Talent Acquisition within Aviation Industry - Essay Example

Talent Acquisition within Aviation Industry (Presented by) (Presented to) (Lecturer) (Topic) Table of Contents Table of Contents 1 1.0Research Aim 3 2.0Research Objectives 3 3.0Research Questions 4 4.0Literature Review 4 5.0Research Methods 7 6.0Overview of the Aviation Industry 10 7.0 Discussion and Analysis 11 8.0 Anticipated Problems 12 9.0 Anticipated Timetable 12 Bibliography 14 List of figures Figure 1: Talent acquisition model 5 List of tables Table 1: Research Time Schedule 12 1.0 Research Aim Creation of a culture and brand, which supports and drives acquisition of talent in a company, is crucial in order to obtain workforce, which has the potential of higher performance. The acquired talent should also have the potential of upholding ethical standards in the company. On the other hand, acquired talent in an organization should be effectively managed in order to ensure that the talent has the potential and capability of meeting its required standards. The major areas, which talent acquisition, in an organization focuses on are selection and recruitment of employees, training of employees, team building of employees, and enhancement of effective motivating strategies of employees, which encourage improvement in the performance output of employees (Research 2011). Therefore, the aim of this paper is to identify the challenges, which employers within the aviation industry face in the process of recruitment, attraction, and retention of talent. This is because talent acquisition is critical in attainment of a competitive edge in the aviation industry, which has depicted tremendous market dynamics in terms of competition for production of quality services and employees. 2.0 Research Objectives The objectives of this research will be: 1) To evaluate the process of talent recruitment, attraction, and retention within the aviation industry. 2) To identify the impact of talent acquisition in aviation industry. 3) To identify the main focus of talent acquisition in the aviation industry. 4) To investigate the strategies, which can be adopted in order to improve the process of talent acquisition in the aviation industry. 3.0 Research Questions In order to obtain the desired aim and objectives of the research, the research will focus on answering the following research questions: 1) What are the current strategies used by the airline companies for talent acquisition? 2) What has been the impact of talent acquisition strategies on airline companies in terms of the relationships between talent acquisition and competitive edge? 3) What is the characteristic of the current talent acquisition within the aviation industry? 4) What has been the impact of talent acquisition on job roles of employees within the aviation industry? 4.0 Literature Review An effective talent acquisition model should focus on identification of recruitment gaps, suggest means of overcoming recruitment gaps, analyse talent acquisition strategy adopted by a company, determine the cost of talent acquisition, and analyse the impact of talent acquisition in a company (Slideshare.net 2011). Talent acquisition model should also determine the flexibility of talent acquisition in a company. This should occur along with change management and execution of various strategies adopted in the company. This provides room for human resource management of the company to make the necessary adjustments in their talent acquisition strategies. This research is focusing on analysing the model depicted in figure 1. The analysis of Talent Acquisition Model will aid in answering research questions. The model will be applied in the selected aviation industry companies. Talent Acquisition Model aids in identification of challenges and needs of talent acquisition in a company. The model identifies recruitment gaps, as well as identifying means of addressing the recruitment gaps. Figure 1: Talent acquisition model Source: Talent acquisition model (n.d), retrieved from< http://covkc.agencies.virginia.gov/dhrm/StaffAugm/TalentAcquisitionModel.pdf> According to Sluis (2009: 264), talent management in an organization is crucial in order to ensure that the organization has the potential to accomplish its anticipated goals and objectives. Organization talent management focuses on utilization of skills effectively. Most of multinational organizations focus on talent recruitment at a global scene. However, this recruitment strategy has been impacted by liberalizations policies. Aviation industry is one of these multinational corporations, which has to deal with liberalization policies, as well as the effect of cultural difference in the process of talent acquisition of its employees. According to Gorton (2000: 42), culture background plays a critical role in the success of an organization. This depicts that talent acquisition in the aviation industry needs to focus on cultural background of employees. According to Hedge (2007: 14) pilots currently face the challenge of culture, skin colour, and gender as a prejudge for their dedication, motivation, honesty, and skills. This hinders the effectiveness of talent acquisition in the aviation industry. The prejudge has extended to higher limits where it affects selection, recruitment, training, and development of employees in organizations. Moreover, the prejudge impacts compensation strategies in companies, as