Research and Focus for the Study: Employee Centred Airlines

Employee Centered Culture
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Table of Contents TOC \o "1-3" \h \z \u Introduction PAGEREF _Toc440302867 \h 3Focus for the study PAGEREF _Toc440302868 \h 4Project related literature summary PAGEREF _Toc440302869 \h 4Background PAGEREF _Toc440302870 \h 6United Airlines PAGEREF _Toc440302871 \h 6Customer dissatisfaction PAGEREF _Toc440302872 \h 9Dissatisfaction of employees at United Airlines PAGEREF _Toc440302873 \h 11Organizational culture PAGEREF _Toc440302874 \h 14Employee centered corporate culture PAGEREF _Toc440302875 \h 15Planned methodology PAGEREF _Toc440302876 \h 16United airlines creating employee centered corporate culture PAGEREF _Toc440302877 \h 16Schedule for completion PAGEREF _Toc440302878 \h 18Conclusion PAGEREF _Toc440302879 \h 18Bibliography PAGEREF _Toc440302880 \h 20
Introduction
In business the satisfaction of the customers for the services or the goods offered is of paramount important. Customer satisfaction is the key element that business managers go out of their way to invest in expensive proponents of the production systems as well as the distribution systems. It is also the same reason that companies invest in highly qualified teams, to make sure that they can deliver on the customer needs. One of the most crucial element to note about customer satisfaction is that, customer needs are constantly changing. Relative to the dynamic nature of the customer needs associated with the dynamic nature of the market, managers have to stay of the curve. Competition in the recent years has grown with a significant rate, as customers expect better and more refined services and goods (Carey, 2016). At the same time, the number of companies in the market that are willing to offer the customers what they need and even go an extra mile have also grown immensely. This means that every company is trying to please the customers in the best ways and strategies that they can come up with, for them to stay in business. It is no longer possible for businesses to offer the conventional services and goods to their clients and stay in the market, as chances of the competition offering quality and personified services are very high.
In the airline industry, competition is increasingly becoming and a real threat amid the ever increasing huddles associated with the legal framework guiding the industry. However, the most crucial element in the industry also remains to be the dynamic nature of the services demanded by the clients. Given that the industry is largely services oriented, airlines are forced to make sure that whatever services they offer along the chain of interaction with the clients is of the best quality (McGaw, 2015). This means that from the time the client is looking for the best flight path to take, their preferred airline to the time that they arrive at the destination, all the services offered along this chain have to be thoroughly polished to not only meet the industry standard, but also match the ever changing customer needs. As such, satisfying customers in the airline industry is not a onetime aspect, but something that has to be integrated in the company culture (Novikova, 2009).
Focus for the study
The study focuses on organizational culture as one of the most crucial element of guiding the company processes. This also means that organizational culture determines the way that employees behave and interact with one another as well as the clients (McGaw, 2015). The organizational culture forms the values that guide the employees and the entire firm relative to the way that it relates to the external and internal environments. Aspects such as customer service and the way that employees are supposed to handle clients are all encompassed by the core values that are spelled out in the corporate culture. As such, customer satisfaction largely depends on the company culture adopted and practiced across the entire organization (Jasna & Antoncic, 2011). Relative to the organizational goals, organizational tend to take up a life of their own, where beliefs are developed, practices and values, all of which have an effect on whether the organizations have success or failure. Most organizational cultures tend to focus on the clients as they are an important pillar to the survival of the organization. As the competition increases, most organizations are employing all measures necessary to make sure that they maintain their customer base, so they are not poached by the competition (Rumery, 2003).
