British Airways Swipe Card Debacle: Key Issues and Recommendations for Change Management

This case study analyzes the British Airways swipe card debacle and highlights key issues in change management. It provides recommendations for implementing change in the organization.

Organisation Change and Management
The British Airways (BA) Swipe Card Debacle case study
Student Name:
4/18/2019

Table of Contents
Introduction.................................................................................................................................... 2
British Airways Overview................................................................................................................ 3
What went wrong: Key Issues based on Change Management.......................................................3
From the Organizational Development perspective....................................................................3
From the Sense-making Perspective........................................................................................... 4
From the Change Management perspective...............................................................................4
From Contingency Perspective.................................................................................................... 5
From the Processual Perspective................................................................................................ 5
Concept of Change Management................................................................................................... 6
Principle of Change and Change Management...........................................................................7
Change Management Theories....................................................................................................... 7
Recommendations as an OD practitioner.....................................................................................10
Conclusion.................................................................................................................................... 11
References.................................................................................................................................... 12
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Introduction
British Airways is the second largest airlines of the United Kingdom and second
largest in Europe. Being the leading airlines across the world, the airways had $375
million profit generated in the year 2002, which crossed to $201 million loss in the
year 2003(Lange, Geppert and Becker‐Ritterspach 2015).
On July 18, 2003, the on-site working staff of British Airways held a twenty-four-hour
strike, which was to condemn and to protest the newly launched system of check-in.
The protest occurred at London’s Heathrow Airport, on terminal T1 and T4. This
latest set-up was designed to electronically record when a BA worker enters or exits
the workplace. It was introduced to modernize the staff check-in system at British
Airways, and also to enhance the efficient use of resources and staff working under
BA. But, according to employees, it seemed like a medium to enable the managers to
manipulate their working hours and interfere with their shifts. As a result, the enraged
staff at BA held a wildcat strike which caused the airway company to cancel its
service for a day, resulting in financial losses, and leaving more than ten thousand
passengers stranded. More than sixty flights were grounded, and British Airways lost
around 40 million and the company has to comprise their reputation too (Lange,
Geppert and Becker‐Ritterspach, 2015).
British Airways introduced the swipe cards as a system for electronic clocking-in,
which was the part of their future shape and size recovery program. The purpose of
introducing these cards was to improve the efficient use of staff, and yet it enraged the
staff because of no-prior notice.
The resistance to change and poor attitudes were the results of poor communication
between the BA staff and its management. This report is an attempt to recommend
strategies that can be implemented for introducing change in the organization. As a
consultant to British Airways CEO, it is first crucial to point out what and how went
wrong in the swipe card system case. And then, through this report, an attempt is
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made to provide recommendations for implementing change and development in an
organization. The report is written with the implementation plan and Rationale to
support the claims(Lange, Geppertand Becker‐Ritterspach 2015).
British Airways Overview
The flag carrier airline of United Kingdom, British Airways is headquartered in
Waterside. The BA’s main hub is at the Heathrow Airport, while the second and third
are at Gatwick and London City Airport. BA is the largest UK airline on the basis of
destinations, fleet size, number of international flights. BA board was formed in the
year 1971 to manage two airline companies, BOAC and BEA, and two other smaller
regional airlines. BA has had over 50,000 staff members, more than three hundred
aircraft, and an ever-growing number of international and domestic fliers. As of the
year 2016, British Airways earned a revenue of $11,443 million, and the net income
was $1,473 million (Lange, Geppertand Becker‐Ritterspach 2015).
What went wrong: Key Issues based on Change Management
From the Organizational Development perspective
OD is an organization-wide and planned effort to increase the effectiveness and
viability of the organization(Hayes, 2018). OD aims at enhancing the effectiveness of
the company to help it achieve the vision and mission in the long run. British Airways
tried to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of the organization, but the company
as a whole failed on the organization-wise effort to increase effectiveness. This
occurred due to a lack of conviction in the staff that the swipe card system was
actually better for the company as a whole. In this case, British Airways’ staff’s
reaction and values were disregarded (Karami, 2017).
