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Master-Thesis
in (winter)-semester 2014
at Faculty 3: Business and Law
of Frankfurt University of Applied Sciences
degree programme
MBA Aviation Management Master Thesis
presented by
JOSÉ JOAQUIM FERNANDES
Born 15th August 1966 in Copenhagen
Matrikl-Nr.: 1034431
Topic: Cross Cultural influences on Strategic Analysis Processes of Jet
Airways, following Etihad’s acquisition of a stake in Jet Airways
Examiner:
Prof. Dr. Regine Graml
Co-Examiner:
Prof. drs. Adrian Borggreve
Topic received on: 26th June 2014
Thesis delivered on: 26th December 2014
Page i
Table of Contents
1 Introduction ................................................................................... 1
2 Problem statement ........................................................................ 4
2.1 Overview .................................................................................. 4
2.2 Selection of literature ................................................................ 5
3 Methodology ................................................................................. 6
3.1 Method behind the empirical data ............................................ 6
3.2 Research design and progress ............................................... 10
3.3 Representativity of data .......................................................... 13
3.4 Reliability of data .................................................................... 14
3.5 Validity of data ........................................................................ 15
3.6 Presentation of theory ............................................................ 16
3.7 Criticism of references ............................................................ 18
4 Company description – Jet Airways ............................................ 19
4.1 Brief historical overview .......................................................... 19
4.2 Recent strategic events .......................................................... 20
4.2.1 Financial decisions ......................................................... 20
4.2.2 Operational decisions ..................................................... 22
4.2.3 Structural decisions ........................................................ 23
5 Theory ......................................................................................... 25
5.1 Strategy process theory.......................................................... 25
5.2 Lewin’s model for change ....................................................... 27
5.3 Cultural theory ........................................................................ 29
5.3.1 Artifacts .......................................................................... 32
Page ii
5.3.2 Espoused values ............................................................ 33
5.3.3 Basic underlying assumptions ........................................ 33
5.4 What is leadership? ................................................................ 34
5.5 Leadership and change .......................................................... 36
5.6 The GLOBE Project ................................................................ 37
5.7 Culturally contingent leadership factors .................................. 42
6 Country specific analysis ............................................................. 47
6.1 The Southern Asia cluster ...................................................... 47
6.2 The Anglo cluster ................................................................... 48
6.3 Middle East cluster ................................................................. 49
6.4 The Germanic Europe cluster ................................................. 50
6.5 Differences among the clusters .............................................. 50
7 Strategy process and decisions in Jet Airways ........................... 55
7.1 Strategy process before Etihad .............................................. 55
7.2 Strategy decisions after Etihad ............................................... 55
7.2.1 Route network ................................................................ 56
7.2.2 Product ........................................................................... 56
7.2.3 Services ......................................................................... 57
7.2.4 Financial ......................................................................... 58
7.2.5 Organisational ................................................................ 59
8 Cultural analysis in Jet Airways ................................................... 61
8.1 Artifacts .................................................................................. 61
8.2 Espoused values .................................................................... 63
8.3 Basic underlying assumptions ................................................ 66
9 Discussion ................................................................................... 70
Page iii
9.1 Shift from entrepreneurial school to positioning school .......... 70
9.2 Leadership as change ............................................................ 73
9.3 Cross cultural leadership style ................................................ 75
9.4 Organisational change ........................................................... 78
9.5 Influencing the corporate culture ............................................ 81
10 Criticism ...................................................................................... 83
11 Conclusions ................................................................................ 86
12 Recommendations and predictions ............................................. 88
12.1 Modernist perspective ......................................................... 88
12.2 Corporate culture ................................................................ 89
12.3 Leadership and change ....................................................... 89
12.4 Lewin’s 3 step model ........................................................... 91
13 Perspectivation ........................................................................... 93
14 Declaration of independent preparation of the Master Thesis ..... 95
15 References .................................................................................. 96
Page iv
List of Appendices
Appendix A Selection of literature .................................................... 109
Appendix B GLOBE Project - 9 cultural dimensions ........................ 112
Appendix B1 Uncertainty avoidance ............................................ 112
Appendix B2 Power distance ....................................................... 112
Appendix B3 Institutional collectivism .......................................... 112
Appendix B4 In-group collectivism ............................................... 112
Appendix B5 Gender egalitarianism ............................................. 113
Appendix B6 Assertiveness ......................................................... 113
Appendix B7 Future orientation .................................................... 113
Appendix B8 Performance orientation ......................................... 113
Appendix B9 Humane orientation ................................................ 113
Appendix C Cultural clusters classified on cultural dimensions ....... 115
Appendix D An overview of the findings of Javidan ......................... 116
Appendix D1 Status conscious leadership ................................... 116
Appendix D2 Bureaucratic leadership .......................................... 116
Appendix D3 Autonomous leadership .......................................... 116
Appendix D4 Face-saving leadership .......................................... 116
Appendix D5 Humane leadership ................................................ 117
Appendix D6 Self-sacrificial leadership ........................................ 117
Appendix D7 Internally competitive leadership ............................ 117
Appendix E Alitalia names new senior management team .............. 118
Appendix F Interview guide – corporate culture at Jet Airways ....... 119
Appendix G Interview guide - strategy process at Jet Airways ......... 122
Page v
Appendix H Interview guide – onboard airline crew Jet Airways ...... 125
Appendix I Jet Airways - single brand launch ................................. 127
Appendix J 7-S Model ..................................................................... 129
Appendix J1 Strategy ................................................................... 132
Appendix J2 Structure .................................................................. 132
Appendix J3 Systems .................................................................. 132
Appendix J4 Style ........................................................................ 133
Appendix J5 Staff ......................................................................... 134
Appendix J6 Skills ........................................................................ 134
Appendix J7 Shared values ......................................................... 135
Appendix K Value chain analysis ..................................................... 136
Appendix L The aviation industry value chain ................................. 138
Appendix L1 The airline value chain ............................................ 140
Appendix M Jet Airways SWOT analysis - 2003 .............................. 142
Appendix N Notes on Word automation and referencing. ................ 144
Appendix O About the author ........................................................... 146
Page vi
List of Figures
Figure 5.1 Lewin's 3 step model for change ........................................ 29
Figure 5.2 Levels of culture ................................................................. 32
Figure 6.1 Cultural Clusters comparison, India, Austraia, UAE and
Germany .............................................................................................. 54
Figure 15.1 Jet Airways single branding strategy .............................. 128
Figure 15.2 7-S Model ....................................................................... 130
Figure 15.3 Porters value chain ......................................................... 137
Figure 15.4 Aviation industry value chain .......................................... 139
Figure 15.5 Airline value chain .......................................................... 141
Page vii
List of Tables
Table 5.1 Kotter’s eight steps for successful large-scale change ........ 37
Table 5.2 GLOBE six leadership behaviours ....................................... 40
Table 5.3 Globally culturally endorsed implicit leadership dimensions
and twenty primary factors .................................................................. 41
Table 5.4 Universally desirable leadership attributes .......................... 42
Table 5.5 Universally un-desirable leadership attributes ..................... 42
Table 5.6 GLOBE culturally contingent leadership factors .................. 45
Table 5.7 Relationship between culturally contingent leadership factors
and cultural dimension ......................................................................... 46
Table 6.1 Cultural dimensions and high score clusters ....................... 51
Table 8.1 Corporate culture of Jet Airways .......................................... 69
Table 9.1 Comparison between changes in Jet Airways and British
Airways ................................................................................................ 80
Table 12.1 Steps still to be implemented in Jet Airways change efforts
............................................................................................................ 90
Table 12.2 Predicted changes in Jet Airways ...................................... 92
Table 15.1 Cultural clusters classified on cultural dimensions ........... 115
Table 15.2 Jet Airways SWOT analysis - 2003 ................................. 142
Page viii
Abbreviations
AUH: Abu Dhabi
ATR72: Avions de Transport Régional, build by Aerospatiale
B737: Boeing 737
CEO: Chief Executive Office
CxO: Chief x Officer
EU: European Union
GCC: Gulf Community Council
IATA: International Air Transport Association
ICAO: International Civil Aviation Organization
IT: Information Technology
MoCA: Ministry of Civil Aviation
MRO: Maintenance Repair and Overhaul
SFO: San Francisco
SWOT: Strengths Weaknesses Opportunities Threats
UAE: United Arab Emirates
U.K.: United Kingdom
U.S.: United States of America
Page ix
Abstract
This thesis performs an analysis of the cross cultural influence on Jet
Airways Strategic analysis processes following Etihad’s acquisition of a
24% stake in Jet Airways.
Using strategy process theories, organisational and change theories,
leadership and change theories, cultural theories as well as findings
from the GLOBE project and the findings of Javidan on empirical data
from strategy process interviews and cultural interviews performed at
Jet Airways in Mumbai in the fall of 2014; this thesis provides
circumstantial evidence to support the hypothesis that there is a
deliberate and intentional effort to change the corporate culture of Jet
Airways, influenced by Jet Airways’ new investor Etihad Airways, and
that these cross cultural influences are also reflected in the strategic
analysis processes of Jet Airways following Etihad’s acquisition of a
24% stake in Jet Airways.
Page 1
1 Introduction
Jet Airways is an international airline based in Mumbai, India.
Jet Airways operates a fleet of 101 aircraft to 68 destinations worldwide,
21 International destinations and 47 domestic destinations. Its primary
hub and maintenance base is Mumbai, with secondary bases
Bengaluru, Brussels, Chennai, Delhi, Kolkata, Pune (Jet Airways
2014i).
In general, business related travel accounts for around 40% of all air
trips (Doganis 2005).
At the start of the thesis work, the Jet Airways corporation covered the
full service carrier, Jet Airways, as well as the medium range carrier, Jet
Konnect, and their low cost arm, Jet Lite.
Etihad Airways has recently acquired a 24% percentage equity stake in
Jet Airways (Jet Airways 2014d). Several management positions at the
Jet Airways headquarters in Mumbai, including the CEO, are now being
filled by managers that have previously worked for Etihad Airways in
Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates.
Jet Airways has on 18 September 2014 announced (Jet Airways 2014e)
that they will now cease as a player in the low cost market, making all
their routes, on both Jet Airways and Jet Konnect, full service carriers.
The existing low cost arm, Jet Lite, will be complete absorbed into the
existing full service carrier, Jet Airways.
On 01 October 2014, Jet Airways announced (Jet Airways 2014f) that
they had received approval from the Ministry of Civil Aviation (MoCA)
for its appointment of Mr. Cramer Ball as the company’s Chief
Executive Officer. Mr. Ball has previously had roles at Etihad Airways,
Gulf Air and Qantas. Most recently, he served as the Chief Executive
Officer of Air Seychelles, leading a major restructuring program that
returned the national carrier to profitability.
Page 2
Mr Ball was appointed as Chief Executive Officer (Designate) of Jet
Airways (India) Limited in June 2014 and will lead an extensive three-
year business plan to reshape the airline and secure its long-term future
(Jet Airways 2014f), (Cruising Heights 2014), (TravelBiz Monitor 2014).
According to Times of India (Times of India 2014) Jet Airways is shifting
focus away from the domestic market by pulling out capacity from local
routes and deploying more flights to international destinations in what
looks like a strategy to feed the network of Etihad, the UAE carrier that
owns 24% of the Indian airline.
