Discuss about the Managing for People, Systems and Culture.
Qantas is a well-recognized airline across the globe. With its huge success stories there are several associated stories which demonstrate the issues, conflicts and failure in resolving the grievances. The major ups and downs started taking place rapidly after the 70 years of great success of the airlines. The issues generally took place in relatively all the major functioning units of the airways such as incorporation of ethics, leadership, change management, human resource management, quality perspectives, strategic planning, decision making approaches, industrial disputes, building innovation, enhancing capabilities and brand maintenance (Qantas, 2015).
The major issues which took place at Qantas were because of the establishment of AFAP i.e. Australian Federation of Air Pilots which has empowered the pilots to leave Qantas and work for other international airlines. There took place the privatization of the airlines in the year 1993 which impact Qantas by selling of a share of 25 percent to the British Airways. The situation which impacts Qantas in a catastrophic and disastrous manner was the collapse of Allco in the year 2008 because of the global financial and economic crisis (Mules, 2013).
As a result of these crisis there took place several management changes in the airlines which have given rise to enormous management and labor issues. Qantas invested in an Asian-based airline which had shaken the two major unions i.e. the Australian and International Pilots Association and Australian Licensed Aircraft Engineers Association. It was stated by the airlines that these two associations are developing barricades in the path of growth and innovation as they are continuing with the old practices and demands much higher perks and pays for those services. There were various industrial actions which took against Qantas in order to protect the rights of the pilots. The issue between the unions and the airline keeps on snowballing and the situation was worsening (Creedy, 2011). The situation took a deteriorate condition when in reaction to the industrial action the airline has keep on halt of all the international and the domestic flight for two days which was a decision of the CEO of the airlines Alan Joyce. And this was an underwhelming decision which was opposed by the workers, employees and even by the passengers. The one more issue was the job cut offs as the airlines declared that it will cut off 500 jobs for reducing the cots but when the actual decision took place the results were that 2800 jobs were cut off which was approximately ten percent of the overall population (Taylor, 2016). And this creates extreme managerial issues in the airlines. There were increased ethical, managerial, decision making issues which were rising rapidly and thus the airline was suffering from losses and other conflicts for continuous years (ABC, 2011).
It was analyzed that there were various other airlines except Qantas who were major players in the airways industry but they were not such extreme industrial conflicts which took place at those airlines in comparison with Qantas and this was majorly because of the ineffective ways of resolving the conflicts as well as the authoritarian rule which governs the airlines.
In the year 2011 when there were grounding of the operations of the flights for two days and this decision was the aftermath effect of the industrial actions taken against the airlines by thE union association. It was found that this decision was an unethical decision by the airlines as without any prior information the airline halt its operation because of which thousands of its passengers had to suffer a lot and this action was regarded as an escalation in the commitment made by the airlines to provide peaceful and delighted services to the customers. It was also analyzed that Alan Joyce was found to be an individual decision maker who does not concern with the management authorities for any change and individual took major decisions such as grounding of the airlines. This was a major management issue prevailing in the airlines (Daily mail, 2014).
From the case there were reflections of the SWOT analysis of the airlines as its innovativeness, wages to the staff, improved customer services were the biggest strengths of the airlines whereas the management issues, industrial conflicts, authoritarian rules, sudden decision making were the weaknesses which had made the airline suffer a lot. There were various opportunities and threats also which were discovered by the case study such as the airline has opportunities to have various more flights to cover the untapped regions and the threats were the industrial actions against the airlines and the increasing competition in the aviation industry (Taylor, 2016).
The case study shows that there are transformational changes which is very much evident in the case study of Qantas as there is a need that only authoritarian decision making should not be there in any company there is a need that there must be transformations in the functioning but with a proper analysis of the needs of the employees and other associated members.
Alan Joyce has been analyzed as a transactional leader as similar to a transactional leader Alan Joyce also promote compliance by the employees or the workers by both ways that is the punishments and the rewards. It has been identified when at the response of the industrial actions Alan Joyce suddenly took action of grounding of airline and decisions regarding cutting off the jobs of various workers (CAPA, 2014).
The decision of grounding of flight was completely an unethical decision making as it was first an individual decision making which has no involvement of the management authorities, employees or other associates. It was recognized as unethical because there was no prior information regarding the decision and the decision have made problematic for the passengers as the flights were cancelled and the major sufferers were the passengers only (Smith and Howard, 2012).
There are various strategies and solution which can be recommended to the airlines which can improve the services and management of the airways as well as also help in resolving the conflicts taking place at the airlines. The airlines must firstly have an integrated approach in the decision making. The integrated approach means when there are taken opinions and viewpoints of all the respective authorities and associated members which might get impacted with that decision such as there must be involvement of the workers, management authorities whenever any sort of decision has to be taken in the company (Sangkuhl and Elfriede, 2016). The next recommendation is to have greater employee engagement, which emphasizes on having better plans and programs which can increase the engagement and involvement of the employees so that the needs and requirements of the workers can also be accomplished while achieving the organizational goals. Thirdly instead of the negative responses over the various opposition from third parties the airline must have an optimistic approach in dealing with the situation such as have corporate conferences to have a settlement rather than harsh and unethical decisions like grounding of the flights. There is also a need that the operations undertaken must be in compliance with the various laws and regulations such as labor laws, international business rules etc (Ashurst Australia, 2012).
