Hospitality Industry of UK - Essay Example

? Employees-Management Conflicts at British Airways A research project on “Research Methods for Hospitality and Tourism Management” By: Table of Contents 1. Executive Summary 03 2. Introduction 04 2.1. Hospitality Industry of UK 05 2.2. Background Story at BA 06 3. Literature Review 08 4. Research Methodology 09 4.1. Specific Research Questions 11 4.2. Qualitative vs. Quantitative Research Design 12 4.3. Information Collection 13 4.4. Qualitative Research Tool 14 5. Data Analysis 17 6. Recommendations 19 7. Conclusion 22 8. References 23 1. Executive Summary British Airways is air carrier Hospitality Company which operates in United Kingdom with its head quarter in London. Recently there observed a conflict between employees and the management which was afterwards resolved after significant losses. The purpose of this study is to dig out the root causes for what the problem arouse and the deviation between proposed solution and the most appropriate solution in order to resolve the matter with least damages. The study is purely descriptive and qualitative which uses case study research design to find out the deduction (Cooper 2007). As it has to interact with human behaviors then it is socially collaborative research hence it is specified as deductive research. The real time scenario will be implicated over the literary theories and practices to deduce the most appropriate results (Sekaran 2003). The cabin crew employees had a problem with the management policies related to their rights and incentives issues (BBC News). They went on a shutdown to get their demands fulfilled. The dispute ran for a longer time period of two years and the main agenda presented by the employees union was pay and benefits. It remained an acrimonious one for the taste of the top management. It caused twenty two days of crew cabin staff strike. Human resource department was not able to handle the situation (BBC UK). The problem was tackled at last; the guilt was on both parties. The demands were unjust and the management was getting failed in digging out some perfect situation handler. 2. Introduction The proposed study anticipates digging out the recent conflict issues which were observed at British Airways among management and the employees (hubpages). The conflicts were sought to be resolved in order to get the operations straight forward as well as on the stream of action. The research methodology which is used to get the insights from the matter is secondary data approach using deductive research design. The conclusion is generalized as the matter was not only dependent upon the management. There were many of the contemporary issues which were over sought by the stakeholders. The study is a spot light, basically, and the primary purpose is to find out the relationship between conflict handling capabilities and the employees’ union authority at British Airways. Since British Airways is a well-known traveling company operating in United Kingdom, having the head quarter at London, UK. It is the biggest carrier company in United Company whereas it is placed at 3rd number all over the Europe. The company stands at 1st in airlines ranking all over the world having 51000 employees. The passenger turnover which is recorded on the booking basis is 36 million per annum. It has a lot of strengths over its contemporaries. Threats which were observed over the history of British Airways were short termed and management resolved the issues in a managed and systematic manner. Over the period of Human Resource era, the beginning was a little bit shaky for hospitality industry. Because before the arrival of HR era, customer was considered as a king and there were lesser rights given to the employees. When human resources were realized with their value, conflicts arouse in all over the hospitality industry along with British Airways. In the paper, there is discussed in detail about how the management faced the problems and how was the issue resolved along with better implementation of the case in to the real corporate world with theoretical execution. 2.1. Hospitality Industry of United Kingdom Hospitality industry is a wide industry which includes several areas such as Hotels, Restaurants, Travelers, Air companies, Tram services and the trip managing companies. All the areas of the particular industry are based upon the services and greeting the customers (Baun 2011). It is a real issue while training the employees for this hybrid industry where services have the backbone of the revenue generation while at the same time infrastructure is as important as attracting the customers towards the certain brand and the images. The industry has the major area covered by traveling and traveling related service particularly air companies in the regions where tourism has well established and remarkable place and contribution to the economy (Dosbon 1995). The hospitality industry is very well established in United Kingdom because of being one of the highest tourist turnovers around the world. This is the strength for the British economy. It has been stated as to the airlines which are operating in England region have very impressive revenue rates. One of the top airline companies is British Airways which is on the top in UK’s airlines. It stands at third position all over the EU (BBC News). Areas of Hospitality Industry 2.2. Background Story at British Airways Thousands of the cabin crew employees were found at walkout at pay benefits demand issues. Industrial conflicts were being observed through the long time. But before the 2011 Christmas holidays, the staff of the British Airways announced a twelve (12) days strike that would sound to be a shut down. At an average, British Airways carries 90,000 passengers in one day (BBC blog). With the said average the loss that is seemed is around mish mushing the holidays of around 1,080,000 passengers! This sounds an incredible loss. The chief executive took a very meandering and audacious decision at the moment. He announced a legal action and punishment for unite union cabin crew employees (Forbes). He overlooked the issues of consequences which could be observed after once it could happen. Source: Adapted from [Online Resource], Available at http//:www.citehr.com The employees hot furious and they demanded for their due honor which was, in their view, their right of their designation including excessive pay and perks. As the problem of right demand was not newer, it had been a matter of quarrel through the time of privatization of the British Airways (BA). It was being continuously overlooked by the management. The layoff and downsizing process created certain dissatisfaction among the employees such that the layoff survivors fell in to exhaustion because of job insecurity. Instead of creating peace among the employees, the management adopted a harsh behavior which was really not suitable for them (Mondy 2005). 