HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT PRACTICES IN AN AIRLINE INDUSTRY: THE BRITISH AIRWAYS GLOBAL PERSPECTIVE

Introduction

One of the most successful industries in the business world of United Kingdom is the airline industry. The competition in this industry is increasing day by day and highly related with the high level of technology. The airline industry ensures the time saving for people which actually helps in the development of the organization and the economy. With the development of airline industry different other sectors and activities have expanded also.  Tourism industry has developed along with the development of the airline industry. In this industry Human Resource can act as a competitive advantage for the organization. With the development of HR, any airline organization in the Industry can ensure better performance tools customers.

UK Airline Industry is one of the biggest in the world. Major competitors in the industry are Easy Jet, Monarch, Virgin Atlantic, Thomas Cook Airlines, and British Airways etc. To adopt with the Dynamic Technological Environment of the industry, the organization tries to provide proper training and development which ultimately helps the organization in developing leaders among the employees of the organization.

To compete in this competitive industry, the organization needs to concentrate on the development of HR besides other resources. Recently British Airways has focused Human Resource in order to make its performance outrageous. On this basis British Airways is chosen for this research assignment. Some of the HR programs which British Airways pursued were,

·         Individual Learning
 Individual Employee Development
  Putting People First
  Managing People First etc.
Understanding the human psychology helps the organization in providing better customized services to its customers which is very important for the organization. These changes ensure the success of the organization in the international market.

Research Aim & Objectives

Following are the main research and objectives of this research proposal.

Ø  To analyze existing human resource management in British Airways.

Ø  To give attention to performance management practices (PM) and employee attitudes to achieve successful managed performance.

Literature Review

Airline Industry

In this modern business world, competition is increasing day by day and in this competitive business world the airline industry performs its activities effectively and efficiently to survive successfully. Service is the core product of this industry. Besides services, the organization also needs to confirm the safety of the people and products. There are three main characteristics of this industry which mostly affects the HRM practices in the organization. These three characteristics are:

Firstly, the competition in the market is mostly influenced by performance. Ease and time saving transportation system, actually improves the level of competition in the market. Many organizations in this world now depend upon the airline industries for the transportation of the products, people, and posts. Previously, the airline companies mainly focused on the products and services but with the changing concept, the airline industries are now concentrating on the development of the people within the organization.

Secondly, ensuring the safety of the customers, products, and parcels is the most important part of activities of the airline industry. This characteristic is built in the system of the airline industry. During that moment, the airline industry needs to focus on the security system which is very essential for the safety of the customers as well as the products. This actually ensures the performances of this industry. The managers of airline industry need to be trained in order to provide better service to the customers. In the airline industry, the people of different cultures, languages and countries travel from one place to another. Thus to support those customers, the employees of the organization needs to be capable of communicating with those customers otherwise, it will be difficult for the organization to provide their best services to the customers. The values and ethics of the customers also vary from each other. Some comments may hurt the others whereas other may take it as a joke. Thus it is essential to have a clear understanding of the values and ethics of the people from different countries for the betterment of the organization.

Finally, for the betterment of the organization, the airline industry mostly focuses on providing quality and quick services to the customers. Based on the services, customers get motivated towards the organization and also try to influence others to take the services of this organization which ultimately ensure the growth of the organization. This actually helps in avoiding high marketing costs of the organization.

British Airways

British Airways is the second largest airline based on fleet size, International destinations, and International flights in the world. British Airways is the flag carrier airline of the United Kingdom and one of the largest airlines in the country. From the beginning, this company mostly focused on carriage of goods and parcels rather than transporting people from one place to another. This airline industry was established in 1974 and in 1987 it moved towards the private sector. The current condition of this airline industry is the merger of British Overseas Airways Corporation (BOAC) and the British European Airways Corporation (BEAC). Presently this industry has its 120 destination branches in the entire UK and Europe, Africa, North and South America, the Middle East, Asia and the Pacific along with 240 air crafts which provides the services consistently.

In the market over 40 competitors are available with which the organization currently competes. Besides all the difficulties, the organization tries to maintain its leadership position in the market not only in the UK market but also in European market. Virgin Atlantic is the main competitor of British Airways which was established in 1984. However, the organization also tries to improve its market share even in the financial turmoil of the country.

Human Resource Management

The organization also tries to motivate employees to enhance the drive for learning something which will be beneficial for the personal and professional life. The development of the employees itself ensures development of the organization. To provide better services to the customers, British Airways also ensures a separate customer services department which will be responsible for providing all the information related with their services and also helps them by selling tickets to them. In this case, the organization provides equal chance to everyone. The organization goes for choosing the best person for this service.

The HRM department of British Airways also focuses on the improvement of interpersonal relationships among the employees of the organization. The supporting mentality among the employees helps them in providing best services to the customers. However, the organization also tries to treat its employees fairly and equally. Besides this, the organization offers different other benefits to the employees which also attracts them to stay within the organization and to provide their best services to the customers which will be better for the organization. This process helps the British Airways in ensuring the growth of the organization in the international competitive market.

