British Airways Discrimination Cases - Case Study Example

Human Resource in the Media Student’s Name: Course Code and Name: University: Date Assignment is duel: British Airways discrimination cases Crucifix case Eweida Nadia in September 2006 was suspended after refusal of concealing a small crucifix at her Heathrow Airport post. She claimed that it was her right to express her faith through displaying her crucifix. She was reinstated in the second month of 2007 after British Airline had its uniform policy revised. Eweida claimed being discriminated on the basis of her religion and sought twenty thousand pounds in back-dated payment and British Airways compensation. She claimed to have declined eight thousand five hundred pounds from British Airline as an out of court settlement. The tribunal for employment said that being an Evangelical Christian professing Anglo-Egyptian origin; Eweida has broken regulations of the firm without any substantial reason. The policy prevailing at the time needed jewellery to be worn from a place it could not be seen (Pitcher). Nose stud case The GMB union asked the airline to intervene following Lalji Amirit dismissal on September 20th, for wearing a nose pin. Lalji was employed in British Airline VIP lounge in Terminal 1 of Heathrow where he was employed by Eurest UK. Lalji was dismissed for going against management instruction when she declined to remove the nose pin while on duty. She claimed that she was practicing her Hindu religion through the wearing of the pin. Her case is similar to Eweida who was dismissed but later on reinstated for wearing a crucifix while on duty. Tahir Bhatti, GMB organizer, requested British Airways to come in and ensure immediate reinstated of Lalji without any negative impact to her pay. The union claimed that it was after a British Airline representative complained of the nose stud bring worn by Lalji after over a year into her employement that Eurest sought to commence disciplinary charges against her (Pitcher). Theoretical-enhanced analytical report The cases appearing in news reporting highlight pertinent issues surrounding human resource management at British Airways. Being a leading airline in United Kingdom, British Airways has been confronted by many challenges especially in human resource concerning appreciation of culture and religion together with recruitment issues. Lalji case follows that of Nadia who wears a religious symbol at the workplace. Nadia was accused of not concealing her crucifix while Lalji was accused of refusing to remove the nose stud when at work. All the two workers claim to be spotting such symbols with them due to their respective beliefs. Some of these cases and many others that may not have been highlighted have led to a lot of restructuring within the British Airways. Following Nadia case, the code regulation guideline had to be revised to accommodate her staunch religious belief. The cases bring to the limelight issues such as compensation, recruitment, career development, dismissal, and human resource management in general. Employee recruitment Recruitment is the process employed by an organization to spot and attract job applicants for filling up a position. An approach that is effective can assist a company to compete successfully for human resources that are limited. Any firm should choose a method of recruitment that targets the best assortment of candidates within a short time and spend less money. There are steps that have to be followed in the recruitment process. In the first place, the job opening has to be identified. Organization needs should not only be noted when an existing employee leaves an organization. Company appraisal to identify these needs should be an on-going process. If Nadia was to leave her job permanently, it would have been the mandate of the human resource department to look for her replacement within the shortest time possible. The human resource department has a role of identifying possible job openings in advance and plan for due recruitment. Waiting for a job opening to take place and then go on with the recruitment process jeopardizes the chance of getting the right candidate for the job (Oettinger 2010, p. 237-260). The next step involves making a decision on how best to get a replacement for the job opening. It is possible that current workers can be used to fill up the position without looking for outside recruitment. The firm also can outsource by involving an independent recruiting firm to do the job. After identifying the means through which the replacement can be done, the firm’s human resource department goes ahead to identify the target population where it indents to get the right person to fill up the position. Recruiting internally will require the human resource department to notify all workers to take part in the internal recruitment process. The number of position to be filled will decide the extent of internal advertisement to take place. If it is for senior mangers, only a few people have the required qualification within the company. The final process will involve meeting with the candidates for the real job interview. At this stage is where the cases of Lalji and Nadia come in. The greatest question to be posed is: what should be considered during recruitment? At this point, the issue of organizational culture comes into play. What are the beliefs, customs and traditions that have been held by the organization over time? There are laws within different countries that protect employees against discrimination and they are keenly followed by workers’ unions like in the case of Lalji and Nadia, where GMB union fought for their reinstatement. Within nations’ constitutions in the world, there are provisions