Government and industry data on daily available seat kilometres (ASKs)
show that Jet Airways and JetLite have cut down on capacity over the
past few months in the domestic sector. While Jet Airways and Jet Lite
have been reducing capacity on local routes since June and April,
respectively, Jet Airways has added capacity in the international sector
by 16% between April and August this year (Jet Airways 2014a), (Jet
Airways 2014b), (Jet Airways 2014c).
Times of India (Times of India 2014) is also referring to an email
responding to questions from ET Bureau that Jet Airways it is
restructuring the network to "optimise our operations in this over-
capacitated industry environment" and deploying capacity on markets
that have highest value for the network as a cohesive system. "The
ongoing network optimisation is focussed on improving revenue returns
to meet our objective to return the company to sustainable profitability"
it said. According to Times of India (Times of India 2014) analysts
expect Jet Airways' focus to remain more on the international sector.
Times of India (Times of India 2014) is also quoting Kapil Kaul, chief
executive of Centre for Asia Pacific Aviation in India "I see Jet's focus
on domestic operations to be moderate and be more oriented to
international operations".
Cruising Heights goes as far as calling the transformed Jet Airways
“Jetihad” (Cruising Heights 2014).
Page 3
As such a lot of events are surrounding Jet Airways and speculations in
the media are even more plentiful.
Page 4
2 Problem statement
This thesis hypothesis that there is a deliberate and intentional effort to
change the corporate culture of Jet Airways, influenced by Jet Airways’
new investor, Etihad Airways; and that these cross cultural influences
are also reflected on the strategic analysis processes of Jet Airways,
following Etihad’s acquisition of a 24% stake in Jet Airways.
The scope of this analysis is Jet Airways in Mumbai.
2.1 Overview
This section provides a brief overview of the remainder of this thesis.
Chapter 3 Methodology, details the methodology and considerations
behind the chosen method for our research.
Chapter 4 Company description – Jet Airways, provides a brief
historical overview of Jet Airways and furthermore details recent
strategic events surrounding Etihad’s acquisition of a 24% stake in Jet
Airways.
Chapter 5 Theory, details the different theories that we are using to
support our hypothesis.
Chapter 6 Country specific analysis, gives a theoretical analysis of the
different relevant cultural clusters in the GLOBE project.
Chapter 7 Strategy process and decisions in Jet Airways, details the
past strategy process in Jet Airways and details recent strategic
decision having been made in the airline, based on empirical data
collected in the fall of 2014.
Chapter 8 Cultural analysis in Jet Airways, performs a cultural analysis
of Jet Airways in Mumbai.
In Chapter 9 Discussion, we discuss the different aspects of cultural
and strategic changes taking place in Jet Airways in relation to the
presented theories.
Page 5
The thesis ends with Criticism, Conclusions, Recommendations and
predictions, and Perspectivation in chapters 10, 11, 12 and 13.
2.2 Selection of literature
The research articles were selected by undertaking a search through
the search engine Google Scholar and through the electronic databases
ScienceDirect and ResearchGate in addition to a general search on
Google.
For a detailed description of the selection of literature, please refer to
Appendix A, Selection of literature.
Page 6
3 Methodology
In this chapter we will detail the methodology and considerations behind
the chosen method.
Overall the problem is an empirical survey based in a practical problem,
supported by theoretical considerations.
From a methodological point of view the purpose of the theoretical
chapter is to form the theoretical basis. Thereby the theory will form a
fundamental foundation for the empirical research while at the same
time creating the conceptual framework for the subsequent analysis of
the collected data.
We will in the following part of this chapter argue the empirical method
that we have chosen for our thesis, the data collection method and the
choice of respondents.
Conclusively we will discuss the reliability and validity of our data and
present the theory we have chosen to use.
3.1 Method behind the empirical data
Our research takes starting point in Jet Airways where we have to
achieve knowledge of the corporate culture and the strategic analysis
processes. This forms the basis for the choice of methodology for
collection of empirical data.
Within our problem we have the choice between two methods, the
qualitative method and the quantitative method.
We have chosen the qualitative method, based on the subject and
purpose. The subject is strategic analysis processes influenced by the
corporate culture of Etihad Airways, since Etihad’s acquisition of a stake
in Jet airways. This subject is difficult to operationalise and quantify
without being explorative. We have as a starting point not included
Page 7
operationalisation and quantification and have therefore deselected the
quantitative method.
Also where it is necessary to understand the reasons for the decisions
the respondents have taken, or to understand the reason for their
attitudes and opinions, Saunders (Saunders et al. 2011) recommend
conducting qualitative interviews.
The explorative method is necessary for this analysis because the
knowledge we need to achieve will have many unpredictable aspects.
On the basis of a qualitative and explorative analysis it could be an
added advantage to also supplement with a quantitative analysis, which
is also what Ib Andersen (Andersen 1997), P.43, recommends.
Ideally following this recommendation we would include supplementary
qualitative analysis in the form of questionnaires to secondary groups of
non-core respondents for both the strategic- as well as the cultural
analysis, as it might have provided greater width in the analysis.
In view of the lack of formal response from our primary groups of
respondents, this form of data collection method from secondary groups
of non-core respondents was deliberately not performed.
The purpose of our project is to be explorative (Andersen 1997), P.24,
as we wish to examine what are cross cultural influence on the strategic
analysis processes of Jet Airways.
Exactly what cross cultural influence is taking place, and in what
manner it manifests itself are not known in advance, and consequently
an explorative investigative approach will be necessary.
We therefore find that the qualitative method with an explorative line-of-
sight be the most appropriate approach for our thesis.
Although questionnaires are less time-intensive than interviewing,
enable comparisons to be made and can be analysed more easily than
interviews, Rassam (Rassam 2010), P.130, also gives significant
disadvantages of using questionnaires as people may misinterpret
Page 8
some questions, they may be constrained not to tell all they know and
feel of fear of being discovered and so give the answers that they think
are required. Also the questionnaires leave very little room for
supplementaries.
In addition to this, Schein (Schein 1992), (Schein 2006) states that
there is no way a questionnaire can collect cultural data, and gives
reasons of criticism against the questionnaire methods when attempting
to collect cultural-based data (Schein 1992).
According to Schein (Schein 1992), P. 184-197, the questionnaire
method as a method to explain corporate culture results in four basic
problems.
1. A questionnaire method measures certain aspects of the norms
or climate of an organisation. Schein sees this as artifacts and
does not believe that this alone can account for the corporate
culture.
2. The corporate culture underlying the root cause analysis covers
all aspects of a group’s internal and external life. It is therefore
practically impossible to complete a questionnaire which will be
sufficiently covering.
3. Not all cultural dimensions are equally relevant for the works of a
group. It is therefore not possible to design a questionnaire which
captures the cultural dimensions which are relevant for the group
the researcher choose to investigate.
4. It is impossible to know what the respondents will answer based
on what they feel you look for, in the culture; or they answer the
questionnaire based on their view of the factual circumstances.
As the basic cultural assumptions are hidden and therefore not
necessarily present in the awareness of the respondents it can be
difficult for an individual to extract the relevant data.
Ideally, in order to perform a thorough cultural analysis a focus-group
interview should be applied. In a focus-group interview it is possible to
Page 9
observe how the individuals working their way through artefacts and
values and begin to stimulate each others’ perception of the situation
and thereby start to provide the basic assumptions that signify the
culture (Schein 1992). Unfortunately for technical reasons, we were not
able to assemble all respondents for the cultural analysis at the same
time in a single focus-group interview, but had to perform several
smaller focus group interviews, including some one-to-one interviews as
well.
We do not believe that this will have a severe adverse effect on our
analysis of the corporate culture, as the focus groups interviews support
and complement each other.
As Rasien and Friga (Rasiel and Friga 2007), p. 61, also recommends,
we use an interview guide, in order to organise our thoughts on paper
and secondly identify the topics we intend to cover in the interview and
prepare accordingly.
The above supports our choice of the qualitative method and
furthermore points towards completing the qualitative interviews using
an interview guide.
A semi-structured interview provides the researcher with the opportunity
to probe answers where one wants the respondents to explain or build
on their responses (Saunders et al. 2011). Moreover it has also been
our intention to avoid limiting the respondents in their answers as
Rassam confirms (Rassam 2010) is one of the disadvantages by using
questionnaires. Where have therefore placed significant emphasis on
the core group of respondents presenting their own views of the
situation.
The tools and research methods suggested by Andersen (Andersen
1997), Rassam (Rassam 2010), Rasien and Friga (Rasiel and Friga
2007), Schein (Schein 1987),(Schein 1990), (Schein 1992), (Schein
2006) and Saunders (Saunders et al. 2011) are also supported by
Andler (Andler 2011).
Page 10
3.2 Research design and progress
We start our research by analysing publicly available material from Jet
Airways, including Jet Airways Newsletters (Jet Airways 2014h), (Jet
Airways 2014e), (Jet Airways 2014f), Annual reports (Jet Airways
2013), (Jet Airways 2014d), fact sheets (Jet Airways 2014i), Jet Airways
Monthly Operating Data (Jet Airways 2014a), (Jet Airways 2014b), (Jet
Airways 2014c), telephone conference transcripts (Jet Airways 2014g) ,
and media articles (Business Standard 2014), (Buyek 2012), (CAPA -
Centre for Aviation 2014), (Forbes India 2014), (Times of India 2014),
(Outlook 2014), (Singhal 2013), (The Hindu 2014), (Times of India
2012), (Cruising Heights 2014), (TravelBiz Monitor 2014).
The result of these successive consolidations is an overview of the
places in the organisation involved in cross organisational work
between Jet Airways and Etihad Airlines, the executive management
team.
Addressing the top level organisation where this interaction occurs
gives us the basis for our empirical investigation of the strategy
process.
In the following we describe the way we have chosen to complete the
qualitative interviews. We describe our choice of respondents and our
choice of data collection method including justifying our choice of
respondents. We also argue for our choice of data collection method
and research design
We base our subsequently explorative investigation of the strategy
processes in the executive management team unit at the head office of
Jet Airways in Mumbai.
The data sources for our empirical research can all be characterised as
primary data.
We found it important to separate our interviews in groups according to
purpose. The reason behind this is that it would give us a potential to
Page 11
select the group of respondents which we felt would best contribute to
the primary purpose of our interviews. It would at the same time help us
in maintaining interview focus.
We interviewed vice presidents about their understanding of the
strategy processes.
The remaining respondents, captains, airport ground staff and in-flight
cabin crew were interviewed about cultural aspects.
We felt it important to interview all these different groups about culture,
as none of these single groups alone would be able to create a picture
of an objective reality. The reality is a social construction created by
people interacting and communicating with each other through
language (Haslebo 1997).
We interviewed captains, primarily about their about their understanding
of cultural aspects and subsidiary about the changes they had
personally experienced, since Etihad acquired a stake in Jet Airways.
We interviewed airport ground staff and in-flight cabin crew primarily
about the changes they had personally experienced since Etihad
acquired a stake in Jet Airways and subsidiary about their
understanding of cultural aspects.
The main reason for this was the more limited time available with the in-
flight cabin crew, and the fact that the captains, with a typical higher
educational background, were able to provide more elaborate answers
to the questions in the semi-structured interviews.
The vice presidents are all at a senior level in the organisation,
accountable for major areas in the airline, and hence they will be
forthcoming if anyone provides them any hope of further benefiting from
the cross cultural influences. However, Jet Airways being in a fierce
competition with other market players, they had agreed to do so only on
remaining anonymous.
