Learning & Changing: Virgin Atlantic - Case Study Example

1.0 Executive Summary Change is the by-product of organizational learning. The business and non-business organizations must commit themselves to learning in their organizations so to remain relevant to the circumstances that affect them. Virgin Atlantic has tasted the fruits of commitment to learning and change. Organizations become vibrant and dynamic only through continuous learning. learning is a process that must be implemented systematically to be effective. It demands detailed planning, time, effort and timeliness in implementation to be practical. To sum it all, learning precedes change. 3.0 Introduction and Summary Virgin Atlantic was founded in 1984 by Richard Brandson and is currently based at Gatwick and Heathrow airports. It is one of the most successful business lines of the Virgin Group. The company made its first flight on June 22, 1984 to Newark. It developed from a simple airline to the second largest position in Britain (Virgin Atlantic, n.d.). Virgin Atlantic entered the Britain aviation market with pomp and colour and surprised large and complacent competitors. The company operates Long haul services to major cities in the world. The company operates a total of thirty routes in the world. Ten routes to USA, eight to Caribbean cities, six to Asian cities, four to Africa, one to Indian Ocean and one to the middle east. The success of the company is attributed to its commitment to empower its employees through training and align itself to the fast changing competitive aviation landscape. 4.0 The body 4.1.1 The significance of learning in change management and approaches to learning. Learning as an activity and process must be entrenched into all organizational processes at all times and levels. This is because at this century, information is the key to unlock organizational potential and outpace rivals in the competitive landscape. Schwandt and Marquardt (2000) assert that learning is important because it prepares and empowers organizational employees to embrace and benefit from change. Through learning, organizational employees soften their attitudes towards impending change and instead prepare themselves to reap opportunities that come with the anticipated change. Learning strengthens employees’ ability to observe the environment, adapt and learn from change. Garvin (2000) said that employees are able to compare their experiences with the knowledge and skills they learn from their coaches and mentors. As a result, they are able to test assumptions and strive to improve their performance in the work place. Change is not easy for organizational employees. Employees resist change because it creates more work, overburdens or make employees feel inadequate to perform new process and roles in the organization. Furthermore, they perceive change as disruptive and ill conceived. However, organizational employees acquire confidence through learning new knowledge and skills because it helps them adjust to change. Through learning, employees will understand that change is inevitable. They will also know that their competitors are creating and developing new product or services regularly (Gould and Baldwin 2004). Therefore, they will know that to stay ahead of their competitors, they must learn to evolve and create better products and services as well as improve ways of producing them. It is only through learning that employees of the organizations will learn to innovate, generate new ideas and best practices that will enable employees and their organizations attain their full potential and competitive edge. Learning also helps employees to do their work better because they learn to link organizational resources to customers’ needs Goldsmith et al 2004). 4.1.2 Approaches to learning According to Nejdl and Tochtermann (2006), there are four approaches to learning. They are convergers, divergers, assimilators and accommodators. The first learning approach is the converger. Converger learning involves integration of experiments and conceptualization of ideas. This will help the learners to use deductive reasoning to arrive at solutions to perplexing problems. This is a rational type of learning and solving problems. The second approach to learning is the application of divergers. The learners are taught how to reflect on the experiences they have undergone both in real life and in theory. This approach helps the learners to view issues and ideas in different ways. The third approach to organizational learning is use of assimilators. The learning approach enables the learners to conceptualize and reflect ideas and issues that they observe. As a result, they learn to develop theories through inductive reasoning on issues surrounding them. Finally, the fourth learning approach is accommodators. The learners apply real experiences and experiments to issues affecting them. The learners are implementers and not theorists. In addition, they are risk takers. 4.2 The factors or forces of changes in a dynamic environment Organizational change is inevitable. It happens regularly and at across all functions of the organizations. Change can be painful to some organizations and their employees but it must happen if the organization has to survive turbulent times. To learn how to predict and manage change is important and is possible if an organization can understand the factors that drive change. There are at least five causes of change in organizations. They are increasing competition, changing economic conditions, organization change, changing government and regulatory legislations and changes in technology. The first factor that causes organizational change is increasing competition. Competitive landscape is changing fast. Competitors are creating new products and new ways of producing them. In addition, they are improving their old products and ways of producing them in order to respond to the needs of the customers and changing environment. Organizations just like Virgin Atlantic must evolve and produce better products and services so as to be able to stay ahead of their competitors and maintain or increase their market share. The second factor that causes change in organizations is rapidly changing economic conditions. Economic recessions and downswings impact negatively to organizational growth and development. This is because economic hardships reduce the purchasing power of