Leadership Analysis of Alan Joyce, CEO of Qantas Airways

The report analyzes the leadership style of Alan Joyce, CEO of Qantas Airways, and the struggles he faced. It identifies specific leadership behaviors and theories, strengths and weaknesses, and ethical issues. Recommendations are provided for improvement.

Running head: LEADERSHIP
Leadership
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author note

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Executive Summary
The report has helped in the analysis of the different leadership approaches and styles which
have been followed by the CEO of Qantas Airlines named Alan Joyce. The different
struggles which have been faced by the CEO has been analyzed along with the different
criticisms have been identified which did not make him weak, but he tried to solve the
different issues in more effective manner. Furthermore, this was seen and analyzed that Alan
Joyce tried to be the top CEO along with the situational leader in the organization in
comparison to the others in the market.

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Table of Contents
Introduction................................................................................................................................3
About Alan Joyce.......................................................................................................................3
Struggles Faced by Alan Joyce..................................................................................................3
How Alan Joyce has been critiqued by various stakeholders....................................................4
Identify specific leadership behaviors along with Leadership Theories for Analysing the
Appropriateness of Alan Joyce’s Leadership.............................................................................5
Identification of reasons why the person’s leadership was successful enough to make them
famous........................................................................................................................................7
Strengths and Weaknesses of Alan Joyce..................................................................................8
Issues of ethics in leadership should also be considered............................................................9
Recommendations......................................................................................................................9
Conclusion..................................................................................................................................9
References................................................................................................................................10

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Introduction
The report helps in the analysis of the different characteristics of the leader by
crucially analysing the development, achievements along with the capability of the leader in
an efficient manner. The main focus in the analysis is required to be analysed which will help
in enhancing the understanding the struggles which have been experienced by the leader. For
the chosen leader, the critique is required to be analysed by the different stakeholders. The
leader who has been chosen in this respect is Alan Joyce who is the CEO of the Qantas
Airways.
About Alan Joyce
Alan Joyce is the Australian businessman who was born in the year 1966 in 30th June.
He was originally from Ireland and he is the chief executive officer of Australian airline
named Qantas. The nationality of Alan Joyce is Iris-Australian and by occupation, he is the
successful businessman in the present scenario. Joyce was born along with raised in Tallaght
which is now a suburb of Dublin. Furthermore, there are different kinds of achievements
which were received by Alan Joyce such as he is the Ambassador of the Australian
indigenous Education foundation and he was the most influential leader in the 2011 which
was been described in The Australian (Birasnav, 2014).
Struggles Faced by Alan Joyce
There were different struggles which was faced by Alan Joyce in the personal along
with in the professional life. In the personal front, this was seen that there was huge humility
faced by him during the success and there was less confidence during the setbacks. There
were different kinds of hurdles which was faced by Alan Joyce as in the past he used to lack
the managerial kind of effectiveness as he did not have much knowledge on the strategic

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thinking along with guiding the change which was not effective in nature (D’Innocenzo,
Mathieu & Kukenberger, 2016).
On the professional front, there were different kinds of issues faced by Alan Joyce
which was inclusive of the different kinds of issues in making the airlines successful in
comparison to the other competitors in the entire market. The leadership of Alan Joyce was
questioned as the different individuals felt that he followed the autocratic leadership style and
this was the main cause of the failure of the Qantas Airways (Collinson & Tourish, 2015).
How Alan Joyce has been critiqued by various stakeholders
According to the different stakeholders of Qantas Airways, there were different kinds
of criticisms which affected the leadership of Alan Joyce in a negative manner. The
employees of Qantas felt that the managerial decisions which were taken by Alan Joyce and
there was lack of accountability in the nature of Alan Joyce. The employees of Qantas felt
that the CEO had lack of clear vision and there was no such articulation of the behaviour as
well (Financial Review, 2018).
In an article, it was being reported that after becoming the chief executive officer of
Qantas in November 2008, Alan Joyce has led Qantas through one crisis after the other and
this led to the downfall of Qantas in the previous years. There was a global shut down of the
different operations of Qantas wherein there was industrial dispute and Alan Joyce did not
take any step in an active manner against the same ("What we can learn from Alan Joyce’s
“Pie in the Face”", 2018). There were on going criticisms faced by him from the trade unions,
different shareholders, industry experts along with the loyal customers as well.
The other aspect which was considered by Alan Joyce was the person has overseen
net after tax losses of more than $2.5 billion in the past and this was the other major aspect