Page 12
Moreover due to the work involvement into the cross organisational
dealings between Jet Airways and Etihad, and proximity to the board of
directors and CEO, and in attempt the preserve the confidentiality of our
respondents, we will deliberately not here divulge the number of
respondents, only that there has been several interviews with vice
presidents, aircraft captains, airport ground staff and cabin crew, aiming
at providing a varied picture from within the airline.
As the vice presidents are directly involved in the strategic issued facing
the airline and also the cross organisational dealings between Jet
Airways and Etihad Airways we consider this group of respondents our
primary core group of respondents for strategic processes.
All interviews with senior executives were deliberately performed as
one-to-one interviews due to the nature of confidentiality of the subject.
As the aircraft captains, the airport ground staff and the aircraft cabin
crew are all in daily contact with passengers, they are the real culture-
bearers of the organisation. We consider this group of respondents our
primary core group of respondents for corporate culture analysis.
They were selected because they are also directly affected by the cross
organisational results and change programs which has been recently
been introduced in Jet Airways, since Etihad came into the picture.
They also wanted to remain anonymous in providing their feedbacks.
It was also important to include this group of respondents and obtain
their view of the corporate culture, in order to have an understanding,
how these groups of employees observes the influence of Etihad on
their daily work, sometimes following only orders of their superiors, thus
feeling helpless in coping with the changes.
Ideally, a corporate culture analysis should be completed as a focus-
group interview, taking into consideration an equal distribution between
young employees having a low seniority and old employees having a
high seniority, in order to discover the different views on corporate
culture. A focus-group interview is also preferred to a one-on-one
Page 13
interview, in particular in relation to culture, as respondents will
generally stimulate each other during a focus-group interview, the
aspect of which is not achieved by a one-to-one interview (Schein
1992).
The majority of the culture interviews were conducted as small focus-
group interviews, although two of the cultural interviews had to be
performed as one-to-one interviews for practical reasons.
In this thesis we are using the Pareto principle, as this we believe that a
relatively small number of factors, inputs, occurrences and so on will
usually have a disproportionate effect on an eventual outcome (Rassam
2010). Moreover, striving for a 100% solution in this case, will not be
sensible in terms of effort required on Jet Airways (Obolensky 2010). In
processing the data made available to us from Jet Airways, we apply
the principle described by Cowey (Cowey 1994) as circle of concern
and circle of influence, and choose the disregard the causes we find are
in our circle of concern, but not in our circle of influence. The reason for
this is that although some of them occur frequent, they are beyond our
relevance to the topic of this thesis and our addressing these issues will
have little or no effect on the results.
3.3 Representativity of data
A major disadvantage by limiting our strategic interviews to the vice
president level in this unit in Mumbai is that we obtain only the views of
key strategic personnel in this unit.
A similar disadvantage may be even more relevant for the corporate
culture, as we have captured only the corporate culture from a Mumbai
perspective.
Although the vice presidents are employees closest to the strategic
analysis- and decision making processes, and the cabin crew, the
captains and the airport staff are the closest employees to the
passengers and culture bearers of the organisation, we will have
Page 14
significant views from other units in Jet Airways, such as the middle
management layers, which are not even represented.
Moreover, even if we were able to capture views from other parts of the
Mumbai organisation, there is no guarantee that the same units in other
Jet Airways stations in India or abroad would have the same view.
For an investigation to be genuinely valid corporate wide, it would
require significant effort and time, which we for time reasons have
chosen not to address.
Never the less, we believe that the interview results will be relevant for
Jet Airways and also still believe that the main effects of the cultural
influence on strategic analysis processes will be applied from the top
level management and from the units where the former Etihad
employees are located.
3.4 Reliability of data
It will probably be difficult to recreate the exact same process as we
have been through. Ideally, it should be such, that others with the same
assignment, the same organisation and employing the same tools
should reach the same conclusions.
Broadly speaking we have two theoretical perspectives, a rational view
and an open ethnographic view (Andersen 1997). Employing the
rational view, the researcher does not allow himself to deviate from the
original idea and no learning will take place (Andersen 1997).
Using the open ethnographic view, where the entire project is a
process, it allows the researcher to identify oneself with the field of
research (Andersen 1997). In this perspective learning and reflexion will
occur.
Furthermore we have to be aware that a respondent during the course
of an interview, or later on, can change his descriptions and statements
of a particular subject. The respondents will frequently not be able to
repeat statements from previous interviews because they during the
Page 15
interview or in the intermittent period often will have obtained new
knowledge or increased consciousness of the particular subject which
the interview or the questionnaire has focused on (Andersen 1997). The
same this applies to the researcher during the course of the project
(Andersen 1997).
The central focus has for us been the explorative and investigative
approach for the project. We see this as a search-and-learning process.
3.5 Validity of data
We feel that the validity of our data is in accordance with Schein’s view
that only a joint effort between members of an organisation and an
outside consultant can clarify the basic assumptions and the relation
which exist between these basic assumptions (Schein 1992), P. 169.
We also feel that we have achieved the level of co-operation and
motivation from all our respondents which is necessary to achieve an
understanding of their view of the root causes. We base this in the fact
that all our respondents in advance have become an accepted part of
the Jet Airways organisation.
Firstly, all the respondents have in advance, willingly accepted to make
themselves available for our research project. This means that none of
the respondents have been forced to participate in our work. The
motivation of the respondents in their contribution to our work has
therefore been high.
Secondly, all the respondents have been assured that have we in no
way had a hidden agenda towards the management in that any of their
statements or views will be used against them in their work.
We therefore do not feel that the respondents have limited their
statements fearing future retaliation from their employer. Consequently
we also feel that we have avoided the pitfall that Schein say exist in
making a cultural investigation where the necessary level of co-
operation and motivation will not be present (Schein 1992), p. 170-171.
Page 16
In relation to this, we wish to inform that for personal protection of our
informants we have to the greatest possible extent chosen not to refer a
citation to a particular person. Instead we have in the cases where we
felt it necessary and relevant, chosen to group the statements in the
following two categories: vice presidents and operational staff.
Moreover we have for personal protection of our respondents, and also
for restrictions of space in this report, omitted minutes of the interviews.
If necessary, these are available separately in writing.
3.6 Presentation of theory
The theory is used as a tool to understand and analyse our collected
empirical data. The theory has given us inspiration to the project, but
has primarily given us the basis to understand and process the
collected data. We have used the theory to identify the problems and
topics which we have become aware of during our initial study. We
have used the concepts and definitions that the theory contributes to
structure and analyse the empirical material.
From an overall perspective, we will through circumstantial evidence
and theoretical linkages explain that a new Australian born CEO; having
different leadership assumptions, in a traditional top heavy
entrepreneurial organisation, going from an entrepreneurial strategy
process approach, to a position driven strategy approach, changing
significant parts of the corporate leadership team, backed by a powerful
foreign investor, which by the way also happens to be the CEO’s
previous employer, making changes to all aspects of the operation of
the airline, using corporate-wide training programmes is deliberately
and intentionally influencing the corporate culture of Jet Airways in
order to turn the company into a profit making enterprise; in the end
supporting our hypothesis that there is a deliberate and intentional effort
to change the corporate culture of Jet Airways, influenced by Jet
Airways’ new investor, Etihad Airways; and that these cross cultural
Page 17
influences are also reflected on the strategic analysis processes of Jet
Airways, following Etihad’s acquisition of a stake in Jet Airways.
In order to explain these different linkages we firstly need to clarify the
theories we will be drawing on to substantiate this fact.
From strategy theory, we use what Mintzberg (Mintzberg et al. 1998a)
calls the entrepreneurial school of strategy to explain the strategy
process under the founder and Chairman, Mr. Goel.
We then use Mintzberg’s (Mintzberg et al. 1998a) perspective of the
prescriptive school of strategic theories, such as the positioning school,
to explain the more data driven approach employed by the new CEO,
such as Porters value chain (Porter 1998a), (Porter 1985), (Johnson
and Scholes 1997), (David 2012) SWOT (Johnson and Scholes 1997),
(David 2012) and Porters five forces (Porter 1998b), (Porter 1980),
(Johnson and Scholes 1997), (David 2012).
From the organisational and change theories we use Lewin’s 3-step
model of change (Burnes 2006), (Goodstein and Burke 1991), (Hatch
1997), (Johnson and Scholes 1997), (Stacey 1996) to argue that there
is a deliberate and intentional change to the corporate culture values in
Jet Airways, just as there was in British Airways in 1982 (Goodstein and
Burke 1991).
From leadership and change theories we use Kotter’s (Kotter 1995),
(Kotter 1996), (Kotter and Cohen 2002), (Cohen 2005), (Kotter 2008),
(Kotter 2014) eight steps for successful large-scale change to explain
that there is a deliberate change process going on inside Jet Airways.
From cultural theories we use Schein’s, three layer model (Schein
1990), (Schein 1992), (Schein 2006), to uncover the present corporate
culture found in Jet Airways.
From the GLOBE project we use the House’s results (House et al.
2004) as well as Javidan’s findings of the culturally contingent
leadership factors, of the GLOBE Project (Javidan et al. 2010), to argue
Page 18
that there has been a deliberate change of leadership style in Jet
Airways to a cross cultural leadership style.
3.7 Criticism of references
Especially within the cultural theories, but also in the strategic theories it
is possible to discuss which picture of the world the author holds. It is
also possible to discuss the background with which the author writes.
Especially within the strategy process we see segregation between
different schools (Mintzberg et al. 1998a).
Each of these strategic schools have their own perspective on
determining factors, such as the environment, perception of the social
context and the general perception of viewing things.
We have attempted to minimise this aspect by using different theories
and to understand them in a context.
There is no doubt that our own perception of things is influencing the
way we interpret and analyse our empirical data.
We have only to a limited extent employed secondary data. We base
this preference with the fact that articles from magazines and
newspapers as well as internal corporate newsletters often only
provides a fragmented picture of the reality.
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4 Company description – Jet Airways
This chapter provides a brief historical overview of Jet Airways and
furthermore details recent strategic events surrounding Etihad’s
acquisition of a 24% stake in Jet Airways, as published in the media.
4.1 Brief historical overview
Jet Airways is a major Indian airline based in Mumbai. It was founded in
1992 (Jet Airways 2014i) and is the second largest airline in India, both,
in terms of market share (Times of India 2012) and passengers carried
(Singhal 2013). Jet Airways commenced its operations with four B-737-
300s on May 5, 1993. At the time, and until October 1997, the airline
had 20% participation from Gulf Air and Kuwait Airways each, with the
remaining balance held by Tailwinds Ltd., a company registered in the
Isla of Man and owned entirely by Mr. Naresh Goyal (Flouris and
Oswald 2006). Implementing a new regulatory framework, effective
October 1997, the Indian government withdrew permission for foreign
airlines to invest in Indian domestic airlines, which in effect let to
Tailwinds Ltd. acquiring the equity stake previously held by the two
Middle Eastern carriers. Jet Airways went public in March 2005 and
posted a profit up 103% from the previous year, of 89.4 Million USD.
Revenue for the year 2004 was $1 billion USD, an increase of 24%
from the previous year (Flouris and Oswald 2006).
In July 2014, Jet Airways employed 13.945 employees, and operated a
fleet of 101 aircraft to 68 destinations worldwide, 21 international
destinations and 47 domestic destinations. Its primary hub and
maintenance base is Mumbai, with secondary bases Bengaluru,
Brussels, Chennai, Delhi, Kolkata, Pune (Jet Airways 2014i).