well as other incentives, which employees enjoy in these companies. According to Wald (2011: 2), aviation industry has been faced by a “cut-throat competition”. Aviation industry competition has taken the perspective of performance improvement in order to attain success. One of the factors, which have contributed to the competition, is the search of talented employees. This search has been difficult since attaining an access to a higher performing, motivated, and attitude based employees has been difficult. Turney (2004: 107) claims that the use of communication principle in the aviation industry has the potential of attracting and retaining effective and efficient employees. This is based on adoption of motivation strategies, which encourage employees to improve their individual level performance. According to Appelbaum, and Fewster (2002), human resource management expertise in organizations focus on developing learning-oriented and customer-centric group of employees, which have higher potential of adapting strategic goals, which face the aviation industry. In order to improve talent acquisition in the aviation industry, human resource management should focus on the provision of employees needs to their satisfaction level, as well as offering them suitable benefits and compensations, and incentives (Holloway 1998). Since the acquisition of talent begins from the selection process to retention of employees in a company, employee needs should be addressed in order to ensure that employees obtain job satisfaction, which makes them develop a positive attitude towards the organization they are working in, as well as upholding the organization working culture. Some of employee needs include training and development, benefits and compensation, and provision of incentives; such as, medical coverage (Sean & Kleiner 1999). Bent (2011) claims that airline professionals are declining. This indicates that there is a stiff competition for employees within the aviation industry. Therefore, effective talent acquisition is necessary within the aviation industry in order to improve the level of performance. Aviation industry has adopted a diverge level of technology change. This means that the industry needs to have talent, which has the potential of utilizing technology level effectively. This indicates talent acquisition process should be characterized of high competency levels. As such, acquisition of talent in the aviation industry has become a significant challenge for human resource management within this industry. 5.0 Research Methods Rocco et al. (2003) argues that quantitative and qualitative data research methods are the commonly used means of collecting research data. However, some researchers focus on combining both research methods in order to obtain a mixed research method. As such, this research focuses on using mixed method of research since the research to be conducted is a social research. Mixed method of data research combines both primary research and secondary research methodology (University of Nebraska 2005). In primary research, observation, and survey (questionnaires and interviews) are used as the means of data collection while secondary research collects data by referring to literature related to the research topic. This literature includes company journals, company websites, company publications, and books containing specific information related to the research topic. Use of mixed method for data gathering is significant since information from one data gathering method is integrated to another data gathering method (Sieber 1973). Social research attains its credibility of data collection through the use of a mixed method. This is because mixed method ensures that there is no chance of bias replication of any data collection method since each research method collects data independently (Campbell and Fiske’s 1959). Moreover, the use of mixed methodology for data collection aids in minimization of non-sampling error (Greene, & Caracelli 2003). This occurs since multiple sources of data are used, which provide redundant information, which is significant for the collection of data. In addition, mixed methodology allows capturing of information, which would not be captured when one method of data collection is employed. This ascertains that data collection process has elements of reliability and credibility, as well as the effectiveness. Thapa and Burthc (1991) claims, that research data collection process has inherent weaknesses and strengths. Mixed method of data collection focuses on counterbalancing between the weaknesses and strengths of data collection process in order to obtain accurate data. Data collection process will begin by formulation of questionnaires and structuring of interview questions. The questions to be incorporated in both questionnaires and interviews will focus on eliciting a response from the selected respondents. These questions will be factual questions, projective questions, opinion and attitude based questions, and question seeking for respondents’ perception on the research topic (Powell 2004). According to Axinn and Pearce (2006), questionnaires are used in data collection process since they can be either posted or disseminated directly. In this study, two companies have been selected randomly, which are Boeing Company and Emirates Airlines Company. These companies will form the base of research where