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which was required to be analysed by Alan Joyce, however there was no such action which
was taken by Joyce against the same.
Moreover, this was being noticed that the employees felt that there was poor
execution of Alan Joyce in order to execute the different kinds of strategies in an effective
manner. The employees were not satisfied with the work which was being performed by Alan
Joyce and this demotivated the employees ineffectively. There was no such kind of progress
in the motivation provided to employees which affected the demotivation among the different
employees. Therefore, these are the different kinds of criticisms which were faced by Alan
Joyce during his journey with Qantas (Hallinger & Chen, 2015).
On the other hand, there are different criticisms faced by the leader of Qantas Airlines
Alan Joyce from the different customers who travel with Qantas. Due to the incorrect
decision which was taken by Alan Joyce regarding the various financial crisis. Due to the
soaring of the price of the petrol, this was being noticed that Qantas was under huge financial
pressure, as there were other competitors in the market which were performing better than
Qantas and this was a huge pressure on them (Day, Gu & Sammons, 2016). The customers
blamed that the leadership of Alan Joyce was not successful as the main problem which was
found that as a leader, Alan Joyce felt his decisions are final and the subordinate’s decisions
were not taken into action as well.
Identify specific leadership behaviors along with Leadership Theories for Analysing the
Appropriateness of Alan Joyce’s Leadership
As a leader, Alan Joyce tried to achieve the different goals which are necessary for
making the different kinds of decisions in an effective manner ("Alan Joyce voted Australia's
top CEO", 2018). There are different kinds of aspects which are required to be taken into
consideration which will help in understanding that there are various things which can be

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learnt from the leadership style of Alan Joyce. As Alan Joyce would no doubt attest, however
this takes a huge kind of personal courage for the CEO in order to draw a strong line in sand
and the great kind of resilience to move forward in an efficient manner (Demirtas, 2015).
There were different kinds of criticisms about Alan Joyce from the various
stakeholders in the organization. However, these all did not affect the leadership confidence
and quality of Alan Joyce (Chuang, Jackson & Jiang, 2016). Despite having the entire
support from the entire board along with the team of leadership, the person has put his name
along with the personal brand to such a situation wherein this will remain ambiguous along
with complex in nature (Donate & de Pablo, 2015).
The leadership quality which is most interesting in the Alan Joyce’s nature is that the
person is the situational kind of leadership. From Alan Joyce, this could be analysed that
there are different kinds of aspects which could be learnt from the leadership aspect which
was followed by Alan Joyce. As a situational leadership, when a decision is needed, an
effective kind of leader does not fall into the single preferred style which is transformational
or transactional leadership style (Gamble & Thompson, 2014).
There are different variables of the situational leadership approach which is required
to be analysed in an efficient manner. The major effort of the different subordinates is
required to be taken into consideration which helps in motivating the different individuals in
performing the different activities in an efficient manner. This was seen and analysed that
there was external kind of coordination along with cooperation and cohesiveness among the
employees in an efficient manner (Bird & Mendenhall, 2016).
There are different kinds of learnings which can be learnt from the leadership style of
Alan Joyce which are as follows:

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Taking expertise in the face of adversity which requires an unwavering self-belief is
the first aspect in which this can be seen and analysed that throughout the whole period,
Joyce has led from the front wherein there are different kinds of facing of media constantly
along with being constantly visible in their approach (Hoch, Bommer, Dulebohn & Wu,
2016). He tried to delegate the different tasks among the different employees, however during
the crisis situation, he did not feel the same as the viable option and this led to the analysis of
the being situational leader.
Dealing with the global complexity along with evolving the operation environment is
required helicopter view along with the ability to look to the future is the other nature of Alan
Joyce. Alan Joyce has argued throughout the entire dispute wherein the decision to ground
the airlines was all about long term future of Qantas in the entire context of global aviation
sector and the main aim of Alan Joyce is not about short-term opportunistic wins on
conditions and wages (Gopee & Galloway, 2017).
These are the two different lessons which have been learnt from leadership of Alan
Joyce and this is the main aspect of motivation provided to the individuals. The intention
from the different article is not to lionise Alan Joyce, but this is required to be understand the
different difficulties and struggles which have been faced by him during the previous times.
Engelen, Gupta, Strenger and Brettel (2015), has commented that there are three major kind
of forces which has led to leader’s action
Identification of reasons why the person’s leadership was successful enough to make
them famous
There are different kinds of reasons wherein Alan Joyce was successful enough which
helped in making him famous in nature. Criticism is the natural part of leadership and when
no one is criticizing the leadership, then the person is not leading in a correct manner.

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Leadership is not the popularity contest as the leaders get paid to make the different kinds of
difficult decisions. The main aim of Alan Joyce was not to react impulsively, as he tried to
analyse the different aims of the employees working in the organization.
Secondly, this was seen that there was huge maturity in the role of Alan Joyce which
helped him in handling the various kinds of operations of Qantas in an efficient manner. Alan
Joyce did not take any kinds of criticisms personally as the main motive of Alan Joyce was to
turn the criticism into opportunity. Alan Joyce commented in different articles that criticism
is the other way of learning outcomes and this helped him in becoming famous in all the
operations while following the situational leadership style during his tenure. The main motive
of the aspect is described as failure along with steady hand in the equal measure.
Strengths and Weaknesses of Alan Joyce
Strengths
 He is reliable in handling the different kinds of activities in an efficient manner as
Alan Joyce tries to handle the different grievances of the employees in an efficient
manner
 Alan Joyce has the capability of handling the different kinds of activities in such a
manner which will help in managing the activities appropriately
Weaknesses
 There is lack of attachment in Alan Joyce as the person is not transformational leader
and this is affecting the overall ineffectiveness of the firm in a negative manner
 There were times when Alan Joyce underestimated the different kinds of viewpoints
of the employees in the organization in a negative manner

