Analysis of British Airways' Management and Organizational Structure

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of British Airways, focusing on its management and organizational structure. It begins with an introduction to British Airways, highlighting its position as a major UK airline and its operational scope. The report then delves into the airline's hierarchical organizational structure, explaining how it functions and its implications, particularly in the context of Brexit. The impact of Brexit on British Airways is a central theme, with the report examining how the airline can adapt its strategies. Furthermore, the report explores modern management approaches, specifically the situational approach, to address the challenges posed by Brexit. Finally, it applies Porter's Five Forces framework to analyze the competitive landscape of the airline industry, providing insights into threats and opportunities for British Airways. The report concludes with a summary of the key findings and references relevant sources.

MANAGEMENT AND
ORGANISATIONS

TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
TASK 1............................................................................................................................................1
Introduction to British airways...................................................................................................1
TASK 2 ...........................................................................................................................................2
The organisational structure of British Airways and How it helps the company function
effectively in Wake of Brexit......................................................................................................2
TASK 3............................................................................................................................................3
Modern management approach to help British airways with Brexit imminent.........................3
TASK 4............................................................................................................................................4
porter's fiver forces framework applying to British Airways...................................................4
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................6
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................7

INTRODUCTION
The management and organisation is related to each other and management is part of the
organisation and perform various operations. There are various operations performed by
management that consist of various functions such as planning, organisation staffing etc. these
function are performed by management in order to achieve the objective of the organisation. This
assignment will include the British airways which is involved in service sector and provide travel
services to the customers. It is the largest airline company in UK. This assignment will include
task which provide understanding of the organisation and its scope and scale, its organisational
structure etc. This study will also include Modern management approach which will helps the
company with Brexit imminent. Also, it will include porter's five forces model in relation to
organisation.
TASK 1
Introduction to British airways
British Airways is the largest airline company in UK which provide various service to its
customers. Headquarter of British Airways is in Waterside, Harmondsworth in UK. It provides
travel services to its customers in different countries with food and drink facilities. It also
provides the customers with various travel packages at affordable prices to its customers. It also
provides Wi-Fi facilities in sky to its passengers (Melles and Unsworth, 2015). It provides its
services over 160 destinations. The scope and scale of British Airways is wide and it operates at
a large scale in the industry. The total revenue of British Airways in 2016 was £11,443 million
and give a tough competition to its various competitors.
The organisation was founded in the year 1974 after the British airways board was
established by the British government. This organisation is providing its services in UK and
various other destination to increase the productivity and profitability of the firm. British
Airways is merged with Iberia in order to create the international airline group. IAG is the Third
– the largest airline group in terms of revenue. British Airways was crated by merger of four
companies that include British overseas airway's corporation, British European Airways and two
regional airlines that includes Cambrian Airways and Cardiff.
1

TASK 2
The organisational structure of British Airways and How it helps the company function
effectively in Wake of Brexit
The organisational structure followed by British Airways is hierarchy in which there are
various level of management and have a tall hierarchy. According to this organisational
structure the employees are ranked at different level in which they have different chain of
command (Ram and Anbu, 2014). The organisational structure of British airways include broad
of directors, various managers at different functional area, staff members, market and operations
directors etc. The organisation structure of British Airways will help the company in effectively
functioning its various operation.
Brexit will have its impact on the functioning of the British Airways the company have to
make various strategies and have proper coordination with the employees to plan to reduce the
impact of Brexit on the firm. There are various airlines including British Airways that fly
between UK and the rest of the EU that are covered by European common aviation Area. This
provide airlines with nine flying freedoms (Homol, 2014). After Brexit , British airline will not
be able to continue the EU flying rights. In the wake of Brexit the British Airlines can work
2
Illustration 1: British Airways
(Source: SURF’S UP! BRITISH AIRWAYS DIRECT TO
DURBAN, 2018)

effectively if the company organisational structure is effective and the staff is supportive. Brexit
will affect the British airways business as it will have its impact on travel fares. Due to Brexit
the business will have to charge higher fares for the travel due to which the customers will be
less attracted. This impact will affect the business and to reduce this impact and the business
will shift to UK in order to increase their customers base. The hierarchy organisation structure
will provide benefit to the company the authority is with top management due to which the
employees will not be able to take their own decision. Also, the hierarchical structure increase
the skills and knowledge of managers in specific area and they know to deal with the problems
related to the different situations in organisation. The organisational structure of British airways
will help them in growing their business in new market and increasing the number of passengers
from UK. By following the hierarchy organisational structure the company is able to manage
the various operations of the organisation and can monitor the performance of employees.
TASK 3
Modern management approach to help British airways with Brexit imminent
There are various management approach that includes situational, contingent and system.
The situational approach of management is applied to British airways with Brexit imminent.
3
Illustration 2: Organisational structure of British airways
(Source: British Airways Organizational Structure, 2016)

