Urgency and Guiding Teams: British Airways

Urgency and Guiding Teams: British Airways

Patrick DiMambro

Southern New Hampshire University

Urgency and Guiding Teams: British Airways

In the beginning of the 1980s, state-owned airline British Airways was facing a difficult time.  Operating in a recession while recording a loss of hundreds of millions of pounds, the airline’s management knew that drastic changes were needed if they were to turn around the organization and escape impending bankruptcy.  By using strategies discussed in Kotter’s 8 step model for change, British Airways was able to create a sense of urgency among its employees, while an expert team with varying skills got to work implementing change.  As a result, the airline successfully transformed its operations and image as productivity increased more than 67% by the end of the decade (Kotter & Leahey, 1990).

Old British Airways

From the years between 1960 and 1980, British Airways had gone through major transitions leading to a rocky culture and excessive financial hardship.  Before officially becoming British Airways in 1971, the organization was two separate state-run airways, British European Airways (BEA) and British Overseas Airways Corporation (BOAC).  BEA focused heavily on creating an airline infrastructure following World War II.  BOAC made history by initiating jet passenger service.  Both endured a great deal of cost due to their pioneering (Kotter & Leahey, 1990).

Due to this emphasis on airline pioneering, many of the other indicators of success were ignored.  “Flying the British flag” was the priority, while financial measurements such as net income fell out of view.  By the 1970s, inefficiencies in operations ultimately led to productivity below 59% of the other foreign airline leaders (Kotter & Leahey, 1990).    This with a record number of employees, rising fuel costs, and devastating recession, British Airways was in desperate need for a change.

Difficulties in Making Change

Of the major challenges facing the leaders of British Airways, a lack of internal culture became one the greatest obstacles.  The combination of the two separate organizations in 1971 allowed for a distancing culture to surface that distracted employees from the advantages of a merger.  Five years after, British Airways was still operating as separate entities based on the region of flights until a reorganization in 1976.  This, followed by a few years of misleading profits before interest and tax, made employees and management hard pressed to search for inefficiencies in operations (Kotter & Leahey, 1990).

With growing internal problems, issues regarding service began to arise.  Customer satisfaction was ignored as a priority, while measures were made to reduce any additional effort to accommodate the flyers.  Ultimately, this led to an ever increasing distaste in the public eye, further tarnishing the organization’s image and creating a negative association with the airline.  Employees recognized this failing, as some were embarrassed to even be associated with the company (Kotter & Leahey, 1990).