Managing Change At Jetstar Airways Pty Ltd: A Case Study Analysis

Issues Faced by Jetstar Airways Pty Ltd

The ever- changing business environment is based on the assessment of the expectations of the customers and their preferences. The identification of the preferences of the customers helps organizations in maintaining their competitive edge while operating in diverse international markets. Organizations change in order to cope with the technological and other advancements that are undertaken by the other players in the diverse markets. The concerned organization, Jetstar Airways, face different issues relating to poor customer support systems and quality of the services that are offered by the same. It has affected the goodwill of the business against the other competitors in the sector (de Wit  and Zuidberg  2012). Therefore, the organization might undertake steps to bring forth changes in the systems in order to enhance the operations while coping up with the expectations of the customers.

The report aims at analyzing the different issues that are faced by Jetstar Airways and the manner in which they might be mitigated. The report enumerates the scope, causes and impacts of the issues that are faced by the organization. On the other hand, a change management plan is being formulated as a part of the report in accordance to Kotter’s change management model in order to mitigate the issues that are faced by the enterprise.  

Jetstar Airways Pty Ltd is a low-cost airline headquartered in Melbourne, Australia.  Qantas took the initiative of establishing the Jetstar Airways Pty Ltd in the year 2003 as a two brand strategy in order to compete with the Virgin Blue. The low cost airline services that were provided by the organization helped in attracting the attention of the target customers in the initial years (Jetstar.com 2018). However, the lack of suitable communication among the organization and the customers affected the service offerings through delays and harassment of the customers (Abc.net.au 2014). It affected the brand image of the organization while operating as per the objectives of the same (Jiang 2013). The management structure of the organization and the lack of suitable communication among the different departments have affected the efficient functioning of the same while considering the priorities of the customers. However, the revenue and the operating income of the business are A$3.636 billion and A$452 million respectively (Jetstar.com 2018). Therefore, the organization must take steps to develop the processes in order to facilitate the smooth functioning of the systems and thereby enhance the profitability of the firm.

One of the immediate issues that are faced by the organization, Jetstar Airways, are based on the lack of proper communication with the clients, which affected the organizational knowledge on the preferences and priorities of the customers. On the other hand, the lack of integrated functioning of the workforce caused several flight delays and discrepancies in the billing functions of the business. Kotter-Grühn (2015) stated that the lack of proper  communication with the customers affects the PR (Public Relations) which results to a degrading brand name and market share. The organization aimed at providing their services through economic pricing structure in order to attract the attention of the customers. However, the lack of proper services and delays in the flights in busy business schedules has affected the goodwill of the business.  

Change Management Plan based on Kotter’s Model

Jetstar Airways aimed at providing economic transportation services to the customers in order to gain a competitive edge over the other players in the market.
However, the organization faced different issues relating to the lack of suitable customer support systems, which has affected the goodwill of the business. A survey conducted by the international airlines portrayed that Jetstar Airways holds the second highest percentage of flight delays. It has affected the organizational capabilities of holding suitable public relations. The issues relating to the PR adversely affected the market shares of the organization, which diminished largely within last two years. Lack of suitable communication mediums in the organization affected the proper functioning of the systems. Bradu?anu (2012) stated that communication with the customers plays a major  role in remodeling the systems as per the preferences of the customers. It helps organizations in undertaking a well- groomed PR functions as per the sustainable objective of the same.

On the other hand, in a survey that was conducted by CHOICE on subjects like punctuality, checking in, customer service, on-board comfort and food safety portrayed that the concerned organization gained the maximum negative reviews on most of the elements (Jun  and Rowley  2014). Alternatively, the survey undertaken by the ACCC (Australian Competition and Consumer Commission) delineated that lack of proper training to the employees affected the workforce efficacy in attracting the attention of the customers through economic transportation services.  Brännmark and Benn (2012) stated that lack of proper communication in the service providing sector affects the  service offerings of the business as the organizational management fails to understand the priorities of the clients and thereby act accordingly. On the other hand, Hurn (2012) noted that the continuous innovation in the business  processes helps in enhancing the operations and thereby adds on to the competitive advantage of the business over the other players resulting to sustainability. Therefore, the issues that are faced by Jetstar Airways have affected the smooth functioning of the same while operating as per the diverse needs and preferences of the clients.    