sample selection will take place. In each company, a sample of 20 people will be selected randomly. This sample will then be subjected to scaled questionnaires. The interviews will only be conducted on Boeing Company since it is easy to access the company. Further, the accessibility of the company will create convenience of time for collecting data using interview questions. These will be 10 interviews, which will act as a second independent data source in addition to questionnaires. This will enable in conducting a comparison between the responses from the two data sources. As such, 10 independent individuals will be selected for interviews. These will comprise of management team of the company, as well as employees, in the company. The assumption made in this is that the sample will deliver a clear perception of the whole population within the aviation industry. According to Manpower.com (2011), screening of employees during the hiring process, involves assessment of candidates personality, skills, capabilities, and abilities. For the research, selection of one airline and one plane maker will be adequate to represent the entire aviation industry. This is because the data to be collected from these two companies will be very detailed. In addition, adequate resources will allocated in order to collect the data accurately. According QuickMBA.com (2011), a trade off exists between cost and sample size during research. The argument presented is that large sample sizes are characterized of minimal sampling errors. On the other hand, large sample size results into higher costs. As such, this study focuses on using minimal cost. This indicates that the sample size is to be small. However, errors are anticipated, but they will be minimized through streamlining of sampling process. Secondary data for the research process will be gathered from literature based on the aviation industry, and all publications on the selected companies for research purposes. The obtained data from secondary research will be combined with primary research data in order to obtain a concise and reliable data for the research process. In order to evaluate response, statistical tools will be incorporated in the research process. These tools facilitates in effective data summarization (Marr 2005). 6.0 Overview of the Aviation Industry According to Economy Watch (2010), aviation industry is involved with provision of cargo and passenger transportation services on scheduled airline routes. As such, the industry gains its revenue from freight charges and ticket fees. Other components of the aviation industry include express delivery service, air traffic control, airport management, and private and helicopter charter services. Recently, the face of the aviation industry has evolved gradually. This evolvement has been observed in the increment in the number of network carriers, as well as overpopulation of the market with passengers. However, as this is occurring, the aviation industry is facing a stiff competition for competent staff required to provide the various services within the industry. The competition is based on talent acquisition, which human resource management within the aviation industry needs to focus on improving. Boeing and Emirates Airlines Companies have been selected as the main companies, which this research will focus. Their selection is based on the fact these two companies have higher performance within the aviation industry. In addition, these two companies have a well-developed public reputation. As such, they will act as an adequate representative sample of the aviation industry. 7.0 Discussion and Analysis Descriptive statistics will form the foundation of data analysis. As such, Data analysis process will involve the use of mathematical and statistical tools. These are the widely used tools in data analysis (Collier 2005). This will create room for presentation of data, making of inferences, as well as identification of the various relationships, which the collected data depicts. The process of data analysis will involve summarization of research results, classification of data obtained, and application of statistical and mathematical tools on research data. SPSS software, which is a statistical tool, will play a vital role in data analysis process. This role will comprise of transformation of raw data into visual forms; such as, charts and graphs. The descriptive data analysis will lead to making of recommendations, as well as a conclusion on the study conducted on the selected sample of companies. Analysis of interviews will also involve the use of descriptive statistics. In this, responses will be summarized and grouped together. The classification of responses will be based on the similarity of the responses. This is will aid in representation of data in visual aids, as well as making of effective comparisons on the relationships, which exists within the data. In addition, descriptive analysis will also aid in making a comparison of talent acquisition strategies between Boeing Company and Emirates Airlines Company. This will facilitate in the development of independent recommendations for each company, as well as identification of training needs, depicted in each company. This comparison will also aid in identifying factors, which would facilitate employees to make a preference for each independent company. 