Unit 17: Understanding and Leading Change in British Airways Report

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of change management within British Airways. It begins with a comparison between British Airways and Virgin Airlines, examining the impact of change on their strategies and operations. The report then delves into the internal and external drivers of change, such as technological advancements, social shifts, and economic factors, and how these drivers affect leadership, team dynamics, and individual behaviors. It utilizes SWOT and PEST analyses to evaluate these influences. The report further explores strategies to minimize the negative impacts of change, identifies barriers to change, and applies force field analysis to assess driving and resisting forces. Finally, it examines leadership approaches to change initiatives, including an evaluation of their effectiveness. The report concludes with an overview of the key findings and recommendations for effective change management in the context of British Airways.

UNIT 17 UNDERSTANDING
AND LEADING CHANGE

TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
LO1..................................................................................................................................................1
P1Comparison between two organization and explanation of change impact on their strategy
and operations..............................................................................................................................1
M1 drivers of change and types of organizational change they bring.........................................3
LO 2.................................................................................................................................................4
P2 ways in which internal and external drivers of change affect leadership, team and
individual behaviours within an organization..............................................................................4
M2 Apply appropriate theories and models to critically evaluate organisational response to
change..........................................................................................................................................7
P3 Evaluate measures that can be taken to minimise negative impacts of change on
organisational behaviour..............................................................................................................7
LO 3.................................................................................................................................................9
P4Different barriers of change.....................................................................................................9
M3 Use force field analysis to analyse the driving and resisting forces and show how they
influence decision-making.........................................................................................................10
LO4................................................................................................................................................11
P5Leadership approaches to the change initiative.....................................................................11
M4- Leadership approaches during the change implementation...............................................13
D3 – critically value the effectiveness of leadership approaches and models of change
management...............................................................................................................................13
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................14
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................15

INTRODUCTION
Change management is the process of implementing new process, technology, structure
etc. within the organization to improve the performance of the company and take competitive
advantages in the market (Adil., 2016). Change management is important for the companies
because Alteration helps create new opportunities for the business and increase the company's
efficiency.
British Airways is the flag carrier airline of the United Kingdom. Companies headquarter
is in London, England nearby the Heathrow Airport. This airline company is second largest
Airline company in all over the UK on the basis of Passengers carried by them and fleet size
behind easy-jet. British Airways is the only one Airline who has successfully generated more
than 1 billion on a single year 2017 to 2018.
This report will compare British Airways and Virgin Airline on the basis of change
management implemented at their workplace. This report will evaluate the ways in which
environmental drivers of change affect the leadership teams and individual behaviour (Bousquet
and et.al., 2019). It will also provide strategies to minimize negative impact of the change and
explain the changes barriers that influence leadership decision-making in British Airways. In the
end of this report will apply lectureship approach s in the range of the British Airways.
This report has choose the British airlines for the case study because it is the company
where change has been implemented and it provided both positive and negative impact on them.
Changes such as technological implementation and reduction of the employees both type
of changes take place. It affect on the company strategies and operation both.
LO1
P1Comparison between two organization and explanation of change impact on their strategy and
operations
British Airways and Virgin Airlines are two organization where change have been
implemented. Change within the business was having huge impact on both the companies
strategies and their operation and change created barriers for their growth. Here is comparison
between British Airways and Virgin Airline on the basis of change implementation and their
impact on their organizational strategy.
British Airways and Virgin Airlines both are two competitors and both the companies are
from Uk ad top leading company (Chesley and Wylson., 2016). Both the companies went
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through the Change but British Airways want successful and Virgin Airlines was successful in
implementing change within the company. the comparison between the British Airways and
Virgin Airlines on the basis of change management and how both company implemented change.
British Airways Virgin Airlines
British Airlines if on e of the highest earning
airline within the UK and they are having good
reputation worldwide. This company is famous
for their cultural leadership, and they give
support to their employees who are working
and provide all the benefits to them, so they
can keep them all happy by working with
British Airways. Companies chief executive
Mr Bob Ayling started change management
program within the workplace of British
Airways in 90s. This program was started
despite the fact that British Airways was
earning record profit back then. Some of the
change within the company was positive for
the company and it will helps them to take
competitive advantages to the British Airways
but most of the changes within the company
was affection the employees and workers take
this negativity and it was an barrier for the
British Airways (Claßen and Schulte., 2017).
