The Virgin Group

Virgin Blue Case Study

As per the Virgin Group case study the following are their key empowerment practices:

1. Small Bureaucratic structure - Minimal management layers and bureaucratic structure - Virgin has a small number of management layers, very little bureaucracy, a tiny board and a small HQ.

2. Encourages innovation and autonomy - Companies within the group are free to run their own affairs and are encouraged to share their ideas with the rest of the group & assist one another, i.e. virgin has a decentralized control of resources.

3. Virgin has a strong meaningful culture which people recognize for quality, value for money, challenging the establishment and a fun work environment.

4. Strong leadership - The senior management team has a long history of working together and has consequently developed into a tight knit team.

In addition, Richard Branson takes a personal interest in the company's staff member and makes sure to frequent the company and interact with its employees.

5. High performance standards - The senior management work culture & leadership style has helped them establish high performance standards which trickled down to the rest of the company.

Virgin encourages its staff to be perfectionists and have high performance standards at all job levels with particular emphasis on their customer's service ability

6. Efficient recruitment standards and skill development - Virgin Blue has a thorough recruitment & training process that fine filters applicants for each position in order to locate the most suitable candidates.

This is further maintained by the HR reporting structure in which the HR reports directly to the CEO and is part of the executive team.

7. Fear of shame - The company maintains the "fear of shame" to a minimum and provides a strong support for its employees.

8. Task meaningfulness - virgin encourages its employees to feel responsible and engaged to achieving the companies goals.