Organizational Change Management in Air India: A Detailed Analysis

This report examines the organizational change management (OCM) implemented by Air India. Facing significant financial losses and employee unrest, the airline adopted a structured approach to change, including assessing the need for change, communicating the changes to employees, and implementing and stabilizing the new processes. The report references Kotter's 8-step model and highlights the importance of addressing employee resistance through proper communication and training. The analysis details Air India's strategies to overcome challenges, such as salary delays and flight performance issues, and the positive outcomes achieved, including improved financial performance and on-time flight metrics. The report concludes that Air India's OCM has been successful and provides valuable insights into managing change within the airline industry, referencing the impact of change management theories and real-world application.

Organizational Change Management in Air India
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Table of Contents
Introduction................................................................................................................................3
Conclusion.................................................................................................................................3
References..................................................................................................................................5
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Introduction
Organizational change management can be defined as a structured approach to cater to the
changing needs of an organization. Change management is a process of creating, adopting
and implementing changes such as policies, cultures, technologies, roles and responsibilities
of employees. Change is extremely needed for an organization to grow and succeed. In other
words, the term change management refers to a framework used to manage the outcome of
any change related to business process, organizational structure and organizational culture
(Rosemond and Williams, 2012). Air India, founded by J R D Tata in 1932, is run by a
government-owned enterprise that is headquartered in Delhi. It is the oldest airlines in India.
The company flies aircraft serving around 94 international and domestic destinations. Though
a reputed and popular airline, Air India faced some major crisis in recent years. It incurred a
huge loss (Sanjai, 2009) for a continuous seven years. Moreover, in 2016, the pilots went on
strike demanding for high pay. The organization has adopted organizational change
management to come out of the situation and survive. The company has started following a
structured process of change management that assesses the necessity of change,
communicates the same, implements the change, documents and establishes the change.
Pollack & Pollack, (2015) states, according to Kotter’s 8-step model change management is
implemented in eight steps starting by creating a sense of crisis. In the case of Air India, the
crisis was already in place to be acted on. To revive from the situation, the leaders
communicated the necessity of the change and communicated them to the employees. And
finally, the change has been implemented and stabilized.
Conclusion
According to popular change management theories, resistance from people as has been
asserted by Boohene, Rosemond and Williams (2012) are the major challenge in change
management. Usually, the fear of unknown causes resistance. Air India has taken a strategy
of proper communication and training to handle the resistance from the employees. As
mentioned in the report, the company was going through huge losses for consecutive years.
The crisis was clear. The crisis was communicated to the employees. Jadhav has announced a
15 days delay of salary that resulted in a two-hour protest. The company tried to handle the
loss by decreasing fare but in vain. Finally, they adopted drastic changes. The leaders
communicated the necessity of the change explaining the current situation to the employees.
The employees were given proper training and coaching so that they get ready for the change.
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As a result of the OCM, the company has started to see the difference. In 2012-13, the
company has reported an earning of 19 crores before interest, tax, amortisation and
depreciation which was an achievement for the company (Shellar, 2018). On-time
performance of the flight has experienced improvement. Share is seeing a rise as well. The
company is expecting a net profit by 2020. The change management adopted by the company
was on the right track and has been made a practice. In a nutshell, the OCM adopted by Air
India is successful and the result is visible to everyone.
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References
Boohene, Rosemond, and Asamoah Appiah Williams., 2012. “Resistance to Organisational
Change: A Case Study of Oti Yeboah Complex Limited.” International Business and
Management, 3(1), pp.135-145.
Sanjai, P. R.,2009. “A 7-Step Action Plan to Rescue Air India.” Https://Www.Livemint.Com,
Livemint, www.livemint.com/Companies/85xRXWDxVBBjbYOzBSkT3M/A-7step-action-
plan-to-rescue-Air-India.html. Accessed 1 Oct. 2019.
Shellar, M., 2018. Air India Limited: Project Report. International Journal of Engineering
Research And Management (IJERM), 05(06), pp. 2349 - 2358.
Pollack, J. and Pollack, R., 2015. Using Kotter’s eight stage process to manage an
organisational change program: Presentation and practice. Systemic Practice and Action
Research, 28(1), pp.51-66.
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