1. ABSTRACT
This is a study which examine the leadership in British airways and also evaluates their leader i.e. Willie Walsh using the relevant theories on leadership. Also critically evaluate the leadership style that is required for the success of British Airways. Reflections on leadership styles used in our previous jobs are also provided below.
2. INTRODUCTION
2(a). LEADERSHIP
Leadership has and will always be an important factor in human affairs. In today's time it has become essential for organisations to have a good leader for its success at the same time its becoming challenging to find the right type of leader for the job as mentioned in (Kotler, 1988)
"Leadership is an activity, that of influencing the behaviour and beliefs and feelings of other group members in an intended direction" as mentioned in (wright & taylor, 1984).
Leadership is only a part of the manager's job not the whole thing.
According to (Posner & Kouzes, 2002, p. 13)
5 common practices of all leaders
2(b). BRITISH AIRWAYS
British Airways Plc is the UK's biggest international scheduled airlines. They not only have scheduled services but also operation of international and domestic carriage of freight and mail, and ancillary services. British Airways fly to more than 300 destinations. It was established in 1910 it was formed to preserve the records and artefacts of British Airways predecessor companies BOAC, BEA, BSAA and the pre-war Imperial Airways and British Airways Ltd. BA was the first to launch the world's first daily international scheduled air service between London and Paris. It was a public sector company which in 1981 LordKing was appointed Chairman he was then charged by the SecretaryofStateforTrade to take all necessary steps for privatisation.
(Airways)
British airway has been known to have problem with it's employees, being punctual , and financial losses from a very long time it had major problems in the beginning of 1980 which
2(c). WILLIE WALSH
He was born on 25th of October1961 in Dublin, Ireland. In 1979, he joined Aer Lingus as a cadet. During his years as a pilot he was a chief negotiator for the union of pilots. He acquired a Master's degree in management and business administration from Trinity College, Dublin and later became a CEO of Futura in 1998 before he became a CEO of Aer Lingus 2000. Here he turned a loss making organisation into a profit making organisation within 6 months by reducing cost and selling painting and art from their office and also by cutting jobs. In 2005 he resigned from his position as the government refused to privatise the air lines.
compiled from the various annual reports of the Aer Lingus
Currently he is the CEO of British Airways. In May 2005 Willie Walsh became a Chief Executive Designate, after Rod Eddington as Chief Executive on 1 October 2005. He was hired as British Airways were wanting to reduce cost and make themselves into a low cost airlines.
From the annual reports of the British Airways
2(d). FRAMEWORKS USED
3. LITERATURE REVIEW
Globalization has made companies compete not only in the domestic but also in the global markets, and the demand for an effective leadership has become highly important. Many studies exist on the subject of leadership; this is mainly due to the fact that leaders are responsible for the main essential task in an organization such as creating, sharing and exploiting organizational knowledge, enabling an organization to grow (Bryant, 2003).
There is no specific formula for being a good leader many scholars over the years have debated over the fact what makes a good leader. Earlier scholars believe that leaders were born and the skills to be a good leader cannot be achieved over the years one such theory is The Great Mans Theory other earlier theories such as Trait theory studies the various traits of a good leader and states that only people having such traits can be good leaders. Even this theory believes in leader are by birth. However the more recent theories look at the behaviour and not the traits and personality. Kouzes and Posner state that Leadership is an identifiable set of skills which are available in all men and women not just in a few charismatic and gifted people (Posner & Kouzes, 2002)
The following theories are used by me to analyse the leadership style of Willie Walsh in context to British Airways
Trait Theory By Stogdil (Stogdil, 1974)
There are various theories on traits of leaders they all have a few common qualities that are required by a good leader.
This theory believes that leaders are born and the skills and traits of a good leader cannot be acquired over a period of time.
Stogdil in 1974 identified and suggested the following traits and skills as critical and existent in all leaders
TRAITS
SKILLS
Michigan & Ohio Studies
Michigan University had conducted various studies on leadership in the year 1950. There research showed that leaders could be broadly divided into three categories depending on their characteristics.
