HRM Assignment: Case Analysis of British Airways Airline

Question

Task: You are required to prepare a HRM assignment critically discussing the issues encounter by British Airways Airline during pandemic.

Answer

Executive Summary
This HRM assignment is an individual report where a case scenario of the British Airways Airline has been introduced where the struggle of the British Airways Airline organisation has been portrayed during the time of the coronavirus pandemic. The entire scenario depicted that the organisation did not have any proper planning for crisis management which is why they had been a total failure in handling the economic shock. The purpose of the study is the present some recommendations for the organisation so that they can make the necessary improvements in the management and how the policies of the organisation can be revised for improving the effectiveness of the organisations.

1. Introduction to the case study
Employees in an organisation are unanimously and in an utmost uncontested way deemed as the most prized possession and integral assets of an organisation without which any organisation especially the medium-size and large-size would hardly executive their operational objectives. Therefore, catering to the employees to foster a workplace environment that understands the employees from every perspective as well as put measures in place that both encourage and retain their professional performances, interests, and satisfaction seems to be quintessential functions of the authorities responsible for managing the people at the workplace. However, when an organisation fails to abide by these crucial responsibilities, the organisation inevitably gives rise to the grievance, dissents, and conflicts amongst the workforce. This kind of similar situation has been witnessed in the global aviation company British Airways which has been criticized and accused of disregarding the employees lately when the employees needed the support of the organisation the most.

This has eventually created a major gulf between British Airways and the employees subsequently deteriorated and stalled the performance management of the workforce due to British Airways' incapability to deal with an unforeseen external crisis. In this context of the discussions, the present report tailors a case study that endeavors to recognise and analyze the issues concerning British Airways taking into consideration three key themes namely the performance management of the employees, handling of economic shocks, and crises management planning. In addition to this, the report would also delineate and discuss what alternative strategies could British Airways have used in the given situation to effectively navigate across the crises that emerged suddenly along with providing recommendations for British Airways to assist them in their future efforts of managing the workforce accountably and efficiently.

2. Explaining the contextual background and the scenario of the case study
The unpredicted and unprecedented humanitarian crises-induced at the onset of the pandemic Covid-19 that led the world to the brink of destruction and cessation nonchalantly affected all the communities across the world along with every sector of the diverse industries operating globally. With the repeated national lockdowns, national and international governmental restrictions in boarding flights, and stringent quarantine measures that literally limited human movements to the homely premises let alone going somewhere through flights unless extremely necessary, the aviation industry has been badly impacted. As per the reportage of BBC, the aviation industry has been one of the hardest hits of Covid-19 pandemic and the airlines like Virgin Atlantic, EasyJet, Ryanair, Airbus, and Rolls-Royce have facilitated thousands of job cuts in order to cope up with the drifting financial conditions (bbc, 2020).

The unparalleled disruption caused by the deadly claws of the Covid-19 pandemic has sent economic shock waves globally. The UK has been one of the badly hit countries that witnessed economic destabilization and slump in the GDP growth after centuries which has been hailed as the biggest decline since the Great Frost of 1709. It has been ascertained by Partington (2020), that the UK has suffered an economic slump of 9.9% almost after 300 years as per the Office for National Statistics in 2020 as no sphere of the economy left unscathed by the repeated lockdowns and spiraling downward economy (Partington, 2021).

Figure 1: Economic depression suffered by the UK in the wake of Covid-19 in 2020
(Source: Partington, 2021)

This economic shock has been felt by British Airways and the company was unable to cope with the financial crises induced by the pandemic which is they facilitated measures that weren’t up to the expectations of the employees but rather catered to the profit-oriented goals of the company. This attitude of the organisationgave rise to the grievances in the employees as well as the trade unions of the aviation industry. 3. The purpose, aim, and objectives of the study Based on the aforementioned research premise, the present study attempts to establish a case study with the purpose of investigating the issues that are concerning British Airways and why they have taken such steps that almost equaled to 'National disgrace' as well as evaluating the alternatives that British Airways could have taken in managing the employees during the crises.Therefore, the aim of the research report is to investigate the diverse issues that erupted due to the mismanagement of British Airways.

