UK's Policy on Electronics Ban: Attractiveness and Competitiveness

Running head: UK’S POLICY ON ELECTRONICS BAN
UK's Policy on Electronics Ban
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1UK’S POLICY ON ELECTRONICS BAN
The chosen policy for this assignment is the “UK’s Policy on Electronics Ban” (Gov.uk
2018). The policy had first been imposed by the Transportation Security Administration (TSA)
after it consulted with relevant agencies and departments. Later on, it was joined by the UK
government in a hunt to nullify the effect of terror attacks (Mail Online 2018). Policy as
according to Ritchie and Crouch (2011) is a set of rules that promote attractiveness to a firm or
a place and thereby, helps to enhance its competitiveness. This particular study is purposefully
based on understanding the attractiveness and the competitiveness of the chosen policy.
Policy, as defined by the authors Ritchie and Crouch (2011), is a resource that a firm or
a place can utilize to enhance its attractiveness which is necessary to maximize the number of
customers. Moreover, such thing actually assists in enhancing the competitiveness of the chosen
firm or place. In the light of the mentioned concept, this can be understood that the chosen policy
needs to enhance its attractiveness for both the domestic and the foreign travelers. This may
impact the various airlines and the airports including the British Airways, Virgin Atlantic and
others (Ustaömer, Durmaz and Lei 2015). The chosen policy when analyzed from the
perspective of Ritchie and Crouch (2011) looks attractive to some extent. Passengers may
develop a dual feeling into them. They at some point of time may feel that their journey is
secured because electronic gadgets may also cost life as it happened with the battery explosion
cases of Samsung Note series phones (Shamsi, Ali and Kazmi 2017).
The central idea behind the ban imposed on the electronics goods, was to reduce the
terror attacks which have been found as using various new technologies to destroy commercial
aviation. The policy had jointly been followed by the United States after UK government had
announced the ban on selective UK-bound flights. The ban had a vision to reduce the terror
attacks which have been increasing especially with the commercial aviation. The mission was to

2UK’S POLICY ON ELECTRONICS BAN
destroy the incrementing terror activities associated in the past with the various electronic goods.
The policy was imposed with an aim to reduce the terror activities which was entering with the
help of commercial aviations. It has certain objectives such as the follows:
 To reduce terror activities which had been using the airlines to spread the terror
 To ban the electronic gadgets from being carried while during an airline trip
 To restrict the misuse of electronic gadgets by the terrorists
The policy was set with few priorities attached to it like restricting only the electronic gadgets
except the Smartphone, imposing ban on selective airports only and in few UK-bound flights.
The attractiveness and the competitiveness with the implemented policy can also be
analyzed form the fact presented by Hamel (1994) which states that the ‘core competence
model’ can help a policy become successful in its set objectives. Core competency in the light of
the model can be defined as a set of strategies which are unique to a specific organization or a
place and are difficult for others to imitate it. Core competency in regards to the ban policy is the
use of utmost technologies that can make it a successful venture, deploying the trained
professionals. Such professionals can perform their task with perfection and communicate with
the customers to make them feel realize the importance of imposing the policy (Rayna and
Striukova 2016).
The policy may be potential in impact if it implemented appropriately in the target
system. The competitiveness of the policy can be analyzed in the light of preaching governed by
Poon (1993) in its model known as a strategic success model. Poon (1993) governs four very
important points like putting the customer first, applying innovative thoughts, acquiring a
leadership quality and improving the value chain operation. The first point is for giving the

3UK’S POLICY ON ELECTRONICS BAN
customer the preference; however, the ban imposed on the UK airport governing body is less
friendly to customers in some regards. Business travelers do have to travel quite frequently to the
different parts of the world. It is necessary for them to carry their belongings like laptops, tablets
and the other gadgets. However, under the policy, they cannot carry the various kinds of
technological gadgets except the Smartphone in some selected route. They may be aware of the
reason behind the ban; however, they might face a challenge in communicating with the clients
and doing the needful works which are not possible from a phone. In this regard, the policy
because of any reason has preferred customers over the security which is acknowledging from
one aspect but troublesome from another.
The ban is being imposed for selected routes like the flights coming from Turkey, Jordan,
Lebanon, Tunisia, Egypt and Saudi Arabia (BBC News 2018). This means that 14 airlines
including Easyjet, British Airways, and Monarch will all be affected by the ban. It is
purposefully targeted to reduce the terrorist attacks (BBC News 2018). The second factor of the
strategic success model which is the quality leadership can only be justified if it is able to
reduce the terrorist activities in the mentioned routes.
It can be termed as a kind of innovation from a perspective that it restricts the access to
evil acts by limiting the carrying of electronic gadgets. However, phones are still allowed which
still can be threatening as the terrorist can access to their group through phones. A complete
disconnection or probably a robust approach to identify the terrorist group was indeed required
(Martin-Domingo and Martín 2016).
The value chain operation needs to be effective in course to provide a cooperative hand
to the implemented policy. The implementation requires a sharp inspection of belongings that