Assignment Example on Alaska Airline

What tools could Alaska Airlines leaders have used to increase their awareness of internal and external issues?

Conflicts have been arising on the issue following the choice of Alaska to outsource a ramp worker. The decision causes a disorder in the operations at the Alaska airline days after the commencement of the operation (Snell, Morris, & Bohlander, 2016). Sometimes the workload is high, and the new workers from the vendor are not able to cope with the situations. That issue could not be solved easily due to the inexperience of the old management team. After new leadership has come into power, Alaska Airlines starts to put more pressure through the introduction of new policies.

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Due to the pressure, there can be either positive or negative outcomes from the workers depending on the burden created by the pressure. It is through an average change of management that the Alaska Airlines can control the level of stress that the vendor gets. However, there are tools that the leaders of Alaska Airline could have used to increase external and internal awareness. Job characteristics model theory is an essential tool. The theory gives the task condition that predicts the success of employees in their respective work positions (Armstrong & Taylor, 2014).

The job particular theory has some dimensions which are: skill variety that is the level of which the job requires several activities while working on it that means skills and talent are required from the employee (Snell et al., 2016). Another dimension is task identity that is level at which work needs completion. Task significance is also essential as it is the level at which the job impacts the lives of other employees. Here the work is more meaningful to the employee when the task variety and significance are high. Autonomy which is the degree the job provides independence freedom and discretion to the way one should carry it out that is in the determination of procedure to use.

Lastly, is the job feedback. The leaders were supposed to embrace this dimension as it is where while carrying out any activity as needed by the job, clear and direct information is provided to an individual. That enhances effectiveness and improves employee's performance. The job characteristic model theory cod have been of great help to the Alaska Airlines in enhancing their employees' performance and in general job satisfaction through understanding all the external and internal issues. The understanding would help them implement the job adjustments for the employees to be successful in their roles.

Another tool that the leaders of Alaska Airlines should have used is the empowerment of their employee. That would give the employee on the organization the right resources and tools to make decisions on their own and work without close supervision. Also making employees feel confident enough in taking the initiative is also essential or the leaders at the Airline (Armstrong & Taylor, 2014). Through that, the employee would feel free to share what they find out while at work. Some employees are more comfortable when they are not being monitored.

Which issues were foreseeable, and which were utterly unpredictable?

Airliner disaster was one other problem that was faced at the Alaska Airlines. In the year 2000, there was a case of an Alaskan Airlines flight flying to San Francisco from Puerto Vallarta crashed (Zotova, 2017). Among those who died in the crash was the Alaskan Airline employee that was returning from vacation. The plane has a record of high safety, but the manufacturer has been cited severally by the FAA of constant breakdowns during manufacturing procedures. That has led to some wondering whether the tragedy could be transferred (Zotova, 2017). Immediately after the crash, the Alaskan Airlines updated on their website and later released a maintenance record or that plane that contained documentation of the previous day maintenance. They also established a hotline or the deceased family and friends. The company said that its previous crash was in1970 including other two crashes. After the release of that report, the Alaskan released MD-80 information saying there was no history of the stabilizer with that plane and the rate o accident is 41 accidents in one million departures. After some hours families of the passengers were contacted and counselors dispatched to the families the next day in the morning.

The Airline Company did an investigation of the cause of the crash, and they suspected the MD-80 aircraft which led to the suspension of eight of their 24 planes that had the same stabilizer problem (Snell et al., 2016). The Oakland maintenance facility for the companies came under fire there before and was faking the maintenance records. That led to a discovery that there were similar issues in the other facilities of the Alaskan Airline.

Often the workers were asked to cut corners meaning the planes were un-airworthy thus making numerous flights that risk the life of the passengers (Zotova, 2017). One manager was involved in making the accident happen he told the mechanics to deliberately break the rules of FAA maintenance and forge the records to make the plane look like it is in good shape. The issue was quite unpredictable as one could not notice anything wrong with the plane.

Some of the predictable issues are increasing the morale of the employees like after the 2000 crash the morale of employees steadily declined at the workplace (Zotova, 2017). The negotiation of the unions further decreases the employee's morale which could lead to low customer satisfaction. Since the employees are the image of the Airline to the customers, then it is essential to improve their morale to ensure that the Alaskan Airline brand is upheld (Zotova, 2017).