This problems directly blamed to the leaders as
the poor leadership during the change. as well
as the change management programs that the
company went through. Alying, on the other
hand argued that these change management
programs, including cost cutting and
Virgin Airline is also an one of the largest
Airline group owned by Richard Branson who
is an top entrepreneur within the UK. This
company has many times successfully
implemented the change within their
workplace, and they were successful before of
the effective leadership by the companies
landers, and they were following proper steps
of the change management which enable them
to bring changes. Technology is the driver of
the change and it has also affected the Virgin
Airlines to implement change within their
company. To take competitive advantages
within the Airway's industry leaders of the
Virgin Airlines decided to Implement new
technology within their organization. before
implementing new procedures and technology
leaders communicate with their stakeholders
and commonly decide to implement new
technology. Mainly they communicate with the
employees who are working within the
company and make them understand the needs
of changes and how it will help Virgin Airlines
to take competitive advantages within the
industry. They get proper support from their
employees which makes them implement the
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outsourcing of major departments, were indeed
necessary for long term benefit of British
airways. Company was failed to implement
change within their workplace because of their
ineffective leadership and implementation of
the change without communicating with the
companies employees and staff. It was
important for the leaders of British Airways to
follow proper steps of change management,
and they would communicate with them and
make them understand the importance of
change within the company.
change within their workplace successfully.
Not only this but there are many factors within
the workplace environment that have been
created change within the Virgin Airlines such
as Polices by the government bring the changes
in employees salaries and services prices of the
company. This all has been handle by the
Virgin Airlines effective and it is the best
examples for the other companies like British
that how to implement change. British Airline
can also follow the strategies used by the
Virgin Airlines during the change, and they can
make the changes successful.(Jalagat., 2016).
Virgin Airlines is thinking to implement new
changes and New innovations will drive
industries forward, but they will also reduce
our reliance on people power. Ideas such as
driverless cars and more advanced drones are
becoming a reality, and machines will be used
for more and more jobs in the future. Even
pilot-less planes will be become the reality in
the not too distant future.
Economy crisis what’s the change management driver who force British Airways to implement
the new changes within their organisation, company was suffering from the losses and they have
to back on the way again for that they implement the changes. changes like structural change,
implementation of new technology etc. On the other side Virgin Airways was facing competition
from the external organisations and that forces them to implement new technology at their
workplace which was new change for them. this affect on their operations and make them more
effective for the company.
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M1 drivers of change and types of organizational change they bring
There are many drivers of the change such as technology, political, social and economic
changes that can bring the change within the workplace of company and It is necessary for the
leader and managers of British Airways to implement changes accordingly.
Technology changes
Technology trends within the Airline industry change with the time and it is necessary
for the British Airways to be aware of those changes so they can stay in the competition.
teleology is also can change driver and it can boost up the procedure of company and British
Airways can grow more effectively. Social changes- demand and needs of the customers changes
with the times and it also an change driver. For exampleChange in demand of the customers
force company to understand the customers needs and implement changes accordingly.
Economical changes
It has a huge impact on the company and most of the times change within the company
take place because of the economic drivers of change. Recent economical crises Covid- 19 bring
many changes within the British Airways and these crises mostly affect on the airline industry.
Most of the countries are not approving fights and cost of the tickets also rise.For example-
British Airways have risen their ticket prices because they have to pay strategies, and they also
have fired their employees from the Job because of the loses within the business.
LO 2
P2 ways in which internal and external drivers of change affect leadership, team and individual
behaviours within an organization
Internal drivers of change that can affect leadership, team and individual behaviours within
an organization can be explained with the help of SWOT analysis
SWOT Analysis
This model can help in analysing strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats of
British Airways.
Strengths: It has a strong brand image as it is one of the well-established and known
organization. British Airways has a strong position in the market. It is the second largest airline
present in UK in terms of carrying passengers (Gupta, Gupta and Gupta, 2019). They have
excellent marketing and advertising across airline world. They pride high digital service, and
presence on internet. Thy sponsor top stopers events like Olympics, Wimbledon and many more
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that gives their brand a huge boost. Their airbuses have high fuel efficiency because of which
their operational cost reduces. These strengths directly affect team working within the
organizations and their individual behaviour because strengths of organizations motivates
employees to put more efforts upon enhancing their overall performance in order to reduce
weaknesses and increase strengths of the organization and achieve desired objectives in a proper
manner. It further help leaders in achieving main organizational goals and objectives
Weaknesses: One of their main weaknesses is their over dependency on domestic market. Their
50 percent of net revenue is generated from local or domestic market is itself. Any kind of
market slowdown or increasing intense competition in domestic market can directly impact
British Airways. These weakness can affect leadership of an organization because due to intense
competition and more dependency upon domestic market they will be requiring to bring changes
within their leadership strategies in order to change these weaknesses into strengths. It can
further impact overall performance of team members and can demotivate individual employees.
These internal factors directly affect leadership of an organization as they need to bring
changes within their current strategies as per their strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and
threats. External drivers of change that can affect leadership, team and individual behaviours
within an organization can be explained with the help of PEST analysis.
