Assignment on Comprehensive Change Management Process

Introduction/Background of Comprehensive Change Management Process

               Etihad Airways is one of the major airline companies in the Middle East region, having its head office in the city of Abu Dhabi. The airline started its operations in 2003. In a few years, the company got good recognition across the Middle East, and very soon they also started getting recognition from different corners of the world. According to facts & figures released by the company in 2018, the number of employees working in the Etihad Aviation Group was 24,558, and the company is covering around 154 nationalities. It is important to mention here that around 100 local and international destinations are covered by the company in more than 55 countries. The company is handling around 115 crafts. The number of passengers handled by the company in 2017 was 18.6 million passengers. The total revenue earned in the year 2016 was $8.36 billion. There is a variety of aircraft held by the company such as Boeing, Boeing 777, and Airbus, etc. The company has won several awards over the years such as winning different business awards in 2017 including MRO Service Provider of the Year and Training Provider of the Year (Etihad Aviation Group, 2018)

               The company is following a certain mission and vision so that things can go in the right direction without any particular issues. According to the company’s website, the mission of the company is stated as “Our mission is to make a real change to the world we live in. Across the globe, we are committed to improving the wellbeing of people everywhere.” (Etihad.com, 2019) So, they have a clear mission and vision in mind that they not only want to operate for their own revenue and profits, but they also want to work for the wellbeing and betterment of people all over the world, and they want to make contributions in this regard. Moreover, they have developed a strategy to become one of the best airlines in the region. Moreover, they have also developed a strategy to remain in line with the strategy of UAE 2021 Vision, which asks to build capabilities of people in UAE, and Etihad is following the vision by empowering and employing Emirati people (Balakrishnan, Jayashree, & Michael, 2011)

Current Issue faced by Etihad Airways and its Root Cause

               The company has been doing well since its start in 2003, and it has achieved great growth and development to become one of the major airlines in the Middle East. But things have not been going well for the past few years as the company is facing some issues, which are causing a decline in overall revenue and profits. It has been observed that the airline has been facing losses in the last three years, and things have turned bad for them in so many ways. The data has revealed that in the last three years, around $7b has been lost by the company. An evidence is there to show that they are struggling at the moment is that company’s name was removed from Docklands arena, Melbourne, because company’s management felt that bearing an amount of $A8m per year to keep their name splashing in the stadium is no more a sustainable option as they are already dealing with losses. If the last three years are set aside, then earlier things were looking quite bright for the company as they were looking to become one of the best airlines in the world. But that dream is now fading away with continuous losses incurred by the company in the last three years (Brook, 2019)

               It is vital for the company to realize what went wrong for them and what issues are being faced by them, which are becoming a major reason behind their revenue decline in the last few years. The major setback for the company came from its management, which made the wrong management and investment decisions, which has made things difficult for the company. They made a few investments in recent years, and few of them were very bad in terms of strategy and planning. The company had 20% stakes in an Australian airline named Virgin Australia, which was good enough decision. But buying stakes in Air Berlin was a bad decision because the company got bankrupt in 2017. The investment made in Alitalia also did not prove good for them. This is how things have been turning bad for them in recent years, and if management will continue to make such kind of mistakes in making major decisions, then things can even get worse for them. It is important for a company like Etihad Airways to understand that bad decision once in a while may seem fine, and it may not damage much, but bad decisions made one after the other is the actual problem for them (LUCKY, 2018)

               So, it is very much evident that the root cause of the problem is the management of the company from top to lower-level management, which has not been able to make viable decisions. It is the top leadership, which gives a direction to a company so that it can move forward in the right direction. It is the responsibility of the top management to take decisions and make changes, which are considered to take in reality. Some decisions may look great on paper, but one has to find the rationale for each decision in practical terms, why some decisions would be better or may not be practically applicable. For instance, it is perfectly alright to think about buying stakes in other companies and making investments, but a company should do it very carefully. One can’t get carried away from one decision, which may turn to be bad for the future of the company. This is a kind of mistake made by the company they made wrong investment decisions. moreover, they made the wrong decisions to cut off so many facilities to its customers, which really affected the level of customer satisfaction, and they looked for somewhere else. The competition in the airline industry is intense, so it is vital for airlines to remain cautious while making any competitive decisions, otherwise they can incur huge losses and damages, which is the current situation of Etihad Airways.

Identifying a Change in Strategy of Comprehensive Change Management Process

               It is important to realize that when things are not going well and when performance is either stuck, or it is going down, then a change is indispensable in this kind of situation, because if things will continue like that, then a company may face irrecoverable losses. It is not only critical to identify a change in strategy, but it is also critical to know what kind of impact can be made by a certain change in strategy. A company can have a variety of goals and objectives, which are core to their overall business, so it is critical to link those goals and objectives with the change management process so that the right direction is identified for the future course of action. Etihad Airways should understand the importance of change management process; because it is evident that the last three years with the same policy, leadership and management decisions are turning losses for them. It shows that a major change in strategy is essential in so many ways. It is also vital to know that when a major change will be implemented, the organizations do face resistance to change from people within the organization. It would also be a concern for Etihad Airways because both management and employees will try to resist change. This is time when the role of leaders gets more critical so that they can help in easing out the process of change. Moreover, it is also important to make sure that change agents are competent to perform change (Jalagat, 2016). The proposed change management process for the company is to change its organizational structure, by making major changes in its approach of leadership, and how training and development of employees will be managed.

