Management Style of Emirates Airline - Research Paper Example

Management style of Emirates Airline Introduction Travel and tourism industry boasts to be one of the globe’s biggest and fastest growing industries. People travels for leisure, business purpose, recreation and many people are travelling around the world for various reasons. Tourism is now a popular leisure activity. The United Nations World Tourism Organization argues that there were about 925 million international tourist arrivals witnessed in 2008. There was a growth of 1.9% in 2008 as compared to 2007. Today, the travel and tourism industry is one of the largest and most developing sectors of the economy. Many countries earn huge sums of foreign currency through tourism and travel sectors (Cento 7). The growth and development of the tourism industry, major inflows of volumes of foreign currency, infrastructure development, and new management greatly affect many sectors of the economy. It contributes to the economic and social development of the country. Travel and tourism sector makes a crucial correlation to the world that provides services to other regions or countries (Wharton 2). The airline industry plays an important role in increasing tourism and travel industry. The airline industry is one of the most critical parts in hospitality and tourism sector. Emirates airline is no exception; it plays a significant role in the tourism sector. About Emirates Airline Emirates Airline is a major airline in the Middle East. The airline is an ancillary of the Emirates Group. The airline company started their business with two aircrafts; Boeing 737 and Airbus 300 B4. The aircrafts flew their first course out of Dubai in 1985. The company has a fleet of about 137 aircrafts. Emirates Airlines now fly to about 100 destinations in more than 60 countries in the world (The Emirates Group b 4). About 700 Emirates flights depart from Dubai every week on their way to other places in six continents. The expansion of Emirates airlines has been more than 20% yearly. The airline has managed to record a continuous growth in annual profit each year. According to the Emirates website, the division of Sky-Cargo is the freight division of the airlines, which undertakes their cargo business and provides cargo solutions to many destinations around the world. According to the company, Emirates Sky-Cargo managed to inspire its operations into its state-of-the-art terminal. Yearly, the terminal can process cargo that weighs 1.2 million tones. In 2001, the airline announced an order that was valued at $15 billion. The order was the largest order in the aviation industry history. It was 58 new aircraft, both Airbus and Boeing to boost the company’s growing fleet. Emirates airline is now growing rapidly, and many passengers are travelling using the airline. In the year 2007/2008, the airline carried 21.20 million passengers. The airline also carried 1.3 million tonnes of cargo, a clear indication that Emirates airline is growing very fast in the airline business (The Emirates Group b 6). Organizational structure of Emirates airline The airline’s organizational structure is hierarchical. At the top of the hierarchy is the Chairman. After the Chairman, there are Vice presidents, Executive secretaries, VPs at the divisional level, Senior Vice Presidents, Regional and Area managers, Departmental heads and Supervisors (The Emirates Group a 2). The staff reports upwards. The structure contains many people in the passenger sales executive management. The last level is the operational managers. Emirates Airlines has one of the biggest organizational structures since the organization is global. A tall structure of the organization has many advantages. The structure allows people to observe a close supervisory control because it is an authoritative structure, and responsibilities are defined. The structure allows a responsible person to be accountable to a higher authority. However, the structure can be a disadvantage towards employees since the level of motivation may be low which may affect a company later. The other disadvantage of the structure is that the structure can easily create a communication barrier with the management at the top, middle level managers and the lower level manager. Emirates Group has many managerial levels. The Group has many departments that perform different tasks. The tasks include departments serving the needs of customers to the department of engineering and the catering departments. A head who reports upwards to the middle level and finally the top management manages each department. Emirates airline management style Management theories refer to a behavioral pattern that is adopted by a leader in order to influence and motivate the subordinates’ behavior. The process is ongoing, which assists to obtain results through people or use resources to obtain profit. Management can help create a condition, and by the suitable implication of the condition, companies can achieve their objectives. There are about three management styles; bureaucratic, participative and strategic management styles (Wilson 6). The airline manages to be marketable and competitive by using different management styles. The company’s management style typifies a combination of strategic management and participatory management. Strategic management is a continuous process controlling and evaluating the industry. The style assesses competitors, set goals and plans to meet the existing and potential competitors. The strategic apex of the company handles the planning and development of initiatives for owners, connecting good use of resources to enlarge the company’s performance in their external environments. The company uses strategic management style to set up the company’s mission, vision and objectives. It also entails policies and plans in terms of projects and programs. They are all designed to help Emirates achieve a competitive advantage in the business. Participative management refers to the style where the top management consults the subordinates when making decisions before implementation of policies. The management style assists to make a good relationship between employees and management. Participative management resembles the democratic management that allows employees to assume the role of strong decision-making. After the company establishes this management, it will obtain additional profit