The swipe card introduction for BA employees was more of a forced imposition
which was implemented at five days’ notice. It was a one-sided decision, for which no
consent or perspective of staff was ever taken. The managers had poor consultation
with the staff. The change was unplanned, uncontrolled, and the implementation was
done in an orderly manner, Moreover, the managers chose the bad place and bad
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timing for the implementation by beginning at the Heathrow, which is the busiest
quarter of British Airways (Hayes, 2018).
From the Sense-making Perspective
Sensemaking is when people give a certain meaning to the experience. Sensemaking
draws on the image of an interpreter, which is when the managerial bodies create
meaning for change requirement(Cameron and Green2015). Sensemaking helps
organizational members make sense of organizational actions and events(Cameronand
Green,2015). The company shouldn’t just assume that a certain change is needed,
instead, communicate those needs to the employees and stakeholders and help them
recognize the drivers for those changes. Sensemaking in the BA staff strike didn’t
help their employees to learn the meaning of the new system. It was a lack of
adequate consultation that gave staffs a reason to call for a strike(Benn, Edwards, and
Williams,2018).
The managers never considered the consequences of their action. They never realized
that something they called as a step to ‘modernize’ work process, was taken as a move
of manipulating employee’s working patterns (Cameron and Green,2015). This shows
how abrupt and reckless decision was. Apart from poor timing for change
implementation, British Airways also didn’t examine different alternative for bringing
the change(Small, Gist, and David,2016).
From the Change Management perspective
Change Management is an approach to transitioning the organization from a current
state to the desired future state. Several models have been proposed for change
management, and they all commonly focus on transformational change, and large-
scale achievability, and efficient transition of teams or individual from one state to
another. British Airways management team felt the need to streamline their company’s
operations through the introduction of swipe cards, but they didn’t use any change
management model to keep tensions down. There are many models that contain
flexibility and variation, but none was used(Benn, Edwards, and Williams,2018).
The management at British Airways completely neglected the possibility of change
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resistance from their staff and employees. They underestimated how organizational
dissatisfaction and employee resistance had the strength to cause damage to the
company within one day. At an organization level, they failed to communicate their
vision properly and make employees understand the benefits and rationale of such
changes. BA managers never considered a tactical action plan for emergency cases
like the 24-hour strike(Small, Gist, and David,2016).
From Contingency Perspective
Contingency approach argues the style of change and thinks of change as a ‘factor’
that means the company needs to have an alternate plan in case the change doesn’t
work. This is where British Airways failed again when they started implementing the
swipe card system without even having an alternative plan when the walkout
occurred, which caused huge loss to the company (Benn, Edwards, and
Williams,2018).
The British Airways managers never planned or considered the possibility that the
swipe card imposition could lead to resistance and refusal by the workers, resulting in
a strike. There was no contingency planning knowing that their workers were not very
receptive to abrupt and unannounced changes (Small, Gist, and David,2016).
From the Processual Perspective
Processual means using a particular method of the process to bring the change. One of
bringing change through processual is to examine the changing context to identify the
sources of misfits, performance gaps, and continuity. It is crucial to consider the
external and internal contexts within the company. It is equally important to identify
stages. It appeared that British Airways didn’t do this as they never looked for any
context for change. The BA managerial bodies never communicated the case with the
political group and didn’t understand how the change could be beneficial for better
customer service at the airports. Though when coming to an agreement with the union
after the strike was a good step (Small, Gist, and David2016).
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Concept of Change Management
Change Management is a term heard frequently in the majority of the organizations,
whether small or large. The theories of change management have been around for a
while now, and there are more popular in organizations that are willing to initiate a
change into their work process or culture. Change management can be defined as an
employed set of processes that are followed to make sure that considerable changes or
amendments in work are implemented in a controlled, systematic, and orderly manner.
Change management, when done properly, assures the implementation of new
changes, without creating any problem for the employee or the employer(Wil, Desel,
and Oberweis, 2015).