Lastly, is useful measurements of performance or the organization that will help in measuring the organization's success. As a company, Alaskan Airline should improve their operational status as it will help improve the outcome of their employee's works. Performance analysis is also used in rapid response that is used in the identification of the weak areas in the operational team (Snell et al., 2016). The performance analysis is also crucial for the sake of stakeholders.

What aspects of Alaska Airlines' organizational culture reinforced what occurred in this state, and how might a focus on transforming its culture have averted some of the problems?

The success of an organization mostly depends on the leadership style and the leaders in a particular organization. The leaders are meant to motivate, create a vision and give the staff members direction (Zotova, 2017).there is great importance for the leaders to adjust to the leadership style they find best to better the circumstances of their organization. Regarding the Alaska Airline leadership transition, the transformational leadership was the most appropriate for their situation. Transformational leadership as a style that is suitable in the leadership of an organization where leaders are ready to identify the need for change, empower their employees, create a vision that they can be able to achieve changes, engage their employees so that they can accomplish their envisioned future state.

Before Bill Ayer was the CEO of the Alaska Airlines in the year 2002 the organizational culture of the company was led by Northwest Nice hat is being nice. The culture could not allow the employees in the executive from expressing their personal opinions as it could prevent the team from assessing the corrective actions in the system for any challenges (Hari, Yaakob & Binitha, 2015). The tenet of transformational leadership style is task and authority delegation and ensuring communication flows constantly. Communication flow ensures the organizations' achievements are easily achieved, and the visions are completed.

Through the use of transformational leadership, organizational culture can be created by a leader to foster teamwork, accountability, communication, teamwork, and innovation which is endorsed by the foundation of communication of the leadership style (Jones, 2005). The use of the communication foundation approach by the Alaska Airlines will ensure the teams formed work to their tasks in their different areas at the airlines through continuous communication between the executive management and airline crew (Snell et al., 2016). The team also has the authority of task delegation to other employees.

Since people focus on the orientation of the executive management team, transformational leadership style under the CEO leadership where they can adequately address an employee or any personnel about any arising issues in the course of operation, disagreements at the workplace could sabotage the actions or operations going on as it was the frequency of the unionized staff when they disagreed with the management team (Jones, 2005).

What common factors contributed to the challenges that affected Alaska Airlines? What factors unique to the airline industry contributed to Alaska Airlines' problems? Please conduct a thorough analysis of all factors impacting Alaska Airlines' change process.

There are external and internal factors of the company that have led to challenges in the organization. One of the typical factors is labor which has been a problem and an area of concern. Cost reduction was the central aspect in change plan. The union pay negotiations were the most significant barrier to the plans (Zotova, 2017). Joining the union could not change the employees' wages. There was a negotiation regarding the employee wage, but it did not go very smoothly as expected. The pilots also refused the offer of the flight attendants since they would not agree to the reduction of their pay as the had the most substantial pay at that time. Even if they see the company struggling, they would not agree to their pay cuts (Hari et al., 2015).

Another typical factor is union negotiations which are hardtop deal with. Some rules and laws protect the unions. However, there are ways that one can handle things that are through mitigation of resistance and offering different wage plans to prevent stalemate between extending deadlines and refusals. People are also hindering factor. They can be the most considerable hindrance to the change plan (Snell et al., 2016). The willingness of people to accept the changes and to agree with the change plan will progress - additionally the merge of Alaska as consummated to be increasing the competition of the western US thus leading to a little cost of the carriers (Zotova, 2017).

The most significant force that is guiding the changes in the company is people. People can acts a hindrance in the change plan of the organization as the leaders may wish. Such a change that has excellent magnitude requires each employee who is involved should offer and be willing to work and help in the process (Kuvaas, Buch & Dysvik, 2018). The employees' willingness to assist in the change of plan and negotiate in the change of plan will give the progress of the process of change of plan. Giving the workers the freedom and chances to make changes personally and giving them an opportunity to access mind track and reasoning of the upper management will guide them on the track of the change being made (Armstrong & Taylor, 2014). Inclusion is the only best way that one can mitigate resist me to the change. Keeping a team close and well involved in the changes that are required and giving them parts to play in the change plan helps much in preventing resistance (Kuvaas et al., 2018).

Fuel is another factor that has contributed to the challenges in the Alaskan Airline. Moreover, historically fuel has been the most significant expense at most airlines. Since there has been a decrease in the cost of the fuel cost then, the only remaini...