The British Airways Strikes Effects on Employee Motivation

On October 22nd, 2001, the Industrial dispute between QANTAS and its employees was initiated with the offering of a new Enterprise Bargaining Agreement. This proposed an 18-month wage freeze for employees plus a sliding scale profit share scheme. Ten out of twelve unions under QANTAS accepted the terms of the agreement, barring the unions of manufacturing employees (AWU and AMWU). They were holding out for a 4-6% pay rise. On the 8th May 2002, some ten months later, the dispute was resolved when QANTAS agreed to an across the board 6% pay increase. This essay provides an in-depth analysis into the dispute, including causes, the resolution process, the role of stakeholders, and costs and benefits for all concerned.

Its importance role of providing a platform for unions to negotiate and bargain with their respective airlines has minimized or prevented the extent of the damages strikes have on the airline industry. Strikes, such as the one by ALPA, have been proven to be disastrous with regard to public interest. RLA’s role cannot be taken lightly as an absence of such an act would be extremely detrimental to the airline industry and ultimately, United States’ commerce.

The potential for conflicts would consist of pointing fingers and judging without investigating. A person might already know who the employee is that started the problem and approach the person, unprofessionally. The process needs to be redefined and no one should be singled out as the culprit. Furthermore, a conflict may ignite if communication is not open. Hence, one person might feel an idea or strategy is not helpful to reach the goal. Although, good teamwork creates a positive environment. If there is a heated disagreement, it can lower the mood, and demotivate the rest of the team. However, according to Cheesebro, (2010) Conflict is healthy in certain situations, because it will bring a team together. Research has shown, employees who feel part of a strong team are happier and more productive. An acronym for team

In 2015, it showed in the record that the number of employees American Airline has was 110,300 employees within different departments such as flight attendants, and ground workers and pilots. With this huge number of workers, they need a representative to make their rights will be claimed. That why American Airline has a voice with a different labor unions such as Association of Professional Flight Attendants (APFA), Air Line Pilots Association (ALPA), Transport Workers Union-International Association of Machinists alliance (TWU-IAM) and Allied Pilot Association (APA). Therefore, the airline will be forced to consider and listen to the labor unions and their demands to avoid strikes that can damage the reputation of the company.

As the expression of employees' dissatisfaction and differences with employers, conflict is regarded as bad and irrational for the organization and should be kept down through some forcible ways. Conflict can arise from employees' misunderstanding of the direction of the organisation or the poor communication between the staff and the management, enabling employees to substitute alternative agendas instead of the organisation's agenda (Bray, Deery, Walsh and Waring, 2005). Moreover, conflicts can arise from the poor management that caused by the management's failure to identify and meet employees' basic needs.

WestJet is facing an urgent problem. The pilots’ contract expires in two weeks’ time and the pilots are unhappy with the offer that has been presented. This has created conflict between management and the pilots as the pilots feel that too many things are being taken away. If a quick agreement is not reached, flights would be grounded, which would impact the bottom line and negatively affect culture. A collaborating approach will need to be applied in order to come to a swift resolution.

The airline industry has been divided into labor unions which include several types of unions such as the Flight Attendants' Unions, the Machinists' Unions, and the Pilots' Unions. The majority of the employees are part of such unions which has led to an increase in labor costs for the entire airline industry. TECHNOLOGICAL FACTORS Fuel efficiency is increasing. Aircrafts that are more fuel efficient are being developed and the engines are being redesigned to cater to this change.

Management can play a vital role in shaping their workplaces. A manager can invoke increases in co-operation and harmony amongst themselves and workers by addressing key issues that affect both groups. Management can facilitate this, for instance, by implementing plans that attempt to eliminate the issues that many workers face day-to-day such as monotony and fatigue (which have negative effects on productivity). Managers can reduce fatigue and monotony with job rotation and job enlargement, for example (Krahn, Lowe, Hughes, 2011 p. 264). Management can attempt to increase morale in their workplace by involving workers in decision-making processes normally closed off to managerial personnel; for instance, the addition of a new technology that a group of workers will eventually have to use. A manager could adopt a normative approach to managing their employees by conveying true, not fabricated, trust and interest in their employees and the work process as well (Krahn, Lowe, Hughes, 2011 p. 241). A manager could show this by doing the actual labour himself for a day or week or going out on the shop floor and asking meaningful questions. Since unions serve to represent the mass of workers they can work alongside management teams to better shape the workplace. The union,

Conflict is pretty much inevitable when you work with others. Everyone have different viewpoints and under the right set of circumstances, those differences could pile up and escalate to conflict. How you handle that conflict determines whether it works to the team's advantage, or contributes to its disadvantage. Conflict isn't necessarily a terrible thing. Healthy and constructive conflict is a factor of high-functioning teams. Conflict arises because of the differences between people, the same differences that often make diverse teams more effective than those made up of people with similar experience. When people with varying viewpoints, experiences, skills, and opinions are tasked with a project or challenge, the combined effort can far surpass what any group of similar

Empowering broad-based action—the company should continually check barriers of change and remove obstacles to make the change strategy successful. BA (2010) announced that striking staff would forfeit cheap travel perks. This action aimed to reduce strikes and penalized strikers. In addition, more than 80 crew members (2010) had been suspended and 13 had been permanently dismissed from BA. BA took actions to remove barriers. However, it did not help Cabin Crew to meet their needs, and caused new barriers.

Prior to the marketing campaign touting BA as “The World’s Favorite Airline,” BA was often referred to as “bloody awful.” The company suffered from poor performance, inefficiencies, an older fleet, and substantial financial losses. Following passage of the Civil Aviation Act in 1971, BA assumed control of two state-run airlines, British European Airlines (BEA) and British Overseas Airways Corporation (BOAC), under the name British Airways. However, BEA and BOAC operated autonomously with separate boards, chairman, and chief executive officer that provided a challenge in making change. The level of

British Airways (BA) is a company that encountered several difficulties back in the 1970’s and 1980’s. The poor performances of the organization, was leading the company to failure. BA was offering a service that even though it accomplished the mission of the company, was not providing customer satisfaction. The organization was not taking into consideration the needs of the costumer and was not providing an acceptable customer service experience. “Productivity at BA in the 1970s was strikingly bad, especially in contrast to other leading foreign airlines” (Jick, Peiperl, 2010, p.28). Due to numerous changes, the company increased their revenues and became a respectful and well know organization.

Conflict in the workplace causes a decrease in the quality of care. Conflict creates chaos and a higher risk of poor patient care. Additionally low moral equals poor quality of care. As Sullivan stated, disruptive conflict does not follow any set of rules, and parties involved engages in activities to beat their opponent which causes angry, fear, and stress (2012).

British Airways is the one of the largest airline companies, and the passengers carry overall in the fifth largest in the world. Most of plans are stay in Heathrow Airport which is the highest of main international airport. The British Airways has a long history and airlines cover 133 countries; include 373 airplanes. The BA Company includes 50,086 workers to be in the service, which is one of the largest employers and employees in the United Kingdom.

Conflict is inescapable, having the ability to recognize, understand, and resolve conflicts are important in both personal and professional lives. Myatt (2012) states that conflict in the workplace is unavoidable; if left unresolved, workplace conflict may result in loss of productivity and the creation of barriers that can inhibit creativity, cooperation, and collaboration. It is vital to embrace conflict and address problems through effective conflict-resolution tactics because if not handled appropriately, conflict will escalate. “If not handled properly, conflict may significantly affect employee morale, increase turnover, and even result in litigation, ultimately affecting the overall well-being of