Project related literature summary
One of the most crucial pillar of a business is the employee base. Organizations spend billions of dollars trying to make sure that they get the best staffs in the market who can in turn meet the increasing needs of the customers (Hurley & Estelami, 2007). Ideally, organizations are constantly looking for ways to bring on board the best talent in the industry, so that they have the capacity to satisfy their clients. Billions of dollars are spent on training programs and incentives that are all geared toward making sure that the employees have the right skills or attain the right skills level to attend to the customers’ satisfaction. However, the satisfaction of the employees is one of the most disregarded element (Chen, Wang & Chu, 2010). Most companies concentrate much of the effort on making sure that the customers’ needs are met, while neglecting the needs of the employees. As such, most of the employees are exposed to harsh working condition where they are mistreated and subjected to work overload, as the managers try to force the best services. Most of the staffs will be exploited at any cost to offer the customers the best services. It is crucial to note that, good customer service can only be delivered by the employees. As such the company relies on the employees to offer quality services. This means that, employees should be treated with much more concern and respect much like the clients (Hurley & Estelami, 2007). When the employees are satisfied, they will have better morale to give the clients the best services. American airline is one of the leading airlines in the world serving more than 140 million passengers every year from more than 369 airports making more than 5300 departures on a daily basis. However, it is an airline that has been marred with poor employee treatment. Relative to the size and the number of customers that are served on a daily basis, the management rarely concentrates on the employees other than the numbers of customers served (Hanks, 2016). Recent surveys indicate that the airline is ranked among the airlines that offer the poorest services. It is thus easy to draw a parallel between the poor customer feedback and the fact that employees have also complained of poor treatment. This further sheds light on the fact that employees satisfaction plays a major role in making sure that customers are satisfied with the services offered.
Background
United Airlines
United Airlines is one of the largest airlines in the world serving more than 140 million passengers annually, through more than 369 airports with more than 5300 departures that take place on a daily basis. As such, this is an airline that handles a lot of clients on a daily basis, with busy schedules that override most of the other aspect of operations. The airline has its headquarters in Chicago, Illinois. The airline is not just one of the largest in terms of fleet size, but it also has one of the largest revenue stream in the industry (Hartung, 2016). This is relative to the fact that, it has for quite some time established a rather elaborate network of route on domestic and international flights in America and around the world respectively. Founded in the year 1926, United Airlines was first operated by The Boeing Company, who were leading aircraft manufacturers. The airline operates nine hubs that are distributed across the united states, among them; Chicago, Guam, New York, Houston, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Tokyo, Denver and in Washington DC. Relative to the size of the airline, the hubs handle large numbers of clients every day. In Houston, the George bush international airport handles more than 15 million passengers in a year and more than 40,000 on a daily basis.
At the heart of the large customer base is the fact that the airline management is largely concerned with the customer services. Much of the efforts are concentrated at handling the customers that much else is seen as insignificant or at least less important. This is also in light of the fact that, the airline is competing with some of the largest airlines such as the Southwest Airlines, American airlines and Delta Airlines (MOUAWAD, 2012). In light of the competition, the management is largely directing much of its efforts to make sure that they maintain their customer base, so the rest of the competition do not chip away at the customer base. At the same time given the size of the company, there is little attention that is given to the employees. There have been complaints in the past where the airlines has been cited to have poor pay and employee treatment.
This is a common element associated with the large companies that highly operationalized. This is to mean that, most of the large companies tend to concentrate on the operations with a focus on the clients satisfaction. Staffs working for such an airline are simply insignificant in the complex and large operationalized company and their individual goals are largely disregarded. Most of the large corporations have fallen in this trap, where due in part to the number of operations that they have handle on an hourly basis, much of the efforts are directed at making sure that the operations are smooth. Ideally with such complexity as is experienced in the airline industry for companies such as united airlines, it is easy for the management to firmly concentrate on the operations and the capacity to handle the same. Little importance is attached to the persons that are carrying out the various functions, relative to the fact that, the complexity of the operations also presents the risks of rapid collapse. This means that, with the complexity of the airline operations, if there is a small hiccup at any of the stations, this could affect a string of other operations down the line. In an example, if the one of the booking functions, at a small magnitude, where the mobile app owned by the company is affected by a bug that prevents the clients from login in to their accounts and make their bookings, for at least two hours before the bug is finally identified and operations resume; the magnitude of this two hours could easily translate into millions of dollars in losses. While the mobile may be considered to be a small end of the operations at the airline, the magnitude associated with the bug can have catastrophic effects financially and even in terms of the clients satisfaction, which can easily translate to loss in customers to the competition. If the application experiences several crashes on a monthly basis, this would further affect the airline as customers start trying out the other competing companies. This is an aspect that is largely associated with large corporations such as united airlines, relative to its size, customer base and the complexity of operations associated with the industry by virtual of the company size.
