Leadership in Times of Crisis
According to Northouse (2015) leadership is a practical skill as well as a research area which encompasses the capacity of an organisation or individual to guide or lead other teams, individuals or the entire organisation. Nahavandi (2016) has defined organisational leadership as dual focus management approach which works towards achieving what is best for an individual or a group as whole. It is also a work, ethic and an attitude which empowers an individual to lead from the bottom, middle or top in any role within an organisation.
Leadership is normal conditions is different from leadership in crisis situation. The best or the worst of a leader is brought out in a situation of crisis. The true leadership skills of an individual is put to a test during the time of crisis. The performance of a person in the time of crisis can depict how level headed and quick witted a person is or is not and also show the person where their weakness lie. For a leader who is managing a large organisation it is very important to maintain his cool and keep his wits in difficult situations.
A good leader has to incorporate within his activities the principles of ethics. One of the core strength of a good leader is that he does not take an unethical path towards achieving objectives. A good leader keeps all the promises which have been made by him and respect all individuals who work under him. A good leader never uses lies in order to support a statement. Fairness is also one of the key element which must be possessed by a good leader while leading an organisation to achieve its goals (Northouse 2015).
According to Shanafelt et al. (2015) there are 5 things which a successful leader does in the time of crisis and these things should always be in the mind of the leader while dealing with and organisational crisis. Firstly a successful leader should never let his emotions come in the way of leadership. A successful leader has to be courageous which means that he has to be bold and must have the ability to take calculated risks. A successful leader has to be accountable for both victories as well as losses. A successful leader should never take failure personally and finally a successful leader have to possess a positive attitude from beginning to the end.
In the given situation it has been provided that Ryanair is facing organisational crisis in relation to cancellation in flights. It been predicted that the airlines is going to cancel another 18000 flights between November and March which would affect 400,000 passengers. It was claimed by the organisation that such flight delays have occurred due to a mishap in making the roster for Pilot leaves. However it has been provided by the chief executive of the organisation that there would be no more flight cancellations during the above discuss period due to roster related issues. It is clear from this statement that the CEO of the organisation is brave and does not fear to make a bold statement in the time of crisis. In additional the CEO has provided a very rational statement in relation to why such problems are not going to occur. It has been provided by him that slow growth in the winter is going to create many spare aircraft and crew which would allow the organisation to effectively manage the annual leaves which have been approved. This statement by the leader would make the consumers know that the organisation is being led by effective individuals who have a knowledge of what they are doing and would not let any mishaps in relation to flight cancellation for roster related issues happen again. This depicts the quality of the leader that he is cool and is also remaining positive in the time of crisis. The good quality of leadership within the organisation is also depicted to the rise in its share price which accounted to a total of 17% increase this year. The CEO has admitted the mistake with the organisation has made in relation to roster of pilots leaves. This means that he has the capability of accepting victories as well as failures which is a clear sign of good leadership. Here the leader is keeping his promise which has been made to the employees of the organisation in relation to leaves as he is not cancelling any leaves but is finding other alternatives to compensate for the leaves which have been already approved for the employees. The leader is also communicating to the consumers and to the employees of the organisation about the future steps which the organisation is going to take by specifically and confidently addressing the objective of the organisation. This would motivate the employees to address the issue in an appropriate manner. Therefore from the perspectives of leadership and leadership in the time of crisis it can be said that the CEO of Ryanair has performed in accordance to the principles discussed above towards the betterment of the organisation.
