Developing A Sustainability Indicators Monitoring System For Qantas

Review of literature

In the current time, sustainability is one of the major factors to be considered by the contemporary business organizations. This is due to the reason that current business scenario is mainly affected by number of external factors with inclusion of environmental issues. On the other hand, the social taste and preferences of the customers are changing rapidly that is posing challenges for business organizations in coping up with (Gao & Bansal, 2013). Thus, in the current business scenario, contemporary business organizations should have the considerations for social, economic and environmental sustainability. However, on the other hand, it should also be noted that there are number of issues and problems that are being faced by the business organizations in regards to the business sustainability. This is also leading to the gaining of importance for sustainability monitoring systems in order to enable the business organizations to review their effectiveness in view to the sustainability (Bansal & DesJardine, 2014).

In the following sections, the views of different authors in relation to the business sustainability and their monitoring systems will be identified. In addition, these views will be critically analyzed and evaluated. The major dimensions for sustainability of Qantas will also be discussed in this report along with identifying the sustainability monitoring factors for them.

According to Ghisellini, Zucaro, Vigilia and Ulgiati (2014), there are number of monitoring mechanisms being followed by different organizations and business sectors. One of the major business sectors is the agricultural sectors. This sector is important due to the reason that agriculture is well influenced by different factors such as climate change and weather conditions. The authors have also stated that presence of number of determining factors in the agricultural sectors is creating the importance for sustainability monitoring systems. According to them, it is important for the agricultural sector to have the sustainability monitoring systems to determine their future potentiality in the business. In this case, the authors have given the example of Italian agricultural system. It is identified that sustainability of the Italian agricultural systems is affected by the change in weather and climate. Thus, the involved stakeholders in the sector initiated a number of sustainability monitoring elements such as impact of change in the climate on the change in the production of the agriculture in the long term. Another major monitoring element is the effectiveness of the growers in the recent time and change in their effectiveness with the inclusion of new mechanisms in place. Thus, according to the authors, initiation of the sustainability monitoring systems will help the business sectors and the organizations to determine the long term change in terms of sustainability.

Company profile

On the other hand, Singh, Danell, Edenius and Ericsson (2014) stated that success of the business organizations in terms of the sustainability also get determines by the effectiveness of the sustainability of the monitoring program. This is due to the reason that initiation of the sustainability monitoring systems helps in further classifying the sustainability in different sub factors. This helps in enhancing the involvement of the stakeholders in achieving the sustainability. It is also being stated by the authors that monitoring programs should be managed in such as way that it will involve the different stakeholders along with considering the different requirements of them. The more diverse will be the consideration of the requirement of the stakeholders, the more will be the motivation of them in adhering to the systems. According to Shiau and Liu (2013), effectiveness of the indicators in sustainability monitoring program determines the probability of success. This is due to the reason that if the change in the performance of the factors cannot get measured then the effectiveness will not be identified also. This is also being stated by the authors that indicators for the sustainability monitoring should be designed on the basis on the dimensions of the sustainability. According to them, if the sustainability is based on the social factors, then the indicators should be designed in accordance to social trends and preferences such as change in the employee motivation and determination of the satisfaction level of the employees.

It is stated by Herrmann, Schmidt, Kurle, Blume and Thiede (2014) that sustainability monitoring systems will be an important factor for the business organizations in future. This is due to the reason that with time, sustainability issues will get increased. In this case, the authors have stated the importance for holistic implementation of the sustainability systems. The authors have also stated the importance for triple bottom line factors including the society, economy and environment. The more effective will be the coordination between these factors, the more effective will be the sustainable operation of the business organizations. It is also being stated by the authors, sustainability monitoring systems can be viable if the profitability can be well adhered to the sustainability of the organizations. This is due to the reason that sustainability cannot be achieved only by determining the environmental impacts but also maintaining the organizational profits.