For the Indian financial year ending on 31 March 2014, Jet Airways
posted a loss of 366.785 Lakh Indian Rupees, as opposed to a loss of
48.550 Lakh Indian Rupees the previous financial year ending on 31
March 2013 (Jet Airways 2014d), and a loss of 123.610 Lakh Indian
Page 20
rupees in the financial year ending on 31 March 2012 (Jet Airways
2013).
4.2 Recent strategic events
This sections details the recent strategic events having taken place in
Jet Airways.
It is divided into financial decisions, operational decisions and structural
decisions.
4.2.1 Financial decisions
In April 2013, Jet Airways announced plans to sell 24% equity to Etihad
Airways for about Rs 2,058 crore, as part of a strategic alliance that
would lead to a major expansion in their global network (Outlook 2014).
Etihad Airways, the national carrier of the United Arab Emirates and Jet
Airways announced on November 20, 2013 that both airlines closed the
transaction for the subscription of a 24% equity stake by Etihad Airways
in Jet Airways. All requisite Indian regulatory approvals had been
obtained by November 12th, 2013. Jet Airways had, on November 20th,
2013, issued and allotted 27,263,372 equity shares of a face value of
Rs. 10 each at a price of Rs. 754.7361607 per equity share on a
preferential basis to Etihad Airways (Jet Airways 2014h).
Jet Airways has 150 million USD external commercial borrowing, raised
in the last quarter of last Indian fiscal year (first quarter of 2014) from a
middle eastern bank which has been guaranteed for by Etihad (Jet
Airways 2014g). A further 150 Million USD was in the process of being
completed during September 2014 (Jet Airways 2014g).
Summarising the Investment by Etihad into Jet Airways are:
Acquisition of 24% equity: 380 million USD
Acquisition of Jet Airways three pairs of arrival/departure slots at
London Heathrow airport: 70 million USD
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Acquisition of majority stake in Jet Privilege loyalty programme:
150 Million USD
Additional assistance in supporting US 150 million USD loan;
Totalling 750 million USD.
According to the management (Jet Airways 2014g), fixed cost does not
seem to be going down.
Jet Airways has sold a majority share of their frequent flier programme,
Jet Privilege, to Etihad (Jet Airways 2014g). Etihad now owns 50.1%
and Jet Airways 49.9% (Jet Airways 2014g). Although Jet Airways no
longer owns the majority of their own frequent flier programme, they see
it as a win-win situation, as it gives them the opportunity to serve their
customers, improve their unique quality and their traffic mix, just the
same way as larger alliance frequent flier programmes (Jet Airways
2014g). Over the recent months, numerous additions to a wide range of
partners have been introduced into the airlines frequent flier
programme, such as Starwood hotel group.
The airline expects to continue to have a share in their own frequent
flier programme, however it is not certain if Jet Airways will continue to
hold onto their minority share of 49.9% or it in future will be less than
that (Jet Airways 2014g).
Jet Airways are re-allocating capacity and extending the utilisation of
aircraft (Jet Airways 2014g).
The objective for Jet Airways (Jet Airways 2014g), as compared to last
year, is to get underutilised assets, either in the air, or out of their
system. According to Jet Airways, they have achieved this goal and it
has already had a positive impact on utilisation (Jet Airways 2014g).
The airline is going through a process of fleet standardisations, which
mean that they are able to configure their aircraft into similar
specifications across the board (Jet Airways 2014g). This fleet
standardisation allows Jet Airways greater operational flexibility and
Page 22
also gives Jet Airways the ability to squeeze more flying time out of their
assets (Jet Airways 2014g). The target utilisation for Jet Airways is
about 12 hours, and at present their utilisation is a little short of 12
hours (Jet Airways 2014g). Compared to global industry standards, an
aircraft utilisation of about 12 hours on a narrow-body fleet is, according
to Jet Airways (Jet Airways 2014g), in the higher bracket.
4.2.2 Operational decisions
A critical step in Jet Airways turn-around programme is to re-establish
Jet Airways as a master brand, in order for Jet Airways to harness their
proud heritage and original values into one consistent predictable and
clearly recognisable brand (Jet Airways 2014g), (Cruising Heights
2014).
The Jet Airways master brand will provide operational flexibility across
the airline’s domestic fleet (Jet Airways 2014g). The domestic economy
class will provide a differentiated offering to address the needs of their
travellers, setting value and competitive fares, while ensuring service
continuity with inbound international flights (Jet Airways 2014g),
(Cruising Heights 2014).
Enhanced domestic offering will provide a quality product with unique
value adds, including premium seating. Lounge passes and higher
baggage allowance than Jet Airways’ competitors (Jet Airways 2014g),
(Cruising Heights 2014).
Uniquely, domestic flyers will gain tier recognition and will be able to
gain domestic miles on international operated flights under both Jet
Airways and Etihad Airways (Jet Airways 2014g). The airline also plans
to expand the benefits to all Etihad Airways partners in the period to
come (Jet Airways 2014g).
It may seem strange, that only a couple of years ago, Jet Konnect was
launched, as the airline did not foresee the demand for a full service
product within the Indian domestic market. The thought was that it
Page 23
would malign Jet Airways as a full service brand to an extent, which
was the reasoning for creating Jet Konnect (Jet Airways 2014g).
In the past year, Jet Airways has stepped out of three markets in the
Indian market (Jet Airways 2014g).
According to the senior management (Jet Airways 2014g), the objective
remains to consolidate, squeeze more out of their assets and get to
higher levels of operational efficiency.
During the last six months of 2014, Jet Airways are planning to add six
more aircraft to their fleet and over the slightly longer term, some of
their wide-body aircraft will also be coming back to their fleet. Further
additions to the fleet will be on a case-by-case basis (Jet Airways
2014g).
In the short term, Jet Airways is planning that the net additions of
aircraft mostly will get used for further international expansion (Jet
Airways 2014g).
At present Jet Airways are planning to introduce Boeing 787 into
service from 2018 and beyond (Jet Airways 2014g).
4.2.3 Structural decisions
Two months after Etihad bought 24% stake in Jet Airways, Gary
Toomey, a former Qantas CFO, was appointed Chief Executive Officer
of Jet Airways. Mr. Toomey was associated as a consultant with Etihad
before being appointed CEO of Jet Airways (Business Standard 2014).
In January 2014, the Jet Airways Chief Executive Officer, Gary Tooney,
quit the airline with immediate effect, only six months after having been
appointed CEO (Business Standard 2014).
Factors behind his resignation were his differences with Chairman
Naresh Goyal (Business Standard 2014) and his inability to get along
with the Jet Airways culture (Cruising Heights 2014).
Page 24
In addition to the resignation of the Jet Airways CEO, several high
profile senior executives had also resigned in the months before. This
included the vice president of investor relations and the Chief
Commercial Officer (Business Standard 2014).
Naresh Goyal’s wife, Anita Goyal, was re-designated advisor to the
chief executive and group executive officer Abdulrahman Albusaidy,
responsible for gulf markets, was appointed Chief Strategic Planning
Officer, and given wider powers (Business Standard 2014).
In June 2014, Mr. Ball was appointed Chief Executive Officer
(Designate) of Jet Airways (Jet Airways 2014f).
Mr. Ball, a former regional manager (Asia-Pacific) of Etihad, had prior to
joining Jet Airways, held the post of CEO of Air Seychelles, after Etihad
bought a stake in Air Seychelles (Business Standard 2014), (Cruising
Heights 2014).
During his time in Air Seychelles, he was leading a major restructuring
program that returned Air Seychelles to profitability (Jet Airways 2014f),
(Cruising Heights 2014).
The Jet Airways board of directors also has two members from Etihad,
Chief Executive officer James Hogan and Chief Financial Officer James
Rigney (Business Standard 2014), (Jet Airways 2014h).
The organisation in Jet Airways can be characterised as a divisional
structure (Mintzberg 1983).
Page 25
5 Theory
This chapter we will account for the different theories and tools we have
used to analyse our data
5.1 Strategy process theory
Mintzberg (Mintzberg et al. 1998a) defines several different schools of
strategy process, and divides them into two groups, the prescriptive
group of strategies, and the descriptive group of strategies.
The prescriptive group of strategies are more concerned with how
strategies should be formulated than how the necessarily do form
(Mintzberg et al. 1998a).
Within the prescriptive school of strategies, what he calls the design
school, at its simplest, proposes a model of strategy making that seeks
to attain a match, or fit, between internal capabilities and external
possibilities (Mintzberg et al. 1998a).
The design school (Mintzberg et al. 1998a) covers well known MBA
strategic tools such as the SWOT analysis (David 2012), (Johnson and
Scholes 1997). Subsequently, what Mintzberg (Mintzberg et al. 1998a)
calls the planning school saw the strategy process as a systematic
process of formal planning.
The planning school (Mintzberg et al. 1998a), where the strategy
process is a systematic process of formal planning, was followed by the
positioning school, less concerned with the process of strategy
formation than with the actual content of strategies. The positioning
school (Mintzberg et al. 1998a) focuses on the selection of strategic
positions in the economic marketplace and argues that only a few key
strategies – as positions in the economic marketplace – are desirable in
any given industry: one that can be defended against existing and
future competitors.
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The positioning school (Mintzberg et al. 1998a) covers well known MBA
strategic tools such as Porters five forces (Porter 1980), Porters generic
strategies (differentiation or low cost) (Porter 1985), Porters value chain
(Porter 1985). Further theory on Porters value chain analysis (Porter
1985) in the aviation industry, the aviation industry value chain and the
airline value chain can be found in Appendix K, Appendix L and
Appendix L1.
In stark contrast to the prescriptive strategy schools, we find the
descriptive strategy schools. The descriptive schools consider specific
aspects of the process of strategy formation, and have been concerned
less with prescribing ideal strategic behaviour than with describing how
strategies do, in fact, get made (Mintzberg et al. 1998a).
One school is particularly relevant in this case, the entrepreneurial
school (Mintzberg et al. 1998a). In the entrepreneurial school, the focus
of strategy formation process is exclusively on the single leader, and
also stresses the most innate of mental states and progress – intuition,
judgement, wisdom, experience and insight (Mintzberg et al. 1998a).
The entrepreneurial school promotes a view of strategy and perspective
associated with image and sense of direction, namely vision (Mintzberg
et al. 1998a).
According to Mintzberg (Mintzberg et al. 1998a) this strategic
perspective is not so much collective or cultural, as personal, the
construct of the leader. In the entrepreneurial organisation, power is
centralised in the hands of the Chief Executive (Mintzberg 1973) and
key decisions concerning strategy and operations are together
concentrated in the office of the chief executive.
In this way of strategic perspective, the organisation becomes
responsive to the dictates of that individual, subservient to his
leadership; and the environment, if not exactly subservient, becomes
the terrain on which the leader manoeuvres with some ease, at least in
Page 27
terms of directing the organisation into a protective niche (Mintzberg et
al. 1998a).
The most central concept of this strategic school is vision; a mental
representation of strategy, created or at least expressed in the head of
the leader (Mintzberg et al. 1998a).
That vision serves as both an inspiration and a sense of what needs to
be done – a guiding idea.
True to its label, vision often tends to be a kind of image more than a
fully articulated plan in words and numbers.
Creating a vision often as a kind of image, more than a fully articulated
plan in words and numbers leaves it flexible, so that the leader can
adopt the vision to his or her experiences (Mintzberg et al. 1998a).
