British Airways Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

British Airways - Research Paper ExampleIn short, rather than merely ever-changing the organization, the changes that occurred to British Airways between the years 1981 1983 can be referred to as a change in culture. As such, the preceding analysis entrust analyze the means by which the culture of British airways prior to this re-emergence was basically different from the new culture that developed between the years 1981 1983 and has definitively succeeded in defining and differentiating British Airways as a premier global airline. In seeking to define the culture that existed prior to the turnaround which will be discussed, it is necessary to understand that low levels of customer service, bad experiences, a self-perpetuating image of low flavor and poor service, bloated payrolls, and ineffective governmental regulation/management were partly to blame for many of the cultural breakdowns which at last led to the loss of profitability which was experienced during the 1970s. As s tated by Lord power, British Airways was confront with the position of losing 250,000,000 pounds over two years in effect, the airline was hemorrhaging money (Miller, 1995). Ultimately, part of the degeneracy of the precedent culture can be blamed upon the government control and bureaucratic oversight that was exhibited since the conclusion of the minute World war. As the case study defines, to unique entities came to oversee and direct British Airways after the contend these were the BEA and the BOAC. These operated in such a way to create a de facto state run airline that was non focused upon profitability or long-term sustainability. Moreover, the split board of oversight made decision making difficult if not impossible leading to a situation in which two distinct leadership operations controlled the development of the airline. For instance, the BEA was set up shortly after the close of the Second World War to develop the infrastructure of the European air service route. A s such, it had little interest in operations control with regards to the development of profitability and sustainment for an airline carrier. Likewise, the BOAC, as the author of the case study indicates, was more than interested in flying the British flag and it was in developing business and satisfying consumers. This of contrast ultimately led to a situation in which not only was money being perennially lost but more row was poor and the overall productivity level never exceeded 59% during the 2 decades since the conclusion of the war (Leahey & Cotter, 1990). Yes, nearly all of these cultural issues began to fade into obscurity nearly as soon as Lord King came to be appointed chairman of British Airways. Coming from a background of business entrepreneurship and business development, King approached situation from a no-nonsense point of view. Firstly, and perhaps intimately importantly, King identified that a culture of development must necessarily be put into mastermind in or der for British Airways to experience any type of rebirth. As a function of this, King immediately froze wages, reduced staff by 20%, closed eight engineering bases, closed 16 routes that were deemed extraneous and ultimately a profitable, and stated that the worst was not yet behind the airline (Tushman & OReilly, 1996). At face value, each of these decisions may be