Emirates Airlines Organizational Culture - Assignment Example

Emirates Airlines Organizational Culture Abstract The concept of organizational culture has become a recognized business disciple. Organizational culture is simply the way things or the traditions specific to any given organization. Emirates Airlines is an airline company that places great emphasis on hospitality and customer experience. This drives the vision, mission, core values, values and policies of the whole organization that spans across the globe. The company has built a strong brand name and corporate identity that has a strong foundation. As a national carrier it competes on the international markets in the air transport industry with the full favor of the government. The international market, in which the airline competes, makes it highly aggressive in terms of innovation, competence. Literature Review Different researchers have investigated the pivotal role played by organizational culture in contributing to the success of any organization. Schein (2003) stated that leadership to establish the desired organizational corporate culture via the process of learning could change organizational culture. Schein was of the opinion that for organizational learning to have effectiveness then it must marry the pre-existing organizational culture to the projected corporate culture. The model is based on identifying and unfreezing the existing threats to the mission, vision, goals, and objectives of the organization. This is followed by cognitive reconstruction and implementation of the changes in the organization culture. These changes are to be effected through training and retraining through workshops, seminars and refresher courses and tea building (Schein2003). On the other hand, Tony Watson was of the opinion that the leadership and management of a business needs to take the organizational culture of the organization their running with the same level of seriousness they take the process of managing the finances of the organization (Watson 2006). Traditional business pressures, which still exist in modern business environments, require changes in the way business is done. These changes can only be realized if the organization effects highly effective corporate culture and subcultures (Watson 2006). Arthur &Rousseau (2014, p. 150) posited that human resource strategies must incorporate the human factor, as they are the creators of organizational culture. Organizational culture has a direct effect on employee performance in an organization. Positive reinforcement by leadership and management through reward and recognition fosters the desired corporate organizational culture. The punishment or penalties on negative behavior will reduce it and create a better culture that is in line with the desired company strategy. This is an effective way ensuring that the vision, mission, goals, objectives, and values of the organization are adhered to (Arthur &Rousseau 2014, p. 150). Deal and Kennedy (2000) infer that the inner values of an organisation such as ethics, intergrity,values and heroes drive an organisation to sucess more than the numbers. The human factor is the key to longterm health and prosperity of an organisation (Deal and Kennedy 2000). Finally, Quinn and Rohrbaugh (2013) outline a competing values model that has four forces, which all encourage flexibility, individuality and spontaneity. These forces of clan culture/subculture, developmental culture, hierarchical culture, and rational culture, which form the organizational culture, are manipulated to get the best results by management. The strategic decisions of management needs to take all these factors into consideration in order to effect change (Quinn and Rohrbaugh 2013). In addition, Quinn and Rohrbaugh are of the opinion that there is a direct relationship between innovation and organizational culture. The leadership and management of an organization play a vital role in either encouraging or discouraging innovation and change through reinforcement (Quinn and Rohrbaugh 2013). EMIRATES AIRLINES The behavior of employees with in an organization and the meaning they attach to that behavior is very important to its success. Emirates as an origination puts a lot of emphasis on developing and maintaining the right organizational culture. This is because the attitude of employees affects their behavior and consequently their ability to work towards the vision, mission, objectives, and goals of an organization (Arthur &Rousseau 2014, 150). Emirates strives to create and maintain its corporate identity through marketing strategies that make it stand out amongst the other airline carries. The company is aware of the need to plan events, which serve as opportunities to develop cultural rites of the company. This are annual and expected events that are part of the yearly plan of the company. Informally, the employees have tea breaks with beverages that are provided for by the airline, which creates an opportunity for them to bond and further establishes a routine[Dea00]. Organizational culture can best be described as the things that are normally done in an organization on a day to be day basis whether formally or informally. Stability The company has rules and policies that strictly guide its management. It strictly adheres to internationally recognized standards and policies, which are used for governance. All directors, management, and employees of the company must adhere to strict rules of conduct at all times and to company policies. The company operates in many countries and this makes it necessary to ensure that all staff is well versed with company policies. The company is