The 2003 case of British Airways is an example of poor change management since the
managers introduced changes abruptly, without creating a process to make the
implementation in an orderly manner. If only, the changes were managed, the wildcat
strike by the BA staff would never have happened. As per the organizational change
management, the organizations want to implement changes without experiencing any
resistance. For this to happen, it is essential to implement those changes in an
organized and structured approach so that any transition that occurs from the previous
habit to new habit is done in a smooth manner (Wil, Desel, and Oberweis, 2015).
The B.A case taught the airline company a lesson that the management should always
assess the employee’s reaction to the changes and their implementation, and try to
find ways to manage their reactions. It is the management’s responsibility to support
its workers during the process of change. They should spot out the processes and
behaviour that aren’t proficient, and try to come up with new processes that are
effective for the organization, and efficient for the employees. Finally, it’s the
management’s responsibility to help employees in accepting the changes at the
workplace and help them to adapt to the changes once they are implemented (Wil,
Desel, and Oberweis, 2015)
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Principle of Change and Change Management
While implementing any kind of change in the organizational work process of
corporate culture, there are five principles that decision makers and manager need to
keep in mind:
 Different people react differently to change
 Through the amendments, everyone’s basic needs are to be met
 Change in an organization involves certain loss at the time, and people often
go through that loss curve
 Through changes, it’s necessary to meet and deal with everyone’s fear
 Everyone’s expectations should be met in a practical and realistic way
Change Management Theories
Though there are many models and theories that have helped organizations facilitate
change at the workplace without causing any outburst by the employees or evoking
anger. Kotter’seight-step of change management model is one of the famous models
used by corporates world-wide(Chappell, Pescud, and Rosenberg2016). This model
has eight steps. This section depicts how British Airways could have used Kotter’s
change management model to introduce the swipe card system in the workplace.
Step 1: Creating Urgency
For change to happen, it’s important to create urgency and to make sure the change is
something the entire organization, including the employees, the decision maker,
directorial boards, and managers want. British Airways could have done the same by
creating urgency around the change. They could have done it by developing scenarios,
identifying potential issues and how change could be beneficial in the future. They
should have indulged in honest discussion to get people dynamic and convincing
reasons for change (Chappell, Pescud, and Rosenberg2016).
Step 2: Forming a Powerful Coalition
Step two in Kotter’s change management model is about forming a powerful
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coalition. It is related to convincing the employees and associates that change is
essential. This requires strong support and relationship from the key people. British
Airways could have done it by identifying leaders in the organization, asking for an
emotional commitment from these people, and working on team building, and
checking on the team for weak areas(Chappell, Pescud, and Rosenberg2016).
Step 3: Creating a Vision to bring change
When the organizational members or decision makers start thinking about any change,
many ideas will start striking and floating around. But what is more important is to
create a vision. This is done by determining the values which are central to change.
British Airways could have created a smart strategy for executing that vision
(Cameron and Green2015).
Step 4: Communicating the vision
Once the vision is created, the next step is to communicate the vision successfully.
This shouldn’t be done by calling meeting only, but talking about it every chance they
get. During these communications, the managerial members should address people’s
anxiety and concerns honestly and openly. Similarly, British Airways, when planning
to introduce any change in the workplace or corporate culture, can apply their vision
on all operational aspects, from training the employees as per new changes, and
conducting performance reviews. And every step should be tied back with the
vision(Chappell, Pescud, and Rosenberg2016).
Step 5: Removing the obstacles
As long as the change leaders follow the above four steps, they’ll reach a stage where
some obstacles will occur, and so the next step should be to remove that obstacle. As
long the vision is thoroughly communicated and employees know the urgency of
change, they will not resist. Managers should still continually check for the barriers
and remove the obstacles that can interfere with the execution of the vision. British
Airways could have identified people who were resisting the change, take quick
action to remove the barrier by helping them see why change is needed, and how it
can be beneficial for them (Kazmiand Naarananoja 2017).
