Organizational Behaviour Analysis: WestJet Airlines' Challenges

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of WestJet Airlines, focusing on the company's organizational behaviour and the challenges it faces. The report begins with a brief history of WestJet, highlighting its origins and growth within the aviation industry. It then delves into the symptoms of the problems, particularly concerning payment issues and employee unrest, especially among pilots. Major problems are identified, including payment disputes, contracting out of jobs, and the absence of a union. The report explores the causes of these problems, such as rapid expansion and its impact on staff well-being and organizational culture. It presents several alternative solutions, including forming employee committees, revising organizational structures, and freezing hiring processes. The most appropriate solution is deemed to be the formation of a committee to address payment issues and employee concerns, with a detailed implementation plan. The report concludes with references to supporting literature on organizational behaviour and management.

Running head: ORGANISATIONAL BEHAVIOUR
ORGANISATIONAL BEHAVIOUR
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Summary
In the given article is discussed the history of the WestJet Airlines and the issues that the
company is facing at the given point of time. The company was introduced to the market holding
the hands of Clive Beddoe, an active entrepreneur in the sector of real estate. The entrepreneur
had made the charter plane, which he had bought for his own personal use, available to the other
businessmen as well via the services of the airlines company, Morgan Air. The response to this
service had been positive thereby aiding the owner of Morgan Air, Tim Morgan and two other
businessmen from Calgary, Mark Hill and Donald Bell to think of a business venture in the field
of the airlines. The three people had found out that there are a number of factors that have
influenced the airlines industry in the past. The clients had complained about a number of factors
that may have posed to be a problem for them. They agreed on the issue that the best way to
satisfy the clients was to manage and take care of the staff that would in turn help the staff to
serve the clients better. The employees of WestJet are always asked to think of innovative ways
to enhance the satisfaction of the employees while keeping an eye on the reduction of the costs to
the company. This article mainly deals with the history of the airline company, WestJet and the
ways that the company uses to reduce the costs and at the same time enhance the satisfaction of
the customers of the company. This article in discussion has also highlighted some of the
problems that it has regarding the issues of the payment of their staff, especially the pilots.
Symptoms
The main symptoms of the problems that are being faced by the staff at WestJet are the
problems that are faced by the pilots regarding the issues of payment. The pilots have
complained that the management had curbed a huge number of their rights and payments. The

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company had grown at very fast pace and has recruited a huge number of people in the various
fields of activities that the company is engaged in. The company had experienced an almost 50%
growth per aircraft in the nine years as per the article. As a result, the company has been facing a
fall in its cost of operating per seat mile as well as the revenue that is generated per seat mile.
This has resulted in the unrest among the staff especially the pilots. The company had modeled
itself based on the Southwest Airlines but did not follow the system of the airlines that allowed
the formation of a union. This had also resulted in the unrest among the employees who are not
employed under the company directly like those that serve at the ticket counters or the
turnaround crew at the worldwide destinations that are being accessed by the WestJet Airlines.
Major problems
The major problems that the company is facing are the issues of the payment that has
been raised by the pilots and the other crew members of the concern. This has resulted in the
creation of an issue concerning the employees of the concern (Eid et al, 2012). The contracting
out of the jobs has resulted in the lowering of the revenues that have been generated by the
company in the past. The promotional schemes and the structure of the company have allowed
the promotion of the first man to the position of the pilot in a very short time period. There have
been a number of the pilots thus who have been revolting against the measures that have been
taken by the leadership teams of the concern in order to preserve the culture of the organization.
The other problem that the company is majorly facing is the fact that there is no existence of a
union of the employees who are involved in the organization. The workers want the organization
to allow them the rights to form a union within the company that they may refer to in cases
where they might need to raise the issues that they need to bring to the notice of the concerned

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authorities. The company was observed to have outgrown some of the policies that the company
had set in the past.
Causes
The causes of facing these problems lie at the fact that the company has been expanding
at a faster pace. Thus the factors that contribute to the well being of the staff and the factors that
influence the organizational culture had been affected too. The main focus of the company,
according to Beddoe, lay on the risks that are imposed by the staff of the organization. Durfy, the
executive vice president, Marketing and Sales, had pointed out that it was the duty of the leader
to maintain the value set of the company that was set by the founding members of the company.
The pilots of the company have raised their concerns against the contract offer that was
circulated among them. The contract offer had depicted a large amount of adjustment towards
the compensation that was provided to the pilots. The management had taken this decision in
order to keep parity with the market pay as per the commercial aviation industry of Canada.
This step had brought about several changes to the current scheme of payment that
existed within the company. This plan had received a number of negative feedback from the
concerned employees during the road show that was organized by the leadership team of the
concerned aviation company. The pilot team of the organization had also provided a huge
number of negative feedbacks to the plan and thereby has led the leadership teams to a position
when they are at crossroads regarding the future course of their action.