the customers. Furthermore, the cost of doing business or running the organizations increases when the economy falls or performs poorly. In response to changing economic conditions, organizations must adapt new process and methods of producing as well as reduce the number of employees in order to survive economic hardships. Virgin Atlantic was forced to undertake cost cutting measures to remain afloat in the economic hard times. The third factor that drives organizational change is changing organizational size. As the organization evolve from small to big, it adopts more complicated organizational structure. The employees must learn to assume new roles and responsibilities that come with organizational growth and development. New ways of conducting organizational activities also evolve forcing the employee to change so as to be able to perform them. The fourth factor that causes organizational change is changing government and regulatory legislations. The government and regulatory urgencies are developing and implementing new policy initiatives. Such new regulations impose constraints or opportunities to the organizations. As a result, the organization must realign itself to the changing regulations. If the regulations favor the organizational, the organization must develop ways of exploiting new opportunities and if it works against the organization, organization must drop its current activities and look for better ones. The fifth factor that drives change is the changing technology. Technological change is fast and dramatic. Organizations are taking advantage of information communication and technology to improve their work processes and reduce cost of doing business. Therefore, they must constantly change with changing technology so as to be relevant in the current technological environment. Organizations must also train and retrain their employees so as to keep in tandem with changing technology. 4.3 The strategies that could be adopted in effecting organizational learning. Learning in any organization is very important as it enable the organization to withstand the test of time. Implementing learning in organizations requires proper planning and implementation. There are various strategies that can be used to effect organizational change. They include use of meetings, formal trainings, workshops and seminars. The first strategy used in organizational learning is meetings. According to Griffin et al (2009), meetings can be used to identify skills and knowledge gaps among organizational employees. At the same time, meetings are convenient and useful for implementing learning goals and objectives in an organization. During the meetings, learning can be scheduled as an agenda. Virgin Atlantic use experts and outside people to bring new perspectives and insights on discussed ideas and topics in the organization. In addition, employees are encouraged to give feedback and make presentations on recent learning experience and organization’s assignments. The second strategy to effect organizational learning is through formal trainings. Formal trainings can be useful especially when new technology sweeps across the organization or when specialized knowledge such as accounting is required among the employees. Outside experts and facilitators are invited to offer scheduled trainings on key topics through lectures and group discussions. The employees are tested after the training to gauge whether they have understood the concept under consideration. If they fail the test, they are retrained and tested. The third strategy to effect change in organizations is through workshops and seminars. Seminars and workshops can be convenient to enlighten employees about new products or new processes that have entered the market. The employees participate during demonstration activities in the workshops and are also encourage to make presentations of what they have learned to enable them understand the concept under consideration. During the seminars, goals and objectives are classified. Participants in the workshops and seminars use their skills and knowledge to establish strategies and solutions to attain the objectives of the company. 4.4 Understanding of the learning cycle with reference to Kolb’s model Kolb’s model (theory of experiential learning or learning Cycle) illustrates and explains the four steps that a teacher or a trainer must always follow to improve their teaching methods and learning content. The Kolb’s model advocates the use of four-step experiential learning model to make learning highly effective. They are concrete experience stage, reflective observation stage, abstract conceptualization stage and active experimentation stage. The theory asserts that experience and reflection must be integrated for successful learning. After reflecting on experience gained in teaching or coaching, the teachers formulate generalization that could be applied to new circumstances in any given organizations. The theory also help the learner to plan, act reflect and relate their experience to theory. The first step is concrete experience stage. It is a stage when the teacher or the trainer build reservoirs of the lessons learned about their competence in the teaching field. The second stage is the reflective observation stage. Reflective observation stage triggers the teacher or trainer to look back on their teaching experience especially when they are new or teaching a new subject. They ask themselves if they have been successful in delivering the knowledge and skills. The teacher at this stage articulates their own reflection in a systematic way and evaluates his or her content and delivery methods. They can also be evaluated by peers, comments from external examiners and student feedback. The third step is abstract conceptualization. This is a stage when the teacher or trainer invoke educational theory and try to link it with the previous hands on experience. The teacher spends more time and resources on personal development. Active experimentation is the fourth step. The teacher implements his or her training methods and passes the practical knowledge to the students. 