PEST Analysis British Airways
PEST analysis helps in analysis of external factors such as political, economic, social and
technological factors and ways in which these factors can affect an organization.
Political: Political stability of UK can directly affect overall profitability of British Airways as
they are majorly dependent upon UK market. Uncertainty of Brexit also has a negative influence
on BA overall business as because of this, their influence in development of European aviation
safety agency legal framework will be reduced. It can influence leadership of an organization as
they need to bring changes within their strategies accordingly.
Economical: Economic factors or economic changes can also impact British Airways both
positively and negatively (Mhlanga and Steyn, 2017). Uncertainty of Brexit has impacted overall
economy of UK in a drastic manner. This economic slowdown has impacted British Airways s
they are majorly dependent upon domestic market of UK. This can directly individual behaviour
of employees and team members because reducing profitability of organization can increase
pressure or stress upon employees. Increasing focus of leaders upon high investment in strategic
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areas and increasing focus upon enhancing customer experience has also help British Airways to
increase their overall revenue. Another factor that can affect overall operational cost of British
air ways is changing fuel prices as it can either result in increasing or decreasing fuel prices.
Social: Increasing perception of people about British Airways being a low- cost carriers can help
them in attracting a greater number of customers. They focus upon continuously enhancing their
customers experience, increasing their overall operational efficiency and reliability has also
helped them in development of positive image. This has affected individuals and team working
within the company in a positive manner because positive band image has motivated them in
increasing their overall performance and achieve desired organizational objectives in a better
manner.
Technological: Investment in digital technology and warehouse management system can help in
reducing overall operational cost and increasing customer experience (Parsons and et. al., 2016).
This factor can affect organization and leadership of a firm because adoption of new technology
and system will result in bringing changes within current strategies
PEST analysis Virgin Airlines
Political: They are being charged in different countriesfor landing, fuel taxation etc. this affects
their leadershipas they need to bring changes within their strategy accordingly.
Economical: changing fuel prices affects the company if there is increase in fuel price then it
can increase their operational cost and if fuel prices reduce then it can reduce their
operationalcostand increase profit margin.
Social: Safety measures taken by them for their employees directly affect individual behaviour
of their employee’s ad team work as well.
Technological: Adoption of improved technology has helped them to reduce their operational
cost enhanced their accuracy. This affects individual behaviour and their performance because if
employees easily accept and uses advance technology them it can increase their performance
otherwise reduce it.
M2 Apply appropriate theories and models to critically evaluate organisational response to
change.
There are various kinds of models and theories that can be used for evaluation of
organizations response to change. Continues improvement models or system theory can be used
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for predicting or proactively planning for change. One of the most commonly used model of
change management is Lewin’s change management model. This model helps in explaining that
change can be brought within an organization in three stages:
Unfreeze: in this step preparation of change is done so that people within organization can
understand need and requirement of change.
Change: At this stage real changes within company take place. At this stage good leadership and
reassurance are extremely important in order to take change forward in right direction.
Refreeze: When changes are accepted by everyone then this stage is referred in which things
goes back to normal and employees get comfortable with new changes.
P3 Evaluate measures that can be taken to minimise negative impacts of change on
organisational behaviour
One of the biggest challenges face by an organization is to implement large complex
transformation change across the company and accomplish it in successful manner. keeping
employee front of in the change management process by British airways will be helping out to
gain the key of success. It is major challenges for creating and maintaining positive culture in
team. There are few things leader of British airways to minimize negative impacts on the
effected individuals is to ensure that all employees will be treated with dignity and respect in
process There are various kinds of tool can be used to reducing impact (Gaubatz and Ensminger,
2017). Kurt lewin change model can be used by the British airways for reducing negative
impacts in the organization with further improvement in business strategy. British airways
leaders will accept the approach if ‘no one size fills all’ handling all employees separation to
minimize the impact.
Team members sense the situation of instability in the business when it comes
regarding the restricting and job elimination. British airway should have advanced signalling in
environment to make employee prepare mentally and emotionally for change and relate better
platform for pivoting and moving forward.
The British airways leader should pay major level of focus on slow implementation of
changes so that negative impact can be reduced. This stage makes believe that employee do not
return to old trends of doing work.
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Next to that continuous improvement model can be implement as new kind of approach
focussing on employee and make them understand processes, customer and drivers to positive
and sustainable aspect of change. The model has been gradually put in cycle for four steps as
Plan – British airways have to plan the structured change plan in term of issue prevailed in
business environment.
Do- In this measure process have to take place in slow process.
Check- All the data in process have the need to verified change process properly with its regular
impact in organization as well as employees is needed to be recommended.
Act - From above data, proper measure is to be taken for implementing change in order to reduce
negative impact of changes of employee as well as company.
