Analyzing HRM Issues at Silvertail Airlines: A Case Study Report

This report presents an executive summary of a case study on Silvertail Airlines, a company undergoing restructuring to attract a younger customer base, leading to the potential elimination of older employees. The analysis employs various diagnostic tools, including fishbone diagrams, force field analysis, and Johari Window, to understand the HRM problems. It proposes interventions based on appreciative inquiry and downsizing tables and outlines an action plan using Lewin's change model. The report covers a case study overview, identifies problems stemming from industry deregulation and internal policies, and provides detailed diagnoses using concept fans, force field analysis, and Johari Window. Assessment implications are discussed, along with proposed interventions and an action plan, culminating in a conclusion and a reference list.

HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT
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Executive summary of the case study
Silvertail is a popular airline firm, which has undergone restructuring process to attract new
segment of customers. However, the management thinks that older employees are incapable
to meet current objectives. Hence, they have taken decision to eliminate older employees.
This can have impact on their brand image. In this report, different diagnosis tools like
fishbone diagram, force field analysis were done for analyzing the problem. In addition,
different interventions are proposed by using tools like appreciative enquiry and downsizing
table. Action plan is framed through the help of Lewin’s change model.
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Table of Contents
1. Case study overview...............................................................................................................4
2. Problems of Silvertail.............................................................................................................5
3. Diagnosis of the company......................................................................................................5
4. Assessment implication........................................................................................................10
5. Interventions.........................................................................................................................11
6. Action plan...........................................................................................................................17
7. Conclusion............................................................................................................................19
Reference list............................................................................................................................20
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What are the reasons behind HR problem in Silvertail?
Procedures Policy
Technology People
Older staffs are
unwilling to leave
job
Deregulation
of industry
Good
workplace
Advanced
technologies
Need of
younger staff
1. Case study overview
The case study has mentioned two airline organizations including Singapore Airlines and
Silvertail Airlines. Both of these airline organizations are national competitors of each other.
In the 1980s, the government has made the decision of deregulation for dealing with the
increasing pressure on this industry. It has been decided that newcomers will face fewer
barriers than before in terms of entering into the market, specifically for the cases of low-cost
carriers. This decision has a great impact on the Silvertail Airline. Suddenly the level of
market competition has increased for this company and they fail to respond to this sudden
change immediately. This company has gone through certain structural changes to cope up
with this situation. They have decided to target the younger generation of customers.
However, the majority of their existing employees are older and the HR department of this
company thinks that they need younger employees to manage their new younger target
customers.
Figure 1: Fishbone diagram
(Source: Created by the Author)
In the above-mentioned fishbone diagram, it can be seen that older staff members of this
company are not ready to leave their jobs; however, new and young employees are required
to deal with young target customer groups. It can be seen that the deregulation of the airline
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industry by the Australian government has a great impact on the company policy. This
company has ensured a good workplace for its employees and they have all the advanced
technologies to beat their competitors. However, the comfortable working environment is the
main reason behind the reluctance of the staff members to leave their jobs of this company.
Due to this reason, the management consultant Bobbi and the recruitment director of this
company, Sam is planning to reduce the comfort of employees. They are going to increase
hardship for employees so that they leave their positions on their own.
2. Problems of Silvertail
For the deregulation of the airline industry, Silvertail has to face some market-related
problems. The introduction of low-cost airlines by competitors has impacted the business of
Silvertail and they lost competitive advantage. The share price of the company has reduced
and investors got angry. In response, Silvertail airlines gained a new image and promoted it
as young, innovative and new airlines. However, to match its new image and target younger
segments of customers it is essential for them to recruit young and energetic employees as
frontline staff. It is an essential problem that the majority of their frontline staff are senior and
unable to satisfy the needs of targeted customers. These employees are unwilling to leave the
job voluntarily even after offering a redundancy offer.
In response, the recruitment director of the company, Sam has taken some unethical harsh
decisions, which will harden the lives of senior employees. This includes giving the duties in
long haul flights, offering them three stars hotels during traveling. Moreover, they have
decided to rewrite the job description of the company and internal competency requirements
will be made tougher. These unethical policies will make the lives of senior employees
tougher and they can be forced to resign.