 The Plan to Implement Change Management Process of Comprehensive Change Management Process

               There are so many steps or models are available to implement a change management process, and a company can choose one of the models, which is more suitable for their required change process. The change management model to implement for Etihad Airways is Three-Step Change Model introduced by Kurt Lewin. This model was developed by Kurt Lewin in 1951, and it has been successfully implemented by many organizations across many industries, and they have taken so many great results (Higgins & Bourne, 2018). There are three major steps identified by Kurt Lewin, which can be followed for the change management process for Etihad Airways. The first major step in this model is unfreezing. It is like defrosting a frozen food item before it can be used because if it won’t be unfrozen, it won’t be cooked properly. The same is the case with the change process, to be implemented for Etihad Airways. It means that all the stakeholders involved in the change process will be taken into confidence, by giving them enough awareness about the change process. They will be briefed why changes are necessary not only for the growth of the company but why they are crucial for their growth as well (Hussain, Lei, Akram, Haider, Hussain, & Ali, 2018)

               Once the employees and all stakeholders are briefed about change that overall organizational structure is going to be reshuffled, and roles will be changed for many management positions, the next step is to come up with the actual change management plan. At this step, the people are aware of the change, so they will be ready to embrace change. It means that best-performing employees will and supervisors will be given the management positions as per their strengths, and low performing employees and managers will be given other portfolios to work. The stakeholders should be provided full communication as well as support at this stage so that the change process does not stop due to any issue. The third step in this process is that once the change has been applied, then it should be reinforced with the following strategies so that everyone knows that they can’t be slow in this change process, and their best efforts are needed (Cummings & Bridgman, 2016). It is important to understand that each step should be reviewed and analyzed properly so that any issue can be identified and rectified accordingly, otherwise change management process can face different troubles (Molineux, 2018)

Concluding Remarks of Comprehensive Change Management Process

               After looking at issues in Etihad Airways, and then identify the root causes of the issues, it was great for me to enhance my critical thinking abilities to analyze such factors. The overall practice regarding the change management process was great for my overall knowledge and information because I was able to understand how the change management process should be identified, initiatives, as well as implemented with certain models. It was great to know that a variety of change models is available, and it is up to the organizations, which model is suitable for their comprehensive change management process.

References of Comprehensive Change Management Process

Balakrishnan, M. S., Jayashree, P., & Michael, I. (2011). Etihad: contributing to the UAE vision through Emiratisation. Emerald Emerging Markets Case Studies , 1 (1).

Brook, B. (2019). Middle East airline Etihad has now lost $7 billion in three years. Retrieved December 6, 2019, from https://www.news.com.au/travel/travel-updates/middle-east-airline-etihad-has-now-lost-7-billion-in-three-years/news-story/7a089c3ac9624b89032926ed38ef8fbc

Cummings, S., & Bridgman, T. (2016). Unfreezing change as three steps: Rethinking Kurt Lewin’s legacy for change management. human relations , 69 (1), 33–60.

Etihad Aviation Group. (2018). Etihad Aviation Group: Fast Facts & Figures. Retrieved December 6, 2019, from https://www.etihadaviationgroup.com/content/dam/eag/corporate/etihadaviation/en-ae/pdfs/Fast_Facts_and_Figures/Fast_Facts_and_Figures_JAN2018.pdf

Etihad.com. (2019). About Etihad Airways. Retrieved December 6, 2019, from https://www.etihad.com/en/corporate-profile

Higgins, D., & Bourne, P. A. (2018). Implementing Change in an Organization: A General Overview. Scholarly Journal of Psychology and Behavioral Sciences , 1 (1).

Hussain, S. T., Lei, S., Akram, T., Haider, M. J., Hussain, S. H., & Ali, M. (2018). Kurt Lewin's change model: A critical review of the role of leadership and employee involvement in organizational change. Journal of Innovation & Knowledge , 3 (3).

Jalagat, R. (2016). The Impact of Change and Change Management in Achieving Corporate Goals and Objectives: Organizational Perspective. International Journal of Science and Research (IJSR) , 5 (11), 1233-1239.

LUCKY, B. (2018). The Sad Decline Of Etihad. Retrieved December 6, 2019, from https://onemileatatime.com/the-sad-decline-of-etihad/

Molineux, J. (2018). Using action research for change in organizations: processes, reflections and outcomes. Journal of Work-Applied Management , 10 (1), 19-34.