The objectives adhering to which the report has been framed includes the following:
• To understand the people management issues that concern British Airways in recent times and whether it has been able to drive effective performance management.
• To recognise and analyze the reasons that aroused the conflicts in the workplace of BA.
• To identify and analyze whether BA has been efficient in dealing with the external economic shocks caused by the pandemic.
• To uphold whether the BA has effectively managed to deal with the crises induced by the pandemic or not by developing a suitable crises management plan.
• To recommend proper strategies to British Airways in order to accentuate their people management strategies.

4. Investigating the issues of British Airways that are presently concerning performance managementof the organisation through secondary data collection

British Airways even though has been termed as one of the best airline companies but with few of the measures hit by the pandemic, the company has been severely criticised. The Transport Select Committee Report has severely criticized the company for taking advantage of the pandemic in furloughing the employees and again rehiring them. The first issue that the management has created was regarding the cutting down of thousands of jobs (bbc, 2020). This initiative as taken due to the pandemic has led to the downgrading of the terms and conditions. Every organization does have some of the terms and conditions that determine the culture of the firm but British Airways have deteriorated in this situation. Redundancy notices have been offered to the employees counting to about 42,000 (marketplace, 2020). From the severe degradation of the employee’s welfare policies, the company has been alleged to be known as breaking down the trust of the employees. According to the report of the Transport Committee, it has been evaluated that British Airways have received that £35m from the Government with the furloughing of 22,000 staff. The company has shown the image of being a national disgrace.

Figure 1: Furloughing of employees by British Airways and been criticized
(Source: marketplace, 2020)

The decision of laying off the employees has shaken the confidence of the employees that has been a disgrace to the HR policies. British Airways that have been once called "World's favourite airline". It is true that British Airways like other companies have been hit hard with the pandemic but the strategies taken to overcome the crisis have led to the fall of the company's reputation. The company has decided to cut off about 42,000 employees permanently. Even those employees who have served almost for years have been also a victim of the poor decision of the company.As per the reports from the Economic Times (Economic Times, 2020), the British Airways organisation has laid-off their most dedicated staff who was attached to the company for as long as 40 years, even the oldest employees were not considered, the employees were dismissed just by sending an e-mail and they were termed as despicable by the employees. This act proves how the company has failed to retain the skilled employees of the company that has further deteriorated the company’s performance. Thus, from an overall aspect, British Airways have shaken the reputation of the company that has been built over the years.Furthermore, (Sweney, 2020) reports that due to the unacceptable measures driven by British Airways more than 6000 employees of British Airways have accepted voluntary redundancies as they knew that either they have to undergo pay cuts or be terminated from their present position. The fact that the salary of the employees has been lowered with worse terms and conditions in the scenario when the support from the company in the form of financial security was required, the grievances in the employees even more. This has been further claimed as a 'calculated attempt to take advantage of the pandemic by the MPs of the Commons Transport Select Committee as almost 30,000 staff of British Airways have been forced to accept downgraded terms and conditions to retain their jobs.The most preferred airlines at one point in time have degraded their name due its poor HR policies and their inability to handle the crisis. The Airline has been a total failure in handling the economic shock and crisis which had a significant impact on the level of motivation of the workers. Such treatment of its employees was completely unacceptable to the Conservative lawmaker and it has been running under huge debt with no revenues. The Airlines has taken no care of its employees and their requirements which broke the morale of the employees and they showed their resentment towards being attached to such a company that does not think of its employees.

