INTRODUCTION TO BUSINESS FUNCTIONS

Introduction to Business Functions

Introduction to Business Functions

British Airways structure and culture

The company's turnaround in a different light with international agreements, competition with other airlines, the state of the fleet and the network of links between flights making a contribution to improved performance that was as least as significant as the cultural change programme itself. It is difficult to believe that, without these structural interventions BA's profits would have risen in the way that they did Equally, the structural improvements may have served to enhance the cultural messages just as Bob Ayling's "Chicago-style union busting macho management" made his seem hypocritical. As Kieser (1996, pp.49-74) argue in their study of a consultancy firm, it is naïve to assume that practices which are effective when companies are successful will be equally welcome at other times. Employees do not 'react' to the management of culture in isolation, nor does a 'positive' cultural rhetoric negate problematic experiences of job design, dis-empowerment, payment systems or control mechanisms. Rather, responses will be influenced by a person's experience of work as a whole and employees are more than capable of noting discrepancies between managerial promises and organisational practice.

This is not to suggest that BA's cultural change was unimportant. Indeed, the move to 'design' employees, to shape the way they think and feel about their work rather than simply control what they produce is a new development. A growing service sector and an increasing focus on customer service in all industries has resulted in an emphasis on the service process (of which the employee is an integral part) rather than a manufactured product. Clearly such a development has and will lead to fundamental changes in the way work is shaped. But these changes are not attempts to make work "more fun". They represent a new means of management control targeted on staff emotions. So personalities and individuals are valued only within pre-determined limits(Keenoy, 1992, pp.89-95).

The 'successes' and 'failures' of these interventions are not magical, nor do they occur in environments that have no legacy of employee relations. But this point is clearest when case studies are extended beyond anecdote and prescription, a development which might encourage better practitioners as well as better academics.

Product portfolio

In the United Kingdom, the Airline provides most of the operational services it requires for the handling of passengers and cargo. At overseas airports, apart from JFK, the Airline subcontracts the provision ...