Situational approach is related to management approach that provide principles, concepts and
techniques are related to specific situation. The approach to be selected depends on the situation
present. This approach provide understanding that the management technique applied in
particular situation is not applicable to all the situations which are being faced by the
organisation.
Situational approach of management is applicable to different situation of the firm.
British airways by applying the situational approach of management can use different technique
in different situation in order to cope up with the problems such as strategic planning can help
the company in various situations. Management uses various techniques such as Budgetary
control, financial planning etc.(Anson, 2015). By applying the situational management approach
organisation can have various benefits that includes using principles on the basis of situation
present in the environment thus it is a practical approach of management. It also helps the
managers in developing their skills and knowledge by identifying various new techniques and
innovative ideas for applying the management technique to particular situation. British
airways by applying the situations approach of management can make various strategies and
techniques relating to financial planning and various growth strategies before the Brexit take
place in order to reduce the impact of Brexit on the organisation. Situational approach provide
various disadvantages which the organisation has to consider while applying principles and
strategies to the different situations such as it ignore the management principles that are
universally applicable and it focuses on situation and not on tools and resources. Situational
approach of management will help the organisation in using techniques relating to growth and
solving financial problems to different situations which will be affected by the emergence of
Brexit.
TASK 4
porter's fiver forces framework applying to British Airways
Porter provided the five factors that helps the organisation in understanding about the
industry. These five forces includes threat of new entrants, bargaining power of buyers,
bargaining power of suppliers, threat of substitute and rivalry among existing firms. Threat of new entrants : There are various barriers to the new entrants in the aviation
industry which provide restriction the new entrants in this industry so there is low threat
for British Airways of new entrants. Barriers to new entrants includes low distribution
4

channels for present for new entrants, cost of maintenance is high etc. these factors
restrict the entry of new market in the aviation industry and thus it is beneficial for British
Airways. Threat of substitute : It has been identified that there are different substitutes of the
services provided by British airways which includes different mode of transport such as
car, bus, ship and train. Customers of British airways are those that require convenience
and time saving means of travel (Poell, Kloet and Zeng, 2014). Most of the customers
prefers this mode of transport as it is the fastest mode of transport. It can be determined
that there is moderate level of threat for British airways in the industry. Bargaining power of buyer : there are many customers which are price sensitive and
there is absence of switching cost for customers due to which they can switch to different
airline company that are providing low prices to customers. This provide information that
bargaining power of buyers is high in case of British airways. Bargaining power of suppliers : The suppliers of British airways Includes suppliers that
are supplying air-planes, fuel and labourers ( Bonardi and van den Bergh, 2015). The
bargaining power of suppliers of British airways is high because there are few suppliers
of air plane and thus organisation have to maintain good relationship with their suppliers. Rivalry among existing firms : there are various organisation that are involved in
aviation industry which provide a tough competition to British airways. The biggest
competitor of British airways is easy jet. So it can be identified that British airways face
high level of rivalry among existing firm.
5

British airways in order to reduce the impact of Brexit must implement the innovative
strategic objective for the company. That may includes innovative ideas regarding the services
provided by the British airways. The company in order to reduce the impact of Brexit can adopt
diversification of the services in order to increase the customers base. British airways can
develop new services and increase their mode of transport by using car, bus, ships etc. for
providing travel services to customers. This will help them in increasing their profitability and
will assist the company in expanding their business.
CONCLUSION
From the above assignment it has concluded about management and organisation which
includes different activities of the firm. This assignment has provided information about the
organisational structure of British airways and its scope and scale that has includes hierarchical
organisational structure. Furthermore, it has applied Situational management approach that has
helped the company with Brexit imminent. Moreover, it has included porter five forces for
industry analysis of British airways that has included power of suppliers and buyers, threat of
new entry etc.
6
Illustration 3: five forces model
(Source: What is Five Forces Analysis, 2016)

REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Anson, I.G., 2015. “Assessment feedback using screencapture technology in political science”,
Journal of Political Science Education. Vol. 11 No. 4. pp. 375-390.
Bonardi, J.-P.and van den Bergh, R.G. 2015. “Integrated market and nonmarket strategy:
political knowledge and the resource-based view of the firm”, in T. C. Lawton and T.
Rajwani (Eds), The Routledge Companion to Nonmarket Strategy, Routledge. London
Homol, L. 2014. “Web-based citation management tools: comparing the accuracy of their
electronic journal citations”, The Journal of Academic Librarianship. Vol. 40 No. 6.
pp. 552-557.
Melles, A. and Unsworth, K. 2015. “Examining the reference management practices of
humanities and social science postgraduate students and academics”, Australian Academic
& Research Libraries. Vol. 46 No. 4. pp. 250-276.
Poell, T. de Kloet, J. and Zeng, G. 2014. “Will the real Weibo please stand up? Chinese online
contention and actor-network theory”, Chinese Journal of Communication. Vol. 7 No. 1.
pp. 1-18.
Ram, S. and Anbu, J.P. 2014. “The use of bibliographic management software by Indian library
and information science professionals”, Reference Services Review. Vol. 42 No. 3.
pp. 499-513.
ONLINE
British Airways Organizational Structure. 2016. [Online]. Available through: <https://research-
methodology.net/british-airways-organizational-structure/>
SURF’S UP! BRITISH AIRWAYS DIRECT TO DURBAN. 2018. Available through
:<http://www.bpesa.org.za/surfs-british-airways-direct-durban/>
What is Five Forces Analysis. 2016. [Online]. Available through :<https://www.visual-
paradigm.com/guide/strategic-analysis/what-is-five-forces-analysis/>
7

8