which forbid organizations against employee discrimination. The British Airways got in trouble with the workers’ union for failing to acknowledge the religious beliefs of workers. Nadia wanted to keep her cross while Lalji wanted to maintain her stud in the nose. Both employees claimed to spot their respective symbols for the sake of their religion. Nadia was a staunch Christian with an Egyptian origin while Lalji was a Hindu. Following the successful appeal by Nadia through the union tribunal, she was reinstated after the British Airways regulations on code of dressing were amended. British Airways has gone through several restructuring to enable it to remain a leading competitor in an unpredictable market. Such wrangles bring into focus individual practice and work codes of ethics. While the firm has to make sure that its mandate of formation is fulfilled, there is the need of observation consistency with set laws and regulations. In an effort to instill disciple or a regular code of ethics, firm can come up with general guidelines on dressing and conduct. British Airways is a leading international airline based in the United Kingdom and offers domestic and international air service. Being a company with such a high profile anything it does is given much focusing on the media just like Lalji and Nadia case on the dressing code issue. Organizational culture Organization culture defines the way things are done within the organization. These are unwritten rules or codes of conduct that are followed by members of a particular organization. They involve both internal procedures and corporate proceedings that direct the functions of the company. Organization culture is the total collection of policies, values, traditions, attitudes and beliefs that binds whatever is does within the organization. If Lalji and Nadia had a strong belief in organization culture of British Airways, then they will be willing to keep their religious separate from their jobs. However, regardless of the customs and traditions of any organization, the constitution of the land remains supreme on the land. Some of these incidents made British Airways to under organizational change (Grove, Hussey & Jetter 2011, p. 827-874). Culture of an organization is an important aspect in today’s business world for deciding the direction of the organization and in the creation of value, tradition and belief for its worker’s to build harmony in the organization. Organizational culture is significant to company’s revitalization and change. When organization’s internal and external environment change, an organization has to ensure adaptability is attained. Increase in competitors from outside the company had its objectives and goals realigned to meet the expectations of the company (Armstrong, 2006, 105). Organizational change The factors that trigger organizational change could either be externally triggered or internally instigated. The dressing code issue that highlighted the case of Nadia with her insisting with preservation of her religious symbol made British Airways to revise its uniform code. Innovations and changing customer requirements and tastes, government regulations and policies can compel a change in organizational culture. Organization change commenced within British Airways way back in 1980s. The company was experiencing financial problems. It had a financial debt and lived in fear of criticism (Gatewood, Field & Barrick, 2010). There are three stages involved in change of an organization. These comprises of unfreezing, movement and refreezing. British Airways commenced with downsizing. Organizational change has to begin at the individual level. The organization was restructured to bring down the number of employees. The employee population was slashed to thirty five thousands up from fifty two thousand five hundred. The hierarchical levels were tremendously reduced and more autonomy given to operation of people. This led to work being performed easily and hence increased performance. Early retirement was also encouraged. The top management also changed hands to other senior management officers. The old corporate culture was faced off and replaced with a new one. Management of people first or putting them first became the motto of the new CEO (Landrum, & Gardner, 2005, 250). The second stage of movement involved the development of new programs and tactics to bring the vision of bottom-line employees to top management level in the entire organization. In support of this stage, a number of internal systems and structures of British Airways had to undergo meaningful change. Heathrow Airport terminal 4 was opened, and new bonus system was started. Refreezing is the final stage. During this stage, the company has to resolve the turbulent changes by looking for stability in its operations. A performance appraisal system focusing on the result and behavior was created to ensure subordinate development and customer service. New British Airways symbols were unveiled. Refurbished aircrafts and employee uniform, and a new coat of arms with the call “we fly to serve” were introduced. These changes affect the previous organizational culture (Armstrong 2008, p.51). Initially during recruitment, training, promotion policy and job placement, British Airways was thought to be large, bureaucratic, inefficient and awkward. After privatization, the corporate culture of the company changed tremendously for the better. The culture changed to being more service oriented and market driven as opposed to being militaristic and bureaucratic in the industry of airlines. The recruitment process and policy were to change in order to realize stabilization in the organizational management (Mathis & Jackson 