3. Literature Review The negotiation process is very much important while two parties are interacting for some certain purpose. There are a number of way to get a mater negotiated (Munroe 2001). It is a phenomenon which is generally found among various organizations while the top management remains failed in making appropriate decisions for the sake of eternity (Klein 1991). The conflict resolution process should be as appropriate as the need of employees is there for the company (Armstrong 2000). The history is the evident for even bankruptcy of numerous companies which have poor relationships with their employees and employee unions (Forbes). The human resource department is the bridge among the interest of the both of the parties; management as well as the employees (Armstrong 2000). It is the responsibility of the Human Resource department to resolve the issues regarding the interest resolution of each of the stakeholder (Lansford 2008). The win to win or win to lose situational phenomenon does not fit over the human resource concept. Basically Human Resource Department was established after first industrial revolution when labor union got united to demand their rights (Mondy 2005). The disputes are used to be resolved through various methods which are known as conflict resolution techniques (Lansford 2008). The customers receive more value once if the employees are satisfied and well-motivated (Armstron 2005). 4. Research Methodology The research is conducted using secondary data exhausting official reports and press reviews related to British Airways. It is analyzed with practical as well as theoretical guidelines provided by well-known researchers. It has been a real time dynamic issue so it was needed to be resolved in a full of the attention manner. The constraints were prevailing strenuously in hindering buoyed and straight employee management relations, such that it caused an immense effect over the employee motivation and job satisfaction issues. Deductive research has been implied because the matter is dealing with social science and is a pure behavioral issue along with having a full fledge theoretical back ground in its discrete importance. The paradigm which is applicable in this sort of research issues is metaphoric one. The descriptive and qualitative design of research is a perfect combination for carrying out the overall procedure. The description of the research design is free of the boundaries of the theoretical permutation. It is because the overall scenario which is explored in a particular situation is an empirical real time problem. The further intended to add in the situation is how the situation could be made better than it was done. The theoretical studies would be implemented over the research area. Research aims to consider favorable recommendations in resolving the conflicts among management and the employees keeping in view the specifications of hospitality industry particularly huge airline as British Airways. Furthermore the following research paper is a type of case study (type of qualitative research design) which intends to get more from the particular case. The prophecy of the study is predetermined as resolving the real world case in a creative and innovative manner in form of case study. Source: Adapted from “Research Methods for Business and Economics by Cooper Donald. R (2007)”., New York. s Operationalization of the jargons will be further defined in the review of the literature which intends to find out literary implications as well as the similar case resolutions. The role of management in conflict resolution, third party mediation, area of constraint for top management and the overall negotiation processes have to be discussed to create the value to prevent brain drain. Think tanks are the assets to the organization so that there must be a specific value for them. All that is the general outline of the study in the research perspective and further will be discussed in upcoming sections. 4.1. Specific Research Questions The British Airways is a huge airline which comes at number one position in England as passenger carrier in the air. It has the incredible management which is the real strength to the organization as because the actual forte of the British Airways is the service (British Airways). Following are the research questions which are required to be studied throughout the paper; according to the real situation as well as theoretical one. Why the pay and perks issues arouse in British Airways employees while the company itself is a market benchmark? Why the management remained so late to handle the issue? Why it was negotiated at the moment when it already had too late and enough damages were borne by the company? What was the real guilt in the situation? Employees’ demands vs. Management policies How the mater could better be tackled? 