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Alternatives for resolving the issue
The concerned authorities of the company, WestJet should look into the matter that the
employees are a part of a certain committee that helps in looking into the matters of the wages.
The committee should look into the matters of the benefits that should be awarded to the
employees. The company should share a part of the earned profits with the employees. The
distribution of this profit must be in accordance with the posts that they hold in the concern
(Powell & DiMaggio, 2012). The pilots, in this case, should be allowed to form a committee of
their own which they would refer to in cases of these types of problems where they feel that their
benefits and their pays have been deducted or lessened by any chances. The ground staff should
also be allowed to have access to such a committee that would help to put forward their issues
across to the leadership teams of the organization.
The other alternative that may be suggested to help the organization to cope with the
issue that they have been facing is to revise the structure of the organization. The pay package
should be revised according to the hierarchy that is maintained within the organization. The
organizational leaders should keep in mind the fact that there should be a certain amount of
hierarchical gap between each and every post within the organization. The promotional schemes
of the organization should be revised in order to maintain the necessary hierarchical gap within
the organization (Berman et al, 2012). In case of the company in discussion, WestJet, the
promotional schemes should be made to affect the employees after a longer period of serving at a
single post. The first officer should serve a certain period of time in his post to gain eligibility to
get promoted to the post of the pilot.
There is another way that the company may take resort to is the freezing the hiring
process till the crisis period gets over. The company may face lesser problems if it controlled the

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hiring process that is aiding the increment of the workforce of the company (Anderson, 2013).
This might in turn help in the providing of the current employees with the proper pay package.
This may prove to be a short term solution and may provide the leadership team of the company
a certain window of time so that they can discuss the issue with the current employees and
therefore arrive at a more comfortable solution for the issues that they are facing. The company
may also try to improve the revenue per available seat mile that have been observed to be on the
decline for a few years. The leaders of the company might try to explain the current situation to
the employees and may ask for the employees to suggest measures to avoid the same.
Solution
Among all the alternative solutions suggested above, the most appropriate solution in
order to address the condition that the Canadian aviation company is facing would be to allow
the formation of a committee to look into the issue of the payments that is followed by the
concerned company. This committee would consist of the representative members of each of the
groups of posts that are offered by the company. This may prove to be beneficial for the
leadership teams of the company as well as the other employees of the same concern (Kelly,
2012). There should be regular meetings that need to be held in order to address the issues that
are brought up by the employees of the concern. The committee may also help to provide a better
connect to the employees that work for the company in the international locations that the
aviation company is gaining access to in the recent years. The employees at those locations may
not have direct access to the concerned authorities whom they could approach for the help that
they require for a certain kind of problem that they may be facing in their concerned areas of
work.

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Implementation
The company should form this committee by the process of election. The members of this
committee should be the employees of the concern. These members of this committee should be
able to take decisions based on the feedback that they receive from the employees that are
working in the concern. The committee should have branches at all the locations where the
aviation committee operates. The committee should hold meetings with the leaders of the
organization on a regular basis so as to ensure the fact that there is no unrest among the
employees of the organization (Belobaba, Odoni & Barnhart, 2015). This committee, however,
does not hold the rights to interfere in every aspect of the concern. The committee should be
given access to the fields of contradiction related to the issues of the payments of remuneration
and the benefits of the staff. The committee should be give access to the conditions wherein the
equality of the staff is concerned.

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References
Anderson, V. (2013). Research methods in human resource management: investigating a
business issue. Kogan Page Publishers.
Belobaba, P., Odoni, A., & Barnhart, C. (Eds.). (2015). The global airline industry. John Wiley
& Sons.
Berman, E. M., Bowman, J. S., West, J. P., & Van Wart, M. R. (2012). Human resource
management in public service: Paradoxes, processes, and problems. Sage.
Eid, J., Mearns, K., Larsson, G., Laberg, J. C., & Johnsen, B. H. (2012). Leadership,
psychological capital and safety research: Conceptual issues and future research
questions. Safety science, 50(1), 55-61.
Kelly, J. (2012). Rethinking industrial relations: Mobilisation, collectivism and long waves.
Routledge.
Powell, W. W., & DiMaggio, P. J. (Eds.). (2012). The new institutionalism in organizational
analysis. University of Chicago Press.