very bureaucratic in nature but this is to be expected since this is a highly specialized area in the transportation industry that requires due diligence (Quinn and Rohrbaugh 2013,p134). Air transport is highly regulated by the government and this makes it necessary for all companies such as Emirates to comply with such policies. The market forces mould, shape and propel all organizations within this air transport industry, as such these organizations strive to survive making them value stability. Strong corporate images and identities are born from stable and long lasting organizations. This will enable the organization to have a positive standing with all stakeholders. An organizations reputation is strongly linked to its corporate organizational culture. This is because the way things are done in the organization becomes the experience of clients and other stakeholders. The way a problem is sorted in flight or baggage challenge is an internal matter of efficiency but affects the company’s general reputation. Aggressiveness Emirates is one of the many airline companies, which operate worldwide. The company operates in a highly competitive industry, which prompts management to ensure services offered are not sub-standard (Zammuto, Gilford & Goodman2012, p.76). Emirates has put in place very attractive deals for travel agencies and individual customers as a marketing strategy. It has also sought to maintain a competitive edge through the provision of higher quality services in all its flights, which gives them a competitive advantage over their peers. The goal of Emirates is to outperform all her competitors in the quality of service offered, lower prices, better aircraft carriers, and friendly staff. Like other Middle Eastern airline carriers Emirates has the full support of the government, which is encouraging the region to divest from oil to the aviation industry. National airline carriers such as the Emirates therefore strive to showcase the country's carrier as the best in the world out of patriotic duty. The airline also has to compete for their share of Asia's air industry, which compels the company to strategize. The constant need to strategize and re-strategize makes the airline completive, as it constantly has to upgrade its standards. The very nature of the air transport industry makes it highly completive, as all airlines have to use the same airports, which in turn translates to customer care competitiveness (Boyne 2003, p. 78). Teamwork The place of teamwork cannot be overemphasized, as it is the single most important factor that makes for a positive organizational culture guaranteed to yield successful results (Rousseau 2014, p. 159). For this reason, Emirates organizes its activities around teams more than it does around individuals as this makes for more positive relations. All teams get to interact with each other in different forums organized by the management to foster inter-team cohesion. Individuals’ performance is not neglected but rewarded within teams. Emirates places a very high value on organizational culture especially since it is in the service industry that deals directly with customers. Since airhostesses are the most visible members of the team and represent the face of the airline, they need to dress and behave in a manner that in in line with company policy. Company policies reinforce its values such as integrity through written and unwritten forms. Values are key concepts and beliefs that makeup the companies organizational culture (Zammuto & Krakow 2012, p. 89). The human resource management endeavors to be caring, loyal, promoting of cohesion amongst employees departments. This is done through maintaining tradition, morale building amongst employees and equity. The company rewards the culture and practice of personal initiative, development, and dynamism in all its employees and departments/teams. Humanness The airline company leadership has put in place drivers of internal and external drivers of change in their human resource management in order to ensure employee efficiency. Job analyses are carried out on a regular basis throughout the company to analysis how tasks are performed and how employees feel about the tasks they do. The job analyses also seek to find ways and means that can improve employee output (Kotter & Heskett 2003, p.54). Also, since most of the employees of the airline deal directly with clients they need to have a pleasant demeanor in line with their marketing motto. In line with its external drivers of better management strategies, the company seeks to involve all its employees in the decision making process through feedback from surveys. The company strives to be fair to all its employees and other stakeholders through involving them in the process of decision-making (Rousseau 2010, p. 158). These are done through regular and independent employee satisfaction surveys. The promotion of staff is carried out through a very independent process, which involves job evaluation and equal opportunity to all employees. The company is also an equal opportunity employer that recruits employees form all over the world through a highly open recruitment process. Achievement The leadership and management in the airline company are very aware of the fact that they are the ones who create and drive culture change through the reward and punishment system contained in the company’s policies. Every organization has a culture and several subcultures within the different departments. Emirates places a high value on results in all its departments and teams, which must adhere to high moral and ethical principles. These policies by the top management give life and