Qantas organisational structure
For the purpose of this assignment, you need to identify a company (Australian Company only) in any industry of your choice and examine the structure of their operation and their strategies.
In the era of globalisation, Airlines companies have become a major player in making world a global village. Qantas airline which is one of the oldest airlines in the world and is one of the biggest in terms of fleet size has also managed to make huge profits (Crawford and Northey, 2013). From the establishments in 1920 to till today they have adopted changes in them so as to make business successful. They are also one of the biggest Airline firms in terms of number of destinations it visits. In managing of such a big airline firm the role of their organisational structure and leadership is more significant. Leadership plays a crucial role in the arranging all the resources so that all the operations can be completed on time. Over the years their success is also attributed to the fact that they have used excellent strategies. Right now they own a share of 65% in the domestic market of Australia and 14.9% in the international market. It operates with the subsidiaries like Qantas freights, Jestar Airways, Jetconnect, Qantas links, Qantas ground services and many others. This report highlights their organisational structure and leadership style. It also showcases the strategies that Qantas have utilised in their domestic and international market. In the last section of the report there is evaluation regarding the strategies, organisational structures as well as leadership style being practiced within the organisation.
Every bigger organisation has some kind of organisational structure. This organisational structure is according to the requirements they have. Their structure plays a crucial role in their management of information. This helps in determining the manner in which roles, responsibility and power is allocated, coordinated and monitored within the organisation (Biddle, 2012). It has a direct relation with strategies and objectives since organisational structure help in achieving the business goals and objectives on time. There are actually two forms of organisational structure present in an organisation namely decentralised and centralised. This firm has taken use of both the type of structure as per the requirements. Since there are large numbers of information that get generated in the operations of the Qantas Airlines hence managing it becomes a very important aspect. In the management of the information system organisational structure plays a highly crucial role.
Leadership style
The cited firm has many subsidiaries attached with it. All the subsidiaries are headed by distinct executives. Every executive within the organisation has a specific responsibility, role and authority and they exercise it as per their specific role in their operations (Grant, et. al., 2014). Qantas have arranged the employee structure in such a manner that smoothness in the working process gets maintained. This structure of the organisation plays a very crucial role in the contributing significantly in the goals and objectives.
The management of Qantas has been divided into three bases or say distinct businesses namely Qantas Airlines and Qantas domestic. Both the businesses are under the CEO and are managed accordingly. Their organisational structure has been further dived under two unit namely operational and commercial units. This type of the organisational strategy has been used by the organisation so as to make sure that they are able to capture all the objectives and goals they have made for themselves (Hierarchy structure, 2018). It has also helped the firm in transforming the business of Qantas International and at the same time enhancing the business quality of Qantas Domestic.
On the larger note it can be said that they have adopted a matrix type organisational structure. Their top management have the role of practices and policies that needs to be adopted by the lower level staffs. Under the top leadership, there are several departments such as administrative management, business administration, project management and functional unit. Each department has distinct set of managers and they work in collaboration so as to achieve the task on time. All these department works in teams for ensuring that organisational goals are met on time.
Matrix type organisational structure assists in providing work process stability. This will help the organisation to face the challenges in their present and future business operations. This company’s structure of the organisation is highly flexible and assists them in issue management. This organisational structure has certain kind of disadvantages because of the complexity of structure it has (Kolesnikoff, 2011). In such an organisational structure managing communication is also a challenge. Apart from this managing information system within Qantas is also a difficult task. Because of the various sources of information, management of data becomes a highly difficult.
This company has a unique leadership style and has played a very crucial role in the management of their business processes. Leadership style is always responsible in facing the challenges they are facing in their business on daily basis. Organisational success in terms of better management of business process relies heavily relies on the type of leadership that has been faced within the organisation (Lohmann and Spasojevic, 2018). Before adopting a leadership style in any organisation it is crucial that they check the organisational behaviour of the people under them. This is because without the help of lower level staffs any leadership style could fail. The effectiveness of the business organisation depends on the leadership they have in the organisation. It is the leadership style that is paramount in finding the success and direction in which a firm will move.
Qantas strategies within and outside Australia
Leadership style is closely associated with the way a leader motivates its workers, implements it’s made strategies, makes decisions and strategies for achieving their set targets (Qatas, 2011). Leadership style has its greatest impact on the decision making process of the organisation. In the democratic leadership style they involve other stakeholders in the decision making process while in the authoritarian style they take all the decision based on their own skills and experiences.
Leaders of Qantas Airlines have changed its leadership style over the years. They have implemented almost all the type of leadership style from time to time. Top management has a crucial role in the people management, which is a major problem for the management of Qantas because of the fact that they all belong from different cultural backgrounds (Belobaba, Odoni and Barnhart, 2015). This plays a major role in the eliminating conflicts between different units and individuals. They have followed mixed leadership style because they have switched their leadership style from time to time. This is because they have chosen democratic, participatory and authoritarian style of leadership. It has helped the Qantas to make the decisions that favours their work process. They have also faced criticism regarding closing of their unit in Singapore. Stakeholders felt that company should have followed a more democratic style to make better decisions. This is also the result of the argument that they have been following authoritative leadership over the democratic leadership style. Following elements were present in the leadership style of Qantas:
- Vision: Their top leadership has provided the strategies, objectives, missions and visions which their other staffs needs to follow so as to move in particular direction for achieving their targets.