2010). Compensation and staffing The two cases that appeared in the media concerning the nose pin by Lalji and the crucifix by Nadia raises important questions concerning compensation and staffing. What are important characteristics that the management should look at in the process of recruitment? Should religious faith and dressing manner form part of it? These are the pertinent questions that come up when the case of Nadia and Lalji are mentioned. When the Islamic headscarf worn by women was banned from France public school, there were so many cries for discrimination and religious intolerance. Many people cried foul and the directive was firmly implemented regardless of protests from those with Islamic faith (Bridle 2010, p.4). The cases in this paper talk of Hindu and Christian religions. The latter requires them carrying around of a crucifix while the form requires a nose pin to be worn. Both workers run into trouble for imposing the religious practice at their place of work. Despite there being considerable globalization and increased communication that has brought about blending of different cultures, there is the essence of some independence to be allowed as far as religious practices are concerned. More so, in order to maintain uniformity and some order within the organization, there is the need for the general rule defining the boundaries of how far someone can go regarding dressing. The nose pin worn by Lilji may appear to be offensive and immoral to other people in spite of her having a right to demonstrate her religious believes. In the long run, the welfare of the company should be upheld while meeting the satisfaction of both employees and clients. It is not possible to have special considerations for all employees within the workplace. There so many religious all over the world and if everyone will be given an opportunity to display his or her religious symbols, then it would be difficult for the organization to achieve its goal and objective owing to personal interest of employees coming before the interest of the company. There will be total confusion (Armstrong 2006, p.116) Labor unions that guard against mistreatment of workers and poor-working conditions are always ready to raise a storm in case of a problem. For the case of Nadia, GMB union had to intervene in her case and ask for her reinstatement. The unions are also very keen about payment. Their demand for reinstatement of Nadia comes with a condition that no disadvantaging adjustment to her pay should be made. She demanded a compensation of twenty thousand pounds. British Airways wanted to solve the matter out of the court to avoid publicity, but she adamantly refused. The back-dated salary of Nadia plus any benefit entitled to her were to be paid to meet the requirements of the union (Mathis & Jackson 2010, p.247). Every organization will try as much as possible to meet the requirement laid down by the government and labor union in regard to staffing. There are conditions concerning gender balance and discrimination against people with a disability or on the basis of their religion. There is a need to see to it that all requirements are met. Not top run in problem with labor unions and government regulations, every company has to ensure that its external and internal regulations does not contravene the law. Compensation of staff should not be carried out to their own disadvantage. All efforts should be made to make sure that the employees as satisfied with their pay package. In case of revising their salaries downwards, enough explanation has to be offered to them to avoid unnecessary controversy. If the salary of Nadia was interfered with, the labor union could be there to defend her ardently (Mathis & Jackson 2010, p.357). Employee turnover It should be noted that employee termination is a crucial thing to happen to any organization and there no way British Airways would not have been affected with the departure of either Miss Nadia or Miss Lalji. There would have been some replacement for them on hand. An employment company that has the interest of its workers at heart will struggle to maintain a low turnover rate of employees. The ability of a company to retain workers for a long time portrays its strength and gives it a positive picture or image. There is sustainable productivity and novice workers are able to gain experience over time without fear of dismissal (Bohlander & Snell 2009, p.541). In a place where employee turnover is high, instability due to frequently departure of workers is always witnessed. For a company to be viewed positively, despite its objective of strictly following set rules and regulations, it has an obligation of demonstrating high retention of its workers for a long time. There is no company that is not affected in anyway by the departure of one of its employees. Employees feel safe in an organization where their job security is assured, and there is no fear of reprisal for minor things. The ability of the company to successfully resolve its internal problems demonstrates that it has a strong internal culture and can endure challenge (Bohlander & Snell 2009, p.95). Performance management Nadia is a woman who staunchly believes in her religious faith and nothing is going to stop her from wearing the crucifix at the place of worker. Within the British Airway performance management is needed and everything is done to ensure the smooth running of the internal and external affairs of the firm. In an effort to maintain the status quo, British Airways tried to solve the issue out of court. Getting involved into a scandal is not good for the performance of the company and most the time there will be endless effort to try and divert the attention of business on