force to the desired corporate culture by promoting favorable cultures (Deal& Kennedy 1985, p. 98). Departments that achieve their targets get bonuses, promotions and pay hikes in line with company policies. This ensures that all employees feel like they have an equal chance at excelling and qualifying for bonuses and promotions, as the reward system is policy regulated. The company policies dictate and outline the conduct of all employees and departments. This is useful in ruling out unethical practices within the company. Unethical practices are highly discouraged through negative reinforcement such as dismissal or penalties. This reward and penalty system encourages the formalized structure that encourages corporate culture to dominate in the organization. Rewards are based on rating rank against expected output. Competition is driven by task achievement so that every task is accomplished with all the seriousness and merit it deserves. This makes the different departments especially the more technical ones such as the maintenance more production oriented. The organization is a large one and it therefore favors a more bureaucratic structure, as it is efficient. The efficiency comes from working within clearly laid down policy, which cuts down on the need for unnecessary decision-making. This laid down policy and its procedures become organizational culture, which makes achievement of goals and objectives quantifiable. Detail The airline industry is one that demands attention to detail. Emirates is very firm on its policies that demand excellence in services. Management is essential in ensuring that the culture of attention to detail is maintained by demanding high quality performance from tasks. Subcultures within the organization have the capacity to ruin the cultural ethos of the organization and are therefore under constant monitoring through employee engagement. Training of new employees and constant re-training of all employees in their relevant department is undertaken to ensure that the desired corporate culture is maintained. Recognition and rewarding of excellence is done by management, and is reserved for those who go above the call of duty to ensure that attention to detail is maintained. This is carried out formally or informally through praise or mention at company events by top leadership. This creates a climate for others to emulate or model (Watson 2006, p. 213). Organizational culture gives a company a sense of identity through values and beliefs that act as its defining culture. At Emirates, the mission is to make its clients flying as an "experience". This is a way of stating that they have so upped their delivery of the customer satisfaction that it becomes an unforgettable event. Shared goals of making the customer experience the highest possible flying experience creates a shared norm within the corporate culture. Norms are a part of each culture even in organizations though it is created through policy, leadership, and management (Schein 2004, p.8). Innovation Emirates is always involved in the process of innovation especially in the marketing and service departments. The company is constantly in pursuit of ways to make their customers more comfortable during flights, stopovers, and flight connections. Faster and more efficient methods of achieving these goals are among the core objectives of all teams in the company (Schein 2004, p. 11). Organizational culture can sometimes act as an impediment to better methods of doing things. Resistance to change is put in check through constant training and retraining of all staff. All pilots undergo a thorough training through simulation and actual test flights when a new aircraft is introduced. Seminars and workshops are mandatory for those who work in the finance and customer care departments, as these helps to keep personnel up to date on the use of ever-changing technology. Innovation and development force corporate culture to change, as employees and customers adjust to new equipment, technology, and systems. Newer enterprise cultures are also being adapted as theories on leadership, management, and operations improve through research findings from studies. Emirates as an organization is therefore in a constant state of creating a receptive climate within itself that accommodates change readily. The state of readiness for constant change is also an organizational culture in and of itself. Innovation requires an active leadership that reinforces innovation by acting on it and implementing changes through policy and strategy. Food and beverages are another highly versatile area in, which innovation is witnessed at Emirates. The airline is constantly striving to serve the very best in international and national cuisine, which for most is served freshly prepared on board. The airline carrier is always looking for better ways to cater to the comfort of its customers while on board by providing better legroom, and free toiletries for the journey. Conclusion The organizational culture of Emirates Airlines is one that is fast changing, competitive and innovative. Emirates prides itself in blending the very latest in terms of technology with the traditional Middle Eastern national culture of hospitality. The company is very keen on teamwork across the whole organization in all the countries that the company operates in. It also promotes great interpersonal relations as a part of its culture. Excellent service in all departments is part of how they do things at Emirates. The attention to detail, achievement, and success of the organization is mainly attributed to its human resource. References Dea00: , (Deal and Kennedy 2000), Read More