British_Airways_Strike

For a business venture to make profit, it is crucial to protect the image of the brand, maintain a harmonious relationship between management and the workforce, and avoid financial losses. A past experience of British Airways (BA) serves as an informative case study of a company that suffered financially because of their failure to meet the three aforesaid imperatives. Last July 18, 2003, British Airways suffered a major fiasco when their “staff in Terminals 1 and 4 at London’s busy Heathrow Airport held a 24-hour wildcat strike (Palmer, Dunford, & Akin, 2008, p.239).” Aside from the commotion it caused, the repercussion was disastrous for the airline. The company approximately lost £40 million, its reputation badly damaged, and 100,000 customers were lost (Palmer, Dunford, & Akin, 2008, p. 239). There were three interrelated issues on the wildcat strike. The immediate key issue was a change implemented by BA management that the staff found unfavorable. This change was the introduction of the swipe card—an electronic clocking-in device. On one hand, there was the BA management. For them, the introduction of the swipe card was a means of modernizing the company so as to enhance the efficiency of their staff and resources (Palmer, Dunford, & Akin, 2008, p.239). One BA official even went on to assert that “We needed to simplify things and bring in the best system to manage people (Palmer, Dunford, & Akin, 2008, p.239).” On the other hand, there was the standpoint of the staff. They protested against this change because it was a “prelude to a radical shake-up in working hours, which would lead to loss of pay and demands to work split shifts (Palmer, Dunford, & Akin, 2008, p.239).” The staff’s disposition towards the swipe card system was summed up by a quote from one check-in worker who said that “This used to be a job which we loved but we are now at the end of our tether. What comes next' They will probably force us to swap shifts without agreement and all this for less money than working at Tesco [ a supermarket] (Palmer, Dunford, & Atkin, 2008, p.239).” Moreover, a more important key issue is that “the workforce wants respect (Palmer, Dunford, & Akin, 2008, p.239). The staff found the change disrespectful and even dehumanizing. This was manifested in their concern that “BA will turn them into automata, leaving Heathrow at quiet times of the day only to be brought back at busiest moments, while not paying any extra for the disturbance. Women…want to preserve their carefully constructed capacity to balance the demands of work and home (Palmer, Dunford, & Akin, 2008, p.239).” However, on the part of the management, they were oblivious to their workers’ yearning for respect. For instance, “it was not until the wildcat strike that CEO Rod Eddington was even aware that “there was a respect deficit to be plugged (Palmer, Dunford, & Akin, 2008, p.239).” In addition to that, there was a “unilateral decision by BA to introduce the swipe card, and a lack of adequate consultation with affected staff (Palmer, Dunford, & Akin, 2008, p.240).” As made manifest in how they handled the situation, the management were insensitive at the same time ignorant of their workers’ frame of mind. Furthermore, another key issue here was the sour relationship between management and staff even prior to the change. When BA management denied that the swipe card system would allow them to alter the working hours of their staff at little notice, the staff did not believe them and one union official even asserted that “We know that BA breaks its agreements (Palmer, Dunford, & Akin, 2008, p.239).” This mistrust was symptomatic of an existing unfriendly relationship between staff and management, which eventually flared-up with the wildcat strike. Reference: Palmer, I., Dunford, R., & Akin, G. (2008). Case Study: The British Airways Swipe Card Debacle. Managing Organizational Change: A Multiple Perspectives Approach. Australia: McGraw-Hill.