There is a famous saying stated by an undiscovered creator - 'The only thing that is continuous is change' (Berman, 2007). With the existing changing customer requirements and exterior environment requirements, organisations which work as closed systems, nor constantly change themselves to match the marketplace requirements and customer requirements will fail in the permanent (Harigopal, 2006). Organisational change can be an ongoing process which brings the systems and methods of the company in line with the factors prevailing in the exterior and inside environment of the company (Nemetz and Fry, 1998). As business management gurus argue, external forces of change require not only 'adaptive', 'versatile' organisations and 'new ' management methods but also experienced managers in a position to take up to changing times and control organisational change (Beckhard and Harris, 1987).
It is essential to understand how organisations in real life implement and package with organisational change. One such organisation which has implemented various change methodologies before few years in response to the changing business environment is British Airways. Uk Airways is the UK's flag carrier and one of the greatest airlines in the world. Like many large organisations, the airline has had to improve its strategy, technology, structure and culture in order to accomplish competitive advantage in the current rapidly changing global business community.
The main target and strategic aim of this review is to explore the role and significance of Change Management in this time of globalization and changing market needs by firmly taking the case study of Uk Airways in specific.
Research Question- The principal research question of this study is: To explore the degree to which change management is essential for a firm to achieve lasting competitive advantage? On top of that, the supplementary research question is to look at the change management initiatives previously taken by British Airways to realize competitive edge and success.
1. 3 Books Review
This chapter will highlight the various aspects of change management. It'll use academics research to understand the idea of change management by looking at its definition and determining the many solutions of change management. It'll then describe the framework for change and different change management initiatives taken by organisations. The various change models will also be posted and analysed and the organisational background of British Airways will be provided plus a SWOT evaluation of the company.
1. 4 Methodology
This chapter will determine the technique used to execute this research and the reason why for various data collection methods chosen. It will look into the philosophical aspects of the research review.
1. 5 Research Findings and Discussion
During this section the researcher has analysed the results and compared these with the books review and strategy to determine the scope to which change management is essential for an company to sustain competitive advantage and the role and significance of Change Management initiatives considered by English Airways to achieve profitability.
1. 6 Conclusion
The last section is the Tips and Conclusion section. This section will list the tips generated from the research study findings while also getting to light the restrictions of the research study. The referrals used and the study related appendices will be presented at the end of the research study.
CHAPTER 2
Literature Review
This section will review the existing books on change management. It's important to comprehend current research on the subject area, to permit the reader to 'understand the type of the prevailing knowledge of the subject matter' (Denscombe 1998, p. 15). Specifically, this literature review will focus on the following issues; Firstly, it will determine this is of change and list the various types from the typology of change. Secondly it will express the construction for the change process, common model of change and the many change management diagnostic models are reviewed. Thirdly the importance of communication in Change Management is explained. Fourthly the SWOT research is also referred to along with the various change initiatives considered by organisations in the aviation industry.
2. 1 Typology of Change
Change in academics is thought as the 'substitution or succession of one thing in host to another'. As per research studies conducted, it is determined that the patterns of change repeats and it is recurring in every industry. These patterns of change constitute of incremental and radical changes. The increasing regularity of these patterns of change in a variety of industries over the past couple of decades has necessitated for organisations to predict the routine of changes in their exterior industry environment in order that they are better outfitted with the resources and capabilities required to embark after change and maintain their competitive gain. A 'typology of change' was developed by Nadler and Tushman to describe the various skills of organisations to forecast the habits of change in the exterior industry environment. They have got divided the ability to forecast changes into two types of proactive and reactive while listing the scope of change as being transformational or incremental in mother nature. The typology of change is established by Nadler and Tushman by developing a matrix of the type and opportunity of change. They have differentiated the change strategy among organisations into four types of fine tuning, adaptation, re-orientation and re-creation. These strategies have been described in the following paragraphs (Hayes, 2007 and Chaffey, 2006).