Total quality management also focus on overall development of organization bringing up
continuous improvements with various aspect of business (Radomska. and Kozyra, 2020). This
includes of employee engagements and systematic thinking in order to have successful business
drive. TQM is helping out to bring improvement within negative change in British airways.
Hence, change management is never an easy process. Manager have to focus on the
various leadership skill to possess employee and increase motivations, satisfaction level. This
will be helping out employee to have focus on the final role, goals and responsibilities. It is
prime responsibilities of manager to have focus on process of changes within working
environments, organizational training and development activities. A system theory has been
cohesive conglomeration which are interrelated& interdependent parts in term of natural and
human-made. Every system is bounded by space and time, influenced by its environment,
defined by its structure and purpose, and expressed through its functioning.
British airways can recreate culture of learning as job security is not something any
employer and guarantee. But with creation of learning culture, it can make individuals capable
for taking up new challenges and develop educational and leadership skis. This will be helping
out in setting up future will success.
In addition, organization should provide career transition support because even being most
successful, confident and talented professionals a unexpected job loss is turning out to be
stressful, overwhelming and difficult life experiences. Firm this must imitative will provide
individuals with opportunity to reflect career strength, gaol clarification and strategy
development.
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LO 3
P4Different barriers of change
Kurt Lewin have significant contribution in the development of communication, process
management, change management and community psychology (Alavi. and Gill, 2017). In
addition, force field analysis is a graphical or visualization tool used to have supportive decision
making. The principle of force felid analysis is to take away any situation.
Force field analysis
The forces of change have the focus on main forces of action that is driving force and
restraining force. Driving force are one sustaining the change and latter one is restraining change.
his model helps out in determining which force is prevailing stronger in business environment.
So, in the change management of the driving forces are reliability, increased in term of
maintenance, have proper structuring business and workplace environments. This will be also
helpful in term of fuel efficiency in British airways. But on the other hand, hindering force are
employee stubbornness, increased cost in training and development of employee, lack of
accuracy and many more.
But the British airways have found the helping forces stronger in order to have the overall
development of employee in competitive business environment. This have made the employee
demotivate and result in low morale. Due to restructuring there is major risk company have led
to loss of 1000 jobs. Employee do not want to come out from its comfortable zone and give their
best in performing the different jobs in the business environment (Capatina, and et. al., 2017.).
Employee resist changes because fear of losing jobs or getting demotivated.
On the other hand, limited changes have become barriers to change. As the change in
hierarchy or decision-making structure can be turned out barrier in resisting the change.
Employee have the lack trust in the higher authorities which have become their main reason as
barrier to change. This have inclusion for various aspect as owner tolerance level, low esteems, a
lack of clarity. This may be defined as important barriers that can impact on organization and
individual in many ways.
There are various kind so barriers that can leadership decision making of an organization
in various ways. Some of them are as follows:
Resistance to change of employees: one of the most common factor because can work as a
barrier for British Airways is resistance of employees to change i.e. any kind of change brought
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within the organization is not easily accepted by the employees. It is important for organization
to introduce and bring changes within the firm in a proper manner and make staff members
realize importance of bringing change within the organization. Most of the employees resist
situational change (Bastin and et. al., 2019). If British airways need to restructure their overall
organizational structure then they need to adopt an effective model and introduce the new change
within the company otherwise it can directly impact satisfaction and motivational level of
employees.
Resistance to change of organization: Another factor that can work as a barrier is
resistance of organization itself. In case of restructuring change not only employees but
organization itself work as a barrier in bringing any kind of change within the organization.
Change in overall structure can directly affect decision making within the company as well
because of which it might become one of the barriers in bringing required changes within the
organization.
Other factors: relationship between employees and employer is another factor that can work as a
barrier in responding to any kind of change because if relationship between employee and
employer is not good then it can reduce trust of employee upon organization, they can resist
changes, dislike any kind of change brought within the firm and can show least interest within
change management process (Sharma, Singh. and Matai, 2018).
It is important for British Airways to focus upon adopting an appropriate model of
change management as it will help them to make their employees understand importance of
change, positive impact of change and ways in which they will be benefitted by the change.
M3 - D2Use force field analysis to analyse the driving and resisting forces and show how they
influence decision-making
Leaders are important for business for developing and achieving objectives on time. Leaders will
take about important decision at the huge level to plan for business and implement different
changes in organization. Leader have need to analyse the differ areas which are able to change
working style. As per the force field analysis in the change management of the driving forces are
reliability, increased in term of maintenance, have proper structuring business and workplace
environments. There is need to have transparency, pen and honest communication helping out to
create trust between leadership an employee (Shrivastava, Shrivastava and Ramasamy, 2017).
Leader have to plan towards different departments work together in having different goals nd
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