The Company has experienced a lot of downfalls and threats over the past decades. After the 1990’s, when British Airways assumed that any strategy like 'cost control' or ‘operational efficiency' were started to replicate by means of latest information technology, the company looked upon a new competitive strategy 'customer service through resource planning' which was aligned to the company's corporate objectives. However, the company's HRM department had started with heart and soul to achieve the company's corporate objectives. Two training programs were designed to train staff and managers where the first training program 'Putting People First' helped the staff to understand how the image of helpfulness satisfy the customers and the second training program 'Managing People First' evoked the managers to breakdown the strict approach and strict behavioral boundaries. A significant cultural change was observed in the organization on successful implementation of these training programs.

Research Methodology

In order to be industry leader the organization is now focusing on the improvement of the employees, who provide the services to the customers to ensure their satisfaction level over the organization's services and products. Saunders, Lewis, and Thornhill (2007) have developed a research model for the proper understanding of the research activities which is named as the “Research Onion Model”. All the elements of the research onion model have been covered in the following.

Research Approach

Another important part of the research onion model is the research approach. Basically there are two types of research approaches available- Inductive and Deductive. For the completion of this study, both the approaches will be covered. In the deductive approach, the research activities consider the hypothesis developed by the researcher based on the research.

The deductive approach is based on different types of data collection processes along with the settlement of hypothesis, development of theories and effective observation process. The positivism philosophy is the appropriately aligned with this approach.

On the other hand, the inductive approach is quite easy for the researcher to perform. This theory is not developed based on some predetermined theories in order to conduct the research activities. The observation process is the best process for this approach. Based on observation, the researcher will try to identify the problems in order to achieve the overall objectives of this research.

Both the deductive and inductive approach will be covered in this study. On the other hand, to support the positivism and interpretivism philosophy of this study both the approach will be required.

Following hypothesis will help the researcher in developing proper findings in order to achieve the research aims and objectives.

Hypothesis		Result
H1:	There is a positive relationship between employee attitudes and managed performance.	Supported or not
H2:	There is a positive relationship between performance management practices and employee attitudes.	Supported or not
H3:	There is a positive relationship between performance management practices and managed performance.	Supported or not

In order to complete the research activities properly and effectively both the quantitative and qualitative methods will be used in this study. The success of this study will be ensured by the proper cooperation of the research approach, philosophy, methods and strategies.

Besides the statistical information sometimes for the study completion purpose the observation of the employees and the customers will also be required. The proper combination of these two methods is known as the mixed method. This study will cover the mixed method for the successful completion of the study.

Research Strategies

In order to perform the research activities, it is essential to ensure the strategies of the study. The research strategy actually will help the researcher in collecting the required information through a systematic process or channel. In this study, the experimental strategy will help the researcher in gathering the information. However, the interview, survey and case study process will also contribute a lot in this case.

In this study to gather related information, the survey, interview and secondary data available on the World Wide Web will help in gathering required information. Thus deductive approach will help in gathering the information from the secondary sources whereas the inductive approach will cover the primary information.

SAMPLING

Data will be collected from the managers of British Airways different departments. The population of study is 190 managers and the sample size is 24 that are calculated from survey.com using sample size calculator. The confidence interval computed with the help of calculator was 18.80.

Time Frame  

                                                                   

The deductive approach mostly covers the secondary information which is readily available whereas the inductive approach will cover the primary sources. Gathering of the information from the primary sources will require some time. Different types of interviews, survey and observation process will be covered in this approach. The secondary sources will ensure the gathering of the information within short time.

Research Nature

There are three different kinds of research i.e. exploratory, explanatory, and descriptive. The present study will fall in the explanatory nature because it elaborates the effect of performance management practices on human resource managed performance.

Research Techniques

The study would use a systematic research and interviews as research strategy to collect study data. The deductive approach would use secondary data from a systematic literature review because a survey would be expensive in terms of time and resources to collect data in either longitudinal or repeat studies, which will sufficiently explain the effect of performance management (HR) practices on managed performance over a period, for example in 2-4 years, instead of data collected in one survey that will be inadequate. 

On the other hand, the inductive approach would gather primary data from a panel of experts. The panel of experts would be sampled using judgmental sampling to find experts on human resource who have the relevant knowledge and are available for the study. Interviews would be used to collect data because it is able to collect comprehensive data because it allows for clarification of unclear responses. 

Ethical and Access Issues

Research ethics covers the conduct and behavior of the researcher while conducting a research activity. As the information will be gathered from both secondary and primary sources proper validation of the gathered information will be done by the researcher.

All the information used in this study will be current, for having a clear picture of the present condition in British Airways. However, all the information regarding the information providers will keep secret and the information will be used for the research purpose only.

Conclusion

The quality services and service delivery of the employees help in achieving the trust of the customers and gaining the satisfaction. Customers are the all in all in this sector as the organization is a service based organization. However, the growth of this organization mostly depends upon the improvement of its employees who actually deliver quality services.

It is expected that the process of continuous improvement of the outlook that attempts to explain P.M practices in achieving managed performance in organization will continue to undergo changes & also be carried out to establish the intervention effects of employee attitudes between P.M & managed performance.