Singapore Airlines

Singapore Airlines

Introduction

Singapore Airlines is one of the most well renowned names in the global airline industry. It started the airline operations under the name of Malayan Airways in the year 1947 when Singapore was part of a colony. After the end of the British Empire, Malaysia and Singapore jointly became one country and the name of the airline was changed to the Malaysia-Singapore Airline in 1966. Later, Singapore declared independence and the airline company got divided into the two entities. Thus, Singapore Airlines came into being in the year 1972 (SIA, 2013). Although it was owned by government of Singapore, it was still treated as a private company which also had to pay taxes. The Singapore Airlines showed great growth and development by acquiring new planes like Boeing-747 and entering into new markets and products like introducing cargo services to the city of San Francisco.

Singapore Airlines developed and implemented the business strategy of providing 'high quality services' to all the passengers and customers. This strategy can be categorized under the dimension of 'differentiation' which is focused on creating value, contrary to cost leadership, which is based on charging low prices. In order to provide high quality services, the company planned to recruit, train and develop all the staff that was in direct contact with the customers. Cabin crew was an important team which had to provide in-flight services. The case of Singapore Airlines discusses the recruitment process, salary package, training, performance management system, and the communication structure developed for the employees in the cabin crew (Wyckoff, 1986). The case also analyzes the promotional and advertising strategy of the Airlines.

Discussion

Workforce Management Program

Singapore Airline had been able to offer its high quality services during the 1970s on the basis that they had a very low labor cost as compared to the airlines in the region and around the globe. However, the company started facing problems in providing quality after the year 1978 because the prices of fuel increased significantly. Also, the labor unions started demanding a higher pay than given by the airline. Thus, in order to continue providing high quality and also increasing the expenses, the company developed other in-flight services for the customers. The development of the cabin crew work management program was also part of that effort. This program focused on the recruitment process, salary package, training, performance management system, and the communication structure of cabin crew because they were the front face of the company. The overall program was well designed but there were some issues and matters that should have been dealt more properly.

The first part of the management program was to induct the new talent. The executive discussed about the merits and demerits of hiring either young people or rather experienced people. The company decided to solely include young people. The induction of both young and old people would have been a better option. The recruitment of old people would have resulted in lesser efforts to select and train ...