negative publicity (Pollard, & Hotho 2006, p.732). In an incident where the managing director of Lloyds was taken ill due to work pressure, the performance of the bank even on the stock market went down. British Airways may not be an exception, and the two scandals must have had an effect on the performance of the airline on the stock market and passenger clients. The Hindu community who subscribes to Lalji faith and Christians, who subscribe to Nadia faith, would have felt let down by the company if the decisions by the disciplinary committee would have prevailed. It is the interest of every company to have a stable performance index. If the inflow and outflow of workers is not observed, the company can suffer from instability occasioned by the inconsistency (Armstrong, 2006) Employee commitment and satisfaction is drawn from the way workers are treated by the management of the organization. There are people from in the organization who will feel content by the manner in which Lalji and Nadia cases were handled. The respect of religious beliefs can give workers who have strong faith in their religion contentment to continue believing in the organization. There is some sense of satisfaction that comes with it. Job satisfaction is an important aspect that every organization has to achieve to ensure its workers are committed and every decision made does not negatively affect their position in the organization (Grove, Hussey & Jetter 2011). Recommendations It is an accepted consensus that it is not an easy task for any organization to administer changes in its system and structure smoothly. Every change within the organization is bound to be met with resistance from conservative employees. Resistance may come from contradictory assessment, parochial self-interest, low tolerance for change and lack of trust, and misunderstandings. In its privatization bid, British Airways was committed in changing both organizational and individual levels through the change of management style from being authoritative and bureaucratic to liberal and participative. New patterns and behavior make employees to feel out of place and awkward, which makes them to be against the new order and long to continue with the familiar pattern. British Airways had to change the way it carried out its operations (Armstrong 2006, p.34). Historically, British Airways has done its best in dealing with resistance and chaos at a time of organizational change with its structures. Tactics applied in the management of resistance majorly were policies of human resource that included the training policy. The human resource policy is a tool that is highly effective and can be used in the education of employees; and successfully convinces them to accept the new system of operation. Despite British Airways having an effective Human Resource policy for facilitation of change and resistance management from its workers, there is a case in connection with British Airways organizational change which did not go well in the 1990s (Bridle 2010, p.6). Competitors like Easyjet and Ryanair overcame incumbents within the airline industry through pricing strategy to gain market share from existing companies. The then CEO of British Airways said that the organization needed another revolution. British Airways tried to outsource for new alliance in Airlines from America and reduction of labor costs. The majority of employees felt let down for living in fear of loosing their jobs while others actually lost them. The morale of the remaining employees went down. There was massive downsizing. Any company should be prepared to have a negative impact of its policy in case of a major shake off. Before implementation of a major plan, negative and positive effects should be analyzed keenly to determine how cost-effective the plan is (Armstrong 2008, p.3). In similar incidences, the cases of Lalji and Nadia bring the issue of job security to limelight. If Nadia had lost her job for being in a possession of a crucifix, then the other employees, who have same practices and show them openly, would have shuddered. Employees want to be in a place where they feel that they are secure, and there is no threat of termination of their services. As mentioned earlier, the British Airways workers are still living in fear of the downsizing that took place during the restructuring period. Employee sacking always has an impact on the remaining workers because they are not sure of their wellbeing within the organization. Professionalism should be exercised, and the remaining workers have to be substantially explained to why other workers leaving the organization have to leave. With the assurance of their job security workers are bound to be more devoted and productive in their duties as opposed to when they are leaving under fear. To win the loyalty of the worker is as good as winning the loyalty of a customer since it is the worker who comes into direct conduct with the customer or client (Pollard, & Hotho 2006, p.730). High profile companies are at a risk of loosing a lot when involved in negative publicity. They are trusted by their service delivery, and their high class clientele will not permit any controversies entangling their companies of choice. The rich and the mighty who occupy high classes of society always want to keep away from controversy. Leading companies like the British Airways, therefore, had an obligation of solving the case with Nadia amicably to avoid scandals in the media. The more the stalemate persisted, the more negative publicity it generated. The senior managers consulted to have the issue resolved as soon as possible. In the light of such controversies, the reputation of the company is bound to suffer. The company