3. Diagnosis of the company
a. Concept fan
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Tackling older employees
Employer
branding Competition with industry start ups
Providing training to old employees
minating jobs of staffs with poor performanceConvincing staffs to take voluntary retirement
Promote employer employee relationship
Improve and
promote good
corporate culture
Offering contractual jobs
Brand
awareness
Brand image
Proper marketing communication
Figure 2: Concept fan
(Source: Created by the Author)
A concept fan is a technique of finding alternatives regarding a specific problem. This
process helps to find all obvious solutions to a problem (Toolkitforthinking.com, 2019). This
process of problem-solving helps in detailed diagnosis and it helps in taking a step back.
This, in turn, helps in achieving a broader viewpoint of a problem. A list of alternative or
creative solutions can be generated through the help of this diagnostic tool.
In this case study, Silvertail airlines want to match their new image and new target segment
of customers. For this restructuring process, they want to get rid of the older workforce as
soon as possible. The older workforce performs the duty of cabin crew and ground staff and
they are not fit with the company's new objectives. Management of this airline is adopting
unethical techniques for gaining a competitive advantage in the industry. However, Ugboro
(2016) stated that adopting unethical approaches for gaining a competitive advantage in the
market may decrease the satisfaction level of stakeholders and reduce the corporate image. In
the case study, it can be seen that sam has taken different unethical decisions that decrease
the motivational level of employees and can impact on staff performance. In other words, the
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employer branding of this firm will be threatened. In the concept fan diagram, different
solutions have been provided that include promoting the seniors as trainers and terminating
those employees who have poor performance. Moreover, they can be offered contract basis
jobs. As opined by Gross (2015), achieving organizational goals can be done properly by
satisfying the needs of internal and external stakeholders.
In addition, employer branding can also be done through the help of the promotion of the
employer-employee relationship. This could be a positive step to brand the firm in front of
potential employees (Theurer et al. 2018). The new candidates could build a positive image if
current employees are treated ethically. Moreover, they can improve their corporate culture to
satisfy the needs of current employees, which can help employees to perform better.
Maslow’s need hierarchy can be followed to identify the needs of employees and motivate
them to work better (Davies et al. 2018).
b. Force field analysis
The force field analysis allows us to review all kinds of driving and resisting forces of the
company that can greatly influence the change implementation process. As opined by Datta
and Basuil (2015), driving forces must be more powerful than the resisting forces. The
following figure is showing the force field analysis of Silvertail. This organization has taken
the decision of restructuring as they are targeting a new younger customer group. The
government of Australia has suddenly made the decision of deregulation and it has increased
the level of market competition. This is a driving force that is positively influencing the
planned change in Silvertail. On the other hand, this company has decided to target a younger
customer group and this fact can be considered as a driving force. Leaders of this company
follow the transformational leadership style and they support the need for implementing the
change within this company. As suggested by Schenkel and Teigland (2017),
transformational leaders are counted as driving forces of change.
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Increased level of market competition
Transformational leadership
Reluctance of staff members towards changes
Reluctance of older staff member to leave
Company does not value older workers
New younger target market
Driving forces Restraining forces
Change: Attracting new young customer group with the help of new brand image
Weightage
5
4
3
Weightage
3
2
5
Total Weightage=12 Total Weightage=10
Figure 3: Force field analysis
(Source: Created by the Author)
This company is facing restraining forces as well. There are certain barriers that are
preventing this company from developing a new and improved brand image. Older
employees of this company have shown reluctant to comply with the change. As mentioned
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by Benos et al. (2016), most of the workers show a negative attitude towards change as they
fear to leave the comfort of work. This company wants the older employees to leave their
jobs because they want to hire new as well as younger employees. However, it is very
obvious that employees do not want to leave their jobs. The most remarkable restraining
force of this company is the misunderstanding of Bobbie and Sam. They are assuming that
older employees cannot satisfy the needs of new younger customers. Instead, they need to
value their old and experienced employees in this regard.
According to the weights mentioned in the above image, it can be seen that the total
weightage of the driving forces is 12 and the total weightage of the resisting forces is 10. It is
clear that driving forces, in this case, are more powerful than the restraining forces. Hence,
the change can be implemented.
c. Johari Window
Johari Window is a technique that helps to evaluate the understanding between themselves
and others. As stated by Chow and Tsui (2017), Johari window confronts the knowledge of
self and others regarding a particular fact. In this case, there are many things that are
unknown to the management and there are other things that are unknown to employees. The
following Johari window may explain it in detail.