The first two changes of fine tuning and version in organisations which happen are incremental changes. Fine tuning is the change process where organisations are proactive and can try to complete the inefficiencies and spaces internal to the company in comparison with the changing external environments which act as reducing providers to the effective performance of the business enterprise procedures of the organisation. Version is a reactive change process where the organisations have to make changes with their internal processes after they have noticed a danger in their competitive position because of the changes manufactured in the company. These changes are limited and don't affect the key functions or business processes of the company but are targeted towards reducing or taking away the hazards from the external environment and competition in a highly effective manner (Make, Macaulay & Coldicott, 2004). The two changes although occur for an extended duration, are only basic changes and do not impact the essential aspects where the organisations procedures work (Hayes, 2007).
The change techniques of re-orientation and re-creation are both transformational in character given that they impact the fundamental operations of change. They happen when the necessity for change is essential to endure (Poole & Truck de Ven, 2004). The re-orientation change process in organisations basically requires organisations to change or re-define their existing commercial or business strategy (Chaffey, 2006 and Hayes, 2007). This change is conducted for two reasons. The first is to pro-actively make the organisation for future years changing external environment or even to change the external environment itself by advancement in a way that the primary competency of the company is increased over its competition (Hayes, 2007 & Potter, 2004). In Re-orientation, since there is absolutely no external risk to the company which is being pro-active, it is problematic for the employee workforce to understand the necessity for such a drastic radical change. This change process requires the management of the organisation to make a sense of urgency and a necessity for change on the list of organisational employees so that the change process can be enforced. Usually it is difficult for organisations to apply this change. The past type of change process is Re-creation. This is a obligated change and is transformational in dynamics. This sort of change is executed by organisations when they feel they have to change their primary operations to be able to maintain in the adjusted external environment. Generally in most scenarios, the success of the re-creation changes can determine the success of the company. These changes however are high risk changes because the organisations do not plan these changes in advance and don't, in most situations, have the mandatory time and resources for their successful execution. The change impact is mostly less than expected for most reasons such as low engagement and determination among employees, insufficient readiness in general management etc. This change if not tackled effectively can lead to employee amount of resistance and de-motivations (Chaffey, 2006 and Hayes, 2007).
2. 2 Construction of Change
The framework of change as produced by Lewin (1951) constitutes of the same three steps in every change processes. These steps are unfreeze, change and refreeze. Unfreeze is where in fact the organisation tries to create an urgency for change so the employees and the management are ready for change. Change, as the name signifies, is the second stage where in fact the change occurs. Freeze is the ultimate stage where in fact the change made is now ensured to become part of the organisation. According to the framework, every change process has an increased level of doubt resulting in resistance among employees. However, certain techniques can be followed to avoid this resistance. Among these techniques is to bring in additional steps such as 'figuring out the future condition' prior to implementing the framework of change (Weick & Quinn, 1999). There have been many new models that have evolved before few years which have tried to include more steps or make modifications to this model. One of them is the 'common style of change' created by (Hayes and Hyde, 1998) however, the overall notion and baseline in all these change models continues to be the same.
The generic style of change indicates the change process to be ongoing in dynamics. It expresses that the change results of 1 process act as the triggering factor for some new required changes. Change process starts by determining the internal inefficiencies and improper capabilities of the inner company and the external environment on the market the organisation manages in and making use of this gathered information to build up the new organisation's strategy. This new strategy will now automatically put into action the new anticipated change in the organisation (Johnson, Scholes & Whittington, 2008). The ability to determine the right strategy is the most important part of any change process since an inappropriate change strategy can even be implemented successfully however it won't deliver the same benefits and fill in the mandatory market inefficiencies as required and the entire change process can in turn be a inability (Buttrick, 2005).
After taking a look at the above studies, the change process is altered as below. The original facet of the change process is now moved to discovering the resources necessary to execute the change process and the many techniques which is often used further to get started unfreezing the company. While this has been done, the organisation's inefficiencies and spaces with the external environment are established in order to develop the change strategy. This change strategy was created that such that it achieves the anticipated future state of the organisation and evaluated to make any changes such that it is aligned towards realising the future state. The next step is to make a change plan before straight utilizing the change. This change plan is executed on a step by step basis and after completion of each step, it is assessed to determine if it is still aligned or the near future state and rectify any determined deviations. Once this is completed and the near future talk about is realised by the company, new techniques to be able to merge this change with the organisation's culture will be put in place. This is when the ultimate level of refreezing appears and the success or failure of the change process and the included resources is determined. Additionally it is used to accumulate responses of the change process and prize the resources who had performed effectively towards achieving the future talk about (Jones, 2008). This common style of change created by Hayes & Hyde in 1998 and the change framework produced by Lewin in 1951 are both effective models which can used to execute change. However, both these models dismiss one crucial aspect of change management which performs a vital role in the success of any change event, people management. Without effective people management, it is impossible to put into action change in virtually any organisation effectively.
