Qantas Airways – Background and Overview
Discuss About The Planning Local Economic Development Theory.
Qantas Airways is the largest airline in Australia by its fleet size, international destination as well as its international flight. It is one of the oldest airlines of the world. The name if the company describes its location “Queensland and Northern Territory Aerial Services”. This airline does business from Sydney Airport and as of 2017, the company has more than 71% share in the Australian domestic market. On the same track route in which this company operates, many subsidiary airlines work in Australia under the same banner of QantasLink banner (Qantas.com 2018). The company has important subsidiary like Jet connect which provides services between New Zealand and Australia. Qantas Airways also owns a low cost airline namely Jetstar Airways which operates both domestic as well as international services within New Zealand and Australia.
The company was founded in the Queensland outback in the year 1920 and since then it has grown to the country’s largest domestic as well as international airlines. This organisation has earned reputation for excellence in operational reliability, safety and engineering along with maintenance and remarkable customer service. This airline company has employed over 30,000 people in the business among which 93 per cent are based within Australia. The management structure of the company is quite fat exactly fitting themes of the time. There is majority of Non-Executive Directors. They have extensive commercial experiences hence along with the executive director bring independence, judgement and accountability so that maximum benefit to the stakeholders, employees, customers, shareholders government regulators and the members of communities can be ensured. This company has been operating in this industry for long 98 years and in spite of having faced many controversies has maintained its top position in Australia. The experience of the company in the business is the most attractive part for which it can be chosen for discussion.
England is small yet powerful country in Europe hence there are numerous external factors which affect the business aiming to enter the market of this country.
Political:
The government of this country is highly stable and proactive in supporting business. The administration has divisions among local and national. Despite there are issues with Brexit, the country has overcome it negative aspects. There is some well-hidden corruption present in the system which may affect the policies.
Economic:
The country has a large population which is also diverse. Hence the small market will be profitable. There is a highly diversified economy in the country as the private as well as public sector work simultaneously (Wang et al. 2016). The market is free in England and the situation is getting improved for increasing FDI.
Business Entry into the English Market: Factors to Consider
Social:
As mentioned before, the country has a dense population for which any type of business can easily flourish. The national government provides support to the citizens through various free public services. The people of this country has a high standard of living.
Technological:
England is highly advanced country from the aspect of technology. It has high quality innovation abilities and expertise in IT. The regulations regarding intellectual properties has strong support on the technological development of the country. There is a huge internal competition that stimulates technological growth in the country.
Legal:
The legal system is very strong in this country. The labour issues and market regulation are strictly monitored by the government. The charity operations and criminal regulations occupy important place in this country.
While entering the market of a country, the business always judges the micro environment factors as these greatly affect the decision making process as well as overall strategies (O’Toole and Meier 2014).
Competitors:
The market of England is full of potential competitors which creates the situation difficult for the new entrants. Despite the fact there are no barriers from the government’s part to enter the market of the country but for the new entrants it is quite difficult to survive in this highly competitive market (Bartsch, Riefler and Diamantopoulos 2016).
Customers:
As mentioned before, the population of this country is quite high as well as diverse. Therefore, the number of customers are quite high in this market. The standard of living of the people of England is quite high therefore, the buying capacity of the customers is also high (Luca, Kleinberg and Mullainathan 2016). Based on thus factor, the organisations need to adopt a marketing strategy for attracting potential customers as well as retain the existing customers.
Employees:
The high population of the country has created scope for the new entrants to get highly skilled labours (Li et al. 2014). Skilled labours help the country to attract new companies. The country has a high cultural diversity which is a contributing factor in the high skilled labour force. In the aspect of aviation industry, the highly skilled yet cheap labours are required which will be effectively used by the company.
Suppliers:
For introducing in a new country the new entrants need to have proper chain of suppliers without whom, the company will not be able to do business in the country (Konstantinides et al. 2014). The combines from other markets always check the cost of the supplier because is they increase the prices of raw materials; it will influence the marketing mix strategies of the organization.
