Context of Business: British Airways Leadership and CSR

This report delves into the context of business, using British Airways as a case study. It begins with an introduction to the concept of contextual learning and its importance in understanding business operations. The main body of the report includes a SWOT analysis, examining the airline's strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats, followed by a PESTLE analysis, evaluating the political, economic, social, technological, legal, and environmental factors impacting the airline. The report also assesses the changes in these PESTLE factors, particularly focusing on the impact of Brexit. Furthermore, it explores different leadership styles and recommends a suitable style for British Airways, while also commenting on the company's corporate social responsibilities. The report concludes with a summary of the findings and includes a list of references.

Context of Business

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION.....................................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY.............................................................................................................................................3
TASK..........................................................................................................................................................3
SWOT Analysis and PESTLE analysis of British Airlines......................................................................3
Evaluation of changes in the factors of PESTLE analysis.......................................................................5
Different styles of leadership...................................................................................................................6
Recommendation of suitable leadership style..........................................................................................8
Commenting on the Corporate Social Responsibilities............................................................................9
CONCLUSION........................................................................................................................................10
REFERENCES........................................................................................................................................11

INTRODUCTION
The context of business represents the understanding and learning the factors that affects
the business from several viewpoints which shows how the decisions are made and what they
actually try to achieve (Garzella, S. and Et.al., 2021). This is a model which also focuses on the
business’s current problems which helps to know how much scope and goodness remains in the
project. This report is based on the British Airways which represents as the second largest United
Kingdom based carrier. The airlines introduced in the year 1974. Later, it is merged with Iberia,
which creates the International Airlines Groups. It is the second largest airlines which generates
high annual revenue in Europe and the third largest in the world. Contextual learning is not just
help to understand the country’s domestic companies or business system but also important to
understand the exchanges which takes places throughout several contexts.
MAIN BODY
TASK
SWOT Analysis and PESTLE analysis of British Airlines.
SWOT Analysis:
SWOT analysis is a proven framework of management which allows a company like
British Airways to target its business and performance is compared to the rivalries and its
industry. In SWOT analysis, strengths and weaknesses are the internal factors of company and
opportunities and threats are the external factors which impacts their business operations (Ghita,
M. and Et.al., 2020).
Strengths:
 Safety: British Airways is mainly known for its safety concern and has reliably been
positioned in the top safest airlines in the world. The numbers of accidents and safety
incidents has been very low for the company.
 Sustainability: To become a sustainable brand, it highly focus on to make strategic
decisions. They are focused on to put their money for its technological improvement,
expansion of international market and both customers and employees experience. The
brand also focus in to cut carbon footprints by making an investment in fuel efficiency.
 International Routes: This airlines flies from various routes along with UK market. It
covers more than 70 nations with UK. They are also try seek more opportunities for the
more popular tourist destinations.
Weaknesses: Issues with HR: British Airlines has already know the value of having the department
for HR but somehow they are faced some difficulties over the years. It has been studied
from the recent example is that one of the airline pilot went on strike which results in
legal disputes which affects the motivation of employees and the brand name.

 Revenue heavily dependent on local market: British Airlines heavily dependent on the
UK market’s sales and gets revenue from this market (Gurca, A. and Et.al., 2021). But
due to Brexit and Covid-19 it gets unstable and highly impacted. The company must
think to restart their strategies to get these sales increased from international market.
Opportunities:
 Expansion into international markets: As per the above observation, expanding
business into international markets will support them to stabilize and generates revenue
from the market, also get increased customers. The international place to expand more is
a great think to get attraction of new and existing customers.
 Technological advancements: Technologies has a great new ways for the development.
The airlines can think to explore and grasp the new opportunities such as artificial
learning, machine learning technologies and many more that can be able to gets it
advantages.
Threats:
 Brexit: Many companies got affected after the Brexit which causes a lot of uncertainty
and has importantly impacts the business of British Airlines. It also get impacted by the
new laws which have been set after the Brexit.
PESTLE Analysis:
 Political: Airline companies requires to work under many operating restrictions and
follow important rules and regulations. In the context to British Airways, these are
operating their functions in a very challenging political environment which is categorized
by terrorist attacks (Khoza, D. S., 2019). This leads to work stoppage to certain
destinations. Moreover with this Brexit and Covid-19 also impacted economies and
business operations of the airlines.
 Economical: The airways previously get impacted negative in many terms because many
government interventions and political stir results in the pound rates which gets
depreciated and revenues were also down to the company (Mercier, G. and Deslandes,
G., 2020).
 Social: Passengers who are usually goes on a journey are looking for the trusted airlines
and also make sure that their journey will go smoothly and safe but the customers do get
impacted when the economies drops as a result it increase the prices but they are more
worried about the growing prices. Customers are looking for the opportunities which
provide them services at a affordable prices.
 Technological: Passengers are likely to do online bookings and make their journey
smoother and quicker, also to save time; technologies plays very essential role in airlines,
such as constant checking at their websites, keep customers updated and answer the
queries that customers have asked.
 Legal: One of the major factor that affects its business operations is trade unions. It has
negatively influence the British Airways due to many strike activities. In a recent incident
of airlines a strike happen which have lasted for three days which results in many