This suggests that the entrepreneurial strategy is both deliberate and
emergent; deliberate in its broad lines and sense of direction; emergent
in its detail so that it can be adapted en route (Mintzberg et al. 1998a).
In our analysis, we will argue that there has been a radical change from
an entrepreneurial prescriptive school to the descriptive school in Jet
Airways.
5.2 Lewin’s model for change
According to the change model proposed by Lewin, change involves
three separate activities: Unfreezing, refreezing and change (Burnes
2006), Hatch (Hatch 1997) , (Mintzberg et al. 1998b), Stacey (Stacey
1996).
Within Mintzberg’s different schools of strategy, Lewin’s change model
is found in the configuration school (Mintzberg et al. 1998a), where
strategy formation is a process of change.
The first step of any change process is to unfreeze the present pattern
of behaviour as a way of managing resistance to change (Goodstein
and Burke 1991).
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Once unfreezing has occurred, the moving or change state involves
making the actual change that will move the organisation to another
level of response (Goodstein and Burke 1991) by influencing the
direction of movement in the new unbalanced system (Hatch 1997).
Strategies for influencing the direction of change includes training new
behaviour pattern, altering reporting relationship and reward systems,
and introducing different styles of management (Hatch 1997).
On the individual level you would expect to see people behave
differently, perhaps demonstrating new skills or new supervisory
practices (Goodstein and Burke 1991).
On the structural level you would expect to see changes in actual
organisation structures (Goodstein and Burke 1991), such as replacing
an authoritarian management style with a participative management
style (Hatch 1997), changes in reporting relationships and reward
systems that affect the way people do their work (Goodstein and Burke
1991).
Finally on the climate or interpersonal-style level, you would expect to
see behaviour pattern that indicate greater interpersonal trust and
openness and fewer dysfunctional interactions (Goodstein and Burke
1991).
The final stage of the change process, refreezing involves stabilizing
and institutionalising systems that make these behaviour patterns
relatively secure against change (Goodstein and Burke 1991).
An example of a refreezing strategy would be establishing new
recruitment policies to assure that new recruits share the new
organisational culture and will work within the new structure and reward
systems as well as the new management style (Hatch 1997).
The concept of Lewin’s 3-step model for change is illustrated in Figure
5.1.
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Figure 5.1 Lewin's 3 step model for change
Source: http://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/newPPM_94.htm
Just as Burns (Burnes 2006) argues, it would appear that although the
change model of Lewin, has a modernistic perspective (Johnson and
Scholes 1997), it is by far an as outdated and obsolete change model
as suggested by Hatch (Hatch 1997).
In our analysis of Jet airways, and we will highlight the remarkable
resemblance between the application of Lewin’s model with which
Goodstein and Burke analysed the changes initiated at British Airways
in 1982, (Goodstein and Burke 1991), (Hatch 1997) and the present
changes happening in Jet Airways.
We will argue that the CEO Mr. Ball is in fact using Lewin’s 3 step
model for achieving organisational change in Jet Airways (Burnes
2006), (Mintzberg et al. 1998a), by deliberately influencing the
corporate culture of Jet Airways.
5.3 Cultural theory
When most of us hear the word culture, we typically relate to national
culture such as, The Dutch, The Germans, The Indians; or we relate to
sociological culture, such as The Americans, The Europeans, The
Africans.
According to Virkus (Virkus 2009b), Kroeber and Kluckhohn complied in
1952 a list of 164 definitions of “Culture”. Organisational culture is a
widely used term but one that seems to give rise to a degree of
ambiguity (O'Donnel and Boyle 2008).
Page 30
Particularly slightly more traditional textbooks on organisational
behaviour have a very vague definition of culture, defining culture as
institutionalised traditions (Mishra 2001).
The development of corporate culture within organisational theory was
significantly influenced by Hofstede’s book Cultures Consequences
(Brown 1998).
According to Hatch (Hatch 1997), Hofstede analysed and compared in
the late 1970’s different international affiliates of IBM and found
evidence of national culture differences within IBM’s organisational
culture.
The four dimensions that Hofstede argues national cultures differ along
are:
Power distance
Uncertainty avoidance
Individualism (vs. collectivism); and
Masculinity (vs. femininity)
Hofstede later, in 1991, added a fifth element to his theory, confucian
dynamism (Long term vs. short term orientation) Bertsch (Bertsch
2012), Virkus (Virkus 2009a), (Brown 1998).
Hofstede’s dimensions of national culture is a tool to identify national
cultural differences (Javidan and House 2002).
The GLOBE project has later suggested nine unique cultural
dimensions (House et al. 2004).
According to Brown (Brown 1998), it was Edgar Schein’s book,
Organisational Culture and Leadership (Schein 1992) that has become
one of the key foundations of corporate culture.
Certainly a lot of textbooks on strategy and Leadership (Johnson and
Scholes 1997), (Hatch 1997), (Brown 1998) all quote Schein’s model for
culture (Schein 1992).
Page 31
Although Tropenars and Hampden-Turner (Trompenaars and
Hampden-Turner 1999) do not actually quote Schein, they also have a
three-layered model of culture identical to Schein (Schein 1992).
Schein (Schein 1992) identifies cultures at three different levels:
Artifatcs
Espoused values
Basic underlying assumptions
The three different layers of culture are illustrated in Figure 5.2.
Page 32
Artifacts
These take the form of stories,
myths, jokes, metaphors,
rites, rituals and ceremonies,
heroes and symbols
Espoused Values
Beliefs, Values and attributes
Basic Underlying
Assumptions
These concern the
environment, reality, human
nature, human activity and
human relationships
Deepest Level of
Culture
Taken for granted
invisible
The most superficial
manifestation of culture
Visible but often undecipherable
Greater level of
awareness
Figure 5.2 Levels of culture
Source: Adapted from (Schein 1992) P. 17, (Hatch 1997) P. 211, (Brown 1998) P. 12
5.3.1 Artifacts
Artifacts are at the surface of culture (Schein 1992). Artifacts are visible,
tangible and audible parts of culture (Hatch 1997). Categories of
artifacts include physical objects created by members, verbal
manifestations seen in written, spoken language, rituals, ceremonies
Page 33
and other behavioural manifestations. Members of a culture may or may
not be aware of their culture’s artifacts, but the artifacts themselves can
directly be observed by anyone (Brown 1998), (Hatch 1997), (Schein
1992). This level of culture is the easiest to observe but also difficult to
decipher (Schein 1992). An observer can describe what he sees and
feels but will not be able to reconstruct what the artifacts mean to a
given group or if they even reflect important underlying assumptions
(Schein 1992).
5.3.2 Espoused values
Values are the social principles, goals and standards held within a
culture (Hatch 1997).
They define what members of an organisation care about, such as
freedom, democracy, tradition, wealth or loyalty. Values constitute the
basis for making judgements about what is right or wrong (Hatch 1997).
Values are intimately connected with moral and ethical code, and
determine what people think ought to be done (Brown 1998).
Members of an organisation are able to recognise their values fairly
easily and become especially aware of them when someone tries to
change their culture in some fundamental way (Hatch 1997).
5.3.3 Basic underlying assumptions
When a solution to a problem works repeatedly, it comes to be taken for
granted (Schein 1992). Basic assumptions are held unconsciously and
are very difficult to surface (Brown 1998).
Basic assumptions tend to be those we neither confront nor debate.
Basic assumptions represent what members believe to be reality and
thereby influence what they perceive and how they think and feel
(Hatch 1997). Basic assumptions are therefore extremely difficult to
change (Schein 1992).
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Basic assumptions are implicit, deeply rooted assumptions that people
share. The basic assumptions guide perceptions, feelings and emotions
about things (Brown 1998).
In our analysis we will uncover the artifacts, the espoused values and
the basic underlying assumptions in the corporate culture of Jet
Airways.
5.4 What is leadership?
Just as with culture, leadership has had a huge number of different
meanings throughout the last 100 years. According to Yukl (Yukl 1998),
Steadgill concluded that there are almost as many definitions of
leadership as there are people that have attempted to define the
concept. Northouse (Northouse 2013) has not surprisingly the same
reference. Yukl (Yukl 1998) lists 8 different definitions of leadership
which has been used in the last 50 years. Northouse (Northouse 2013)
also refers to the study of Rost finding more than 200 definitions of
leadership in written material between 1900-1990.
Traditionally the traits approach for defining leadership was used (Yukl
1998). Slightly more traditional textbooks define leadership as the
quality of a good leader (Mishra 2001).
Kotter (Kotter 1999) defines and distinguishes between management
and leadership. Management is a set of processes that can keep a
complicated system of people and technology running smoothly (Kotter
1996). Management is about coping with complexity (Kotter 1999).
Good management brings a degree of order to dimensions like the
quality and profitability of products (Kotter 1999). Without good
management, complex enterprises tend to become chaotic in a way that
threaten their very existence (Kotter 1999).
Leadership is coping with change (Kotter 1999). Leadership is a set of
processes that creates organisations in the first place or adopts them to
significantly changing circumstances (Kotter 1996).
Page 35
Leadership is different from management and the primary force behind
successful change of any significance is leadership, not management
(Kotter 1999).
That the concept of leadership is still subject to many interpretations
can be seen from the fact that participating scholars in project GLOBE
found it a daunting task to define leadership (Dickson et al. 2012).
The GLOBE researchers who studied leadership worldwide were able
to agree on defining leadership as the ability of an individual to
influence, motivate and enable others to contribute toward the
effectiveness and success of the organisations of which they are
members (House et al. 2004), (Dickson et al. 2012).
Northouse (Northouse 2013) defines leadership as a process whereby
an individual influences a group of individuals to achieve a common
goal.
Although the GLOBE project’s definition of leadership is likely to be
more academically correct, we feel that it does not in the same way as
Kotters’s definition of leadership provide a tangible way to actually
exercise leadership.
Extrapolating the three previous definitions of leadership and applying a
cultural dimension we can then manufacture three modified definitions
of cross cultural leadership.
Cross cultural leadership - is coping with cross-cultural change
(Modified Kotter).
Cross cultural leadership - is the ability of an individual from one culture
to influence, motivate and enable others from another culture to
contribute toward the effectiveness and success of the organisations of
which they are members (Modified GLOBE).
Cross cultural leadership - is a process whereby an individual from one
culture influences a group of individuals from another culture to achieve
a common goal (Modified House).
Page 36
Defining leadership in these procedural ways means that we distance
ourselves from the perspective of leadership as a trait and make it
available to everyone, not only to formally designated leaders in a group
(Northouse 2013).
As Kotter notes, no one has yet ever figured out how to manage people
effectively into battle, they must be led (Kotter 1999).
5.5 Leadership and change
Adopting Kotters view of leadership as change; Kotter observes that
when managers today produce successful change in organisations
people move through eight steps (Kotter 1995), (Kotter 1996), (Kotter
and Cohen 2002), (Cohen 2005), (Kotter 2008), (Kotter 2014).
Initially Kotter defined the eight errors that prevent successful change
(Kotter 1995). In his later books, he defines the necessary steps to be
taken to ensure successful change (Kotter 1996), (Kotter and Cohen
2002), (Cohen 2005), (Kotter 2008), (Kotter 2014).
These eight steps for successful change are listed in Table 5.1.
Cohen (Cohen 2005) later developed a field guide providing concrete
tools, advice and insight for successfully achieving lasting change using
Kotter’s 8 steps for large-scale successful change.
