The success of any business usually depends on the type of management style used. The style should make the employees work in the correct way to suit the objectives of the business and the type of management style chosen should make the business work successfully.
A business also has to have the right culture to suit the way the businesses objectives are met. Culture combines the beliefs and values of the individuals and the extent to which they rely on the organisation’s rules and procedures.
An organisation structure is the way the business is set up. This includes lines of communication, chain of command and span of control, which affect the efficiency and success of a firm. Within each organisational structure there are different chains of command and spans of control (Rollinsson 1998).
The organisational structure at British Airways is hierarchical as well as divisional.
A hierarchical structure has many layers, with the layer at the top having direct control over the people below them, who in turn control the people below them and so on. A divisional structure is where the organisation is broken up into divisions of different areas (Dessler 1986).
This works well for British Airways, as each division is managed by a director and then several managers. This ensures that everyone knows whom he or she is responsible for and whom he or she is responsible to. The advantages are that each division can have specialised employees.
“Simple, routine tasks can be centrally programmed and closely monitored through a hierarchy; they can be standardized, formalized and allocated to specialist functions and jobs.” (Hales 2001 p.134).
There is also more motivation among workers, as the bureaucracy has gone. With fewer employees to tend to, this results in a smaller span of control leading to closer bonds between managers and their subordinates, boosting both morale and job satisfaction (Rollinsson 1998).
The negative side of this hierarchical and divisional structure is the chain of command, as each division may not know what the other is doing, causing problems and slowing down communication and efficiency within the firm due to the intervening layers of management. A further problem could occur, if communication is poor between divisions, which could have a detrimental effect on the overall performance of the company
Also because the lines of communication are quite long it may be possible for messages to get lost or distorted.
This is why it is important for British Airways to have an autocratic management style as every employee must be kept alert and task focused so that problems do not occur.
The style of management at British Airways clearly has a large effect on the performance of their employees, so with their hierarchical structure within the company, the autocratic approach to management is most likely to be implemented to make sure all the employees are following the strict guidelines set by British Airways. This keeps productivity high, however the motivation of the employees may not be very good. As a result the democratic style of management maybe considered by British Airways, which involves leaders consulting their subordinates about decision making while still maintaining control of their division.
Within this hierarchical and divisional structure, British Airways must utilise a style of management that maintains a good level of communication throughout the company, so that it can perform efficiently, this is crucial to British Airways as it has a long chain of command. They must watch out however, as a democratic leader, may become unsure of him/herself and offload all of his or her decisions to subordinates, which would result in a lack of leadership and tasks taking longer to be solved, with possible disputes between employees (Dessler 1986).
Culture can affect the performance of a business in a good and bad way “Culture is clearly an important ingredient of effective organisational performance.” (Mullins 1999 p.808).
The culture of an organisation is the collective total of believes shared by employees in the business. It refers to a way of conducting work within the organisation, and is based on traditions, past history, communication network, employee behaviour and the environment of the organisation. The individual employer is able to influence the culture by adhering or not to company rules, as well as adding their own individuality to the culture. All organisations have a culture and part of the manager’s role is to look after that culture, nurturing and encouraging alteration to it when necessary, if this role is not carried out, damage to the organisation may occur. The result could be deterioration in the company’s reputation. The maintenance of an acceptable organisational culture is therefore an important managerial concern (Fineman 1993).
At British Airways, there is mostly a role culture based on many of the ideas of bureaucracy, that is keen on routine and procedure, making sure every employee works to the objectives set by their managers. Employees are therefore more task focused, as they have a set job to be completed, this very importantly reduces transaction costs within the company. These are the costs of decision making, coordinating and arranging, that are very significant towards the efficiency of the company overall.
In this organisation, the job description is more important than the person who fills it, and performance over the role is not required.
“Role or job description is often more important than the individual and position power is the main source of power.” (Mullins 1999 p.804).
While British Airways is such a large company, the roots of the bureaucratic approach have to be used in many ways to keep the company running smoothly. There are obviously disadvantages to this, as mentioned earlier in this report, employees will feel left out and not valued by their company, as they are being given instructions and orders to follow, and are never included in decision making that some other cultures may have.
The organisational structure at British Airways can help the company obtain its targets, as the hierarchical and divisional structure divides the organisation up into functions, which will each be working towards completing the objectives set by the firm.
This structure also helps British Airways in being able to have a significant presence in all geographical markets, as British Airways has separated up its divisions by area as well as the other business functions. From this, each area division can assess how well they are operating in their geographical market and therefore identify any areas for improvement (Mullins 1999).
The structure used at British Airways is also beneficial to the employees, as each individual knows whom they are directly responsible to and for, and also they have a clear role in the company and understand exactly what is expected from them.
It is also beneficial for managers, as they can observe the working environment easier and address any problems quicker, as they are only managing a division each as apposed to a much larger group of subordinates (Watson 2001).
In a constantly changing business environment, British Airways must adjust to these changes in order to stay at the top of its market; it did this by decentralising its company into divisions, allowing a geographical spread of different parts of the organisation (Mullins 1999).
“More specifically, contingency theory asserts that as technology becomes more sophisticated and less routinized, environments more complex and uncertain, activities more heterogeneous and employees more skilled and sophisticated, organizations must become more flexible and adaptable and they must do so by moving from bureaucratic to more decentralized forms of administration.” (Hales 2001 p.135)
This decentralisation has many positive outcomes for British Airways, as it enables decision making to be done closer to the operational level of work. There is also improved responsiveness to local circumstances, as well as an increased amount of customer service. It can also have a positive effect on employee morale and motivation (Mullins 1999).
The structure and also the culture contribute strongly to the management of British Airways. The hierarchical structure and role culture at the company, allow for the company to work well, as there is no confusion between workers, which minimises transaction costs within the firm. Everyone knows their role within the company and have certain jobs to complete. Each individual is also aware of whom they are responsible for and to.
The divisional structure adopted by British Airways, has allowed the company to remain efficient by decentralising and geographically separating different parts of the organisation.
“Decentralisation may give rise to greater opportunities for increased delegation and empowerment.” (Mullins 1999 p.542)
References
British Airways official website. (30-04-2004) .
Dessler, G (1986) Organization Theory: Integrating Structure and Behaviour (2nd ed). Prentice Hall.
Fineman, S & Gabriel, Y & Sims, D (1993) Organizing & Organizations. Sage.
Hales, C (2001) Managing Through Organization (2nd ed). Thomson.
Hofstede, G (1998) ‘Identifying organizational subcultures’. Journal of Management Studies. Vol.35. no.1. p.1-12.
Mullins, L.J (1999) Management and organisational behaviour (5th ed). Prentice Hall
Rollinsson, D (1998) Organisational behaviour and analysis; An integrated approach. Addison Wesley
Watson, T.J (2001) In Search Of Management. Thomson.
