Understanding Business Organisation: Structure, SWOT and PESTLE Analysis of Virgin Atlantic

This report discusses the organizational structure of Virgin Atlantic, which follows a hierarchical structure. It also includes a SWOT analysis and PESTLE analysis of the company, highlighting the factors affecting its performance. The report concludes with a focus on external factors such as Covid-19 and Brexit that pose a threat to the company.

UNDERSTANDING
BUSINESS
ORGANISATION

TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................3
Organization structure of the organization .................................................................................3
Business environment analysis....................................................................................................4
SWOT Analysis of organization..................................................................................................4
PESTLE Analysis of the company..............................................................................................5
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................7
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................8

INTRODUCTION
Business organization is an entity that is formed for the objective of carrying on the
commercial enterprise. Virgin Atlantic is an International Limited, it is a British airline , which is
located in Crawley, England. The airline has always focused on the creating many differences in
each of their own services and also driving efficiency as well as effectiveness. They were first
airline to provide a premium economy seat, as well as to serve the ice cream in-flight. Virgin
Atlantic vision is to become the most loved travel as well as what generally drives this is a power
of human connection, that is between of their people and customers. The report highlights the
concept of the organization structure, and what an organization structure is followed by the
company with its benefits and drawbacks. Along with this report also highlights the concept of
business environment. Moreover, the report also includes the SWOT analysis of the company as
well as PESTLE analysis of the organization. With this how such factors affect the organization
is also covers.
MAIN BODY
Organization structure of the organization
The organizational structure is a particular way by which communication generally flows
within an organization. The organizational structure are generally of two types. Such two types
are hierarchical or tall organizational structure as well as flat organizational structure. In the
organization that has been chosen which is the Virgin Atlantic, the suitable structure for the
business that has been selected by organization or even implemented by the business is
hierarchical organizational structure (Ahmady, Mehrpour, and Nikooravesh, 2016). This
structure is also known as tall organizational structure. This structure is generally used by many
companies that mainly have a broad scale as well as work on large level. Even this is a
organization that has a many employees as well as it works on a major level. A tall
organizational structure generally focuses on a company having many levels of the authorities
comprehensive of the chain of command that usually connects with the multiple levels of the
management within a business. It can be very easy to expand a organization with this structure,
thus there is no requirement or need to break the existing layers of the organization while adding
some new layer. In this structure the decision- making is mostly formal and it mainly flows top
down.

In a big organization such as Virgin Atlantic, tall structure is suitable. This is because of
the structure, the chain of command is very clear as well as precise. This structure also make
good communication which is very clear as well as for a business that has around 5000 plus
employees the communication is needed to be particular. It gives benefits such as more
opportunities for the promotion that generally lead to increase the staff motivation. The structure
also has some disadvantages such as the procedure as well as the communication is particularly
very time-consuming. Because of this the situations become worse at times. But also, this
structure mainly leads to decrease the levels of innovation as well as creativity in ideas and even
the employees of organization normally feel no involved in the decision and other activities of
the business (Saiti, and Stefou, 2020).
Business environment analysis
Business environment generally means all the forces as well as factors which usually
influence overall performance and business operation. Such factors are mainly external for the
organization and beyond the control of single business. Thus, identifying as well as
understanding such external and internal factors that impact the organization is important for all
businesses including Virgin Atlantic.
SWOT Analysis of organization
The swot analysis is approach generally for identifying as well as analysing the business
strengths, weaknesses, opportunities as well as threats (Benzaghta, and et.al., 2021). The main
goal of this analysis is to enhance awareness of the factors that generally help in making the
organization decisions as well as help in establishing the business strategies. The following is a
SWOT of Virgin Atlantic :
Strength:
Virgin Atlantic has make their customers satisfy. So it gives positive impact on the company
brand. They also provide mainly three primarily categories such as luxury, premium, and
economy segment. Virgin Atlantic also have cool image in market place because they generally
focus on offering quality service to customers or passengers. The organization is also positioning
as value for money brand, because of this they are able to manage their sales even after Covid-19
situation. During Covid-19 as well as temporary restriction, the Virgin Atlantic unable to make
income but due to its mastery in the customer satisfaction they make it more positive for the