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Issues of ethics in leadership should also be considered
There are few ethical issues which are required to be considered in leadership in
which this can be seen that Alan Joyce has faced different ethical issues wherein in the
present scenario, this was noticed that Alan Joyce did not take the opinion of the different
employees and this affected the overall ineffectiveness of the firm in a negative manner.
There were few policies which were not being followed by Alan Joyce and this affected the
overall effectiveness of the firm and the leadership approach followed by Alan Joyce.
Recommendations
Therefore, this can be recommended that Alan Joyce can follow the transformational
leadership style along with situational leadership approach. When the person will be
following transformational leadership style, this will help Alan Joyce in handling the
different grievances of the employees and analysing their opinions regarding the different
matters as well.
Conclusion
Therefore, this can be concluded that leadership is one of the most crucial aspect
which is required to be analysed in order to lead a group of members. Furthermore, this can
be seen and analysed that ethics can become complex while handling the team members,
however this can be solved with managing the different operations in a positive manner. Alan
Joyce tried to avoid to see the different crisis as unbearable kind of problems and this helped
in managing the different operations so successfully after so many criticisms as well.

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References
Alan Joyce voted Australia's top CEO. (2018). Retrieved from
https://www.afr.com/leadership/alan-joyce-voted-australias-top-ceo-20170224-gukxdt
Birasnav, M., (2014). Knowledge management & organizational performance in the service
industry: The role of transformational leadership beyond the effects of transactional
leadership. Journal of Business Research, 67(8), pp.1622-1629.
Bird, A. & Mendenhall, M.E., (2016). From cross-cultural management to global leadership:
Evolution & adaptation. Journal of World Business, 51(1), pp.115-126.
Bolden, R., (2016). Leadership, management & organisational development. In Gower
h&book of leadership & management development (pp. 143-158). Routledge.
Chuang, C.H., Jackson, S.E. & Jiang, Y., (2016). Can knowledge-intensive teamwork be
managed? Examining the roles of HRM systems, leadership, & tacit
knowledge. Journal of management, 42(2), pp.524-554.
Collinson, D. & Tourish, D., (2015). Teaching leadership critically: New directions for
leadership pedagogy. Academy of Management Learning & Education, 14(4), pp.576-
594.
D’Innocenzo, L., Mathieu, J.E. & Kukenberger, M.R., (2016). A meta-analysis of different
forms of shared leadership–team performance relations. Journal of
Management, 42(7), pp.1964-1991.

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Day, C., Gu, Q. & Sammons, P., (2016). The impact of leadership on student outcomes: How
successful school leaders use transformational & instructional strategies to make a
difference. Educational Administration Quarterly, 52(2), pp.221-258.
Demirtas, O., (2015). Ethical leadership influence at organizations: Evidence from the
field. Journal of Business Ethics, 126(2), pp.273-284.
Donate, M.J. & de Pablo, J.D.S., (2015). The role of knowledge-oriented leadership in
knowledge management practices & innovation. Journal of Business Research, 68(2),
pp.360-370.
Engelen, A., Gupta, V., Strenger, L. & Brettel, M., (2015). Entrepreneurial orientation, firm
performance, & the moderating role of transformational leadership behaviors. Journal
of Management, 41(4), pp.1069-1097.
Financial Review. (2018). Alan Joyce: CEO and national leader. [online] Available at:
https://www.afr.com/opinion/editorials/afr-business-person-of-the-year-alan-joyce-
ceo-and-national-leader-20171214-h04t17 [Accessed 29 Sep. 2018].
Gamble, J. & Thompson, A.A., (2014). Essentials of strategic management. Irwin Mcgraw-
Hill.
Gopee, N. & Galloway, J., (2017). Leadership & management in healthcare. Sage.
Hallinger, P. & Chen, J., (2015). Review of research on educational leadership &
management in Asia: A comparative analysis of research topics & methods, 1995–
2012. Educational management administration & leadership, 43(1), pp.5-27.

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Hoch, J.E., Bommer, W.H., Dulebohn, J.H. & Wu, D., (2016). Do ethical, authentic, &
servant leadership explain variance above & beyond transformational leadership? A
meta-analysis. Journal of Management, p.0149206316665461.
What we can learn from Alan Joyce’s “Pie in the Face”. (2018). Retrieved from
https://thewest.com.au/business/aviation/what-we-can-learn-from-alan-joyces-pie-in-
the-face---a-lesson-for-leaders-and-managers-ng-b88470802z