Background of Qantas Airlines

An organization has to face a number of problems related to the management of different functions and aspects of the organizational management. The main problems that can be faced by an organization are generally related to the financial management, human resource management, operations management, and strategic management. These all aspects are the essentials, which are considered, by the researchers and economists at the time of framing various policies and decision-making. This report defines the most important management issue faced by one of the topmost airlines of the world named Qantas Airlines. The organization is working effectively in terms of profitability but now, it has to face some issues related to the management of its human resources (Nankervis et al, 2016). Thus, the report defines the main reasons behind such issues and recommendation that can be used to eliminate such issues. The information contained in this report is derived from the authenticated sources including the official website of the company, journal articles and newspaper articles published in this regard. At the end of the report, a conclusion has been drawn to provide an overview of the entire study and to develop an overall understanding of the problem discussed.

Qantas was started in Queensland in 1920 and it is known as the second oldest airline in the world. The name Qantas is officially derived from the Northern Territory and Queensland Aerial Services Limited.  Qantas started experimental Australia-UK service with the association of Imperial Airlines in 1931 to facilitate mails and first passenger service started from Brisbane to Singapore in 1935. After this, all the shares of Qantas was sold by Imperial Airways to Australian Government. As a result of this, Qantas started to fly under the rights of the government (Drew, 2011).

At present, Qantas is famous as a leading long distance airline around the world. It is also considered as a true trademark of Australia. Qantas is providing its services in more than in more than 47 countries with the help of 35,000 employees.

The main area form, which the company is able to generate revenue, is the passengers traveling by air through the two airlines named Jetstar and Qantas. The company is also considered as a commercial airline company strongly focusing on its customer service, marketing policy, and operation policy.

The management of human resources of the organizations is one of the most important parts of management. Thus, it is necessary to find out the problems associated with the human resource management.

Human Resource Management Issues Faced by Qantas Airlines

In this report, the research question is related with the ineffective use of the human resource by the company and the major reasons behind this. In additions, what are the implication of these issues on the stakeholders and customers?

For the purpose of research design, the data is collected from various secondary sources mainly from news, articles and journals related with aviation management.

The HRM of Qantas Airlines mainly focuses on two aspects including job analysis and job design. Qantas Airlines has to face various challenges in these two areas. During the time of change management, HRM of the company focuses on cost-cutting in form of labor cost to increase productivity, the introduction of flexible structures and ensuring moderate workers. However, such changes have not been proved successful because of the complaints of insufficient salaries and strikes by the employees. The unsolved salary issues of the company have resulted into increasing attrition rate of employees as well as the loss to the organization in terms of human and financial resources (Teicher, Alam, and Gramberg, 2006). The pilots have been regularly protesting against the low salaries and union workers have continued to reveal overpay inequality complaining that they are paid 25% less in comparison to their equals in other airlines. The employee dissatisfaction rate is regularly increasing due to the inappropriate salary structure of the organization.

These type of serious staff challenges have continued to bullying the organization yet the human resource management of the company is still unwilling to introduce a new change management model and practices such as ADKAR. This model is famous for catering the interest of workers and allows the management to focus on the activities that may result in increasing the business profitability (Oxenbridge, 2010).

Under Job design and design, it is obvious that human resource management made enormous mistakes in selecting the right candidates. Irrespective of the heavy amount that HRM has invested in the decision process, the company faced a serious accident which resulted in the death of more than 129 passengers and serious injuries to the remaining due to specious instructions and commands. Along with this, it has also been noticed that training programs are not impacting in a positive manner as in 2006, the pilots of Qantas Airlines failed to manage their position and ended up to go on a wrong direction (Government, 2007). Further, the pilots failed to identify and decide about the overshooting their destinations in 2009 by 150 miles. The captains are not competent and have a lack of knowledge about using stick shaker and stall recovery thus resulting in serious injuries and accidents (News, 2009).

Impact on Stakeholders

Thus, it is clear that the HR department has a lot to learn about as accidents and incidences are continuously intensifying irrespective of change management, job analysis and design strategy of the company. With the success of the company, it can also seem that the human resource management is ineffective and has only resulted in more losses that success (Government, 2009).

The company states that it is wholly committed to the development of its employees but do not appear to know how to forge a beneficial and profitable relationship with the employees and staff members. There has been a lot of change in the recent years related to the development of training programs, cost-cutting, outsourcing of work rules and regulations and collaborations with labor and trade unions, but the condition is not improving and is becoming worse day by day. Thus, it is clear that management of employees is the main issue faced by Qantas Airlines, which is the main reason behind the company’s image in terms of human resource management (Gittell, 2015).

The ineffective human resources management has affected the various stakeholders of Qantas Airlines including trade unions, shareholders, government, community, customers, employees, business partners, non-governmental organizations and government. All the stakeholders have a direct and major impact on the strategies and profitability of the organization. Because of the accidents reported by the media, most of the customers are not willing to use the services of Qantas airlines and thus affecting the overall profitability and trust of the customers (Bamber et al, 2013). Resulting in this, the management is losing the confidence to run the company with the innovative ideas and strategic plans to come up with the appropriate solution. It is also upsetting for the stakeholders of the company to face strike due to poor management and its human resources, which are the main contributors to the profitability to all of them (Ashcraft, 2007).