Core Strengths of Good Leadership
As stated by Armstrong and Taylor (2014) strategic human resource management means managing the employees of our organisation or company in a proactive Manner. The concept of strategic Human Resource Management consist of specific human resource elements such as discipline, payroll and hiring. The concept also includes working with the employees in collaboration for the purpose of boosting retention and enhancing the quality of work experience towards the maximization of mutual benefits of employment to both the employer and employee. Strategic human resource management has been defined by Beardwell and Thompson (2014 )as the practice of rewarding, retaining, developing and attracting employees for the benefits of the organisation and the employees. Human resource managers in order to deploy strategic human resource management must not confine their work to their department only but also have to work with the managers of other departments in order to understand their goals and formulate policies which are in compliance with such goals. Strategic human resource management is of significant importance to the success of the organisation as it manages the areas like training, recruitment and compensation provided to the employees. The human resource managers must practice strategic Human Resource Management by aligning the goals of the process with the overall objectives of the organisation in order to derive the best outcome from the process (Sparrow, Brewster and Chung 2016). An organisation cannot function without complete effort provided by its employees as the employee form the basis of the company. One of the core requirements of an organisation is to retain its best employees in order to carry out its operation successfully and to avoid additional cost required to train new and unexperienced employees. The process of strategic human resource management provides opportunity to the human resource managers to interact and work with the employees in such a way so that they are provided with a healthy working environment and make them develop a sense of loyalty towards organisation. When the employees are loyal towards the organization the company has a much higher employee retention ratio (Purce 2014). This is done by the managers through deploying a proper framework of reward and compensation to be provided to the Employees. The employees provided their services to the organization in return of remuneration, rewards and compensation. When the employees are made to feel that they are very important for the success of the organisation and the company is working for their development they develop a sense of loyalty towards organisation and work towards achieving its goals. Strategic human resource management is also of significant importance in the time of organisational crisis. During crisis and company may lose the faith of its employees and therefore it is of utmost importance to the human resource managers to maintain the trust of the employees in the organisation and make them provide the support to get the company out of crisis. During such times the managers must pay enhanced attention to the process of strategic human resource management so that they can obtain support of the employees (Marchington et al. 2016).
Successful Leadership in Crisis
In the provided case study it has been given that Airline Company is facing a crisis situation in relation to the cancellation of flights. It has been provided by the managers of the company that such situation is happening because of poor management towards the leave roster of the pilots. However according to reports it has been identified that many of the existing Pilots of the organisation have left the job. This is mainly due to two reasons one of which is retirement and the other is that the employees are joining long haul Airlines. When the employees are leaving the company in order to join another organisation the human resource management policies of the organisation comes under the scanner. When a proper strategic human resource management framework is in place the employees remain loyal towards organisation as they have an emotional bond towards the company. In addition employees mainly leave an company because they get a better compensation and reward structure in another company or they are facing issues within the existing organisation which have not been addressed appropriately why the managers. In the given situation it can be provided that the strategic human resource management within Ryanair is not proving to be effective. Employees who have served the company are resigning to join other companies and the reason for which is not clear. Either they are not provided with a proper reward and compensation structure within Ryanair or they are facing such issues which are not addressed properly by the management of Ryanair. As discussed above strategic human resource management is of significant importance for the success of any company. in case the managers of the company want to ensure its successful functioning they would have to appropriately address the issue of strategic human resource management within the organisation so that they can retain experienced employees who work for the betterment of the company and may not have to incur additional cost towards recruitment and training of new employees.