share in the market can drop, and competitors will make mince meat of the situation at hand to benefit their companies. It is advisable that, in as much as possible, an organization should avoid such matters that may tarnish its image from leaking out to the media. The issue should be resolved before it gets out of hand. Nadia and Lalji cases should have been resolved before the media got wind of it (Oettinger 2010, p.255). British Airways revised its dress regulations to allow Miss Nadia to continue carrying around her crucifix. Every organization has to consider the environment within which it is operating from. The social and religious attributes of people leaving around should be reflected within the culture of the organization. The organization has to take into account customs and traditions of the people despite trying to create a culture for itself. Eventually, British Airways had to adjust its culture to take into consideration the religious belief professed by Miss Nadia and allowed her to have a crucifix during the working hours without having to conceal it from view. The case of Lalji brings the same sentiments concerning religion into the limelight. The company has to consider the religion that its employees subscribe to and allow for some discretion as the matters are concerned. It is not fair or good to impose a general ban on religious practice of workers within the company (Grove, Hussey & Jetter 2011). Broadly, the company has to come up with ways of regulating individual behavior without pushing workers too far to the extent of them feeling that they are caged. Freedom of expression and religion has been reaffirmed in many constitutions in the world. The organization’s regulations are not above the laws of the land and it should ensure that the laws are observed. Consequently every organization should have bonding sessions where the challenges faced by workers are discussed in depth. The culture of the company should incorporate the local practices of the people living around. In Muslim countries, Islamic religious practices should be observed while, in Christian dominated countries, Christian teachings should also be looked at. It is possible such nasty smear in the media for the case of Nadia and Lalji could not have happened in the human resource department could have taken the time to explain to them that the company was not interested in interfering with their religion, but they had to observe same code of conduct and dressing to achieve uniformity at the place of work (Gatewood, Field & Barrick 2010). Conclusion Human resource issues in the media are a daily life affair. Many organizations are experiencing challenges in their growth and sustainability and, therefore, there will be instances when positive or negative publicity will fail to come up. The cases of discrimination launched by Lalji and Nadia, through the union tribunal, brings to the limelight some of the hitches organizations have to undergo as they try to ensure performance of a high standard is realized with an effective staff. The influence of labor unions is heavily felt as British Airways tries unsuccessfully to solve the matter out of court. In this case, issues to do with recruitment requirement, organizational culture, individual versus company’s interest, performance management, employee turnover and staffing have come up just incidences of dressing code. The interest of individuals to support their religion has been stronger that their interest of observing organizational culture. Such cases demonstrate that a company should be prepared to defend its decisions, and, therefore, it must have good reasons of implementation of any action. In as much as a company will want to remain competitive and uphold its culture at the same time, it should be very keep not to interfere will labor union or regulations set by the government. List of references Armstrong, M, 2008, Strategic Human Resource Management: A Guide to Action, Kogan Page Publishers, Delhi Armstrong, M, 2006, A handbook of human resource management practice, Kogan Page Publishers, Delhi. Bohlander, G. & Snell, S 2009, Managing Human Resources, Cengage Learning, New York. Bridle, P 2010, Human resource should be buried and then given a seat on the board, Human resource international digest, 18 (1), 5-7. Berry, M 2006, Case of the week: religious symbols and workers’ rights, Reed business information: Sutton, Surrey. Viewed Nov 3, 2011 http://www.personneltoday.com/articles/2008/01/29/44092/case-of-the-week-religious-symbols-and-workers-rights.html Grove, A. W., Hussey, A. & Jetter, M 2011, The gender pay gap beyond human capital: heterogeneity in non-cognitive skills and labor market tastes, Journal of human resource, 46 (1), 827-874. Gatewood, R., Field, H. S. & Barrick, M 2010, Human Resource Selection, Cengage Learning, New York. Mathis, R, L & Jackson, J. H 2010, Human Resource Management, Cengage Learning, New York. Oettinger, G. S 2010, The incidence and wage consequences of home-based work in united states, 1980-2000, Journal of human resource, 46 (2), 237-260. Landrum, E. N. & Gardner, L.C 2005, Using integral theory to effect strategic change, Journal of organizational change management, 18 (3), 247-258. Pitcher, G 2007, British Airways lands in another dress code and religion raw as Eurest sacks VIP airport lounge attendant for wearing nose pin, Reed business information: Sutton, Surrey. Viewed Nov 3, 2011. http://www.personneltoday.com/articles/2007/09/18/42393/british-airways-lands-in-another-dress-code-and-religion-row-as-eurest-sacks-vip-airport-lounge-atte.html Pollard, D. & Hotho, S 2006, Crises, scenerios and the strategic management process, Management decision, 44 (6), 721-736. Read More