4.5 The motivational role that the management could play in drawing the attention of the employees towards continuous learning. It is not easy to implement continues learning in the organization. This is because employees do not like the burden that comes with learning. However, managers can promote learning in their organizations by encouraging their workers. There are many strategies that the managers can use to motivate their employees to learn. They include setting learning standards for their own behavior, creating conducive environment for learning, rewarding desirable learning behaviour, providing jobs or roles that challenge employees in the organization and providing training opportunities to employees. The first strategy that the managers should use to motivate their subordinates is to set their own learning standards for their own behavior. When employees observe their managers set and implement their own learning standards, they become motivated and aspire to follow the footsteps of their leaders in the organization. To them, leaders are their role models and everything they do would inspire them to follow. Leaders should lead by example at all levels in the organization. Leaders should not only follow their learning plans but their commitment to follow their plans should be visible to all employees. The second factor that will motivate employees to embrace learning in organization is a conducive environment for learning. The leaders should help their subordinates to learn by allocating company time for learning purposes. In addition, they should provide learning materials, facilitators and training venues. They should also provide moral support and cheerleading to the subordinates who decide to learn. The managers should add humor and practice joy building during the learning process so as to make learning environment comfortable and fun for their subordinates (Marquis and Huston, 2008). The third factor that will encourage employees to learn in the organization is the reward for learning. The managers should reward all their employees who decide to learn. This is done through promotions and praises. If an employee successfully completes a particular training and improves performance in the work place, he or she deserves to be promoted and offered higher salaries and benefits. This will serve as a strong motivation for all other employees to embrace learning in the organization. Other rewards that the managers provide to subordinates better jobs (Rosalie et al, 2005). The fourth factor that will encourage employees to learn in the organization are the challenging roles and jobs that requires constant learning in the organizations. There is nothing so demanding as jobs that are dynamic. The managers should allocate challenging jobs that will stretch their subordinates beyond their abilities. Challenging jobs encourage employees to be on the look out on how the job will be done especially when there are non-routine jobs. Therefore, employee will always be looking for learning opportunities to gain new knowledge and skills that will enable them do their jobs as required by the organization. The fifth role that the leaders should do to encourage their subordinates to learn is allowing employees to participate in designing learning objectives, schedules, materials and facilitators for themselves. When employees participate in setting their own learning goals and outcomes in the organization, they commit themselves to the scheduled activities. This makes the implementation of the learning process easy for both the managers and their subordinates. 4.6 The impact that employees involvement could have in attaining the desired changes The participation of employees in the learning process can bring tremendous results in achieving the desired changes in the organization. When employees are involved in designing and implementing change, they become motivated and easily accept the needed organizational change. This is because their decisions about their work are considered. Employees can be asked to set goals, make decisions and solve their own problems. Employees get involved through suggestion boxes and during meetings. Employees volunteer to hold meetings regularly to discus problems in their work place and create solutions to improve their productivity. Therefore they are able to plan, control and manage their own tasks. Through involvements, employees feel happy and satisfied because their inputs have been considered. Satisfaction makes the workers improve their performance thus contribute to organizational effectiveness. According to Griffin and Moorhead (2009), employee involvement is the extensions of their job designs as it changes how the employees perform their jobs. When employees are involved in making decisions concerning their work, they are likely to be more committed in executing their tasks. In addition, employees feel great sense of satisfaction, responsibility and achievements when their own decisions yield tremendous result in their organizations. As a result, they are motivated to do more for their own recognition. Employee involvement promotes clarification of employees’ expectations during decision making and enables the employees to understand better the link that exist between performance and rewards. Employees appreciate when their supervisors perceive them as valuable contributions to the organization. As a result, employees are likely to be aligned to change at all times. 4.7 The outcome of learning and changing in an organisation Learning will influence the behavior of the employees in an organization. It will speed up the pace of change in organizations and enable the organizations respond to the current needs of their customers and other stakeholders on time. There are many outcomes of the learning experience in the organization. They include improved customer satisfaction, improved working climate, improved productivity and effectiveness, improved organizational culture and enhance organizational sustainability. The first outcome is improved customer satisfaction. Learning enables the employees of the organization to enhance the quality of the product and service they produce. Through learning, organizations are better placed to innovate or create goods and services that are of higher value to the customer. They also learn to respond to customers needs on time by serving them swiftly at short time possible. As a result, customer complains will be reduced or eliminated at the source. The customer’s value will be enhanced in the product or services produced. Consequently, the customer will be happy and satisfied thus create loyalty to the organization. The second outcome of