Cultural Differences in a Global Organization Operating in England
Shareholders:
The companies of the global market always try to enter the market of a country when there are high competitive advantage and scope for earning high revenue. As the country has a perfect balance in the private public partnership, the company will have no issue in getting shareholders and working with them freely.
Media
The media in England has a strong hold in manipulating the people of the countries. These media have also a good relationship with the global companies who work in England (Jopp et al. 2014). By using traditional media along with online or social media the company will be able to maintain a good relation with the public relation department and reach more effectively to the potential customers.
In maintain the human force of ta global company the HR managers face diverse issues. There are variety of problems which create difference in the opinion and expectations of the employees in a global organisation mainly originate from the cultural practices (Igbaekemen 2014). In this aspect the theories of Hall and Hofstede can be analysed so that these differences in the organisational cultures host country and home country can be identified.
It is one of the most important factors which generally the managers of this company will face while doing business cross-culturally. Patience is a virtue which the employees of both the cultures must understand. People of Australia are much relaxed with their tasks and take more time than the British people normally take. This may annoy the management (Huarng and Ribeiro-Soriano 2014). Moreover, the Australians have a more liberal view of time in reaching agreement and negotiating deal which may create issue when the company will be working in the English market.
People from various cultures have different set of understanding hence they have different approaches to complex a task. Some cultures tend to value the task oriented approach some prefer relationship oriented approach (Nolan and Bott 2018). The western organisations put more emphasis on the completion of tasks rather than building relation. In the company operating in aviation industry building relationship among the employees is very much important hence they must balance these factors effectively.
Decision making roles differ from culture to culture that often leads to conflict in the organisation operation in the international market. One culture delegates whereas other places more value on holding decision making responsibilities by the group (Claessens and Van Horen 2015). Therefore, in the organisational decision making process, the elder executives dominate their subordinates which leads to conflict. However, the company executives may face issues if their subordinates claim authority due to their seniority.
The English business communication style is not very implicit but the business partners from different cultures need to understand the actual intension of the words by reading between lines. This may create issues at the business dealings as the Australians are very to the point in their communication (Crane, Kawashima and Kawasaki 2016). In Australian business culture, profanity is a norm as well as natural part of vocabulary. The British maintain complete seriousness in communication. They are proud of their dry wit and intellectual humour. Facial expression, sitting arrangements, gestures of the English people are at some point different from those of the Australians.
In this dimension the cultures disclose their relaxing nature with uncertainties. They can frequently change their plans to face new situations. On the other hand, some culture cannot bear the tension of uncertainty therefore, they make decisions taking more time and thoughts (Crane and Matten 2016). Therefore, negotiation process may be delayed due to tendency to avoid uncertainty.
Different cultures have different perception regarding competition in the organisations. The wester employees are believer of achievements rather than caring others and follow an all-inclusive growth. The team formation in this context becomes very difficult as all the employees take care of their individual interests. Australian culture of the other hand is more collaborative who prefer to work in the groups. In this aspect the Australian executives may expect collaboration from the British employees and thus lead to conflict regarding tasks.
This is another dimension from Hofstede which points out the sharp variation between the cultures of Australia and England. In this dimension, the cultures are greatly distinguished in terms of normative and pragmatic. The normative cultures show great respect for tradition and aim to establish the absolute truth though their decisions as well as their actions (Cleveland et al. 2016). On the contrary, the pragmatic culture can adapt themselves with changing situation. The Australians score high in this dimension which means the company will be facing issues in the business long term business dealings with the English stakeholders or the suppliers.
The global companies have a wide range of customers and employees with different cultural background and managing them is quite impossible if the managers do not have proper knowledge about the cultural differences of these stakeholders. In order to maintain diversity in the organisation, the managers need to take some very necessary steps.