4.2. Qualitative Vs. Quantitative Research Design The research design over the particular case is implemented as qualitative one having case study method. The problems in the organization’s decision making were not flawless that created a muddle and strife among the staff as well as the management. Qualitative research design is suitable for the descriptive method where only realities of the things as well as ground realities are to be digging out. It is an empirical research based problem which shows how to make a situation better. The deviation is required to be found out where the actual problem was lying and where the management went wrong. However the qualitative methods are used here because we are not concerned to the facts but we do with realities and subjectivity of the approach according to the researcher’s point of view. However the chances of error exist because of the subjectivity and intuitive approach. The other methods of qualitative research are survey analysis, focus groups, ethnography etc. The case study methods received more importance in this case because it has to be found a real case issues with the help of pre discussed and in literature theories and tenet rules. Source: Adapted from “Essentials of Marketing Research by William G. Zikmund (2010)”., South-Western/CENGAGE Learning, Mason, Ohio. In qualitative methods, generally deduction is used. It is because the social sciences are related to deduction and the natural sciences belong to induction. In deduction, we move general to specific of some particular scenario after conducting a research session over it while in induction we move from particular to general. It is because of the differences in the nature of both vary kinds of research. The roaring issues in research (both qualitative as well as quantitative) are biases of the behaviors. In quantitative research, while conducting statistical and mathematical analyses, there is an error rate left for adjustment of the error. But for qualitative research design it is flexible, malleable and revolving. As to imply over the underlined case, the management policies and decision were deviated from the actual happening scenario. In alacrity they took a number of wrong decisions which caused strife among the parties. 4.3. Information Collection The information which we used to process in preparation of this study was collected from secondary data collection sources. Such as press releases, official web pages of British Airways (BA), news reviews including print and electronic resources. These sources are for gathering data and relevant information regarding the corporate profile of British Airways. The literary sources are books and journals. The literary sources are valuable for implementation of practical insights with theoretical discernments. The deductions will be based upon both because we intend to find out the deviation of the decisions accuracy from the empirical relationships. The data sets which are retrieved from expert opinion and analysis are highly scattered and unstructured, although the quality of qualitative research design is unstructured and flexible. But it is a great deal to work with any unstructured and flexible shattered data sets. The main constraint is the subjective biasness (Sekaran 2003). The other sources to data are various such as news services, agency news, blog resources, expert opinions, annual reports, work force management journals and many others like these. The greater the malleable the data, the greater the chances are there to deviate from the center line of decision making. Information collected for the sake of analysis is concise but precise. The chances of over sighting of the information are there but the scope of the research is not broader. It is to find out what could make the situation better in the context of empirical instance. Furthermore the outline of the research design and the data collection and analysis is matched in order to relieve with reasonable discussion grounds and upshots (Cooper 2007). 4.4. Qualitative Research Design Tools Implemented The tools to gather the relevant data sets are various under qualitative research design. These are focused group interviews, survey analysis, detailed interviews in one to one settings, group discussions, conversations, unstructured and semi structured interviews (may be disguised or undisguised), observations, and opinion gathering through open ended questionnaires. This is all about the tools which are used in qualitative research design in a usual manner (Zikmund 2010). Source: Adapted from [Online Resource]; Available at: http//:www.images.google.com For the proposed research we basically worked with secondary data and information which was already in a structure and information revealing. The primary purpose of the research is to dig out the grounded realities and to resolve ethnographic issues. This is what all about the proposed work. The crucial part of the paper will be started through data analysis stage because all the work is based upon data analysis. It is broader potential for the topic to generalize it for the overall hospitality industry or specifically the airline services in the context of England. Qualitative Approaches Used 5. Data Analysis and Findings It was revealed that the management was involving confronting and litigating action by trying to use their coercive power to influence the employees (BBC UK). They deliberately were overlooking to the power of the employees union and their influential capacity. It is analyzed that it was a deliberation because it was not a smaller issue which could be ignored. The industrial problem lasted for a very longer time period which caused hurting the quality of services which are the perk of the British Airways (BA). The management was trying to influence their employees (the cabin crew employees) through their legitimate and assertive power but the conflict was found to be increased by leaps and bounds. It was just about beating around the bushes that they were totally going to the wrong direction. While the contemporaries were adopting the emerging practices of human resources, the British airways administration was still struck to the conventional one. The customer services were being affected and a negative word of mouth was being generated enough curiosity and scrutiny among the stakeholders. This was definitely not a good sign for the management efficiency and result orientation strategy. The confrontation against the layoff survivors was being critically criticized by the analysts and experts at the moment (Munroe 2001). The management was in the situation of do or not to do. The direction was not clear to the top management because of a lot of confrontations. The employees were continuously busy in negatively energetic activities because it was the question of their right, in their aim and objective. The strikes were a restraint as well for handling the issue. During the entire problematic situation, there were done twenty two strikes conducted by the cabin crew employees. It was a turbulent scenario for such a huge company like British Airways. At the end the management took a late decision in terms of providing the demanded benefits to the striking employees. This was considered as a very late decision because it was the only solution so it could be taken in time in order to prevent the contemporary issues arouse because of the systematic trouble created by the labor unions (Forbes). The pay and benefits demand was not wrong up to some extent. The employees were dissatisfied because of immediate right sizing. They wanted to influence their power by joining together such that management could take it into action at the right time. At the end, management had to put the weapons down in the favor of the striking employees by offering them reasonable perks and benefits which was around 7.5% (BBC Blog). After the resolution of the problem, it was not a real more than a historical event but the time spend during industrial dispute was critical for management. 