With most of the managers concentrating on the operations to make sure none of the elements are not operating optimally, the needs of the staffs tend to be lost in the juggle. It is largely common in large companies for the needs of the employees to become less significant. One of the common advice given to persons that are looking to grow in their career, is that they should not concentrate on the large companies and corporations such as united airlines. This is relative to the fact that, due to the high level of operationalization, the staffs do not learn much in terms of advancing their careers as they are constantly stationed in their first positions with little or no progress up the corporate ladder. With smaller firms, the staffs are likely to interact easily and often with the management and even experience different aspects of the operations as they are shifted across various areas of operations within their field. In an airline such as the united airlines, most of the staffs never get to meet with the management relative to the structure of the organization and the organizational culture. The mere size of the corporation also makes it hard for the management to attend to the needs of the individual staffs from the top executive to the lowest level of subordinates. However, this is a notion widely accepted in most quotas as a justification of the fact that companies with large and complex operations such United Airlines have failed to invest in elaborate measures to make sure that employee needs are met. With the right corporate culture that addresses the employee needs it is possible to turn around the customer satisfaction and improve the airline rating and standards across the board.
Customer dissatisfaction
Despite the fact that the company has made a lot of efforts to maintain their customer base, they have been failing at quite a number of elements that resulted in negative reviews. One of the man concerns that the most of the clients experience are the fact that staffs are not as motivated to assist as they have in the past (Chen, 2008). As such, most of the customers are accorded substandard reception and assistance along the chain of operations, resulting in rather dissatisfying experiences with the airline. Most of the staffs have been cited to have curt attitudes towards the passengers, which is a very detrimental element in the service industry (Novikova, 2009). At the core of the service industry and more so the airline industry, is the experience that customers get when they seek the services of the airline (Lynch, 2010). This means that customers have to be treated with utmost respect, especially where the clients need assistance. If the clients feel that they are being treated rudely despite the fact that they have paid for premium services, chances are that they will seek services from the competition (Jamshaid, Qureshi & Khokhar, 2012). In light of the rate of competition that exists in the airline industry, this is a rather risky aspect on the part of the United Airlines as they are likely to lose clients to the competition (Novikova, 2009).
Over the years the airline has received numerous complaints from their clients with little no attention to the same. This is a highlight of the fact that, the airline is having a serious crisis as far as customer satisfaction is concerned. Customers’ complaints are a subtle element that can easily affect the level of engagement of the customers (Jamshaid, Qureshi & Khokhar, 2012). Where clients make complaints which after they follow up, are not addressed, this diminishes their loyalty to the airline. This is not just associated with airlines but also spreads even to other business fields of whichever size. Customer complaints form a great background to assess the success of the various services offered. This is relative to the fact that, customer complaints can be used to compliment the feedback mechanisms in place where clients get a chance to air their dissatisfaction with services offered (Abraham, 2012). By analyzing the complaints, business managers can be in a position to address the most pressing and detrimental shortcomings as they look at ways to address the much smaller complaints in terms of magnitude and resources available (Novikova, 2009). One of the element that makes United Airlines the poorest in the airline business as far as customer satisfaction is concerned is the fact that, they do not attend to the complaints and when they do it is with half-hearted efforts that do not indicate any evidence of commitment to better their services (Novikova, 2009).
The airline has for the longest time concentrated on operations while neglecting the customer experience (Chen, 2008). In essence as earlier mentioned, operations at the united airline are quite complicated given the size and the number of operations that take place in a minute and further relative to the impact that mishaps have financially. However, customer satisfaction also plays a major role in the success of the company (Jamshaid, Qureshi & Khokhar, 2012). In the past the company has been found to introduce more crowded cabin policies and changes that leaves most of the passengers aggravated than satisfied, however this has also come with added charges. Cabin services have also been cited as some of the worst in the industry, with clients being treated to poorly prepared and delivered on-board meals and drinks. Inflight services have also been cited as some of the most poorly executed. In several occasions, clients have complained of having the luggage misplaced and even in some other cases staffs have mishandled the luggage. This adds on to the curt language used by some of the staffs as mentioned before (Jamshaid, Qureshi & Kh...