Jetstar Airways must undertake the relevant changes in order to enhance the operations of the same in order to cope with the changing expectations of the customers. Most importantly, enhanced functioning of the business operations helps in establishing efficient Public Relations resulting to the growth of the organization in diverse markets. The issues that are faced by the concerned organization are due to lack of suitable communication with the customers. It has affected the smooth functioning of the business processes. Therefore, the concerned organization might take steps to build on their communicability in order to enhance the operations of the same while operating as per the needs of the customers. Sikdar  and Payyazhi (2014) stated that communication plays a major role in understanding the needs and preferences of the customers. Communication in the context of Jetstar Airways will be helping the business in understanding the issues that are faced by the customers. On the other hand, the enhanced communicability of the internal departments of the business will be helping the same in improving their client dealings. The change in the organizational culture and customer dealings will be helping the organization in reframing the processes to avoid situation of flight delays that might cause disregard in the minds of the customers. Most essentially, the change will be helping the organization in upgrading their service offerings as per the competitors, which will be adding a competitive edge to the organizational operations in Australia and abroad (McDaniel  and DiBella-McCarthy  2012). The organization is required to undertake the change in order to enhance their operations while understanding the needs of the customers and their priorities. Changes in the business processes will be helping the firm in undertaking better PR (Public Relation) activities while operating in diverse  international markets. Karaevli  and Zajac (2013) stated that enhancement in the PR functions of organizations helps the same in undertaking the smooth functioning of the business operations.  

Communicating Vision to Relevant Stakeholders

Change management models helps in enhancing the change initiative that is planned by the business through utilization of systematic reasoning. The utilization of Kotter’s change management model in the context of Jetstar Airways will assist in maintaining their efficacy through systematic implementation of different steps in order to enhance the processes (Sharif  and Scandura  2014). The organizational understanding of the urgency for undertaking the change is one of the most important steps that might be considered by the organization in order to initiate the modification activity.   The vision for undertaking the change will be helping the organization in identifying the long term outcomes through the modifications that might be applied by the organization. Communication of the vision with the relevant stakeholders who are responsible for the smooth functioning of the processes will be helping the organization in undertaking consultation and thereby take steps to implement the change. Building on the change that is implemented and thereby sticking on to the change will be helping the organization in enhancing their performance while mitigating the concerns. The systematic functioning of the organization while implementing change in the systems helps in assisting the smooth functioning of the business operations (Pollack  and Pollack  2015). The organization must take steps to set up a suitable CRM technology in order to connect to their customers. The change management plan that is being enumerated in this section will forecast the different activities that might be undertaken by the organization while implementing the CRM in the processes as per the Kotter’s change model.
Goal	Activities	Timeframe	Rationale
Understanding the urgency for implementing a CRM (Customer Relationship Management) Envisioning the change	· Assessments of the market situation through conduction of surveys · Formation of concrete ideas of change in the different functions through the assessment of the key position of the business in the markets (Jansson  2013) · Assessing feedbacks from the other users of the CRM technology	5 – 7 months	The identification of urgency for change in the organizational context will be helping the concerned organization in identifying the right time for modifying the processes in order to enhance the sustainable functioning. On the other hand, envisioning the change and thereby planning for the same will be helping the concerned organization in undertaking assessments of its key capabilities and competencies before implementing the change safely within the time frame (Van der Voet  2014).
Communicating the need of implementing CRM with the relevant stakeholders	· Communicating the need of implementing the CRM technologies in the organization through utilization of emails, newsletters and social media platforms to the stakeholders · Undertaking sessions with the relevant stakeholders discussing on the change process	2- 4 months	Communication of the change with the stakeholders of the business will be helping the same in enhancing the change readiness among the same. The sessions will also helps the management in undertaking consultation and negotiations with the stakeholders in order to engage the same in the change processes more actively.
Establishing team of customer support executives and CRM experts	· Selection of members for the team · Delineation of objectives of the team	2 – 5 months	The establishment of the customer support team will be helping the organization in fulfilling the PR objectives and thereby enhance their goodwill while operating in the international markets
Conduction of training to the customer support executives	· Identification of the technical elements of the CRM · Developing resources in order to brief the candidates on CRM · Designing the training session · Undertaking the integrated training session	4 – 7 weeks	The training on the utilization of CRM will be helping the organization in enhancing the operations of the workforce as per the objectives of the business
Implementing the CRM in the business processes	· Designing the processes of the CRM · Consultation with IT experts on the usability of the CRM · Implementation of the CRM on the organizational processes	5 – 7 months	The implementation of the CRM in the processes will be helping the organization in undertaking steady communications with the customers. It will be helping the same in developing the activities as per the objectives of the business.

 

Conclusion 

Therefore, from the above analysis it can be stated that the issues that are faced by Jetstar Airways relating to lack of suitable communication with the customers which affected the PR functioning of the business. Lack of suitable communication with the customers has affected the knowledge of the organization resulting to degradation of the quality of service. On the other hand, the lack of proper communication with the customers led to harassment of the clients in times of flight delays, which has affected the brand image of the business. The report enumerates the different changes that might be undertaken by the organization in order to enhance the PR functioning.  The research also enumerated a change management model, which is applied to the recommended actions in the change management plan for enhancing the operations of the business while operating in the diverse markets. Change in the organizational operations and processes will be helping the same in enhancing the scopes of retaining the customers and improving the brand image.

References 

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