Kotter (Kotter 2008) notes that the single biggest mistake people make
when they try to change, is that they do not create a high enough sense
of urgency among enough people to set the stage for making a
challenging leap into some new direction.
In our discussion we will argue that the change process in Jet Airways
is also following Kotter’s eight steps for successful large-scale change
(Kotter 1995), (Kotter 1996), (Kotter and Cohen 2002), (Cohen 2005),
(Kotter 2008), (Kotter 2014), and that there are indications of the first 4
steps being underway.
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Table 5.1 Kotter’s eight steps for successful large-scale change
The eight steps for successful large-scale change
Step Action New behaviour
1 Increase Urgency People start telling each other “Let’s
go, we need to change things!”
2 Build guiding team A group powerful enough to guide a
big change is formed and they start to
work together as well
3 Get the vision right The guiding team develops the right
vision and strategy for the change
effort
4 Communicate buy-in People begin to buy into the change,
and this shows in their behaviour
5 Empower action More people feel able to act, and do
act, on the vision
6 Create short-term
wins
Momentum builds as people try to fulfil
the vision, while fewer and fewer resist
change
7 Don’t let up People make wave after wave of
changes until the vision is fulfilled
8 Make change stick New and winning behaviour continues
despite the pull of tradition, turnover of
change leaders, etc.
Source: Adapted from (Kotter and Cohen 2002), Page 7.
5.6 The GLOBE Project
The GLOBE project is an empirically study based on survey of more
than 17.000 managers across 62 societal cultures (House et al. 2004)
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According to Grove (Growe 2014) the GLOBE study exceeds all other
studies in scope, depth, duration and sophistication, even Hofstede’s
IBM study.
The meta-goal of GLOBE was to develop an empirically based theory to
describe, understand and predict the impact of specific cultural
variables on leadership and organisational processes and the
effectiveness on the processes (House et al. 2002).
Northouse later simplifies this explanation somewhat and explains that
the overall the purpose GLOBE was to determine how people from
different cultures viewed leadership (Northouse 2013). They also
wanted to find out how differences in culture were related to differences
in approaches to leadership.
As part of their study of culture and leadership, GLOBE researchers
developed their own classification of cultural dimensions. Instead of
Hofstede’s 5 dimensions, GLOBE researchers identified 9 cultural
dimensions, as follows: uncertainty avoidance, power distance,
institutional collectivism, in-group collectivism, gender egalitarianism,
assertiveness, future orientation, performance orientation, humane
orientation. An elaboration of each of these is found in Appendix B
GLOBE Project - 9 cultural dimensions.
GLOBE researchers identified twenty-one primary dimensions of
outstanding leadership, empirically derived from their survey. A
second-order factor analysis produced a set of six global leadership
dimensions, which comprised the culturally endorsed implicit leadership
theory.
The six global leadership behaviours are listed in Table 5.2.
The six global leadership dimensions resulting from GLOBE project
along with the twenty-one primary factors are detailed in Table 5.3
According to Northouse (Northouse 2013) one of the most interesting
outcomes of the GLOBE project was the identification of a list of
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leadership attributes that were universally endorsed by 17.000 people is
62 societies as positive aspects of leadership.
Respondents to the GLOBE study identified 22 universally desirable
leadership attributes and these attributes were universally endorsed as
characteristics that facilitate outstanding leadership, these are listed in
Table 5.4.
According to Northouse (Northouse 2013) we can draw a portrait of an
outstanding leader, based on the universally desirable leadership
attributes. The portrait of a leader whom almost everyone sees as
exceptional is: High integrity is charismatic and value based, and has
interpersonal skills.
The GLOBE project also identified a list of leadership attributes that
were universally viewed as obstacles to effective leadership. These are
listed in Table 5.5.
These characteristics suggest, according to Northouse (Northouse
2013), that the portrait of an ineffective leader is someone who is
asocial, malevolent and self-focused. People from all cultures find these
characteristics to hinder effective leadership.
In our analysis we will use the results of the GLOBE project to analyse
the differences in national cultures between the Australian-born CEO of
Jet Airways and the Indian national culture which he finds himself in.
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Table 5.2 GLOBE six leadership behaviours
GLOBE six leadership behaviours
1 Charismatic/Value based leadership reflects the ability to
inspire, to motivate, and to expect high performance from others
based on strongly held core values. This kind of leadership
being visionary, inspirational, self-sacrificing, trustworthy,
decisive and performance oriented.
2 Team-oriented leadership emphasizes team building and a
common purpose among team members. This kind of
leadership includes being collaborative, integrative, diplomatic,
non-malevolent and administratively competent.
3 Participative leadership reflects the degree to which leaders
involve others in making and implementing decisions. It includes
being participative and non-autocratic.
4 Humane-oriented leadership emphasizes being supportive,
considerate, compassionate and generous. This type of
leadership includes modesty and sensitivity to other people.
5 Autonomous leadership refers to independent and
individualistic leadership, which includes being autonomous and
unique.
6 Self protective leadership reflects behaviours that ensure that
safety and security of the leader and the group. It includes
leadership that is self-centered, status conscious, conflict
inducing, face saving and procedural/bureaucratic.
Source: Adapted from (Northouse 2013), chapter 15.
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Table 5.3 Globally culturally endorsed implicit leadership dimensions and twenty primary factors
Globally culturally endorsed implicit leadership dimensions and
the twenty-one primary factors
Charismatic/value based Team oriented
1. Charismatic 1: Visionary 7. Team 1: Collaborative team
orientation
2. Charismatic 2: Inspirational 8. Team integrator
3. Charismatic 3: Self-sacrifice 9. Diplomatic
4. Integrity 10. Malevolent (reverse scored)
5. Decisive 11. Administratively competent
6. Performance orientation
Self protective Participative
12. Self centered 17. Autocratic (reverse scored)
13. Status conscious 18. Non-participative (reverse
scored)
14. Conflict inducer/internally
competitive
15. Face saver
16. Procedural/bureaucratic
Humane oriented Autonomous
19. Modesty 21 Autonomous
20. Humane orientation
Source: Adapted from (Javidan et al. 2010), Table 13-2
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Table 5.4 Universally desirable leadership attributes
Positive leader attributes
Trustworthy Just Honest
Has foresight Plans ahead Encouraging
Positive Dynamic Motive aroused
Confidence builder Motivational Dependable
Intelligent Decisive Effective bargainer
Win-win problem
solver
Communicative Informed
Administratively skilled Coordinative Team builder
Excellence oriented
Source: Adapted from (Northouse 2013), P. 404
Table 5.5 Universally un-desirable leadership attributes
Negative leader attributes
Loner Asocial Non-cooperative
Irritable Non-explicit Egocentric
Ruthless Dictatorial
Source: Adapted from (Northouse 2013), P. 404
5.7 Culturally contingent leadership factors
Although the GLOBE study is the biggest of its kind today, it continues
to contribute to significant attention amongst scientists in the field.
Hofstede (Hofstede 2006) and Javidan are exchanging opinions on their
respective work. Other researchers, such as Brewer (Brewer and
Venaik 2010) comment on the different aspects of the results of Project
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GLOBE. In his commentary to Project GLOBE, Smith (Smith 2006)
concludes that we now know more than we did about differences in
National culture.
Javidan (Javidan et al. 2010) criticises the GLOBE findings on mainly
two points.
The consolidation and aggregation has led to a very broad
categorisation of the six global leadership dimensions; and
They found that although the six global leadership dimensions
are valuable, these six dimensions give less than a precise
image of the aspects of leadership which are culturally
contingent, i.e. the aspects of leadership which are endorsed in
some cultures and rejected in others.
Based on the culturally endorsed implicit leadership dimensions and the
twenty-one factors Javidan (Javidan et al. 2010) found seven primary
leadership dimensions to be culturally contingent leadership factors.
From a cross-cultural perspective, the most interesting attributes and
dimensions, out of the 21 factors, are those that are culturally
contingent, i.e. which are endorsed or desirable in some cultures and
rejected or undesirable in other cultures (Dorfman et al. 2012).
The overall results of their analysis are listed in Table 5.6.
Javidan made elaborate statistical analysis of the GLOBE findings to
substantiate a number of hypotheses regarding the relationship
between national and organisational culture; and leadership attributes
(Javidan et al. 2010).
An overview of Javidan’s findings are listed in Appendix B and in Table
5.7 on page 46.
The analysis of Javidan (Javidan et al. 2010) show that national culture
and organisational culture greatly matter with regard to culturally
contingent leadership (Dorfman et al. 2012).
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Referring to Javindan’s findings (Javidan et al. 2010) listed in Table 5.7,
it can be found that power distance values at the national or
organisational level are predictive of three culturally contingent
leadership dimensions: status conscious, bureaucratic and internally
competitive. Countries with high power distance values, such as India
(Northouse 2013), desire leaders who behave in a rule-oriented
somewhat secretive manner and who are highly aware of status
differences among themselves and their followers.
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Table 5.6 GLOBE culturally contingent leadership factors
GLOBE culturally contingent leadership factors
1 Status conscious: This dimension reflects a consciousness of
one’s own and others social position; holds an eliteist belief that
some individuals deserve more privileges than others.
2 Bureaucratic/procedural: This dimension emphasizes
following established norms, rules policies, and procedures;
habitually follows regular routines.
3 Autonomous: This dimension describes tendencies to act
independently without relying on others. May also include self-
governing behaviour and a preference to work and act
separately from others.
4 Face saving: This leadership dimension reflects the tendency
to ensure followers and not embarrassed or shamed; maintains
good relationships by refraining from making negative
comments and instead uses metaphors and examples.
5 Humane: This dimension emphasizes empathy for others by
giving time, money, resources and assistance when needed;
shown concern for followers’ personal- and group welfare.
6 Self-sacrificial/risk taking: This dimension indicates an ability
to convince followers to invest their efforts in activities that do
not have a high probability of success, to forego their self-
interest, and make personal sacrifices for the goal of vision.
7 Internally competitive/conflict Inducer: This dimension
reflects the tendency to encourage competition within a group
and may include concealing information in a secretive manner.
Source: Adapted from (Javidan et al. 2010), Table 13-3
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Table 5.7 Relationship between culturally contingent leadership factors and cultural dimension
Cultural Dimension
Cultura
lly c
ontin
gen
t le
aders
hip
facto
rs
Uncertainty
avoidance
Power
distance
Institutional
collectivism
Humane
orientation
Performance
orientation
In-group
collectivism
Assertiveness Gender
egalitarianism
Status
conscious
Contribute Contribute Inhibit
Bureaucratic Contribute Contribute Contribute
Autonomous Inhibit Inhibit
Face-saving Inhibit
Humane Contribute
Self-
sacrificial
Contribute Contribute Contribute
Internally
competitive
Contribute Inhibit
Source: Adapted from (Javidan et al. 2010), Table 13-7
Page 47
6 Country specific analysis
Having now clarified the concepts of culture using Schein’s 3-stage
model (Schein 1990), (Schein 1992), (Schein 2006), leadership using
Kotter’s 8 steps for successful change (Kotter 1995), (Kotter 1996),
(Kotter and Cohen 2002), (Cohen 2005), (Kotter 2008), (Kotter 2014),
we can now proceed with applying the findings of Javidan (Javidan et
al. 2010) and the GLOBE project (House et al. 2002) to elaborate on
the leadership style in the four different countries, Australia, India, UAE
and Germany.