2. 3 Change Management Models
There are various models which is often used to identify the success of a big change event or the necessity for a change event. These models decrease the overall change process into a few key factors which have to be taken into account while employing the change process in any organisation. They permit the management to determine the key aspects from both the process and the people perspective which need to be investigated. This in-turn escalates the capability of change managers firstly to put into action the change process effectively and secondly to judge its success and take necessary actions (Hayes, 2007).
One of these models is the McKinsey 7S model. This model divides the change process identification into seven elements which is often used to determine the existing internal environment position in a firm. These seven elements are strategy, composition, systems, staff, style, shared worth and skills. The inner organisational efficiency of any organisation is set successfully by using this model and its results may be used to develop the inner strategy of the organisation (Saunders, 2007). This model can be used to develop change initiative programs in organisations and create a strategy which will achieve the entire internal fit in the company however, it can't be used to ascertain a fit between the internal capabilities of the company and the exterior environment in which it operates resulting in essential for another model which requires this into consideration (Burke & Litwin, 1992).
The model which requires this under consideration is 'The Burke-Litwin causal style of organisational performance and change'. This model can be used for many purposes such as to identify the type of change implemented, whether it is incremental step-by-step change or a radical change or to determine the entire effect of using change management techniques in organisations while deciding the performance of these management initiatives. This model constitutes of various elements which are necessary for a change process. The suggestions component is the organisational performance and the end result element is the average person and organisational performance. The other factors in the model will be the through-put of the model. The model's elements are further split into two types of factors. The five factors of external environment, leadership, mission and strategy, organisational culture and the individual and organisational performance are the transformational factors while the remaining factors are the incremental factors. They are distinguished so based on the ability of the factors to affect the sort of change. Among the successful applications of this model was to determine the success and performance on the change functions implemented in English Airways in the entire year 1983 (Burke & Litwin, 1992).
(Burke & Litwin, 1992).
This model will again be utilized in this study to look for the performance and success of the change management strategies found in British Airways before year.
2. 4 Communication in Change Management:
One of the main element aspects of any change process in terms of people management is communication. When the communication is inadequate or missing, then the employee resistance to accept the change only improves further. The communication strategies used by various organisations are different and this decides the quantity of information shared by them with their employee workforce. Another factor which impacts this amount of information shared with the employees is the management's personal views and understanding on the subject of change management and need for communication. The Spray and Pray strategy utilized by management is where the information provided to employees is not considered or evaluated by the management to determine if it is actually highly relevant to them or not. This sort of communication makes it possible for the essential and relevant information to be buried under irrelevant rather than so vital information and reduce the overall necessary impact of communication on the employees. The management which decides to share the relevant information with their employees and also provides them with the many benefits associated with the change implemented to these employees use the communication strategy of Find out and Sell. Within this circumstance, the communication efficiency is higher than the previous strategy and the amount of the information shared is lower. Probably one of the most effective communication strategies which is often implemented by management in any change organisation is the Underscore and explore strategy where in fact the information is provided to worker workforce in exact reference to the change situation and the many inputs provided by the management are believed at the same time. This ensures that the employees feel to be a part of the change being implemented and reduce their overall staff resistance. Inside the other two communication strategies of Identify and reply and withhold and uphold, the info distributed to the employees is not sufficient and the management withholds some important components of information which can improve the employee resistance to accept change. The below diagram presents the many communication strategies in accordance with the communication success and the amount of information shared by the management (Clampitt, DeKoch and Cashman, 2000).