First, the managers need to embrace diversity present the organisation. Despite the fact that the diverse workforce can defy one another in terms of customs, communication and region, the managers can be successful if they not only accept the diversity rather embrace and encourage them across the business.
Secondly, the managers on their organisations need to promote open communication so that the employees do not face any issues like misunderstanding or miscommunicating among themselves especially when the language barriers exist.
finally, the global managers must foster a strong relationship among the diverse workers. The current trend of business organisations focuses on the flat structure where most of the employees form teams to accomplish tasks. Through encouraging these employees to engage in the team building events, the managers can solve the issues of cross-cultural management.
By promoting diversity and integration in different cultures, the company can see a big picture which leads to success.
References:
Bartsch, F., Riefler, P. and Diamantopoulos, A., 2016. A taxonomy and review of positive consumer dispositions toward foreign countries and globalization. Journal of International Marketing, 24(1), pp.82-110.
Claessens, S. and Van Horen, N., 2015. The impact of the global financial crisis on banking globalization. IMF Economic Review, 63(4), pp.868-918.
Cleveland, M., Rojas-Méndez, J.I., Laroche, M. and Papadopoulos, N., 2016. Identity, culture, dispositions and behavior: A cross-national examination of globalization and culture change. Journal of Business Research, 69(3), pp.1090-1102.
Crane, A. and Matten, D., 2016. Business ethics: Managing corporate citizenship and sustainability in the age of globalization. Oxford University Press.
Crane, D., Kawashima, N. and Kawasaki, K.I., 2016. Culture and globalization theoretical models and emerging trends. In Global culture (pp. 11-36). Routledge.
Huarng, K.H. and Ribeiro-Soriano, D.E., 2014. Developmental management: Theories, methods, and applications in entrepreneurship, innovation, and sensemaking. Journal of Business Research, 67(5), pp.657-662.
Igbaekemen, G.O., 2014. Impact of leadership style on organisation performance: A strategic literature review. Public Policy and Administrafion Research, 4(9), pp.126-135.
Jopp, D.S., Wozniak, D., Damarin, A.K., De Feo, M., Jung, S. and Jeswani, S., 2014. How could lay perspectives on successful aging complement scientific theory? Findings from a US and a German life-span sample. The Gerontologist, 55(1), pp.91-106.
Konstantinides, S., Torbicki, A., Agnelli, G., Danchin, N., Fitzmaurice, D., Galiè, N., Gibbs, J.S.R., Huisman, M., Humbert, M., Kucher, N. and Lang, I., 2014. 2014 ESC guidelines on the diagnosis and management of acute pulmonary embolism. Kardiologia Polska (Polish Heart Journal), 72(11), pp.997-1053.
Leigh, N.G. and Blakely, E.J., 2016. Planning local economic development: Theory and practice. Sage Publications.
Li, W.D., Fay, D., Frese, M., Harms, P.D. and Gao, X.Y., 2014. Reciprocal relationship between proactive personality and work characteristics: A latent change score approach. Journal of Applied Psychology, 99(5), p.948.
Luca, M., Kleinberg, J. and Mullainathan, S., 2016. Algorithms need managers, too. Harvard business review, 94(1), p.20.
Nolan, J. and Bott, G., 2018. Global supply chains and human rights: spotlight on forced labour and modern slavery practices. Australian Journal of Human Rights, pp.1-26.
O’Toole Jr, L.J. and Meier, K.J., 2014. Public management, context, and performance: In quest of a more general theory. Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory, 25(1), pp.237-256.
Qantas.com (2018). Fly with one of the world’s most experienced airlines | Qantas IN. [online] Qantas.com. Available at: https://www.qantas.com/in/en.html [Accessed 17 May 2018].
Wang, X.Y., Hattaf, K., Huo, H.F. and Xiang, H., 2016. Stability analysis of a delayed social epidemics model with general contact rate and its optimal control. Journal of Industrial & Management Optimization, 12(4), pp.1267-1285.