Transactional, Transformation and Charismatic leadership
Bass mentions that a transformational leader also will emphasize on higher motive development, and arouse followers' motivation by means of creating and representing an inspiring vision of the future (Bass B. M., 1997)
Situational Leadership Theory-
The main school of thought of this theory is that there is no one way of leadership style. It states that a leader who uses different leadership styles dependant on the situation he is in (Hersey & Blanchard, 1988). This theory has been proposed by Kenneth Blanchard and Paul Hersey. This model allows you to analyse the various needs of the situation a leader may find himself in and suggest the most appropriate leadership style for the situation.
source (Hersey & Blanchard, 1988)
As seen above this theory divides leadership styles into the following categories
(Huczynsky & Buchanan, 2007)
For this model to be successful it is extremely important that the leader should accurately judge the confidence and motivation of his followers.
From all the above theories we see that there is no one best way to predict a successful leader. All the above theories have different ways of looking at leaders. The best way to examine whether a person is a good leader or not is to study him is comparing him to various theories on leadership.
4. EXAMINING BRITISH AIRWAY'S LEADERSHIP STYLE
The main reason for British Airways to select Willie Walsh as their CEO was because at that time British Airways was facing stiff competition from low cost airlines. His success as a leader in Aer Lingus an Irish flight carrier which was almost on its way to bankruptcy and then Willie Walsh stepped in not only turning the carrier into a profit making carrier but also one of the most successful carrier of Ireland.
During the analysis I found Willie Walsh to have the following characteristic from the various articles written on him.
Linking Willie Walsh's leadership style to Trait Theory
From the above table we observe that Willie Walsh has most of the traits and skills that are required by a successful leader
Linking Willie Walsh's leadership style to Michigan and Ohio University studies
Michigan Ohio University studies classify Willie Walsh as a leader with Task oriented behaviour. This is seen as he does not maintain any relationship he is only is interested in work if he feels someone is redundant or not doing his work efficiently he fires them. (Nexis,UK, 2005). He also expects his employees to get the work given to them whether or not they have the resources and capability to do the work given to them.
Linking Willie Walsh's leadership style to Transactional, Transformation and Charismatic Leadership
Willie Walsh follows a transactional style of leadership. As he is task oriented and does not believe in building relations. He believes that the salary given to employee is a reward for their work and in case they don't do their work properly they should be punished. Thus motivation for doing the job is either reward or to avoid punishment. He is not supportive to them in their work or personal lives as a transformational leader would be nor does he have the qualities of a charismatic leader as people do not follow him by choice but by compulsion. He also does not take out time to know his subordinates and what would motivate them.
Linking Willie Walsh's leadership style to situational leadership
Willie Walsh can be placed in the S1 quadrant as he has a high directive and a low supportive oriented behaviour. However the theory states that a leader should be flexible and should change his style from time to time depending on the situation however the data collected on Willie Walsh does not show any signs of flexibility and he follows the same leadership style. Thus we can say that according to this theory Willie Walsh is not a good leader.
Bibliography
Airways, b. (n.d.). Retrieved 11 22, 2009, from www.ba.co.uk
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Bass, M. B. (1985). Leadership and Performance Beyond Expectations, . New York: Free Press.
Hersey, P., & Blanchard, K. H. (1988). Management of Organisational Behaviour: Utilising Human Resources. New Jersey: Prentice Hall.
Huczynsky, A. A., & Buchanan, D. A. (2007). Organisational Behaviour (6 ed.). Pioltello: Rotolito Lombanda SPA.
Kotler, J. P. (1988). The Leadership Factor. Free press .
Michaels, D. (2006, October 2). British Air's New Challenges; Walsh Must Tackle Rising Pension Deficit, Transition at Heathrow. Walstreet Jornal , p. B.12.
Milmo, D. (2008, April 16). You're fired: T5 fiasco proves terminal for BA bosses as Walsh takes personal charge. The Guardian.
Nexis,UK. (2005, December 23). British Airways Walsh step up BA turnaround. Travel Trade Gazette UK & Ireland , p. 12.
Posner, & Kouzes. (2002). leadership the challange. san fransisco: jossey bass.
Stogdil, R. (1974). Handbook of leadership: A survey of literature. New York: Free Press .
Travel Weekly(UK). (2009). BA bosses to work without pay in July. Travel Weekly(UK) , 7.
Walsh, W. (2009, August 27). I Didnt Set out to be a CEO. (T. Independant, Interviewer)
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