Known to self Not known to self
Known
to others
➢ The company has been
restructured
➢ The market competition has
increased due to the
deregulation
➢ This company provides their
best effort to satisfy their
customers
● Employees of this company are
experienced and they can satisfy
the needs of younger target
customers
● Brand image can be maintained
with the help of existing loyal
and potential employees
Not
known to
others
❏ The company is planning to
reduce the comfort level of
employees so that they leave
their jobs on their own
❏ This company does not value
their older workers
❖ The HR management of this
company needs to communicate
with their employees to discuss
their new business goals
❖ Both older employees and the
management needs to cooperate
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with each other for
implementing the change
Table 1: Johari Window
(Source: Created by the Author)
From the above-mentioned table, it can be seen that there are four quadrants of the window.
As suggested by Carrión (2016), the management of this company needs to review the facts
that they do not know, to develop more effective strategies to deal with the current situation.
Bobbi and Sam need to value their old employees. They do not understand that troubling their
employees may prevent them to develop a good image. On the other hand, older employees
do not know about the planning of troubling them. Both of the parties of this case need to
communicate with each other to successfully implement the planned change to target new
younger customer group through creating a new brand image.
4. Assessment implication
The diagnosis of problems of Silvertail has created an idea about the issues that they are
currently facing. The issues that they are currently facing can impact seriously on the
reputation of the company and can reduce performance. However, the issue that silvertail is
facing can be solved through ethical thinking and proper analysis.
The main issue has arisen due to rebranding and restructuring of the company to gain an
innovative and young brand image. This change in the organization is rapid and cannot be
adopted by the older employees and so the management of the organization has decided to
terminate older employees and recruit younger ones. As opined by Ahmad and Daud (2016),
downsizing is an organization needs to be conducted through discussion and in an ethical
way. They think that this could help them to gain newly framed objectives of the young brand
image. However, this unethical action can reduce the motivation level of employees and can
impact on their corporate image. On the other hand, Tidd and Bessant (2018) contradicted
that unethical termination of employees can create legal issues for an organization.
Silvertail airlines have also faced another issue that has impacted on their performance. In the
case study, Bobbi said that many of the older employees do not show much enthusiasm and
initiative to achieve organizational objectives. The issue is that they have not understood the
direction of the company, which may have occurred due to less interaction and ineffective
communication with the management. As said by Lewis (2019), ineffective communication
between management and employees creates a gap between them and organizational
objectives cannot be fulfilled. For overcoming the issue, it is necessary to increase
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participation of older employees in the process of decision making (Rust and McKinley,
2016). This can help the management team to function properly and effective communication
with internal stakeholders can help the firm to implement change properly. As opined by
Petrou et al. (2018), effective communication with employees increases their involvement
with the change process and reduces the chance of resistance from them.
5. Interventions
a. Appreciative enquiry
This is a change management approach, which focuses on identifying what is working well
and analyzing the process in a detailed way. As stated by Raza et al. (2018), the focus of
organizational change is required to be analyzed for achieving proper results.
Stage Purpose Guided Questions Expected outcomes
Discover To gain an idea about the
factors that can motivate
employees to work well
● Do you find
interest to work in
this company?
● Did you achieve
your goals working
in this company?
● Which factors
motivate you to
work in this firm?
Staff of this
organization can find
reasons that can help
them to continue
working in this
organization.
Imagine Creating employer
branding for silvertail
airlines
● How can you help
the company to
gain a good brand
image?
● How can you
support the
company to change
its corporate
culture?
● Are you interested
to get involved in
the process of
Older employees can
be retained and the
new image of the
firm can be
communicated to
them. Moreover,
enthusiasm of the
older employees in
this change can be
known.
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decision making?
Design Change implementation
is the main purpose of
this stage.
● Which factor is
creating enthusiasm
in you to bring
change in this firm?
● Did you feel that
the current work
environment of
silvertail is suitable
to bring the
change?
The satisfaction rate
of employees will
increase and they can
get motivated to
achieve
organizational
objectives.
Deliver To determine the way of
change
● According to your
view, what changes
need to prioritize?
● What is your
personal goal that
you want to
achieve while
working in this
firm? How it is
aligned with
organizational
goals?
● How the firm can
help you to achieve
your professional
and personal goals?
The involvement of
the employees can
get increased with
the company's
operations and
change management
process.
Table 2: Appreciative inquiry
(Source: Created by the Author)
b. Downsizing
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