Due to the regularly increasing incidences, there is a need to introduce an action plan by the company. There are some recommendations that can be used to overcome the above-mentioned issues.

• Firstly, it is required by the stakeholders to discuss the ways to resolve the employee’s related crisis. This would help in the analysis the more effective strategies and employee oriented training models. The HRM is required to carry engage the stakeholders in the decision-making process related to training and salary structure.
• There should be effective communication policies in the organizations, which can help the employees to communicate about their problems and suggestions to the upper-level management. There should be the introduction of upward as well as downward communication processes (Hampson, Junor and Gregson, 2012).
• The suggestions of the employees should be considered at the tie of implementing any new training model or techniques. It would help the management to provide training to employees as per their capabilities.
• The management is required to know the weak parts of the training programs and should try to ratify the same. The financial resources should be invested after conducting appropriate market research.
• The salary structure should be decided after examining the salaries provided by the competitors to their employees for the same positions and designations. It would help the organization to gain the trust of employees and eliminating the situations of under or overpay.
• The organization should also introduce an effective code of conduct for its employees so that the employee may not able to justify their opinion on the basis of any wrong perspective. It would help the organization to decrease the number of strikes of the employees.

The HRM is required to reframe their training and communication strategies and change the organization from a profit-oriented to the employee oriented. There should be focus group sessions and workshops where employees can communicate about their problems and get solutions (O’Sullivan, 2011). There should be appropriate health, safety and well-being policies for the staff members that can provide a sense of being protected by their organization. The HR department should come up with making a huge investment in the training of their pilots and ensure that they would get the right training. Along with this, it required to communicate and discuss every important decision to the employees, which is related to them in particular. It would help in reducing the complaints the employees and their aggression in form of strikes. The employees may also able to contribute their suggestions and opinions, which help the management to frame the outcome in a more effective manner (News, 2011).

Recommendations

Conclusion

On the basis of the above study, it can be concluded that HRM is one of the most important areas that is required to be considered by the organization on the top priority. As it is related to the management of human resources, it contains a number of functions related to the management of employees of an organization. However, the HRM of Qantas airline is only considered about the job analysis and design. Thus, the company has to face a lot of loss in form of accidents, poor image, financial loss, loss of trust of employees and an increase in dissatisfaction level. Qantas Airlines has also faced major strikes due to the ineffective salary structure and communication policies. Considering the same, the report concludes that it is required to change its training and communication model to avoid such incidences. In addition to this, the management should be clear and transparent in their functions, policies, and operations and consider the opinions of employees to ensure their willingness in the final decisions. The stakeholders are required to get involved in every decision to ensure that whether the organization is trending in the right direction or not.

References

Ashcraft, K.L., (2007) Appreciating the ‘work’of discourse: Occupational identity and difference as organizing mechanisms in the case of commercial airline pilots. Discourse & Communication, 1(1), pp.9-36.

Bamber, G.J., Gittell, J.H., Kochan, T.A., and Von Nordenflycht, A., (2013) Up in the air: How airlines can improve performance by engaging their employees. Cornell University Press.

Drew, C., (2011) The Spirit of Australia: learning about Australian childhoods in Qantas commercials. Global Studies of Childhood, 1(4), pp.321-331.

Gittell, J.H., (2015) Low-Cost Competition in the Global Airline Industry. LERA For Libraries, 9(2).

Government, A., (2007) Qantas tyre burst incident in Singapore 8 March 2006. [Online]
Available at: https://www.atsb.gov.au/newsroom/2006/release/2006_1/
[Accessed 24 September 2018].

Government, A., (2009) Qantas Airbus A330 incident, 480km North West of Perth on 27 December 2008. [Online]
Available at: https://www.atsb.gov.au/newsroom/2009/release/2009_01/
[Accessed 24 September 2018].

Hampson, I., Junor, A. and Gregson, S., (2012) Missing in action: aircraft maintenance and the recent ‘HRM in the airlines’ literature. The International Journal of Human Resource Management, 23(12), pp.2561-2575.

Nankervis, A.R., Baird, M., Coffey, J. and Shields, J., (2016) Human resource management: strategy and practice. Cengage AU.

News, A., (2009) Qantas faces more strike action. [Online]
Available at: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2009-12-16/qantas-faces-more-strike-action/1180868
[Accessed 24 September 2018].

News, A., (2011) What is the Qantas dispute all about?. [Online]
Available at: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2011-10-29/qantas-factbox/3608330
[Accessed 24 September 2018].

O’Sullivan, M., (2011) Qantas profit hit by strikes, fuel costs. [Online]
Available at: https://www.smh.com.au/business/qantas-profit-hit-by-strikes-fuel-costs-20111128-1o21v.html
[Accessed 24 September 2018].

Oxenbridge, S., Wallace, J., White, L., Tiernan, S. and Lansbury, R., (2010) A comparative analysis of restructuring employment relationships in Qantas and Aer Lingus: different routes, similar destinations. The International Journal of Human Resource Management, 21(2), pp.180-196.

Teicher, J., Alam, Q. and Gramberg, B.V., (2006) Managing trust and relationships in PPPs: some Australian experiences. International Review of Administrative Sciences, 72(1), pp.85-100.