BRITISH AIRWAYS

Case Study - The British Airways Story

TABLE OF CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION1

ANSWER 1:1

ORGANISATIONAL STRUCTURE1

CHANGE IN ORGANISATIONAL CULTURE2

FACTORS FOR CULTURAL CHANGE4

BA's ORGANISATIONAL STRUCTURE6

ANSWER 2:6

ANSWER 3:8

RECOMMENDATIONS10

CONCLUSION11

Case Study - The British Airways Story

Introduction

The British Airways, popularly represented as BA, came into being in the 1930s -1940s at the start of the Second World War (World War II). Initially there were two organisations which later merged together and BA was formed in the mid 70s. It was known and said to be as one of the leading worldwide airline in the United Kingdom. It not only provided services to the passengers but also entertained freight or shipment of goods whether it was international or domestic (Anonymous 2012, p. 1).

British Airways was operating as a government owned or nationalized institution since a long time. BA was doing well when it came to earning profits when it was publicly owned. However, when it was going through the privatization process it was noticed that BA was facing some financial problems which afterward resulted in huge losses. In 1987, the organisation became fully privatized.

Once an organisation is privatized it has to face the competition prevailing in the industry. Same was the case with British Airways. The culture at BA seemed military oriented. Staff was more concerned about themselves then about the customers or passengers. Later when the management got replaced, the new chief executive officer (CEO) started to make rapid changes in the organisational structure which was much needed at British Airways in order to protect them from the losses they were facing and to become customer oriented (Anonymous 2012, p. 1).

ANSWER 1:

Organisational Structure

An organisational structure is very important because it demonstrates how a particular organisation runs to achieve its aim and objectives. British Airways structure had only one hierarchy level meaning that it differentiates the top management level from the employees at the bottom line; this kind of structure is known as a flat structure.

A flat structure in mostly seen in small business or companies whereas, BA was a huge organisation with large number of employees. It means that British Airways had only few vertical layers of management, which in turn means only few managers and hence lesser people answering to the head or the CEO directly (Majeed et. al n.d., p. 13).

When there are a lot of subordinates under one manager then there are more chances to lose control as in the case of British Airways. It was seen in BA's culture that the discipline of the organisation was bad due to its flat structure.

Change In Organisational Culture

Culture of an organisation is very important. It comprises of the company's mottos, logos, slogan, language and customs, traditional values and beliefs or many companies have their mission and vision statement which reflects their culture. If one wants to understand an organisation, he /she should understand its culture first. Culture also predicts the reputation of the organisation.

While talking about British Airways change in its organisational culture it took a great effort in changing and shaping its ...