6.1 The Southern Asia cluster
Southern Asia, which includes India, exhibited high score on humane
orientation and in-group collectivism. Southern Asia are characterised
as countries that demonstrate strong family loyalty and deep concern
for their families (Northouse 2013).
The Southern Asia leadership profile place importance on self-
protective, charismatic/Value-based humane oriented- and team-
oriented leadership and they find participative leadership ineffective
(Northouse 2013).
The southern Asia countries characterise effective leadership as
especially collaborative, inspirational, sensitive to people’s needs and
concerned with status and face saving. They believe that leaders who
tend to be autocrative are more effective than those who lead by
involving others into their decision making process (Northouse 2013).
In their study of the Southern Asia cluster, Gupta (Gupta et al. 2002)
find that India, as well as the South Asian cluster, are contrasted with
55 other societies in having lower levels of uncertainty avoidance, less
gender egalitarianism and lower levels of assertiveness.
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In contrast to the other 55 societies, they have a higher power distance,
humane orientation, performance orientation and significantly higher
group and family collectivism.
In the South Asia cluster, transformational-charismatic and team
oriented leadership are according to Gupta (Gupta et al. 2002) the most
effective models for outstanding results in Southern Asia.
India as well as the rest of the South Asian cluster, finds self-protective
leadership much more accepted and less of an impediment than the
other 55 societies (Gupta et al. 2002).
Also humane leadership, where care and modesty are expected from
their leaders are much more prevalent in India (Gupta et al. 2002).
In contrast to the other societies, participative leadership is
considerable less in India (Gupta et al. 2002).
6.2 The Anglo cluster
The Anglo cluster, which includes Australia, exhibited high score in
performance orientation, institutional collectivism and in-group
collectivism. The countries are result driven and they encourage the
group working together over intended goals. People in these countries
are devoted and loyal to their families (Northouse 2013).
The Anglo leadership profile emphasize that leaders are especially
charismatic/value based, participative and sensitive to people. Anglo
countries want leaders to be exceedingly motivating and visionary, non-
autocratic and considerate of others. Leaders should be team-oriented,
and autonomous. The least important characteristic for Anglo countries
is self protective leadership (Northouse 2013).
They believe that it is ineffective if leaders are status conscious or
prone to face-saving (Northouse 2013).
Ashkanasy (Ashkanasy et al. 2002) found that the GLOBE results show
that the Anglo cluster, which includes Australia, is characterized by an
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individualistic performance orientation. Further, although they value
gender equality, the Anglo cluster countries tend to be male dominated
in practice. Effective leadership in the Anglo cultures is affected by a
combination of charismatic inspiration and a participative style.
6.3 Middle East cluster
This cluster was made up of Qatar, Morocco, Egypt, Kuwait, and
Turkey. Although the UAE is not in this cluster, we believe the results
are also relevant for the UAE, as two neighbouring GCC countries,
Qatar and Kuwait are represented (Northouse 2013).
These countries scored high on in-group collectivism and low on future
orientation, gender egalitarianism, and uncertainty avoidance. People in
these countries tend to show great pride in their families and
organizations. They are devoted and loyal to their own people.
Furthermore, it is common for these countries to treat people of different
genders in distinctly different ways. Women often are afforded less
status than men, and fewer women are in positions of authority than
men (Northouse 2013).
In the Middle East, orderliness and consistency are not stressed, and
people do not place heavy reliance on policies and procedures. There is
a tendency to focus on current issues as opposed to attempting to
control the future (Northouse 2013).
The leadership profile for the Middle Eastern countries differs
significantly from the profiles of the other cultural clusters. Middle
Eastern countries find self-attributes such as face saving and status are
important characteristics of effective leadership. They also value being
independent and familial. However, they find charismatic/value-based,
team-oriented, and participative decision making less essential for
effective leadership (Northouse 2013).
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To sum up, the Middle Eastern profile of leadership emphasizes status
and face saving, and deemphasizes charismatic/value-based and team-
oriented leadership (Northouse 2013).
6.4 The Germanic Europe cluster
The Germanic Europe cluster is included solely here for the purpose of
exemplification of the difference between the European Anglo cluster
and the Germanic Europe Cluster.
The Germanic Europe, which includes Germany, scored high in
performance orientation, assertiveness, future orientation and
uncertainty avoidance. They were low in humane orientation,
institutional collectivism and in-group collectivism. The countries value
competition and aggressiveness more and are more result oriented
than people oriented (Northouse 2013).
They enjoy planning and investing in the future and using rules and
laws to give them control over the environment. These countries are
more likely to be individualistic and less group oriented. They tend not
to emphasize broad societal groups (Northouse 2013).
The ideal leader in the Germanic Europe cluster has a style that is very
participative, while also being inspirational and independent. The ideal
leader would be a unique visionary person who is autonomous,
charismatic/value based, participative, humane oriented and team
oriented, but not status conscious or concerned with face saving. The
Germanic European countries think effective leadership is based on
participation, charisma and autonomy but not on face saving and other
self-centred attributes (Northouse 2013).
6.5 Differences among the clusters
In the following we emphasize some significant differences amongst the
clusters of the four countries, India, Australia, the UAE and Germany.
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Selecting only the relevant clusters from our adaptation of Northouse
(Northouse 2013) Table 15.1, repeated in its entirety in Appendix C,
Cultural clusters classified on cultural dimensions, we get the following
short version covering India, Australia, the UAE and Germany.
Table 6.1 Cultural dimensions and high score clusters
Cultural dimension High score clusters Low-score slusters
Assertiveness
orientation
Germanic Europe
Future Orientation Germanic Europe Middle East
Gender Egalitarianism Middle East
Humane Orientation Southern Asia Germanic Europe
In-group Collectivism Southern Asia Anglo
Germanic Europe
Institutional Collectivism Germanic Europe
Performance orientation Anglo
Germanic Europe
Power Distance
Uncertainty Avoidance Germanic Europe Middle East
Source: Adapted from (Northouse 2013) Table 15.1
We see that in particular Germanic Europe scores mostly extreme
others, either high score (assertiveness orientation) future orientation.
Future ownership, performance orientation and uncertainty avoidance
or extreme low score (humane orientation, in-group collectivism and
institutional collectivism.
Anglo and Germanic Europe shares the same scores with Germanic
Europe on in-group collectivism and performance orientation
In stark contrast, Southern Asia, are opposite scores on the cultural
dimension of humane orientation and in-group collectivism.
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In their study of differences in perceptions of leadership between US
and Japanese workers, and although Japan belongs to the Confucian
Asian and not to the south Asian cluster, Yancey (Yancey and
Watanabe 2009) found that Americans perceive personality
characteristics as more important for leadership, whereas Japanese
perceive skills and behaviour as more important for leadership.
In contrast to the southern Asia cluster, the Germanic European culture
sees self-protective leadership as extremely inhibiting to effective
leadership (Dickson et al. 2003).
The Germanic and Anglo clusters are particularly supportive of
participative leadership (Dickson et al. 2012), which is in stark contrast
to the lack of participative leadership in southern Asia (Gupta et al.
2002).
India is one of the most gender differentiated countries in GLOBE
(Javidan and House 2001) and it is also one of the most in-group
collective countries in GLOBE (Javidan and House 2001).
New Zealand the neighbouring country of Australia, even more than the
USA, is amongst the highest ranked countries on assertiveness and
performance orientation. It is in the middle range on all other cultural
dimensions (Javidan and House 2001).
Germany is amongst the highest ranked countries on assertiveness and
uncertainty avoidance, whereas Australia is in the middle (Javidan and
House 2001). However Germany is amongst the lowest ranked
countries on humane orientation (Javidan and House 2001)
According to a recent field study by Martin (Martin et al. 2013) the USA
place particularly strong emphasis on the consistency between
espoused values and behaviour (Value-behaviour consistency) and
being honest and possessing a clear moral compass, bound by strong
personal moral code and values; and on demonstrating consistency
between their words and deeds (word action consistency). They also
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tend to view leadership as a characteristic of individuals who lead by
example.
Although Martin particularly studies the USA, we believe there is a
considerable resemblance with the rest of the Anglo cluster, as we
know from House (Northouse 2013) that these countries have similar
leadership profiles
In Germany emphasis on having a strong value system guided by
strong personal moral and values; on acting in accordance with the
system (value based consistency) word action consistency and how
these leaders treat others (sense of responsibility for an towards others;
and fair and just) captures the central beliefs about leader integrity.
Martin (Martin et al. 2013) found strong emphasis in social awareness,
social justice and responsibility towards the followers of the leader.
The Confucian Asian cluster, revealed a dominant orientation towards a
leaders treatment of others as reflected in the themes such as fair and
just, and a sense of responsibility for and towards others. Word-action
consistency was also identified as a component of leadership integrity.
Strong personal moral code and value and behaviour consistency were
absent in Martin’s survey of Hong Kong respondents (Martin et al.
2013), while honesty featured less prominently amongst Chinese
respondents.
Although Martin’s field study of Asia (Martin et al. 2013) related to the
Confucian Asia and not the southern Asia, it is still somewhat relevant
for southern Asia, as we know from House (Northouse 2013) that
Confucian Asia and Southern Asia have similar leadership profiles.
Southern Asia differs from Confucian Asia in that charisma is an
important leadership attribute (Northouse 2013).
In Figure 6.1 we have listed the 7 leadership profiles for India, Australia,
the UAE and Germany in a comparative manner.
Page 54
0 1 2 3
Automonous Leadership
Charasmatic / Value Based
Humane Oriented
Team Oriented
Autonomous
Participative Leadership
Self Protective
India
Australia
UAE
Germany
Figure 6.1 Cultural Clusters comparison, India, Austraia, UAE and Germany
Source: Consolidated adaptations from (Northouse 2013), Tables 15.9, 15.10, 15.11
In particular we note the extreme differences between Australia and
India in terms of participative leadership and self protective leadership.
The graph serves to illustrate the differences in importance placed on
leadership profiles in each of the societies.
Page 55
7 Strategy process and decisions in Jet Airways
This chapter presents the past strategy process in Jet Airways and
details recent strategic decisions Jet Airways.
The content of this chapter is based on answers to the questions,
intended to uncover the strategy process and recent strategic decisions
in Jet Airways, found in Appendix G, Interview guide - strategy process
at Jet Airways. It also uses the answers to the questions found in
Appendix H, Interview guide – onboard airline crew Jet Airways to
further support the recent strategic changes.
The questions were carefully crafted to correspond with the theories of
strategy processes and to uncover recent strategic changes occurring
in Jet Airways.
First we detail the strategic decision process which was found in Jet
Airways under Mr. Goyal prior to Etihad, and then we detail the recent
strategic changes which have been initiated in Jet Airways since Etihad.
7.1 Strategy process before Etihad
As stated by our respondents, prior to Etihad, strategic decisions in Jet
Airways were largely driven by Mr. and Mrs. Goel.
These strategic decisions would involve all operational aspects of the
airline, including which routes to fly, which aircraft to use and employing
a full-service profile or creating new subsidiary airlines with a low-cost
profile.
7.2 Strategy decisions after Etihad
Since Etihad has acquired a 24% stake in Jet Airways, considerable
strategic changes and strategic decisions have been initiated.
Our respondents confirmed that strategic decisions are being made in
the following areas:
Route network
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Product
Services
Financial; and
Organisational
Each of these areas will briefly be covered in the following.
