Leadership Styles in Aviation Industry

This assignment examines various leadership styles with a focus on their application in the dynamic aviation industry. It analyzes how different leadership concepts, particularly situational leadership, are employed by companies like Qantas Airways. The report delves into the experiences of Alan Joyce, Qantas' CEO, highlighting his success in adapting leadership strategies to challenging situations. Additionally, it explores potential barriers to change within organizations and suggests solutions for effective implementation.

Running Head: Leadership and change management
Leadership and change management
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

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Table of Contents
Introduction..........................................................................................................................2
Background of the company................................................................................................2
Leader and gap analysis.......................................................................................................4
Development of a Leadership Improvement Plan...............................................................5
Anticipated Barriers to Change...........................................................................................7
Conclusion...........................................................................................................................7
References............................................................................................................................8

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Introduction
The aim of the assignment is to discuss about the leadership qualities of the CEO of a
company. In this response, the report initially briefs the background of the company and the type
of the leadership model that best suits the company. The report highlights various leadership
models for gap analysis. The gap analysis will inform of the leadership style that best suits the
chosen CEO. Followed by the analysis, a leadership improvement plan is developed while
describing the reasons for change. There are various barriers when a change is initiated. In this
report the anticipated barriers to change is discussed. All the arguments and informations are
supported with relevant literature in the report. Based on the overall discussion the conclusion on
leadership and management is drawn lastly.
Background of the company
In this report, the leadership of Alan Joyce is discussed. He is the CEO of the Qantas
airways. It is the flag carrier of Australia and is the third oldest airline in the world. Qantas
airways was founded in 1920. Qantas stands for "Queensland and Northern Territory Aerial
Services". The airline has its main hub at Sydney airport (Lucarelli, 2014).).
There are various leadership styles a leader of aviation industry should seek and apply for
meeting organisational goals. According to McCleskey (2014), no one leadership style suits all
occasions. Therefore, Hersey-Blanchard Situational Leadership Theory, is appropriate for any
business. As per this model, a leader can demonstrate telling behaviour (highly directive and less
supportive), selling behaviour (highly directive and supportive behaviour), participating
behaviour (low directive but highly supportive) or delegating behaviour (low directive and low

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supportive). Each of this style of situational leaders is determined by the psychological maturity
of the followers, competence and motivation level.
The situational leadership theory also aligns with the contingency theory of leadership.
According to this theory, the effectiveness of the leaders is contingent with the capacity to
modulate the managerial behaviour and leadership traits referring to different situations or
subordinates' understanding (Miner, 2015). For instance, in the situation of cost cutting and low
cost one can use the autocratic leadership style. An autocratic leader maintains tight control
over the employees while taking their ideas and opinions. This leadership does give much room
for individualism as leader supervises them closely but takes ultimate power (Northouse, 2015).
On the other hand, the transformational leaders can bring fresh ideas to the aviation
industry. Such leaders are change agents as they exhibit comprehensive knowledge of business.
Transformational leaders engage in two-way communication with the employees triggering their
motivation and engagement. Similarly, if the employees are demotivated transactional leadership
style can be used for empowerment and motivation. Motivated employees can only satisfy the
customers in aviation industry (McCleskey, 2014).
In contrast to the above-mentioned concepts and theories of leadership, the behavioural
theory emphasise that a leader needs a particular behaviour to satisfy the subordinates. However,
this kind of approach may be effective only in one point of time (Miner, 2015). The
participative or the democratic leadership style requires the leaders to engage in two-way
communication with the employees for decision making in an organisation. Participation
approach helps people to add more value to company however; it may be inefficient due to
incompetence in decision-making (Northouse, 2015).

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According to Mc Gregor theory, there are two different styles of management, the
authoritarian (theory X) and participative (theory Y). Theory X can be used when the team
members lack motivation to work. It is a “hands-on” approach involving the micromanaging of
people with tight control. The theory Y can be used when employees love to take challenges and
ownership of work. Unlike the theory X the theory Y, involves collaborative and true based
relationship. The former mainly is based on the pessimistic attitude while the later is based on
the optimistic and positive opinion (Arslan & Staub, 2013).
Considering the fact that aviation industry is controlled by political, economic,
environmental, technological factors, it has a changing nature. The situational leadership is most
appropriate for aviation industry.
Leader and gap analysis
Alan Joyce has relied on classic leadership qualities to drive the results. These include
decisiveness, accountability, communication and teamwork. He has used the same leadership
style for both Qantas and Jester. He has always set clear and specific goals and with his
ambitious goals, he could trigger employment engagement and innovation. He is known to be a
charismatic and energetic leader (Gollan, 2014).
He aligns with the authoritarian leadership traits (theory X). The leadership philosophy
that helped Joyce to sustain the changing nature of the aviation industry is “maintain flexibility
and adapt to change” (Bourke, 2017). It led to personal development of the CEO as well as
Qantas. Alan Joyce has strong communication skills that has emerged as he his believer of
people. He engaged in open and honest communication with his delegates. It is these skills that
helped him bring several people to job. This aligns with the participatory approach of leadership