and reduce its cost. The Emirates’ management involves employees and all stakeholders to participate in decision-making. The company encouraged employees to give ideas to recognize and get goals that will help to solve problems, and all other decisions that may affect the company. The airline takes decision after consulting employees (Emirates 6). Behavioral perspective explains that any person that demonstrates the necessary behavior can qualify to be an effective leader. Great leaders are made by learning correct behavior, and not a trait. The main involvement of the behavioral perspective is the recognition of effective management systems that work inside an organization. The situational or contingency model of leadership stresses on the nature of the situation. The Airline’s leadership lacks one major leadership style. The leaders could incorporate patience and the will to achieve a compromise with the skill to act decisively. The Emirates’ leadership is democratic, the leadership composes the skills and ability to influence and motivate the thoughts and activities of subordinates. The leadership of the company makes a social control that encourages staff to realize a common goal. The company motivates its employees strongly. Motivation for workers compels many people to get interested to work with the Emirates airline group. The company offers some rewards, incentive, recognition, and performance programs designed to support the best from employees who made a decision to build careers with the Airline Company. Skilled and well trained employees are important ingredients for the success of Emirates Airline (Emirates 2). The company provides vocational training to ensure that employees are able to perform their job well. The top performing Cabin Crews have attained the Flight Purser position within 5 years. Many have also been recruited to trainers in the service of a cabin. The Emirates Group got a profit of USD600 million for the 6 months to September 30th, 2013. The profit was a rise of 4% the same time the previous year. The Emirates group revenue increased by 13% as compared to the previous year. As the Group’s revenue went up to USD11.5 billion, the Emirates passenger airline business experienced a 2% improvement to a net profit of USD475 million). The company’s passenger numbers went up by 15% the same year, as it grew the cargo volumes by 5.2% (The Emirates Group a 4). Despite the great headwind of a global downturn in the industry, data suggest that the economic recovery of the world may not be as analysts suggest. The results indicate a steady demand for the company’s products and services. The ever increasing profits of the company are a clear indication that the company’s management styles are bearing fruits. The company’s decision to involve junior employees in making critical decisions is working in favor of the company. The company is privately owned, were an IPO to be offered, the IPO will easily make a hit. The company has received several awards due to the company’s quality of flights, the in-flight entertainment breadth, and the overall service quality. Recommendations After an analysis of Emirates’ management styles and mode of doing business, the following are the recommendations of the writer: 1. The company must emphasize on the provision of quality services to customers by employees. The company’s effective leadership has brought together different people who possess various skills. It makes it a powerful team, which is a source of strength. The company has recruited high caliber employees and must continue to do the same in future recruitments. The company must make sure that the employees produce results. 2. The company has expanded to be a globally acknowledged organization. The airplane company conducts business in around 60 countries around the world. With the increase in numbers of foreign travels around the world, the company needs to extend its services to other potential markets. The African market is not exploited enough; the company needs to put additional focus on this continent due to its potential. Many tourists are now visiting Africa to enjoy its climate and culture. 3. The company needs to introduce additional short distance trips. Many businesspersons are moving from one town to the other on a daily basis. The introduction of such trips will help the company increase its revenue a great deal. 4. The management of the company must take another step in working with different people. The management needs to provide new ideas that are beneficial to the company. On a continuous basis, the company should upgrade its service delivery to provide good services to their customers. The company needs to enhance employees’ empowerment program. The result will lead to additional revenues and an upper competitive advantage. To enhance employees’ satisfaction, the company may decide to choose to take some of its employees to professional training that will make them exposed to new ideas, motivate them, and also improve the relationship between the leadership and management. Conclusion In the current competitive and globally accepted airline industry, Emirates Airline has managed to have a sterling performance. The good performance is caused by effective leadership and management styles that the company’s top management exercises. The company’s revenue has kept increasing each year, a clear sign that the company is performing well. In conclusion, the management styles exercised by the company have helped the company to experience success. Works Cited Cento, Alessandro. The airline industry challenges in the 21st century. Heidelberg: Physica- Verlag, 2009. Print. Emirates. Making our mark on the aviation industry. 2013 Online http://www.emirates.com/english/about/int-and-gov-affairs/international-and- government-affairs-new.aspx [April 19, 2014] The Emirates Group. Leadership. 2014 Online [April 19, 2014] The Emirates Group. Our History. 2014 Online http://www.theemiratesgroup.com/english/our- company/our-history.aspx [April 19, 2014] Wharton. Maurice Flanagan’s Emirates Airline: Flying high and Treating Customers like Sheikhs. 2007 Online https://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/article/maurice-flanagans- emirates-airline-flying-high-and-treating-customers-like-sheikhs/ [April 19, 2014] Wilson, Graeme. Emirates-the airline of the future. London: Media Prima, 2007. Print. Read More