PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT PROGRAM PROPOSAL

BUS 520: Leadership and Organizational Behaviour

Teacher

Date

Organization and Issues

Organizations confront different types of problems that range from difficulty in adjusting to the changes in the external environment to the inability of the leadership aligning internal operations with the culture of the organization. The example of an organization that has featured in the headlines for struggling with public relations issue and service delivery is United Airlines. According to reports on CNBC, the nature of relationship between the top management and the employees is frosty. As a result, the domino effect contributes to poor customer service by the crew.

The employees have developed an internal culture which is not reflective of the aspirations of the company. The developments are indicative of the leadership inability to address the cultural dynamics that affect overall productivity in the aviation industry. It is on this premise that the discussion explores the public relations concern that poses risks to the sustainability of the operations of the airlines. The objective of the task force in exploring the concern is guiding the administration formulate strategies for helping restore the image of the brand.

The leader of the task force has the duty of examining the internal cultural dynamics and its relation to the prevailing developments in the external environment. The review will take a holistic approach that addresses the underlying ethical issue that affects the airlines. The typical concern includes examination of the communication strategies deployed by the administration. The objective is examining the issue is to understand the role of leadership in dictating the outlook of operations of a company (Assaf, 2009). In the case of United Airlines, the leadership has been failing to consider the critical relationship issues amid employees that affect the long-term image, as well as, the profitability of the firm.

Corporate Culture

The corporate culture of the airlines of embracing inclusivity in decision-making over the years has been contributing to the profitability. However, the mark of the 21st century has witnessed a commencement of the challenges in customer relationship and employee dissatisfaction leading to distortion of the reputation of the brand. The management has been prioritizing profitability over the concern of the employees such as the outlook of the work environment. Unlike the case in the early decades of the 20th century, the leadership is no longer expressing interest in dealing with employee concerns.

According to Josephs (2018), they focus on investment in technology and increasing travel routes for the airlines. The communication strategies are not reflective of the culture that motivated airlines operation. The vague communication that discourages accountability is failing the company. The leadership is slow to address the underlying issues that affect employee morale in duties. The employee, in turn, has embraced a culture of working without much zeal as the case in the past. The urge to meet the targets supersedes the need to ensure quality service delivery. The strained labor relations are a major issue halting the profitability of the airlines.

Areas of Weakness

The history of the airlines indicates that it aspires to make every flight positive to the consumer. The leadership strives to facilitate the accomplishment of the mission by sharing a vision of embracing diversity and inclusivity. A review of the messages on the company website indicates that united airlines values employees and exploits an inclusive approach in solving concerns affecting productivity. Interestingly, the leadership embraces the corporate culture of prioritizing profitability through investments in technology. The company assigns leadership powers to influence departments operations. As a result, the level of tolerance varies in different regions of the US (Assaf, 2009). The cultural dynamics reflects the attitude of the leaders based on the choice of values for preference. The overall administration focuses on task accomplishment at the expense of strengthening employee relations. The redress for human resources issues is a major concern for the company.

The observation of the leadership tactic exploited at the firm suggests that the airline has numerous weaknesses in human resources administration. The top leadership has not formulated in place an effective communication mechanism for dealing with labor relations challenges. The mode of addressing internal conflict such as the inability of the employees fitting together in a team is halting the realization of the vision of working harmoniously towards the goal of increasing profitability. Despite the nature of diversity of the workforce, the management has not put in place measures for dealing with interpersonal conflicts in the workplace. The airlines also grapple with the challenge of remunerating employees according to the set national standards (Greer, 2008). The case of complaints has been rampant in the past few years.

