gain continuous professional training thus become exposed to new ideas and become motivated.

Conclusion

Based on the data collected from the organization, the motivation of workforce is a priority at Emirates Airlines. Most employees have expressed their satisfaction, as they believe the company has made them productive and motivated. Currently, the company is among the most successful airlines worldwide. This success is attributed to the efforts of workers. In fact, most of its employees have been credited for offering the best customer services thus promote loyalty. Motivation seems to have inspired the employees to enjoy incomparable job satisfaction.  The leaders of the company must understand that empowering workforce would maximize their productivity because it offers them an opportunity to make decisions. Therefore, effective style guarantees employees performance.

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