In the current Australian business scenario, Qantas is one of the largest and famous brands. They are one of the major and leading airliners in the world with having the base in Australia and operating in different international routes around the world. It is also reported that Qantas is the third oldest airliner in the world (Qantas.com, 2018). It was founded in 1920 and started their international flight services from 1935. They are also having their sub brand Jetstar that caters to the low cost market by providing budget carrier services. However, there are number of issues that are creating challenges for them in their business operation (Francis, Humphreys & Aicken, 2017). One of the issues for them is change in the taste and preference pattern of the customers. In the recent time, there are number of new competitors entered in the market along with providing diverse range of services. Thus, the bargaining power of the customers is increasing and they are having a number of options to choose from. This is also affecting the loyalty level of the customers due to the reason that the more will be the substitute services in the market, the less will be the loyalty of the customers towards a particular airliner. In this case, the sustainability of Qantas is getting affected by facing the challenges in maintaining their profitability.

Sustainability dimensions and monitoring system for Qantas

On the other hand, the increase in the cost of operation for Qantas is also increasing the challenges for them. This is due to the reason that with the increase in the price of jet fuel, profitability of Qantas is getting affected. However, the major limitation for them is the inability to increase the price according to the price of the fuel (Arjomandi & Seufert, 2014). This is due to the fact that competition is high in the international airliner market and thus increase in face structure of Qantas will lead to the reduction of the customer base. Thus, the conflict between the customer retention and maintaining the organizational profitability is creating sustainability issues for Qantas (Homsombat, Lei & Fu, 2014). On the other hand, it is considered in the popular view that airline is one of the major contributor of carbon in the atmosphere. This is mainly due to the reason that airliner uses huge amount of fossil fuels. Thus it is important for Qantas consider the environmental factor also in their business operation. It can be concluded that Qantas should not only look after their economic viability but also have to maintain the environmental sustainability in doing business.

There are number of sustainability dimensions are being relevant for the business organizations. However, in the case of Qantas, the dimensions of sustainability will be determined with the help of the triple bottom line model. This model states that three major factors, society, planet and economy should be considered by the business organizations in gaining sustainability in their business process (Halpern et al., 2013). In the following sections, the social, economic and environmental dimensions will be discussed.

Social dimensions 

Social dimensions refer to the social trends and preference patterns that can affect the business potentiality of the business organizations. This is another important and major element for determining the business sustainability due to the reason that if the involved stakeholders are not being considered and if they are not effective enough, then the business will be sustainable enough in the long term (Nikolaou, Evangelinos & Allan, 2013). For instance, if the satisfaction level of the employee is not being considered then the lower productivity of the employees will affect the business sustainability in the long term.

In the case of Qantas, social dimensions are having larger impact due to the reason that they are service providers. Some of the major social indicators are the customer satisfaction, employee motivation, customer safety, working environment and meeting the market trend and requirements. Determination of the customer satisfaction is important due to the reason that Qantas is a service provider and determination of the satisfaction level of the customers will help to determine the extent to which the customers are satisfied with the existing service portfolio of Qantas. The next indicator is the customer safety (Devika, Jafarian and Nourbakhsh, 2014). Being an airliner, it is important for Qantas to secure the safety of the customers travelling in their aircrafts. If the security of the customers is being hampered, then it will affect in the service and will also affect the acquisition of new customers. In addition, skipping the security and safety of the customers will in turn affect the business potentiality of Qantas in the long term. The next social dimension for Qantas is working environment for the employees and staffs. This is as important as the safety of the customers due to the fact that if the working environment for the employees is not effective and secured enough, then it will influence in the productivity and effectiveness of the staffs and thus business viability will be at stake. Determining the market trend and requirement is also important for Qantas due to the reason that initiation of the marketing concept will help in offering the services in accordance to the current market trend (Henriques, 2013). If the social trend cannot be determined effectively and properly, then it will have impact on the long term business viability.

Economic dimensions 

Economic dimensions refer to the core business objectives of the organizations. This is due to the fact that business organizations are having the core motive or objective of maximizing their profitability. Thus, the sustainable practices of the business organizations should be initiated in the way that it will create the maximum economic viability (Sarkis & Dhavale, 2015). In addition, it is also being stated that business organizations will be motivated in initiating the sustainable business practices only if they are having the probability of economic viability or interest. According to the triple bottom line model, economic dimension is more important due to the reason that it will help the business organizations in having the financial strengths to initiate different sustainable practices (Anderson et al., 2015). There are number of indicators being initiated under the economic dimensions such as the change in sales revenue, change in new customer acquisitions and change in gross market share.