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(theory Y). He has high self-esteem and self believe that aids in facing adversity. It is this trait
that makes Alan, attend the meetings, face media, the senate Committee hearing, instead of
delegating these tasks to trusted lieutenant. It is due to his high personal and mental resilience, he
could confront difficult issues. This made him dealt easily with the complex issues and made
decisions inspite of external criticisms (Homsombat et al., 2014).
According to Taylor (2016), Alan Joyce was adamant when he joined Qantas Airways. It
was due to low staff engagement and morale. He had no choice but to wage like autocratic
leaders. However, he was a winner despite disturbance caused to customers. However, he got
high degree of humility. He could boost the staff morale in less time by his energetic and
enthusiastic attitude. He was expressive while informing about company’s vision and came up
with rationale and realistic attitude. This behaviour aligns with the transformational leadership.
Considering the leadership traits and behaviour of Alan Joyce it can be concluded that, he
mainly uses autocratic, participative, transformational and motivational theory of leadership. It
can be said that the CEO is acting as per situational theory. Depending on the competence, and
commitment of his followers he offered his support to them. Therefore, other forms of
leadership such as the behaviour or trait approach to leadership style or laissez faire style does
not suit this industry, as these will be applicable only one time.
Development of a Leadership Improvement Plan
According to Taylor (2016), there are behavioural issues in Qantas that may be critical to
its success. Aviation is an outcome driven business. Employees may also have some
psychological needs. Further, aviation industry is under strong influence of government.
Therefore, it is challenging the industry leader to manage the internal and external environment.

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This may create a power issues. Not all the employees in the Qantas are highly competent in
their field or are capable of taking independent actions. Therefore, there is still a room for
leadership improvement for Qantas although Alan has been recognised as role model for many
other leaders.
There is a need of all types of leadership styles implemented depending on the situation.
Alan though applies situational leadership style does not focus on the transactional, authoritarian
leadership style. Transactional leadership style is required for keeping the employees motivated.
This leadership emphasise on giving contingency rewards for the employees. It can be physical
and psychological. It may take place as an exception to the established procedure (Miner, 2015).
According to Taylor (2016), in aviation industry, democratic leadership style may be effective as
Alan is an inspiring leader. Alan needs fair mind for problem solving considering the Vision-
Mission of Qantas. Alan Joyce should also focus more on the authoritarian leadership discussed
above. Here Alan can tightly control the employee giving little room for two way dialogue. It can
be used for followers without competence (McCleskey, 2014).
To initiate a change a leader can implement the Lewin model. This model involves three
steps. In unfreezing stage, effective communication skills should be used to educate the
employees about implementing certain change (say reducing labour cost due to increase in fuel
price) and it purpose to motivate them to accept change. This stage must be followed by
changing stage the employee may move towards change through continuous support and
education. At this stage, the employees are aware of the benefits of change. This stage must be
followed by refreezing stage where the leader must ensure that the change is not lost. This may
be possible through certain reinforcement such as rewards (Shirey, 2013).

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Anticipated Barriers to Change
During implementation of authoritarian leadership, employees may feel devalued and
disrespected as there is no room for individualism. Pessimistic attitude of the employees such as
not asking for right things, lack of self believe or inability to cope up with the power dynamics
may create chaos. It is recommended that employee should be provided with leadership training
to avoid these barriers (Burke, 2017).
Conclusion
In conclusion, this report has provided a clear insight of different leadership styles.
However, considering the fact that aviation industry is controlled by political, economic,
environmental, technological factors, it has a changing nature. The situational leadership is most
appropriate for aviation industry. Alan Joyce was successful in implementing different leadership
concepts depending on situation. However, there is a difference between leadership and
management behaviour. In order to successfully run a business one needs both skills. A manager
must have leadership quality to plan, organise, lead and control the organisation’s functions.
However, leadership is spearhead for new direction that is followed by a group.

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References
Arslan, A., & Staub, S. (2013). Theory X and theory Y type leadership behavior and its impact
on organizational performance: Small business owners in the Şishane Lighting and
Chandelier District. Procedia-social and behavioral sciences, 75, 102-111.
Bourke, J. (2017). Getting Personal About Committing to Diversity. Catalyst.
Burke, W. W. (2017). Organization change: Theory and practice. Sage Publications.
Cameron, N. (2014). Flying high. CIO, (Spring 2014), 56.
Gollan, P. (2014). Flying kangaroo fights for life. Public Administration Today, (37), 20.
Homsombat, W., Lei, Z., & Fu, X. (2014). Competitive effects of the airlines-within-airlines
strategy–Pricing and route entry patterns. Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and
Transportation Review, 63, 1-16.
Lucarelli, G. (2014). The corporate strategy of Qantas Airways. A case study.
McCleskey, J. A. (2014). Situational, transformational, and transactional leadership and
leadership development. Journal of Business Studies Quarterly, 5(4), 117.
Miner, J. B. (2015). Organizational behavior 1: Essential theories of motivation and leadership.
Routledge.
Northouse, P. G. (2015). Leadership: Theory and practice. Sage publications.
Shirey, M. R. (2013). Lewin’s theory of planned change as a strategic resource. Journal of
Nursing Administration, 43(2), 69-72.

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Taylor, E. (2016). Silencing the critics: two years on from a record-busting net loss, Qantas chief
Alan Joyce has overseen bumper results and says the rapid recovery owes as much to its
turnaround programming as it does to plunging fuel prices. Airline Business.