Additional concern related to corporate culture that highlights the weaknesses of the airlines is that inability to formulate an internal policy governing the use of technological resources. The members do not communicate as a team when relaying information to consumers via social media platform. On numerous occasions, the management invests in technological resources without considering the competence of the employees utilizing the resources harmoniously. Another shortcoming of the airlines is that the leadership uses motivational strategies that fail to inspire the creativity of the individuals. They communicate values that are not applied. The behavioral approach of assigning employees targets without considering the need to address concerns that inspire the same group is a shortcoming at the company. The reliance on previous data in the judgment of contemporary scenarios is also a shortcoming at the airlines. The sense of accountability among employee is lacking as reported in a case where a passenger David Dao was ejected from a plane due to misunderstanding with the crew.

Solutions

The organization practices that require redress changing the attitude of the management by encouraging the personnel to work closely with the junior staff towards the realization of the goal of the company. The implementation of quality management programs should equally take place at the company. However, the organization should not approach the issue as a short-term solution (Davies, 2016). Instead, the leadership should invest in training the employee’s skills that encourage collaboration in duties. The company should also change its approach to selecting individuals for different tasks. As things stand, the sense of favoritism disadvantages the firm.

The strategies for dealing with the labor relations challenges include formulating in place a fair remuneration package for the employees of the company. The task should commence upon recruitment then the leadership identifies prescriptive values to share during induction. As noted, the model exploited in staff selection should inspire the selection of individuals based on the ability and attitude. The restructuring of the communication channels for use at the firm is equally necessary since the strategy used in dealing with the concern of the employee for most of the times fail to address the problems affecting the individuals. The organization should continuously invest in technology to ease operations. Afterward, the leadership has to train the personnel to ensure comprehension on ways of dealing with the challenges.

Executive summary

United Airline has been experiencing challenges in the past few years due to the inability of the leadership formulating strategies that align with the prevailing dynamics in the internal environment. According to media reports (CNBC), the relationship between the management and the employees is frosty (Josephs, 2018). As a result, the concern is threatening the sustainability of the operations of the airlines since employees do not serve as envisaged in the company’s policy. It is on this premise that the task force established to examine the issue proposed solution to the challenges. The team commenced with an exploration of the organization to comprehend the cultural issue that affects productivity. The objective was analyzing the corporate culture concerns to facilitate identification of the areas of shortcomings in anticipation of the formulation of a solution to the problems.

The review of scholarly information and web articles as well as newspaper items covering the topic resulted in the judgment that the corporate culture of the organization contributes to the situation. The leadership is not working harmoniously with the employees in addressing personal concerns (Greer, 2008). Their approach to motivating the team is failing to encourage collaboration in duties. Instead, the employees have developed the impression that the organization is not concerned about addressing the issue that affects productivity. The model of communication at the organization is equally augmenting the problem since the leadership at times bases decision on assumption. The action in the long-term affects the culture of collaborating that catapulted the airline to greater heights of success in the few decades of the establishment.

The leadership of the company is failing in its role since the culture of adaptation is not benefitting the company. The airlines grapple with a myriad of weaknesses in resolving human resources issue. The mode of employee selection, retention and motivation contradict the mission and vision of the firm. As envisaged, the company sought to make every flight a positive endeavor while pursuing the vision of inclusivity (Josephs, 2018). However, such is not the reality. It is on this note that the task force proposes a halt to the practice of being inconsiderate. The leadership should steer initiatives that inspire employee creativity through acts such as the use of incentive and remuneration. The leadership should involve employee in planning and communicate openly when addressing interpersonal concerns. The human resources ought to restructure the recruitment model for use (Davies, 2016). Afterward, the organization should invest in training. The adaptation of an open style of communication is equally necessary to encourage teamwork to inspire a culture that results in the realization of the initial agenda of the company as inscribed on the website.

References

Assaf, A. (2009). Are US airlines really in crisis?. Tourism Management, 30(6), 916-921.

Davies, R. E. G. (2016). Airlines of the Jet Age: a history. Smithsonian Institution.

Greer, M. R. (2008). Nothing focuses the mind on productivity quite like the fear of liquidation: changes in airline productivity in the United States, 2000–2004. Transportation research part A: policy and practice, 42(2), 414-426.