cancellations of flights, there was also deficiency of crew members and employees
affected the business operations where the demands of union for freeze pay and change in
working environment.
 Environment: Water, air, noise pollution, land take and waste management are the most
common factors of environment which these airlines have to face. Weather changes also
affects the airlines business and they have to cope up with these changes. To stand with
this problem, the government and policy makers have to smartly make rules and
regulations which will help the airlines to maximize the progress of radiations.
Evaluation of changes in the factors of PESTLE analysis.
It has been analyzed from the pestle analysis and macro environmental factors of the
British Airways that are likely to influence the supply and demand levels of organization and
their cost as well.
Opportunities from the factors in PESTLE analysis:
Brexit was never about improving the aviation system of Europe but there were foremost
apprehensions that existing circumstances would be seriously wrinkled. But the after the Brexit,
it will create many opportunities and threats for the British airways some are mentioned below:
Opportunities:
 Traffic rights between UK and EU are reserved with no limits or price regulations:
The rights to fly to and from each other place are preserved which ensures the traffic
majority involved in UK and EU destinations for both sides. These traffic rights are come
with no volume, aircraft or trade liberalization features.
 Cargo fifth freedoms are permitted: This also impact the services that is they are no
longer continue their services to a third nation. Cargo fifth freedoms are permitted if both
countries member states together.
 Flexibility on UK airline ownership is aimed mainly at British Airways: The
multinational airline group requires to be majority European owned so that their
subsidiaries Aer Lingus, Vueling and Iberia possibly will remain EU airlines. Other
groups subsidiaries and continue to operate as airlines.
Threats:
 Increase border control in passenger management: UK’s government has lined out
the choice of left behind within the single market and custom union, strict border is an
expected post outcome of Brexit. More resources will have to be owed to management of
passenger and operations of border (Legaki, N.Z. and Et.al., 2020). Airlines are
supposing more delays related to passport control requirements and increased visa,
addition to this, missed flight connections due to logistic challenges.
 Decline in airline revenues: Airlines can suppose more risk of revenue drops because of
the effect of Brexit, in the worst case scenario, a couple of mass passenger ticket cancels
which are up to 5 million according to one business group. Moreover, there are more
likely financial concerns which fallouts in poor passenger practice.

British airways addressing their strengths to overcome threats and weaknesses:
 This airline paid a lot of time on their training programs of their staff so that they can get
the best employee which help to serve better customer service (Honeyman, R. and Jana,
T., 2019). Because British Airways has gone through many challenges and problems such
as granting of sick absence, cabin crew strike, demand for increasing of wages and many
more.
 By using many advanced and latest technologies British Airways familiarize online
services for their customers which has create a great opportunity to gain competitive
advantage by creating importance for their customers as well.
 To overcome their weaknesses they take a feedback and reviews from customers which
helps to support and make a great connection with their customers to improve
themselves.
 They seek for opportunities by invest more in their services which helps to promote
themselves and to generate more revenue for the company. If the marketing strategies are
not exact and innovative then there are risks of losing out potential customers competitive
flights.
Different styles of leadership.
Meaning of leadership:
Leadership in a management is a skill of an individual which is used to influence and
motivate others towards the accomplishment of goals and objectives. Leadership used to
motivates the employees to a higher level of performance by maintaining and build the strong
human relations. It is important to management of companies because it helps to increase the
efficiency and productivity. To provide direction, implementing plans and motivating
employees, leaders in the organization such as British Airways have developed with specific
leadership styles which are mentioned below:-
1. Authoritarian Leadership: This type of leadership style makes a leader to enforce
expectations and outline consequences. It is a one person show who can uncover and turn
out the most difficult situations to a most successful when a team leader is most
experienced (Syed, J. and Ying, Y. H. eds., 2019). It helps the team members to provide
clear guidelines by the leader. It is a type of leadership where a leader don't just throw
orders on their team members but also take time to explain his ideas and thoughts in front
of them. So that it motivates the employees to understand what the company wants in
their goals and what will be going to happen when they achieve it.
Pros:
 It will help to get consistent results.
 Chain of command will clearly underlined.
Cons:
 It does not focus on team’s creativity and innovation.
 It will lead to employee’s turnover.

