Life at “old” British Airways was complicated at the beginning as it had two chain of commands even though the Civil Aviation Act had become law British European Airways and British Overseas Airways Corporation decide that they would operate on their own. Not until 1974 did they decided to consolidate their financial report (Jick & Peiperl, 2003, p. 26).
The company hired mostly military pilots that were used to flying and carrying bombs as cargo and where not friendly to the customers as they were not used to dealing with customers as military personnel all they had in mind was get the job done and move on (Blamer, 2009, p.
British Airlines was not customer oriented but product oriented and believed that as long as planes were flying they would make a profit (Blamer, 2009, p. 9).
Employees were often afraid to let people know that they were employed by the airlines they knew how customers felt about the airline. British Airways realized that due to the lack of customer service been provided the company was loosing revenue and that they needed to act fast to try to save the company (Jick & Peiper, 2003, p.24).
The company was more in competition with each other than with other airlines making it very complicated for their employees to enjoy their job. Most of the pilots at BA were former Royal Air Force Officers that believe they still hold a rank on their shoulders consequently they treated everyone as if they were beneath them. This caused discontent among the employees and customers a like. 2).
The Research paper on Baggage Blunders (british Airways)
... criticism of British Airways International as it emerged that the crisis could cost the airline £50m. ... British Airways also had to defer by six weeks the start of its training program for passenger service and ramp employees. ... communication between the terminal staff and customers must have been prioritize, so that ... be an additional cost for the company. VIII. CONCLUSION We can conclude through ...
Changing the mentality of the Airline Board of Directors was the biggest challenge the company faced.
As the former Human Resource Director stated put the military and civil service together and you will have an organization that believe its main job is simply to fly and aircraft they never stopped to think that in order to fly the aircraft they needed money and customers to fly (Jick & Peiperl, 2003, p. 28).
They realized that change was detrimental for the company to succeed that they made a change in the way they did business.
The product oriented mindset, the demoralization of the staff, the lack of funding and the weak leadership characterized the actual identify of BA (Balmer, 2009, p. 10).
The company realized that if they became more customer and employee oriented employees would do more than their regular job and would ensure customers satisfaction. The lack of money to promote the company was also a contributing factor in the success of BA. Without money or lack of revenue it was hard to keep the airline afloat and in a competitive market.