8.0 Anticipated Problems One of the anticipated problems is the inability of respondents to complete questionnaires. This will have an impact of declining the overall credibility of the research process since the data obtained will not be reliable. However, effective selection of the study sample population will contribute significantly to minimization of the impact of this problem. This will occur since the study population will be guided on how to complete the questionnaire. In addition, the questionnaires will be scaled in order to ensure that respondents are comfortable in answering questions. Moreover, a pre-test of the questionnaire will take place in order to identify any difficulties that respondents may have in answering the questionnaire. After the pre-test, of the questionnaire, results obtained will aid in adjusting the questionnaire so that it becomes adaptable for the research process. Access to the selected companies may also present another limitation for the research process. This would limit the ability to collect data, which indicates that research will not take place as anticipated. However, this problem will be eliminated by seeking approval for conducting research from the selected companies before the actual study takes place. The approval will involve explaining to the management team of each company the need of conducting this study. 9.0 Anticipated Timetable This study is expected to occur as outlined in table 1. Table 1: Research Time Schedule Task December January-February February-March April Research Proposal Preparation Preliminary Literature Review Preliminary Methodology Literature Review Finalization Methodology Finalization Data Collection Data Analysis First Draft Final Research Report Bibliography Axinn, W, & Pearce, L, 2006. Mixed Method Data Collection Strategies. 32 Avenue of the Americas, New York: Cmabridge University Press. Appelbaum, S., & Fewster, B., 2002. Human Resource Management Strategy in the Global Airline Industry. Retrieved on 30 November, 2011 from: http://www.touchbriefings.com/pdf/12/avia031_p_apple.pdf Bent, J., 2011. “Airline Training and Recruitment”, Aviation Business Magazine. Campbell, T, & Fiske, D, 1959. “Convergent and Discriminant Validation by the Multitrait Multimethod Matrix”. Psychological Bulletin, 56, 81–105. Collier, D, 2005. A Statistical Rationale for Qualitative Research? Prepared For The NSF Workshop On Interdisciplinary Standards For Systematic Qualitative Research. Economy Watch, 2010. Aviation Industry Information. Retrieved from: http://www.economywatch.com/world-industries/airline-industry-aviation-industry.html Greene, C, & Caracelli, J, 2003. Making Paradigmatic Sense of Mixed Methods Practice. Handbook of Mixed Methods in Social and Behavioural Research (Pp. 91–110). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Gorton, S, 2000. Aviation Safety: Hearing Before the Subcommittee on Aviation of the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation United States Senate One Hundred Fifth Congress. ISBN 0756704448. DIANE Publishing. Hedge, R, 2007. “A Review of Minority Recruitment Programs in Aviation Education Programs”, Oklahoma State University. Aviation & Space Science. ProQuest. Holloway, S, 1998. Changing Planes: A Strategic Management Perspective on an Industry in Transition. Ashgate Publishing Ltd. Ivory Research, 2011. Talents Acquisition. Retrieved 9 November, 2011 from < http://www.ivoryresearch.com/business-dissertation-topics.php>. Manpower.com, 2011. Recruitment Processing Outsourcing. Retrieved from: http://us.manpower.com//us/en/employers/business-solutions-and outsourcing/recruitment-process-outsourcing/default.jsp Marr, B, 2005. Perspectives on Intellectual Capital. United States. Elsevier Inc.  Powell, R, 2004. Basic Research Methods for Librarians. The Third Edition. Greenwich: Ablex Publishing Corporation. QuickMBA.com, 2011. Marketing Research. Retrieved from: http://www.quickmba.com/marketing/research/ Rocco, T, Bliss, L, Gallagher, S, &Perez-Prado, A, 2003. “Taking the Next Step: Mixed Methods Research in Organizational Systems”. Information Technology, Learning, and Performance Journal, Vol, 21, No, 1. Sean, J., & Kleiner, B, 1999. “Managing Human Behaviour in the Airline Industry”, Management Research New. Sieber, D, 1973. “The Integration of Fieldwork and Survey Methods”. American Journal of Sociology, 78, 1335–1359 Slideshare.net, 2011. Adjusting Talent Acquisition to a Changing Operations Model. Retrieved 30 November, 2011 from < http://www.slideshare.net/beeshields/adjusting-talent-acquisition-to-a-changing-operations-model>. Sluis, L, 2009. Competing for Talent. ISBN 9023244540. Uitgeverij Van Gorcum. Talent acquisition model, n.d. Retrieved 30 November, 2011 from < http://covkc.agencies.virginia.gov/dhrm/StaffAugm/TalentAcquisitionModel.pdf> Thapa, K, & Burtch, R, 1991. “Primary and Secondary Methods of Data Collection in GIS/LIS”. Surveying and Land Information Systems, Vol. 51, No. 3. Turney, M, 2004. “Tapping Diverse Talent in Aviation: Culture, Gender, and Diversity”, Studies in Aviation Psychology and Human Factors. ISBN 0754635252. Ashgate Publishing, Ltd. University of Nebraska, 2005. Mixed Methods Research Designs In Counselling Psychology. Journal of Psychology. American Psychological Association. Wald, A, Fay, C, & Gleich, R, 2011. “Introduction to Aviation Management”, Volume 3 of Aviation Management. ISBN 3643106262. LIT Verlag Munster. Read More