2. Participative leadership: In this type of leadership, team leader involves their members
of the team in the decision-making process through which members feel engaged,
motivated, included to contribute their best in the decision-making process. The leader
will generally have the conversation with their teammates if team members are not agree
with the decision it may take time to complete the process.
Pros:
 Enhances the level of productivity.
 Supports creativity of employee.
Cons:
 It is a time-consuming process.
 If employees are not talented and sufficient it will lead to poor decisions.
3. Delegative leadership: Delegative leadership is also be understand as laissez-faire
leadership. This is mainly focus on allotting resourcefulness to the team members. Team
members are proficient enough and take duties and prefer themselves to engage in
individual task then this will result in successful strategy. But somehow if team members
are not agree with the decisions this may categorizes the group and results will in poor
motivation and low morale.
Pros:
 Supports highly to creativity and innovation.
 Creates positive environment.
Cons:
 Difficulty to adopt changes.
 Not define command responsibility.
4. Transactional leadership: Transactional leadership styles depends on the transactions
between leader and their followers which involves punishments, rewards and some others
take and gets to get the task completed (Kottaridi, C., Giakoulas, D. and Manolopoulos,
D., 2019). In this style, the leaders some develop some goals and aims for the team
members and in return they will get rewards to complete. So that it can be understandable
that the process of give and take established some practices and procedures in an efficient
manner.
Pros:
 Employees are free to select reward system.
 Enhances motivation and productivity.
Cons:
 Innovation and creativity diminished.
 Empathy is not appreciated.

5. Transformational leadership: This type of leadership expresses that leader sets a
specific goal with a clear vision which used to motivate, empower and encourage the
employees in the firm where a leader also acts a role model for their followers. This will
support the company to grow and figure out the forthcoming achievement of the
company.
Pros:
 It supports in decreased employee turnover rate.
 It supports high value on relationships.
Cons:
 Consent is essential.
 Feedback is needed.
It has been evaluated that authoritarian leadership style is the best leadership style for the
British Airways because it provides several benefits to the organization such as when a leader
uses this type of style in his leadership will serve consistent results (Heerikhuize, R., 2019). It
uses different experiences of leader that will help to reduce time which are spent on crucial
decisions, which also supports to reduces mistakes which are implemented in the plans and
procedures.
Recommendation of suitable leadership style.
As per the viewpoint of Samson, D. (2020). Participative leadership style is a great way
for leaders who are attentive in decision making and whole team contributions. In this type of
leadership style, members in the team will join hands together to make a specific and certified
decision which encourages members to participate. It is also known as democratic leadership. It
has five key traits which are as follows:-
 Involve subordinates in the process of decision making.
 A leader is open-minded and welcoming.
 Make subordinates to face real time situation that can be good or bad in all the
circumstances.
 Counselling, coaching, training, learning and development opportunities accessed by
leader to their team members.
 Motivates employee to understand the moral of the organization with suitable actions that
can be taken into consideration to keep it up as possible.
In this type of leadership, employees are motivated and involved heavily in the activities and
task of organization. It helps them to grow in their development and puts efforts in order to get
done.
Benefits of participative leadership style:-
 It facilitates a free flow of ideas and opinions. In the process of decision making each and
every employee puts his ideas and some contribution in the decision-making process