The airlines must have a strategy of correct regulation balance which focuses upon have adequate changes in the functioning, operations and management as there must be relevance with previous set standards and policies so that the new regulation dos not hamper the working in a negative manner so the correct regulation balance is required to maintain within the airlines. Another proposed strategy is the airlines must have a balanced approach to conflicts which emphasize on resolving the workplace conflicts in the most possible constructive manner. As when the conflicts are resolved with a negative an d an un-balanced approach there are chances that negative outcomes will arise and the conflict will also not get resolved whereas with a balanced approach there are significant chances that people will get influenced and support the decision and the conflict will be resolved with no other subsequent issues (Forsyth, n.d.).
Conclusion
Every organization or business entity has some or the other issues in its business lifecycle but the most significant need is that the issues and conflicts must be identified with a forecasting approach so that plans can be prepared to deal with the situations as well a constructive approach is the vital element to have sustainability in the business and to have outcomes. Thus from the case study of Qantas there are various lessons which can be learned that how the management issues and conflicts can converted into a big picture if not resolved appropriately as well as the need of ethical decision making is a must to have smooth business operations.
References
ABC, 2011. Qantas grounds entire fleet, Accessed on: 3rd November, 2016, Accessed from: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2011-10-29/qantas-locking-out-staff/3608250
Ashurst Australia, 2012. Outcome in the long-running Qantas dispute with the Transport Workers Union, Pp.4. Accessed on: 3rd November, 2016, Accessed from: https://www.google.co.in/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&edata-src=s&source=web&cd=2&ved=0ahUKEwj63NSMvI7QAhUJOY8KHdnzAlMQFggjMAE&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.ashurst.com%2Fdoc.aspx%3Fid_Content%3D8113&usg=AFQjCNHTb_I0a4682GyUT7CJzShsZuFMmw&cad=rja
CAPA, 2014. Qantas responds to deterioration: cuts 5,000 jobs & 50 aircraft – but changes are overdue, Accessed on: 3rd November, 2016, Accessed from: https://centreforaviation.com/analysis/qantas-responds-to-deterioration-cuts-5000-jobs–50-aircraft–but-changes-are-over-due-154979
Creedy S., 2011. Qantas grounds all flights over pay disputes with unions, Accessed on: 3rd November, 2016, Accessed from: https://www.theaustralian.com.au/business/aviation/qantas-grounds-all-flights/story-e6frg95x-1226180313383
Daily mail, 2014. Australia’s Qantas Airlines named safest air carrier in the world after going more than 60 years without a fatal crash, Accessed on: 3rd November, 2016, Accessed from: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2536797/Australias-Qantas-Airlines-named-safest-air-carrier-world-going-60-years-without-fatal-crash.html
Forsyth, A., n.d. The evolving pluralistic approach to employee representation at the enterprise in Australia, Pp.19. Accessed on: 3rd November, 2016, Accessed from: https://www.jil.go.jp/english/reports/documents/jilpt-reports/no.11_australia.pdf
Mules, R., 2013. Workplace Disputes: The Qantas Disputes And The Toll/Coles Dispute, Pp.8. Accessed on: 3rd November, 2016, Accessed from: https://moodle.plc.nsw.edu.au/pluginfile.php/6370/mod_page/content/20/Vol%2024%20No%204.pdf
Qantas, 2015. A Strong, Sustainable Future, Qantas Annual Review 2015, Accessed on: 3rd November, 2016, Accessed from: https://qantas2015.reportonline.com.au/system/files_force/downloads/full_qantas_annual_report_2015-1.pdf?download=2
Sangkuhl and Elfriede, 2016. The Fair Work Australia Decision on Qantas: Entrenching the Imbalance of Power between Employees and Employers? ACADEMIC JOURNAL ARTICLE University of Western Sydney Law Review, Accessed on: 3rd November, 2016, Accessed from: https://www.questia.com/library/journal/1G1-290622526/the-fair-work-australia-decision-on-qantas-entrenching
Smith G. and Howard, L., 2012. Stuck In the Terminal With The Gates Firmly Shut: Suspension And Termination Of Industrial Action After Qantas, Pp.16. Accessed on: 3rd November, 2016, Accessed from: https://www.austlii.edu.au/au/journals/DICTUMVicLawSJl/2012/6.pdf
Taylor, E., 2016. Qantas slashes 5,000 jobs as it posts A2m H1 loss, Accessed on: 3rd November, 2016, Accessed from: https://web.archive.org/web/20140227120533/https://www.flightglobal.com/news/articles/qantas-slashes-5000-jobs-as-it-posts-a252m-h1-loss-396383/
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