Resourcing is a part of human resource management which is in relation to one of the core requirements of HRM practices of recruitment and selection. The employees are the most precious and greatest Assets of any organisation and companies which have been able to successfully last in the industry have well-formed strategies towards managing their human resources (Keating, Geiger and McLoughlin 2014). The primary skills of a human resource manager is acquiring the services of the employees, motivating them to generate high level of performance and addressing issues faced by them in order to ensure that they maintain commitment towards the objective of the organisation. In the context of increasing competition it is of significant importance for the organisation to ensure that they are able to recruit and retain skilled employees. There are various aspects of the process of recruitment and selection which the human resource managers have to address in order to successfully pull off the process. There is a legal aspect as well to the process of selection and recruitment which involves the application of anti-discrimination laws. An organisation must always have in place employees according to the demand of the organisation. Where the employees of the organisation are resigning and the positions are getting vacant it is the job of the human resource managers to identify such positions proactively and take immediate steps in order to fill such positions. The human resource managers should know that they cannot discriminate between the potential employees based on any special characteristics such as gender, race, disability or religion. An organisation must also have sufficient employees on the bench in order to meet any emergency situation which may arise in relation to its operation. The process of resources goes hand in hand with that of strategic Human Resource Management. Where the process of selection and recruitment is important it is also important for the organisation to maintain the selected and recruited employees in order to ensure the success of the company. The basic criteria of the process of the resourcing is deriving maximum information in relation to the potential candidates for the purpose of assessing the sustainability of employment. In case the employees are not assessed at the time of recruitment and selection it is more likely that they would not be retained by the organisation as they would have a tendency to quit the job. Along with test of skill, the character of the employees also have to be analysed by the recruiters in order to ensure that they would be able to fit into the culture of the organisation. In addition the process of recruitment and selection requires hiring of a diverse workforce so that the culture and productivity of the organisation can be enhanced (Taylor 2014).
Analysis of Ryanair’s Crisis Management Situation from a Leadership Perspective
In the given situation Ryanair and it has been provided that flights are being cancelled due to the unavailability of pilots. Cancellation of flights can lead to significant reputational and financial losses for any airline company. It has been predicted that an approximate 400,000 passengers may be affected if the flights are cancelled. It has already been discussed above that the organisation does not have in place an effective strategic human resource management framework. From the situation in hand it can be stated that the process of resourcing within the organisation is also carried on at an average level. On one hand the organisation has a strong bench strength of employees who are ready to hit the floor in case of emergency and on the other hand the employees who was elected by the organisation and leaving the job in pursuit of other enhanced opportunities. The manager of the organisation has said that they have more than 2500 Pilots on the waiting list and in addition have provided jobs to 650 new Pilots would be joining next year. However in the current situation these pilots and not working with the organisation which may not prevent the flight from being cancelled. In the process of selection it was the duty of the managers to ensure that the only select employees who world likely to have a sustainable job. However through the statistics provided in the case study it has been given that many of the Pilots and first officers of the organisation are leaving their jobs. Therefore it can evidently be provided that the process of resourcing is not going on properly within the organisation. Although the organisation has a strong bench strength of employees, they are not ready to hit the floor during the time of crisis. The managers have however found alternative solutions to address the current crisis by deploying enhance leadership skills. However if the process of resourcing within the organisation is not addressed in a proper manner it may cause significant issues for the organisation in relation to human resource management in the future.
Reference
Armstrong, M. and Taylor, S., 2014. Armstrong’s handbook of human resource management practice. Kogan Page Publishers.
Beardwell, J. and Thompson, A., 2014. Human resource management: a contemporary approach. Pearson Education.
Keating, A., Geiger, S. and McLoughlin, D., 2014. Riding the practice waves: Social resourcing practices during new venture development. Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, 38(5), pp.1207-1235.
Marchington, M., Wilkinson, A., Donnelly, R. and Kynighou, A., 2016. Human resource management at work. Kogan Page Publishers.
Nahavandi, A., 2016. The Art and Science of Leadership -Global Edition. Pearson.
Northouse, P.G., 2015. Leadership: Theory and practice. Sage publications.
Purce, J., 2014. The impact of corporate strategy on human resource management. New Perspectives on Human Resource Management (Routledge Revivals), 67.
Shanafelt, T.D., Gorringe, G., Menaker, R., Storz, K.A., Reeves, D., Buskirk, S.J., Sloan, J.A. and Swensen, S.J., 2015, April. Impact of organizational leadership on physician burnout and satisfaction. In Mayo Clinic Proceedings (Vol. 90, No. 4, pp. 432-440). Elsevier.
Sparrow, P., Brewster, C. and Chung, C., 2016. Globalizing human resource management. Routledge.
Taylor, S., 2014. Resourcing and talent management. Kogan Page Publishers.
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