5. The morals learned from the case study and the significance of these findings
According to the reports collected fromBBC News, the British Airways staff treatment during the Covid-19 crisis is termed as a national disgrace. A Transport Select Committee Report has charged the airlines of making a calculated attempt for taking advantage of the coronavirus pandemic situation by downgrading their terms and conditions and cutting the jobs of thousands of their employees (Leggett, 2020). This entire scenario makes it evident that the Airline is very poor at handling any kind of crisis. Every organisation must identify the crisis and the threats overpowering the organisation and its stakeholders so that the organisation has the preparation to respond effectively to the threat. This is what is known as crisis management. The Covid-19 pandemic is a crisis for every organisation is it a big or small organisation. The British Airways Airline has ruthlessly cut the jobs and salaries of their employees which portrays that the company did not have any proper crisis management which is why they can be said to be a total failure in case of handling any kind of crisis.

The crisis management model refers to the application of different kinds of strategies that are designed for helping an organisation deal with a sudden negative situation (Collins and Wisz, 2020). The Coronavirus pandemic has been a big blow to the Airline industry and a crisis which the Airline organisations could not handle strategically. For handling such a crisis the British Airways Airline took those decisions that were not in favour of the employees and it affected the stakeholders of the company. The organisation struggled to stay afloat in the market by cutting the jobs and salaries of their employees, but they could have handled this moment of crisis in a much better way if they have had prior planning about the upcoming crisis. The Airline organisation could have better facilitated the crises management planning by following the four steps to the crisis management model which involves three stages, they are pre-crisis, crisis response, and post-crisis.Following these three steps of the crisis management model could be helped the organisation to better handle the situation.

Figure 3: The Stages of crisis management
Source: Self-developed

Post-crisis is the initial stage of the crisis management model where the Hr of British Airways organisation must have tried to analyse the different factors like the organisational structure, the approach towards risk management, their level of preparedness to handle the Corona Virus pandemic situation, and the level of preparedness of the organisation. An analysis of all these factors would have better helped the organisation to identify the threats, risks, criticality of the assets, the existing vulnerabilities, and the requirements for the crisis management approach. This would have helped the Airline organisation to take the necessary preparations for handling the crisis of the coronavirus pandemic. The second step of the crisis management involves taking the necessary preparations for handling the crisis so that they can take the necessary actions for the handling the crisis, but from the case study, it was evident that the Airline organisation had taken no prior preparations, as a result, the British Airways organisation embroiled into a bitter fight with the union and the government. As per the reports from BBC News the MPs were also weighing against the Airline organisation. The third and the fourth step of the plan involve response and recovery. The news and reports encircling the company regarding their way of handling the coronavirus crisis signify that one of the most renowned airlines had been a total failure in responding to the crisis appropriately. The Covid-19 pandemic has scythed the British Airways Airline which signifies that the company had no planning for crisis management. The HR of the company had been not been living up to its responsibilities as the benefits of the stakeholders were not kept in mind. The pandemic has had a devastating effect on the entire airline industry but it has been hit the British Airways airline organisation the hardest. As per the CGTN News, the trade that is representing the staff of British Airways has referred to the redundancy plan of the organisation as despicable after the airline had laid off 10,000 workers (Dafydd, 2020). The moral of the entire situation is that it led to the failure of performance management of the employees.

Figure 4: Elements of performance management
Source: (Brudan, 2010)

Performance management is a theory that is used in the field of Human Resources where the HR constantly works towards improving the performance of the employees. The elements that comprise the model of performance management are setting the objectives, measurement of the performance, feedback on the results of performance, reward system, and amendments (Akelo, 2017). The response of the organisation to the crisis of the pandemic has had a huge impact on the performances of the employees. The deep cuts and the lay-off decisions undertaken by the company caused conflict between the employees. according to BBC News, this act created a legacy of resentment, mistrust amongst the employees particularly the cabin crews. The management of the company is so poor that it never made any decisions for the benefit of the employees. As per the reports of the BBC News, British Airways had tried to streamline their business in order to compete with the low-cost carriers like Ryan Air and Easy Jet. All of these actions contributed to the high dissatisfaction level of the employees the outburst of which was happening during the time of the Covid-19 pandemic (Leggett, 2020). The airline has also been accused of the fact that they are using the Corona Virus pandemic as an excuse to cut the jobs of the employees. This signifies that the management and the HR of the company are extremely poor.