6. Recommendations: Answering the Research Questions The management was dealing the issue with hard influential and management tactics while the need of the time was to deal it with soft management. Analysts were crucially criticizing the problem solving approach of the British Airways management. It could be initially trialed but it was not a matter to get it on the strike all the period long. Hence the issue was enough close to the internal matter. The conflict was first could be resolved through negotiation procedures used in contemporary management approaches (Munroe, Mary Hovas, 2001). The negotiation and conflict resolution process needed to be followed which could follow the interests of all the parties (Lansford, Tom, 2008). It was the real need of the time which was continuously being ignored by the management of the British Airways. They could not bear the loss of customer turnovers of even one day. The loss for one day is estimated to fall around 90,000 passengers. The cabin crew employees were demanding for the due perks and benefits. After resolving the conflicts, they had to control the issue of attitude and perceptions. The majority of the employees who were on strike were reported as layoff survivors and the layoff survivors are definitely in the process of general adoption syndrome. The distress phase is attacking on such of the employees. Instead of confronting those employees, the management needed to show a promising and well-motivating behavior with those workers such that they could sustain with their job satisfaction (Holiday, Simon J., 1994). Only British Airways faced the discussing issues because they were handling the issues in a whole wrong manner (BBC News). When they offered demanded perks to the employees, the satisfaction level was started being on the buoyed level. The sustainability over the issue of employees person job versus person organization fit was mismatched up a certain extent (Choi, Sunmee, 2004). It had to be deliberately fingered with a strategic and long term approach which could show a promising attitude for the employees. It was a real time issue which could be resolved by arbitration or any other tactic of negotiation while involving another party (Munroe, Mary Hovas, 2001). The employees were coming dissatisfied because they were getting comparatively lesser while contrasting their current remuneration plan with the technically analyzed prior practices. This was quite disappointing that they were still getting lesser (Forbes). The modern approaches of moderation and modernity to involve the employees in decision making and making the part of pronouncement to value the innovation are appreciated (Klein, M, 1991). The following recommendations are treasured to deduct something trustable from the research plan of the study. 1. Empowering the Employees: Strenuous participation of the employees in bringing innovation. 2. Decentralized System: the system and the culture in the organization should be shared. 3. Learning Culture: instead unethical information control, the organization must possess the learning culture where the skills and knowledge is preferred to share instead of keeping in one hand. 4. Promising Attitude: the attitude of the peers to others and the management to the subordinates must be promising and very much cooperative. That would not generate an environment of dissatisfaction and insecurity. 5. Rewards and Punishment: never ever exploit the rights of the employees because the ultimate customer satisfaction is brought because of employee job and organization satisfaction. 6. Handling the Workforce Diversity: the diverse workforce is a constraint which must be handled in a strategically managed way. Otherwise the result orientation through diverse work force will not be achieved. 7. Conclusion The management was not really getting what to do. Experts were recommending dealing the matter with soft management tactics. It was a huge issue in UK’s hospitality industry that the biggest airline company was facing staffing issues. The human resource department was facing a hell of devastating problems because of the employees’ demand of having perks (BBC News). The qualitative research design was used to collect and process the data and information. The tool that was used was observations and basically secondary data gathering approach was used. After that it was intended to find out the better techniques to handle the matter with flexibility. It has been dig out that there is not a proper manner instead it was a deadly mistake by the top management but fortunately it did not bring that much damages as it was anticipated by the hospitality industry experts and analysts. There could have been so many amendments through which the reputation could be saved as well as the payments paid could be kept if the matter was timely resolved. 8. References Admin. 2011. British Airways Staff Problems. [ONLINE] Available at: http://flyboy63.hubpages.com/hub/British-Airways-Staff-Problems. [Accessed 30 December 12]. Admin. 2012. British Airways. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.britishairways.com/travel/crcusthome/public/en_gb?cookiesAccepted=newvispop. [Accessed 30 December 12]. Admin. 2012. Wiley Online Library. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.interscience.wiley.com. [Accessed 30 December 12]. Armstrong, Michael, 2000. Strategic human resource management a guide to action. 2nd ed. London: Kogan Page. Baum, Tom, 2011. 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