- Diversity management group: The management has various people from different fields. Their diversity field must offer various kinds of skills, education and view point. This helps in improving the levels of their management (Bhatti, et. al., 2012). It is crucial that Qantas understands the views of the lower level staffs and hence make changes in their leadership approach. The top leadership plays a decisive role in the consulting stakeholders regarding decision making. For the employee motivation and encouragement, democratic style plays a highly crucial role. This has a direct relation with improving their productivity.
- Collaborative: Qantas management understands that leaders must be someone who believes in collaborative work as well as must be honest and open. It helps in bringing confidence inside the employees as they feel that they are also important in the organisation.
In their almost a century year of being operational in Airlines industry, they have taken use of so many strategies. This has helped them in gaining competitive advantage over their domestic as well as international market (Greig, 2018). Their strategies were made as per the environment that has built across their business and hence it must be capable of attracting consumers towards their business.
In order to make their strong hold in the domestic market, they have utilised the strategy of diversification. It has assisted them in improving the market growth opportunities. This can be seen that fact that firm offers different kinds of services to different kinds of consumers. This has been designed after reading the market variables and the trends in the market (Homsombat, Lei, and Fu, 2014). Apart from this they have also adopted the low piecing strategy so as to enlarge their market base and attract the price lovers. Bothe these strategies have been successful in confronting the competitive environment as well as have attracted customers from different sections of the society for example business travellers, leisure travellers and corporate travellers. They have put their prime focus towards Cost leadership strategy which directly, indirectly assisted the in making their company such a big brand name (Tran and Tian, 2013).
In the international market they have used expansion strategies. This can be seen by the fact that they are offering services in many parts of the world. For example they started offering airline services in the Asian region when no other company have made its presence. Qantas called this strategy to be a gateway strategy that connects Australian people with the people around the world. They have been doing it with the help of their subsidiaries which has helped them in capturing the larger market base which has made them leaders in both Australian and Overseas market (Williams, 2017).
Their organisational structure is very appropriate and according to their business requirements. This has helped them in making their business processes easier. This is necessary for gaining competitive advantage in the market. Their matrix type of structure has facilitated them in resolving the issues that are linked with several domains that they are facing on day to day basis. As they made several people sitting at most crucial positions which has helped them in resolving all their happiness. It has helped them in resolving the issues that are both long and short term in nature (Lopes, Ferraz and Rodrigues, 2016). This organisational structure ensures that most of the people get into the decision making process. This has provided stability in their business and at the same time it provides opportunity to the stakeholders to safeguard their interests. Using such an organisational structure has helped them in implementing the made strategies in a better manner. It has helped them in simplifying the work process as well as it has directed them towards finding direction for achieving the objectives and goals of the organisation (Aharoni and Noy, 2012). Along with they have also incorporated flexible leadership within the organisation. This can be seen by the fact that they have adopted leadership styles as per the situations they are in so as to resolve all issue due to various factors.
Their strategies like cost leadership and diversification has been very successful in attracting their targeted consumer’s towards their business. In the increasing competitive environment both of them are highly relevant and provide support to their business (Sarina and Lansbury, 2013). Their gateways strategies have also worked out for the firm. Their growth regarding the number of destinations has been result of this strategy only. More or less it has provided them with competitive gains.
Conclusion
A conclusion can be derived from the above report that Qantas is a highly bigger organisation and is a major player in both domestic and international market. They have adopted mixed kind of organisational structure which is highly flexible. Over the years they have also adopted various kinds of leadership style which differed as per the situation they are facing in the market. They have been following authoritative leadership style. Their leadership style has helped them in their expansion in the domestic as well as international market. With the flexibility in their business approach like their leadership and organisational structure, they made themselves capable of implementing all the strategies and hence achieving objectives on time.
References
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Belobaba, P., Odoni, A. and Barnhart, C. eds., (2015) The global airline industry. John Wiley & Sons.
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Lopes, I.T., Ferraz, D.P. and Rodrigues, A.M.G., (2016) The drivers of profitability in the top 30 major airlines worldwide. Measuring Business Excellence, 20(2), pp.26-37.
Qatas, (2011) Building a Stronger Qantas – New International Strategy. [Online]. Available at: https://www.qantas.com/travel/airlines/media-releases/aug-2011/5157/global/en. [Accessed on 20th may 2018].
Sarina, T. and Lansbury, R.D., (2013) Flying high and low? Strategic choice and employment relations in Qantas and Jetstar. Asia Pacific Journal of Human Resources, 51(4), pp.437-453.
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Williams, G., (2017) The airline industry and the impact of deregulation. Routledg
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