A research report with a word limit of 1,500 on British Airway’s (BA) change program that resulted in long-running industrial disputes between its management and crew members in 2009-2011.
The contextual information about the BA’s introduction of strategic changes – why BA produced this change, explain market (rising fuel costs etc.)
British Airways is the UK’s largest airline. Since becoming privatized in 1987, BA has continued to grow despite increased competition (Connell & Williamson, 2011).
The UK’s economic climate had a large influence to why the British Airways’ industrial occurred. In 2011, UK inflation was 4% on the previous year, compared to an average pay rise of 2.3% for the same period. This means that the cost of …show more content…

These are the sort of capabilities required by the managerial team.
Capacity:
With the savings made in the long-term, BA will be able to invest in training for staff so quality of customer service will improve. The managers have shown devotion to this process by holding out for 18 months to ensure change was implemented. There must also be a number of people in the organisation with an adequate change capability.
Readiness:
The workforce was not aware of the need for change until it was announced that there would be 1,700 job cuts. As a result cabin crew members refused to commit to making the personal changes required of them.
Power:
The British Airway’s managerial team were the change agents containing the most power. As a trade union, Unite also contained considerable power, and this caused opposition for the implementation of change.
The change management strategy, if any, as outlined by the BA management – have they addressed employee emotions or all focused on change process?
The focus was placed mainly on the change process rather than employee emotions. The strategy appears to have been to implement the change at all costs. Throughout the 18 month negotiation process BA refused to give into the union demands. Despite 22 days of strikes BA continued to refuse the people what they wanted. They were accused of “management bullying, press