company. Virgin is able to perform well and increase their sales after restriction. Also, they are
offer quality services to their customers which will also give positive impact on the brand
(Sarsby 2016).
Weaknesses:
The main weaknesses of Virgin Atlantic are financial instability, poor differentiation as well as
expensive airline. Due to Brexit, the airline business have faced many financial challenges. After
this they make strategics but some other player copy Virgin strategies. Even difference in
exchange rate also causes financial loss to the organization. By this the customer are thinking
that the Virgin Atlantic is expansive as compare to the competitors or other airlines.
Opportunities:
Change in the customer perception is key opportunity for the company with the help this the
business can attract large customer. As per such factor, the business is also able to attract the
more customer towards their new, unique as well as differentiated products and services. By this
they will get more customers which will help company to grow as well as get success (GURL
2017).
Threat:
The competition in this industry is the large threat for the business. Virgin Atlantic have
generally faced many competitions from the brands like Emirates, Lufthansa, British airways Air
France, etc. the another threat is the Brexit decision that has result into sudden decrease in the
number of customers or passengers who are generally travelling abroad (Teoli, Sanvictores and
An 2019).
PESTLE Analysis of the company
Pestle analysis is a study of many external factors such as political, economical,
socioecological, technological, legal and environmental that generally influence the business
activities. The following is PESTLE analysis of Virgin Atlantic:
Political factor:
The slowdown in many countries generally people have created problems for Virgin Atlantic in
term of low income or revenue. It is due to slowdown in different countries people, the Virgin
Atlantic business as well as this industry business required or need to opt for the low-cost
services to solve the issue or problem.
Economic factor:

The economic factor also consider interest rate, inflation rate, spending pattern of their customer
and many more that impact on the business performance. The impact of covid 19 is people
started spending money in the low cost airlines because of low salary in the pandemic or Covid-
19 situation. So this creates threat for the company.
Social factor:
The social factor also impact over Virgin Atlantic services. It is because the business operates in
many countries as well as for this they generally required to take care closely to different culture,
gender ratio, spending habits, and many more. The Air traffic control is main threat for the
company as this creates many difficulties for the business to operate.
Technological factor:
The non-stop technological development is the key factor which generally need to considered by
the company to became more successful. As per technological factor, involving some safety
standards, and reducing cost of their operations are some measure that are taken by Virgin
Atlantic company (Çitilci, and Akbalık 2020).
Legal factor:
The legal factors generally includes copyrights, data protection, patents, intellectual property
many more. Virgin Atlantic follow each law and regulation that is formulated for the airline
industry which generally indicate the opportunity for company.
Environmental factor:
This factor is most important in the present time. Environmental factor is because many
businesses forget about the environmental protection as delivering their products and service. So,
this is threat for Virgin Atlantic also because airline industry is having highly criticized for high
carbon emission.

CONCLUSION
From the above report it has been concluded that the Virgin Atlantic is leading British
airline company. So they must take care about the external factors which will generally influence
their operations. From the above report it also identify that the organization structure followed
by the company is suitable for their business as well as give positive impact on business. The
Virgin Atlantic is followed hierarchical structure as the top management manage and also give
direction to business as well as low level employees will report to their superiors. Moreover, the
report also covered the SWOT analysis as well as PESTLE analysis of the company to know the
factors that are affecting the overall performance of the company that is Virgin Atlantic. The
report mainly focuses on political, social, economical, technological, legal and environment
factors that are affect the business performance. It has been also evaluated from the business
environment analysis that, Covid-19 and Brexit are the two key situation that have poses threat
on the company. So the company have to focus on these factors and then make the business
success in the future.

REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Ahmady, G.A., Mehrpour, M. and Nikooravesh, A., 2016. Organizational structure. Procedia-
Social and Behavioral Sciences. 230. pp.455-462.
Benzaghta, M.A. And et.al., 2021. SWOT analysis applications: An integrative literature
review. Journal of Global Business Insights. 6(1). pp.55-73.
Çitilci, T. and Akbalık, M., 2020. The importance of PESTEL analysis for environmental
scanning process. In Handbook of Research on Decision-Making Techniques in Financial
Marketing (pp. 336-357). IGI Global.
GURL, E., 2017. SWOT analysis: A theoretical review.
Saiti, A. and Stefou, T., 2020. Hierarchical organizational structure and leadership. In Oxford
Research Encyclopedia of Education.
Sarsby, A., 2016. SWOT analysis. Lulu. Com.
Teoli, D., Sanvictores, T. and An, J., 2019. SWOT analysis.