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DB1: British Airways
Luna (Lindsey) Davis
School of Business, Liberty University
BMAL 504-D04
Dr. Jacob Avila
Author Note
Luna (Lindsey) L. Davis
I have no known conflict of interest to disclose.
Correspondence concerning this paper should be addressed to Lindsey L. Davis.
Email: ldavis197@liberty.edu
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DB1: British Airways
Early years at BA
For many reasons militant like operations can lead to success for specific organizations,
and because of its background after World War II, British European Airways (BEA), and British
Overseas Airways Corporation (BOAC) “Having inherited numerous war veterans, both airlines
had been injected with a military mentality” (Liberty University Custom: Heinz, 2021, p. 434).
However, for British Airways (BA) this did not help them find success, in fact it did just the
opposite. Although BA, and BOAC were supposed to be operating as one entity, they
consistently did not which led to great divides.
When numbers are in the green it can be hard to convince laborers that things need to
change drastically, but for BA this was exactly the case. While they were getting planes in the air
on time, customer service suffered, there were people doing jobs that weren’t their own and
cultures were clashing constantly. Research shows that “the competitiveness of an enterprise is
dependent on its ability to sell and deliver products (goods, services, results, or combinations)
that are more highly valued by customers compared to those of its rivals in a specific market”
(Gellweiler, 2019). For BA, the were not valued in the market, not for their service, or attention
to detail or much of anything, which means they were not able to complete with other leading
foreign airlines.
Critical transformation factors
The critical factors in BA’s success transformation started with a leader who was
dedicated to radical change and acknowledge the in order to find success change needed to
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happen. In addition to this Sir John King hired executives who shared the same vision as him,
and while he had no direct airline experience was well versed in customer service, an area in
which BA consistently failed. BA also began to acknowledge its people and foster an
environment of organizational commitment. They committed to training managers, dedicated
time, and money to growing their people, which in turn made their people dedicated to them. In
Galatians we see this verse “Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we
will reap a harvest if we do not give up” (Galatians 6: 9, New International Version, 1978/2011).
The changes BA made, to show that they were dedicated to their people, allowed them to
rededicate themselves to the organization.
Transformational process
The transformational process did not start out easy, it was a first order change, and it
came fast. Sir John King made content changes when he halted cargo only services, and while
reducing the staff to 35,000 this was a reversible change (Levy, 1986). These changes were
logical, rational, and made sense due to the state of the organization at the time. King was no
doubt a leader, and was well respected by many, and had a myriad of well-known connections
and was picked because he could lead and enact radical change. Research has found that
“leadership behavior is a strong predictor of readiness for change” (Al-Hussami et al., 2018,).
He brought in new leadership, enacted training programs from employees and managers,
and removed the stringent hierarchical structure. Because of all of this many at BA felt there was
a beneficial change and one individual even said “I think the core difference is that when I joined
this was a transport business. And I now work for a service industry” (Liberty University
Custom: Heinz, 2021, p. 440).
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Even though BA made drastic change and found success in many arenas, times were still
rapidly changing, and they needed to keep up. They still had organizational problems, and now
the programs they pulled them out of the gutter were become dated and overused. All of this was
made even more confusing after the mixed signals received post-merger with British Caledonian
because many did not know where BA was focused; however it is no small feat that in ten short
years they were able to recover from bankruptcy and become a powerhouse in the industry, and
even though the future may be uncertain in such a competitive field, the process up until that
point was nothing short of transformational.
Changes in the process
There are some changes I would make to the process, especially during the later years of
the transformation process. I think that the first order change still remains completely necessary
in that the organization needed to slim down, cut costs where it could and limit itself to core
operations. However, something stuck out to me, the book writes this in regarding changing the
organizational culture of BA “Eight years is a relatively short period of time to establish that,
particularly when the economic pressure comes back on” (Liberty University Custom: Heinz,
2021, p. 441).
I read this as employees felt like they were being placated in many ways, and that as soon
as the pressure was back on BA, they started to no longer focus on the organizational culture that
was so important to help pull them from the original despair. This starts from the top down,
through authentic leadership, and as BA became more successful, the authenticity of leaders and
managers became less existent. “Authentic leaders are likely to foster shared values and
authenticity among followers, which lay the foundation for organizational culture over time”
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(Chaudhary, 2020), which is what makes them such a power tool for enacting transformational
change.
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