In the case of Qantas airline, the major economic indicators are new customer acquisitions, customer retention, global market share and profitability. This is due to the fact that Qantas is having the challenge for attracting new customers due to the increase in the competition in the market. Furthermore, the more will be the new customer acquisitions, the more will be the profits for Qantas and vice versa (Alhaddi, 2015). The next economic indicator is the retention of the existing customers. This will indicate the rate of retaining the existing customers. In the time of competitive business scenario and challenges in attracting new customers, customer retention plays an important role for Qantas.  This indicator will indicate the level of loyalty and satisfaction of the customers towards Qantas and the extent to which the practices and strategies of Qantas are effective enough in retaining the customers. The next one is the global market share. This is the primary business objective of Qantas to enhance the global market share. This indicator will help to identify the change in the global market share with the change in the business policies and strategies of Qantas. In addition, this indicator can also help in determining the difference with the strategies of their close competitors and how they are gaining more market share across the world (Ahi & Searcy, 2015). The last dimension is the organizational profitability that refers to the fact that how much the profitability of Qantas is getting affected by the change in internal and external factors. This indicator is also important for Qantas due to the reason that it shows the economic viability of Qantas in the long term.

Environmental dimensions 

Environmental dimensions refer to the consideration of the environmental factors in gaining the business sustainability. In the recent time, these dimensions are gaining more popularity due to the reason of environmental degradation. Industrial sectors such as airline are having more direct impact on the environment and thus environmental dimensions are more important for them (Malik, Lenzen & Geschke, 2016). In the case of Qantas, the major environmental dimensions are waste management, emission control, usage of non renewable sources of fuel and corporate social responsibility. Waste management is being selected due to the reason that Qantas with having their worldwide operations are generating a huge amount of wastes ranging from degradable or non degradable.

Thus, it is important for them to identify the effectiveness of their waste management. If the wastes can be managed effectively along with involving the different alternate uses of them, then the business viability of Qantas will get enhanced. On the other hand, emission control is another environment dimension. This will indicate the extent to which the emission from the aircrafts and the pollution related to the emission is being controlled. This will help Qantas to secure the top ranking in sustainable business lists (Aras & Crowther, 2013). Usage of non renewable sources of energy will help to identify the impact from the burning of fossil fuels and how the increase in the usage of the fossil fuel will lead to affect the business viability of Qantas. The last dimension is the corporate social responsibility. This refers to the business gains of Qantas from the initiation of the social activities and adjusting with the environment degradation contributed by them.

From the above discussion of the three sustainability dimensions, it is selected that environmental dimension is most important for Qantas in the recent time. This is due to the reason that Qantas is effective in terms of employee management and other internal factor and they are effective in maintaining their economic viability. However, on the other hand, environmental factors are not entirely in the control of Qantas and thus it is important to determine this dimension effectively. In addition, Qantas is not well ahead in terms of environmental factors in the global airliner market.

• Emission control is selected due to the reason that aircrafts are one of the major contributors of carbon emissions. Thus, managing the emission will help to reduce the adverse impact on the environment and but the challenge of having an effective controlling mechanism will create issue (Sharaf, 2013). This is due to the reason that there are limited options of aircraft manufacturers are available in the market and scope of developing more efficient technology is also less.
• Corporate social responsibility is selected due to the reason that it will help Qantas to reduce the adverse impact. In addition, this will create positive brand image in the long term and will help Qantas in business potentiality (Cheng, Loannou & Serafeim, 2014). However, different and varied perception of different societies towards the social activities will cause challenges for Qantas. In addition, it will also difficult for them to design different social approaches for different regions around the world.
• Waste management will help Qantas to manage their waste effectively as well as gaining competitiveness from their alternate uses (Kiddee, Naidu & Wong, 2013). However, this will cause Qantas to have a dedicated facility for waste management along with having separate job roles and staffs. Thus, the cost will get increased on the other way.
• Currently, Qantas and all the major airliners use non renewable sources of fuel that is not sustainable for long term. This is increasing the cost of the jet fuel and affecting the profitability along with increasing the pollution (Speth et al., 2015). However, on the other, bio jet fuel is limited in nature and cannot be well accessed. Thus, it will be a challenge for Qantas to reduce the use of non renewable sources of fuel.

References

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