Changing the Staff Managerial Structure - Essay Example

Considering the process of change that the company underwent, Cameron & Green (2004) confirm that the management team is normally "more likely to emphasize the business case for change, and less likely to think or worry about the effect on people." (Making Sense of Change Management, p.77). This is evident in our research where respondents provided that people have been shuffled around, and no longer work in teams the way they did in Terminal 3, before moving to Terminal 5. In addition to this, the 'automation' of the employee or staff deployment has inadvertently had an effect of the employees no longer being humanly 'managed' in terms of their work positions and allocation.
Paton & McCalman (2008) in Change Management deal with the manager's perspective on such change and state that the "problem more often than not is a less than competent management of the change situation." (p.39.) This competent management, as mentioned, was lacking in the areas that we highlighted concerning proper information being disseminated to the staff regarding their parking area, as well as the proper and effective management of the Information Technology process regarding the baggage sorting and handling. Paton & McCalman further state that the change management aspect is a "multi-disciplinary activity" where key elements and skills that should be possessed and displayed include effective communication, maintaining motivation, facilitation, and orchestration of group and individual activities, negotiation and influence, and possibly most importantly the planning and control elements of the entire change. (p.40) Based on the results of the opening day of Terminal 5, we believe that a number of these elements were missing, especially communication and effective planning – this is displayed in the results that were produced on an opening day. From the perspective of our research, the respondents mostly agreed that such change was required and in analyzing the size and complexities of BA's operations within Terminal 3 we believe that such change was needed.

One has to accept that the company has employed technologically advanced means in the new terminal, as well as new systems, however from our research we did not specifically reveal that this hurt staff and or management, but was rather seen as a positive move. The direct results of the opening day reflected the lack of communication, as described; and this is where the impact on management is revealed. This is large because of the proper communication to staff, specifically regarding their parking, as well as what appears to be as incompetent management of the information technology issue. This resulted in two senior executives losing their positions within British Airways.

Perhaps the inclusion of teams could have resulted in a better transition into the new terminal, our study shows us that there are no longer teams, but Paton & McCalman provide that several companies in changing have elected to utilize the teams "to participate in the process of innovation and change, ensuring that they [the companies] get enhanced performance through greater involvement and empowerment." (p.41). One is led to believe that if BA had adopted this approach then perhaps the problems that were evident at the opening of Terminal 5 could well have been prevented. Read More