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

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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