Personal Development & British Airways - Assignment Example

Personal Development & British Airways In the writing of my report I was able to acquire a lot of skills that I did not have before. My report deals with the British Airways. It is the crisis management of British Airways that I have researched for and described in my report. The objective of my report is to analyze the different crisis situations that come across in the face of the British Airways and the techniques that the company undertakes in order to deal with the crisis. The report also deals with how the British Airways plans to improve their position in such a situation and what and how they implement rules in order to solve the problems. Another objective is to study how well the strategies that the British Airways adopt come into use, or fail, and how much the company gains or loses due to those strategies. In writing my report I researched a lot and looked up various data that was available to me. Such resources include Internet websites, publications, newspaper articles, press releases, etc. Because of the researching that I did my research skills improved as I learnt where and how to look for information and make use of it. For the research I mainly depended on the Internet, as I was able to find plenty of reliable information there. I chiefly looked into journal articles and press releases so as to make sure that my findings are accurate and that it would allow me to write a proper, well defined and an accurate report. Along with this, my writing skills improved because of the fact that in the presenting of this report I learnt how to be specific and to the point, plus how to write a report that would be appealing to the reader. I learnt the way data should be put together in order to form an attractive summary of my findings. In order to find out about the problems that the British Airways is facing I searched for the issues that concern the company and how they affect it. These issues were first identified and then looked into in detail. They included fuel crisis, terrorism and SARS. Due to the fuel crisis high expenses befell the British Airways and thus it lead to a rise in the costs. Also, there was the terrorism problem that caused trouble. The September 11 attacks lead to decreased air traffic (Croué, 2002) and thus a loss for the British Airways, because the people were no longer so comfortable with the thought of travelling by planes. Also, there was then the Afghanistan invasion which also affected the number of flights in a given time period. Apart from this, the SARS issue created disturbance too as it also adversely influenced the air traffic as people were not ready to travel to the affected areas. To combat such problems the British Airways undertook a number of steps. It can also consider merging of the company with another airway such as the Iberia. In order to lower the costs of travelling, which have escalated due to high fuel prices, the British Airways is creating low weight planes so that they use lesser fuel. Plus, the company can reduce its flights; at least those that do not give enough profits. Other than this, the company brought up the plan of voluntary redundancy (Porter, 2005). British Airways also tried to solve their problems by means of technology (Dobson, 2007). Not all their solutions were successful, as is reported in my project. The lesson is that whatever way they handle a situation, it should be made sure that crisis management is undertaken appropriately and that the problems are solved instead of being augmented. This can be done by going in depth of the issues and maybe employing experts and professionals who would be able to help with providing a useful solution. The research that I conducted I order to write this report had no ethical issues involved that required my attention. This was due to the fact that I only needed to look up and read the already published data, whether newspapers, books, or the Internet. As these resources are widely available to everyone there was no fear of any ethics being involved in my research. Ethical issues, such as privacy, confidentiality and anonymity, are required to be focused on when a person is conducting a real research, that is, in terms of performing studies and interviews. In that case I would have had to see to it that the privacy of individuals was maintained and their data revealed only if they agreed to it. For the research that I conducted I looked up other researches and studies. There can be ethical issues involved with those researches. And, as mentioned above, among these would be privacy, confidentiality and anonymity. For example, in the case of employees or/and customers of the British Airways being interviewed, there is a requirement of having the informed consent of the individuals before they are taken for interviewing. Along with this, their privacy should be kept intact by not revealing their identities in the research, nor their personal details unless they chose it that way. Apart from all this, through my assignment I learnt a lot about the British Airways problems and the strategies that they use to address those problems. During the progress of my report I came across many issues that dealt with this topic and it helped me in understanding the different business tactics, difficulties that a company faces, and how to handle them appropriately. Also, I learnt what tactics have been proven to be successful and what actions a company should avoid taking in order to prevent further trouble. Although I researched specifically into issues concerning the British Airways, I am sure that I can handle other companies as well, especially he companies similar to the British Airways. I can now propose solutions to various situations that a company may face. This report has resulted in a lot of my personal development and has enhanced my skills. Bibliography Croué, C 2002, Marketing international, De Boeck Université. Dobson, P. A. 2007, Globalization and Regional Integration: The Origins, Development and Impact of the Single European Aviation Market. Oxfordshire: Routledge. Porter, D & Prince, D. 2005, Frommer's Austria, London: Frommers. Read More