Figure-2 : Communication Strategy Continuum (Clampitt, DeKoch and Cashman, 2000)
2. 5 SWOT Analysis
To determine the inner fit of an company with an external environment, one of the techniques that have proven successful on numerous occasions is the SWOT examination. This SWOT examination is divided into two segments, the internal factors segment which constitutes of the advantages and the weaknesses of the organisation and the external factors section which constitutes of the opportunities and risks shown by the external environment in mention of the company. The role of advantages and opportunities is to look for the internal capacities and inefficiencies of the business enterprise operations and the staff ability of the company. The role of opportunities and dangers is to look for the external environment that the company is functioning in and find ways in which it can either support or act as a threat to the organisation's functions. Once these are identified, it is then driven how the inside advantages of the company may be used to take advantage of the external opportunities of the industry environment. The weaknesses are also looked into to determine if there is a possibility to change into a menace and how this movements can be avoided. The risks are viewed from the point of view of changing them into opportunities or lowering their possible impact on the company. The weaknesses are also proved helpful upon similarly, to lessen their effects and risks to the company or to remove them completely by changing them into opportunities (Briggs, 2001).
2. 6 Change Management in Organisations in the Aviation Industry:
Some of the change initiatives which were experienced by organisations in the Aviation industry are the privatisation of companies such as Qantas airlines. This happened at exactly the same time as most business in various nations were moving towards privatisation and de-regulation while moving away from the shadows of the public sector. The change process was fast and radical in mother nature. Another change in the aviation industry that was not just limited to one organisation was the agreement of global alliances among the various international and local airlines in the global market. This evolved the structure and procedure for businesses in the Aviation industry while also attracting harmony the use of labour and the strategies adopted by management across various airlines in the industry (Fairbrother, 2002). Another change effort which was related across air travel companies was the use of part time and informal employees in order to benefit from using them when required and paying them only for the amount of hours employed. This has allowed them to lessen the entire labour costs however, generally in most airline companies; the majority of the in your free time employees did work overtime just as much as regular employees leading to no change in the overall labour costs (Dawson, 2003). The privatisation of the airlines is not just limited by Qantas airlines but has increased further to English Airways, Lufthansa, Air France, KLM etc (Delfmann, 2005). An additional change management effort is the collaborative results among most airline companies to ensure a reduction in the carbon footprint overall and so support the weather change initiatives combined with the various other establishments and governments (Bishop & Grayling, 2003).
Steve this is the other launch to the research analysis I written, but I'm uncertain if this is perhaps too current as it relates to the current global economical recession. Could you advise if it is maybe best to delete the information I've highlighted in vivid and continue with the original introduction I have written on webpage 3.
Introduction to the research study
There is a famous saying mentioned by an unknown writer - 'The only think that is regular is change' (Berman, 2007). With the current changing customer requirements and exterior environment requirements, organisations which work as the closed down systems that do not constantly change themselves to fit the marketplace requirements and customer requirements will are unsuccessful in the longer terms (Harigopal, 2006). The punctuated paradigms irregularities occurrence has increased over the past ten years implying that the change in organisations is much less fast or as paced as the change in exterior surroundings which in-turn is increasing the gaps between your customer requirements and products/services provided by organisations (Hayes, 2007). This has made it crucial to study the significance of change management internally in organisations so that building gap can be reduced and organisations can benefit from these constant changes through adapting their culture.
One such company which has put in place various change methodologies before couple of years in response to the changing industry environment is English Airways. The organisation like numerous others has been subject to some changes in their strategy, technology, structure and social aspects in order to survive in the changing environment and keep maintaining the organisation's center competency. Uk Airways will be utilized as a case study in this research study in order to achieve the aims and goals of the research study.
Many literatures concentrate on change management in organisations enforced anticipated to various reasons and either at the start or at the end of the change management techniques being applied. However, almost all of these researches never have taken into account the change management pressured by external conditions due to an financial recession especially since this situation is not so common or repeating constantly. This research will contribute to the existing books by using economic recession as one of the external factors resulting in implementing changes in the air travel industry. This study will try to act as a guide to further researches who wish to identify the need for effective change management in the air travel industry organisation especially when the external contributing factor is the economic recession.
Sharon,
This is a very well crafted first draft of your dissertation. I believe there are a few very good elements but there's also quite long passages where there are no personal references cited. I think if you do a bit more reading and address these 'gaps' then you will have the basis of a very good literature review.
Steve