6. Recommendations for the improvement for the present endeavors of British Airways.
It is evident from the study that the Coronavirus pandemic has created havoc and has deeply affected the Airline industry out of which the British airways Airline Company has been exceptionally hit where they had seen major losses and had literally struggled to survive in the market. The only way through which they stayed afloat was through laying off thousands of employees and cutting the salaries of their employees. There had been more than 10,000 job losses during this pandemic which signifies that the company did not have a string HT management for implementing a proper crisis management plan. Therefore, the primary requirement of the Company is to improve its crisis management by focusing on the situation at hand and trying to figure the problems so that the company can find an appropriate solution to the crisis. The avoid further failures the company must also maintain Master Events Log (MEL) to keep a record of the events that need to address. Secondly, the HR department of the company must be enhanced so that they work actively and look after the welfare of the employees. The company must pay more heed towards strengthening its employee relations so that it can take care of the needs and wants of the employees. It is the responsibility of every organisation to give due importance to the expectations of the employees so that they do not feel demotivated. In order to handle a crisis situation the organisation must remain focused on the fundamentals of the company, the British Airways must also implement a multi-layer approach to commensurate the level of risk, and should not compromise with the security and safety of the aircraft. For proper risk management, the longstanding experience of the company must also be capitalised on and try to minimise the impacts of the negative operation. The HR of the company must try to practice performance management of the employees by following the steps of the performance management model.

7. Conclusion
British Airways the flagship carrier of the U.K has undergone a huge situation of turmoil due to the coronavirus pandemic. The organisation was seen in its worse condition as it had to lay off the majority of its employees and undertake measures like pay cuts. In this study, the case related to the struggle of the British Airways Airline has been introduced where the struggles, challenges, and difficulties of the organisation during the time of the pandemic have been discussed and the importance of the implementation of the crisis management and the performance management model has been assessed. Some recommendations have also been provided so that the company can handle such situation of crisis with more effectiveness in the future.

8. Reference list
Akelo, S.A., 2017. Effect of total quality management practices on organisationalperfromance in international research organisation in Kenya (Doctoral dissertation, Maseno University).

Bloomberg, 2020. British Airways says Covid-19 pandemic likely to cost 10,000 jobs. [online] Business-standard.com. Available at: [Accessed 17 August 2021].

Brudan, A., 2010. On the importance of theory in Performance Management. [online] Performancemagazine.org. Available at: [Accessed 17 August 2021].

Collins, J.W. and Wisz, P., 2020. Training in robotic surgery, replicating the airline industry. How far have we come?. World journal of urology, 38(7), pp.1645-1651. Dafydd, I., 2020. British Airways cuts 10,000 jobs, union labels it 'despicable'. [online] Newseu.cgtn.com. Available at: [Accessed 17 August 2021].

Economic Times, 2020. Thousands of British Airways employees face job losses. [online] The Economic Times.HRM assignment Available at: [Accessed 23 August 2021].

Leggett, T., 2020. British Airways' treatment of staff 'a disgrace', say MPs. [online] BBC News. Available at: [Accessed 17 August 2021].

MarketPlace, 2020. British Airways layoffs shake confidence in UK job protection program. [online] Marketplace. Available at: [Accessed 23 August 2021].

Partington, R., 2021. UK economy hit by record slump in 2020 but double-dip recession avoided. [online] the Guardian. Available at: [Accessed 23 August 2021].

Sweney, M., 2020. Thousands of BA staff to find out if they will lose jobs due to Covid. [online] the Guardian. Available at: [Accessed 23 August 2021].