(Heerikhuize, R., 2019). To make a decision in which opinions and ideas of all the
employees are evaluate so that better decision can be made and implement.
 It helps to decreases the competition. Employees made a contribution by putting ideas
into the process which is evaluated by a team or group and it will lead a chance for the
incorporation into the practice of company, then the concern is less about original
possession of an idea.
 It helps to enhances morale. When employees are listen by the team leader then it will be
more likely to put contribution and valued by the team. This is a ultimate requisite for a
glad and motivated personnel in the company.
When team members are get the information and invest their time into their workings and for
the goals of organization. Here, employees must express their enthusiasm and thoughts and have
the ability to learn about the information (Hoerl, R. W. and Snee, R. D., 2020). It has been also
considered that problems must be clearly defined to get appropriate solution so that it could be at
least visualize but if the team members are not understandable about the issue when it is not
likely to make meaningful contributions to get an appropriate solution. If the employees are not
participate then this will undo all the leads which are mentioned below:
 Free flow of ideas and opinions will be stop.
 It increases the competition among team members and a sense of urgency.
 If the environment will turn sour, the employee’s morale will also get decreased.
Commenting on the Corporate Social Responsibilities.
CSR or corporate social responsibility in the aviation industry can be understood as a
strategic business activity that can help to enhancing the sustainability for the organization. CSR
includes the commitment of an organization to manage the social, environment and economical
effects of their business operations and handle them with responsibility and in the line with
expectations of public. In the context of British Airways, it has claimed that have carried out all
the CSR activities together at one place (Hasegawa, H., 2019). They have set the challenging
aims to reduce and recycle waste, reduce carbon emissions as well as minimizing air and noise
pollution. British Airways have committed to reach the target of UK’s government of reduction
of carbon emissions by 2050.
Triple Bottom Line Concept:-
Triple Bottom Line is a unique concept for the development of community that
incorporates sustainable development, environmental stewardship and social justice. The TBL is
comprises of social, economic and environmental which are mentioned for British Airways
under below:-
 Social Responsibilities: British Airways supports in the form of free flights, funding,
excess baggage, cargo space, merchandise or fundraising events. They also claims that
their main priorities are to support education and youth development, sustainability in the
tourism and heritage, supporting colleagues and environment.
 Environmental Responsibilities: British Airways was claimed as a first airline which
reports the performance of environment (Silva, E., 2019). These responsibilities are to

minimize cost for travel in a more effective manner. By using advanced technologies they
minimize their impact which includes engines, airframes, alternative fuels.
 Economic Responsibilities: British Airways is playing the main role in the aviation
industry to develop and promote effective solutions for post Kyoto admission policy,
through the dedicated group of companies named admission global association of
European airlines and international air transport association (Haseeb, M. and Et.al.,
2019).
CONCLUSION
From the above report it has been concluded that British Airlines is one the leading brand
in airline industries. The report analyses the internal and external factors of the airline company,
which helps to address the where the company lacking, and take appropriate actions to minimize
the risk to get success. There are several types of leadership style are mentioned in the report
which helps them to motivate employees as well as increased efficiency of the company.

REFERENCES
Books and Journals:
Garzella, S. and Et.al., 2021. Business model innovation in SMEs: the role of boundaries in the
digital era. Technology Analysis & Strategic Management, 33(1), pp.31-43.
Ghita, M. and Et.al., 2020, May. Geospatial business intelligence and cloud services for context
aware digital twins development. In 2020 IEEE International conference of Moroccan
Geomatics (Morgeo) (pp. 1-6). IEEE.
Gurca, A. and Et.al., 2021. Managing the challenges of business-to-business open innovation in
complex projects: A multi-stage process model. Industrial Marketing Management, 94, pp.202-
215.
Haseeb, M. and Et.al., 2019. Role of social and technological challenges in achieving a
sustainable competitive advantage and sustainable business performance. Sustainability, 11(14),
p.3811.
Hasegawa, H., 2019. Asian business and management: Theory, practice and perspectives. Red
Globe Press.
Heerikhuize, R., 2019. Factors that contribute to scaling up an inclusive business: an
exploratory comparative case study between two manufacturing businesses operating in a BoP
an developed context (Master's thesis, University of Twente).
Hoerl, R. W. and Snee, R. D., 2020. Statistical thinking: Improving business performance. John
Wiley & Sons.
Honeyman, R. and Jana, T., 2019. The B Corp handbook: How you can use business as a force
for good. Berrett-Koehler Publishers.
Khoza, D. S., 2019. Exploring business studies teachers experiences of learning through
professional learning communities in the context of curriculum changes: a case of five schools in
the Pinetown district (Doctoral dissertation).
Kottaridi, C., Giakoulas, D. and Manolopoulos, D., 2019. Escapism FDI from developed
economies: The role of regulatory context and corporate taxation. International Business
Review, 28(1), pp.36-47.
Legaki, N.Z. and Et.al., 2020. The effect of challenge-based gamification on learning: An
experiment in the context of statistics education. International journal of human-computer
studies, 144, p.102496.
Mercier, G. and Deslandes, G., 2020. Formal and Informal Benevolence in a Profit-Oriented
Context. Journal of Business Ethics, 165(1), pp.125-143.

Samson, D., 2020. Operations/supply chain management in a new world context. Operations
Management Research, 13, pp.1-3.
Silva, E., 2019. The state and capital in Chile: Business elites, technocrats, and market
economics. Routledge.
Syed, J. and Ying, Y. H. eds., 2019. China’s Belt and Road Initiative in a Global Context:
Volume I: A Business and Management Perspective. Springer.