BRITISH AIRWAYS

Leadership & Change Management - British Airways



LEADERSHIP & CHANGE MANAGEMENT - BRITISH AIRWAYS

Introduction

British Airways plc (BA) is the flag carrier airline of the United Kingdom which is founded and headquartered in Waterside, beside its major hub at London Heathrow Airport. British Airways functions a second hub at London Gatwick Airport and a third hub, assisted through its completely belongs to subsidiary, BA CityFlyer, at London City Airport. British Airways is the biggest airline in the UK founded on fleet dimensions, worldwide air journey and worldwide destinations. BA's UK travellers originating at non-London aerodromes should attach by London after British Airways ceased all direct overseas air journey from UK aerodromes, other than Heathrow, Gatwick and London City Airports, with the sale of BA Connect to British local carrier Flybe in 2007. (Tichy, & Devanna, 1986)

The British Airways Board was established in 1971 to command the two nationalised airline companies, BOAC and BEA, and two much lesser local airlines, Cambrian Airways from Cardiff and Northeast Airlines from Newcastle upon Tyne. On 31 March 1974 all four businesses were disintegrated to pattern British Airways (BA). After nearly 13 years as a nationalised business, British Airways was privatised in February 1987 as part of the privatisation design by the Conservative Government of the time. The carrier shortly amplified with the acquisition of British Caledonian (BCAL) in 1987 and Gatwick-based carrier Dan-Air in 1992. (Strebel, 1992)

Underpinning Change Management Theory

People often say that the only thing in life that people can be certain of is change. The last half of the twentieth century brought great changes to organizations and organizational leadership. The initiation of total quality improvement programs (efforts designed to decrease production errors and waste or to improve services), the impact of globalization, changing demographics and worker values, a greater emphasis on participative and higher employee involvement strategies, new information, and manufacturing technology were just a few of the trends that caused organizations to focus on change management, which is the practices, models, and theories that leaders use to help individuals and groups adapt to changes in their environment. (Kanter, Stein & Jick, 1992)

Kurt Lewin, a German sociologist, played a major role in shaping thinking about leadership and change management. Lewin was one of the first to describe organizational change processes in terms of a threestage model of unfreezing, changing, and refreezing. Unfreezing can be understood as those processes designed to break up the status quo. Changing is the transition process from the old state to a new state. Refreezing is cementing the new changes in place, creating a new state of equilibrium. In addition, Lewin noted the presence of driving and restraining forces in relation to change (1951). Driving forces are those forces that support change, and restraining forces are barriers that inhibit the acceptance of change. Although his simple typology (classification) has been criticized since the 1990s as being inadequate to accommodate the rapid pace of change in the current environment, it has shaped the landscape of change management theories and ...