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Step 6: Creating short-term wins
To any human being, nothing feels better than success. So, the managers should give
employees a taste of victory by setting long term goals in the change process and
short-term wins when employees accomplish those goals. There should be little room
for failure, and an easy target should be small and achievable. The change team may
need to work hard for finding these targets. British Airways, could adopt a similar
strategy of finding small achievable changes to implement without facing strong
critics(Kazmiand Naarananoja 2017).
Step 7: Building on Change
Kotter in his model of change management says that several organizations fail to
bring change because they declare victory soon(Kazmiand Naarananoja 2017). The
effort must be taken to build on the change by continuously analyzing what needs
improving, and what went right. They should understand the need for continuous
improvement and continue bringing in leaders and change agents for the change
coalition.
Step 8: Anchoring the change in the company culture
This is the final step associated with anchoring the change in the company culture.
The change leaders and managers should make regular efforts to make sure that
change is seen in all aspects of the organization, for this will help change in getting a
solid place within the company culture(Kazmiand Naarananoja 2017). This can be
done by talking about the progress made, telling success stories, and publicly
recognizing the key members of the change coalition and acknowledging employee’s
contribution. This can be made possible only when the leaders and employees keep
supporting the change vision.
Recommendations as an OD practitioner
What went wrong with swipe card system implementation at British Airways wasn’t
only about implementing changes during the high travel time and in the summer, but
making changes without proper communication. It was the lack of communication
prior to the implementation, which ultimately led to strike. British Airways need to
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learn from each and every change perspective mentioned above. In Organization
development, the aim is at improving the organizational effectiveness in order to
achieve the mission of the company (Lange, Geppert, and Becker‐Ritterspach2015).
To make it work, it was essential that all staff and employees at BA have buy-in, and
that could be made possible by educating them about the need for change, and its
benefits.
It was essential to give them an understanding of swipe card program by creating
change urgency through educating them about efficient use of resources at BA. With
the staff sensitivity under current restructuring, any change in the BA could be touchy.
So, it was crucial to help them make sense to why change is being considered. For
example, making them believe that the card swipe system was not only about
modernizing the workplace but also to keep up with the technologies used at
competing airlines. As long as staff understand it’s for achieving good, they will
support the organization mission. It will take some time, and that is what
Organizational Development believes in, but if the employees and managers start the
discussion early, the results will be very good(Beckhard 2015).
It is essential to properly communicate with the employees before implementing any
kind of change in the work culture(Lange, Geppert, and Becker‐Ritterspach2015). A
healthy discussion should be encouraged for both groups, and the employee’s
concerns must be supported by a solution. Sensemaking approach is the best way of
implementing changes at British Airways, especially for the swipe card cases because
the main purpose of this approach is to make sense of why a certain decision has been
taken(Beckhard 2015).
The manager should be able to provide legitimate reasons and argument about why
their actions fir and should be viewed as a good decision. Sensemaking also
recognizes that change may not be perfect, and people may not always agree, but it
creates a meaning of why an action is taken. Even though the best approach, in this
case, is sense-making, British Airways could have used all the above changer
perspective during the process. For further changes in the organization, the Kotter’s
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change management model should be adopted to successfully make implementations
(Beckhard2015).
Conclusion
The resistance to the swipe card system by British Airways employees was the result
of poor communication and unannounced implementation by the management. Lack
of understanding of change perspectives and communication resulted in the strike by
staff. If management had communicated the changes prior to implementing them in
such a short deadline, it could have prevented mistrust between BA staff and
management, and it could have saved BA from the loss of money. The management at
British Airways completely neglected the possibility of change resistance from their
staff and employees. They underestimated how organizational dissatisfaction and
employee resistance had the strength to cause damage to the company within one day.
Sensemaking approach is the best way of implementing changes at British Airways,
especially for the swipe card cases because the main purpose of this approach is to
make sense of why a certain decision has been taken. The manager should be able to
provide legitimate reasons and arguments about why their actions fit and should be
viewed as a good decision.
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