learning and change in the organization is improved working climate. Through learning, all the employees of the organizations will identify, learn and respect the skills and competence of their colleagues. They will learn that each employee is a complement for each other. As a result, they will treat each other with common sense and courtesy. They will also learn to appreciate the talents and efforts of their colleagues. Employees will learn to work as a team and motivate each other to achieve their full potential. Consequently, every employee will be inspired by the good working relations with their colleagues and become more productive. The third outcome of organizational learning and change is improved productivity and effectiveness. Learning in organizations promotes personal growth and development. Through learning, the employees of the organizations will sharpen their skills, knowledge and competence in their areas of expertise. As a result, they will use less effort and resources as well as minimum time to produce goods or service of the organization. According to Blazey (2009) errors, defects and wastages will be eliminated or reduced considerably through better processes gained by learning. The organization will also be better placed to realize its goals and objectives at the given time frame. The fourth outcome of the organizational learning and change is improved organizational culture. Good organizational culture is realized through continuous learning in the organization. Organizational culture plays a big role in influencing the way employees do their work and conduct themselves. It also influences how the employees respond to each other and their customer. Through organizational culture, employees can be influenced to innovate or create better products, services and even process. The fifth outcome of learning and change is enhanced organizational sustainability. Organizations are being faced by many challenges and uncertainties such as falling economy, increasing cost of doing business and changing government legislations. Learning enables the organization to respond to the above changes appropriately and in time. 5.0 Conclusion and recommendations 5.1 Conclusion The benefits of learning and change in organizations are enormous. Virgin Atlantic was able to grow very first and become the second best aviation company in Britain within a very shot time. Learning organization is able to grow and sustain itself even in challenging times. It is important to understand the four main approaches of learning. This enables the learners and teachers to choose the best method depending on the situation among the following; convergers, divergers, assimilators and accommodators. Change in organization is inevitable and are driven by changes in the competitive landscape, economy, organization, government legislation and technology. The above five factors are powerful and survival of business depends on them. The strategies that can make organizations achieve the best results are use of meetings, formal trainings, workshops and seminars. The four steps suggested by Kolb’s model for learning assist teachers and trainers to develop best training materials and method for effective learning in organizations. They include concrete experience stage, reflective observation stage, abstract conceptualization stage and active experimentation stage. Leaders play big role in motivating their employees to embrace learning and change just as in the case of Virgin Atlantic. The strategies used by great leaders include setting good example, creating conducive environment, rewarding desirable behavior, challenging employees and providing training opportunities for their subordinates. It is important for employees to participate in making decisions that affect their jobs so as to be committed in effecting change. Finally, the organizations should take stock of their achievement and use them as building steps for the next success. They should also learn from their mistakes and avoid processes and ideas that may bring them down. 5.2 Recommendations 1. Virgin Atlantic should seek for more innovative learning ways in order to keep the fire of change burning. 2. Organizations that wish to grow and develop must develop concrete learning plans that will guide their employees to learn. 3. Organizations should allocate company time for learning purpose at least every two weeks. 4. Organizations that wish to grow and develop must institute research activities that shade light into the factors that drive change in their organizations. 5. Organizations should regularly reward managers and employees who improve their performances by aligning themselves to change. 6.0 References Blazey, M. (2009) Insights to Performance Excellence 2009-2010: An Inside Look at the 2009-2010 Baldrige Award Criteria. USA: American Society for Quality Galliers, R. and Leidner, D. (2003) Strategic information management: challenges and strategies in managing information systems.3rdEdition. Oxford: Butterworth-Heinemann Garvin, D.(2000) Learning in action: a guide to putting the learning organization to work. Harvard: Harvard Business Press Goldsmith, M., Morgan, H. and Ogg, A.(2004) Leading organizational learning: harnessing the power of knowledge. USA: John Wiley and Sons Gould, N. and Baldwin, M.(2004) Social work, critical reflection, and the learning organization. England: Ashgate Publishing, Ltd. Griffin, R. and Moorhead, G. (2009) Organizational Behavior: Managing People and Organizations. 9thEdition. USA: Cengage Learning Marquis, B. and Huston, C. (2008) Leadership Roles and Management Functions in Nursing: Theory and Application. 6thEdition. Philadelphia: Lippincott Williams & Wilkins Nejdl, W. and Tochtermann, K. (2006)Innovative approaches for learning and knowledge sharing: First European Conference on Technology Enhanced Learning, EC-TEL 2006, Crete, Greece, October 1-4, 2006 : proceedings. Germany: Springer Rosalie T. Torres, R., Preskill, H and Piontek, M.(2005) Evaluation strategies for communicating and reporting: enhancing learning in organizations.2ndEdition. London: SAGE Schwandt, D. and Marquardt, M.(2000) Organizational learning: from world-class theories to global best practices. USA: CRC Press Virgin Atlantic (n.d.) Company Overview [online] Accessed on March 20, 2010 from http://www.virgin-atlantic.com/tridion/images/companyoverviewnov_tcm4-426059.pdf Read More