7.2.1 Route network
Our respondents have confirmed that the route network until now has
been focused on bringing international passengers to the two main Jet
Airways hubs, Mumbai and Delhi, in order to utilise Jet Airway’s own
domestic route network within India; and vice versa, to bring
passengers from the domestic Indian network onto the EU and the
USA. According to our respondents, point-to-point domestic traffic
accounted for approximately 40% of the traffic.
Our respondents confirmed that Jet Airways route network alignment is
being changed. The network is in the process of being aligned to Etihad
route network, and is being changed to a feeder network into Etihad’s
world wide hub Abu Dhabi (AUH). This seems to be confirmed by
recent speculations in the press (Times of India 2014).
7.2.2 Product
Our respondents confirmed that until 01 December 2014, four products
would be offered under the Jet Airways umbrella; Jet Airways, a full
service business and economy product; Jet Konnect, a full economy
product; Jet Konnect Select, a full service business class product
combined with a low cost no-service economy product; and Jet Lite, a
low cost no-service economy product.
Our respondents confirmed that from 01 December 2014, only one
product would be in existence, a full service business and economy
product, under the brand name Jet Airways. This is moreover confirmed
by a recent Jet Airways newsletters (Jet Airways 2014h) and (Jet
Airways 2014e).
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In terms of the ‘hard’ product, our respondents confirmed that Jet
Airways is in the process of changing their fleet configuration, in order
to make it identical to Etihad. This alignment includes alignment of Jet
Airways to Etihad in terms of fit-out in the galley of the aircraft. This
overall alignment of Jet Airways aircraft with the Etihad aircraft is also
seen to give advantage to both airlines in terms of larger discount for
higher volume orders for suppliers and manufacturers.
According to our respondents it furthermore allows each aircraft some
flexibility in shifting physical equipment onto a different route network for
other carriers. This flexibility in standardisation of equipment allows
quick movement of equipment with equity partners in the Etihad equity
partner alliance.
7.2.3 Services
Our respondents confirmed that the passenger product is being
upgraded. This includes things such as airplane seat covers, seat
cushions and airplane carpets.
Our respondents confirmed that the purpose is to enhance and align the
Jet Airways product with Etihad’s product in such a way, that the
passengers will have the perception of identical standards in Jet
Airways and Etihad, and that passengers does not feel any difference
when coming from Etihad to any other airline in Etihad’s equity alliance.
Our respondents confirmed that services inside the cabin, by cabin
crew, are to be exactly the same as Etihad. Jet Airways has on 01
December 2014 introduced the new concept, called “Guest First”. Our
respondents confirmed that cabin crew across the Jet Airways network
have received training in this new concept.
According to our respondents, the new “Guest First” concept is
intending to give the guest [passenger] top priority, the onboard
services, according to our respondents, being made more guest
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focused. The new concept will also result in faster business service on
board.
The cabin crew are to be more sensitive to the customers’ needs and
shall accommodate the needs of the passenger whenever they can.
If for some reason, a passenger is not behaving as expected, say that
he does not eat the on-board meal, the cabin crew are to question the
passenger as to why he has not eaten the meal, and get his feedback.
The feedback from the passenger is then to be forwarded through the
proper formal channels.
According to our respondents, this formalised feedback process is
different from earlier, as passenger feedback was not systematically
collected and propagated back through formalised channels.
Our respondents have confirmed that the in-flight services are being
aligned with that of Etihad.
Our respondents also confirmed a change in behaviour of flight crew.
Before Etihad, it was sufficient that flight crew were smiling, walking and
acting friendly. After Etihad, the flight crew have to consider how they
as staff are benefiting the passenger and what experience, they as
cabin crew, can bring to the table, profiting the company.
Our respondents also confirmed that availability, performance and
discipline of cabin crew are now being directly related to career and
promotion for in-flight crew. Our respondents also confirmed that 30
new in-flight executives, responsible for overall galley services in Jet
Airways, have recently been promoted from within the ranks of Jet
Airways.
7.2.4 Financial
On the financial side, the introduction of Etihad has according to our
respondents greatly benefited Jet Airways.
Page 59
Jet Airways, had before Etihad, a lot of Indian Rupee loans at
approximately 15% - 18% interest rate.
The introduction of Etihad saw the replacement of a number of the
existing loans with foreign loans at a lower cost, making the interest
burden to Jet Airways come down.
The introduction of Etihad also meant that a number of short term loans
were converted to long term loans.
On the internal corporate financial side, our respondents confirmed that
Etihad is watching and sometimes directly controlling the finances of Jet
Airways.
In areas which have a high dollar value, Etihad is directly controlling the
financial aspects, whereas in areas of low dollar value, Etihad is
keeping watch.
Our respondents confirmed that amongst affected areas of financial
watch or direct financial control from Etihad are:
Corporate finance
Management information systems (IT)
Cargo
Revenue management
Engineering; and
Safety
7.2.5 Organisational
On the organisational side, our respondents confirmed that
approximately 15 senior executives, with previous Etihad background,
have been fully integrated into Jet Airways.
The full integration into Jet Airways means that these employees have
officially left their previous assignments and are full Jet Airways
employees on Jet Airways payroll.
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Our respondents confirmed that although they are now Jet Airways
employees, they have an inclination towards Etihad.
This includes the new CEO, Mr. Ball.
Mr. Goyal continues to serve as the chairman of Jet Airways. Mr. James
Hogan, the CEO of Etihad, now serves as Vice Chairman of Jet
Airways, and is also appointed Director in Jet Airways (Jet Airways
2014d).
It has unfortunately not been possible to obtain any organisational
charts from Jet Airways.
Our respondents confirm that, after Etihad, strategic decisions in Jet
airways are data driven and based on hard facts.
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8 Cultural analysis in Jet Airways
The cultural analysis of Jet Airways is based on answers to the 29
Questions intended to uncover the three levels of corporate culture
found in Appendix F, Interview guide – corporate culture at Jet Airways.
It also uses the answers to the questions found in Appendix H Interview
guide – onboard airline crew Jet Airways to further support the cultural
analysis.
The questions were carefully crafted to correspond with the theories of
corporate culture and to uncover the three levels of corporate culture.
The artifacts are also observed during a personal visit to the Jet
Airways head office on Friday 26 September 2014.
8.1 Artifacts
Artifact level is readily observable when visiting Jet Airways head office
in Mumbai. The office building is a five-storey building, entirely occupied
by Jet airways.
At the entrance to the Jet Airways head office in Mumbai, a uniformed
Jet Airways staff is greeting visitors at the reception.
The offices on the lower levels in the building contain corporate support
functions, such as finance and accounting.
The office space on the ground floor is typical Indian style cubicles,
each with around a metre’s table space or so, occupying the entire floor
in rows. Along the sides and equipped with a window are larger
managerial offices. The ground floor office holds a considerable amount
of people, and piles of documents and substantial activity is observed.
Typically the higher in the hierarchy the larger office and the better
view, this was also confirmed by our respondents.
The top floor of the building is senior management team floor.
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When entering the top floor, one enters immediately into a larger open
lounge area located in the middle of the building floor. The lounge area
is spacious and is equipped with comfortable sofas in the middle of the
floor.
On the walls surrounding the lounge area one finds frames photos of
aircraft milestones from the company history, such as ‘the first ATR
aircraft delivered’, the first wide body aircraft delivered, the first Boeing
737 delivered. The floor space in the middle of the lounge area is
decorated with two large Jet Airways aircraft models.
All along the windows of the top floor, you find offices. Offices on the
top floor are located along the window, with only few secretarial seats
without windows. Office of the vice president is also equipped with a
small private meeting table and comfortable conference chairs. Our
respondents also confirmed that generally only the top floor executives
have secretaries. Our respondents also confirmed that organisational
status symbols identified the rank in the organisation. Ordinary office
employees would sit in cubicles. Office managers would have their own
private cabin. Compared to the offices on the ground floor, the
executive floor feels almost abandoned. It has a quiet and calm
atmosphere and documents and papers are not apparently visible.
The fact that only the senior management team is located on this floor,
immediately gives a sense of exclusivity, as there is no way of ending
up at the top floor offices ‘by mistake’. This is confirmed by our
respondents saying that you only go to the top floor, when you have
been called.
The layout and the exclusivity of the top floor, supports the notion of
considerable power distance and exclusivity. The artifacts found on the
walls as well as the aircraft models on display, clearly indicates a
considerable proudness of previous historical achievements.
As for operational staff and flight crew, the notion of power distance is
deliberately and rigorously maintained everywhere in the organisation,
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as for flying crew, organisational status symbols were very evident.
Insignia for different ranks were worn visibly everywhere in the airport
and on board aircraft, making the identification of different ranks
unmistakable.
The notion of power distance is also upheld in daily interaction amongst
the operational employees, both on the ground as well as in the air.
As confirmed by our respondents, an operational employee would
address his superior as “Sir” or “Madam”. Same level employees would
address each other by their first name, and superiors would address
subordinate employees by first name, whereas they would themselves
have to address the same superior as “Sir”. As confirmed by our
respondents this also holds for aircraft captains when they address their
superiors.
The perception of power distance is also confirmed by our respondents
in that everybody working on the senior management floor, in the head
office, wears a suit, whereas lower level managers wears a shirt and tie.
At this point we recall that, according to Schein (Schein 1990), (Schein
1992), (Schein 2006), this level of culture is the easiest to observe but
also difficult to decipher. An observer can describe what he sees and
feels but will not be able to reconstruct what the artifacts mean to a
given group or if they even reflect important underlying assumptions
(Schein 1992).
8.2 Espoused values
We reiterate the theory, which tells us that values are the social
principles, goals and standards held within a culture (Hatch 1997).
One of the values found in Jet Airways is professionalism. This is
confirmed by our respondents, as you will rarely find employees in the
company making chit-chat. Even small-talk does not typically occur
between colleagues.
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Our respondents were of the opinion that there is a very deliberate
organisational effort to induce a mission-oriented behaviour in the
organisation, preventing a people-oriented behaviour to surface and
take root.
This, according to our respondents, is contrary to the national Indian
culture, which is people-oriented.
The deliberate induction of a mission-oriented behaviour reflects in the
behaviour that conversations are more to the point with less small talk.
It also reflects as a value in the organisation, that cross organisational
aspects does not come into picture; and on the individuals’ side that
colleagues from different departments or units does not even interact
socially outside of work.
The value of professionalism and courteous behaviour also reflects on
the dress code, as smart professional. Actions, such as smoking in
public when wearing a uniform, or visiting a bar wearing company
insignia, is considered inappropriate.
Our respondents confirmed the story about a flight crew, having been
removed from duty on a particular flight. The employee was removed
from the flight because he showed up for the flight without wearing a tie,
a behaviour which was not accepted.
The organisation has a considerably rooted value of going beyond the
call of duty. The notion of going beyond the call of duty is not only seen
in the line of duty, but also reflects in the employees’ personal life.
Employees, and in particular flying staff, are expected to exhibit
considerable flexibility in their personal life. This is according to our
respondents due to the poor planning and constant fire-fighting taking
place within the organisation. The flexibility in the employees’ personal
life is reflected in the fact that short notices for changes in work
schedules often affect planned events in the employees’ personal life,
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and as an employee you are just expected to accept these changes
without any additional compensation.
Our respondents confirmed that they are frequently asked to come to
work on their scheduled days off. They confirmed that staff being called
for duty on their day off is indeed a recurring event, and that it happens
every week amongst flight staff. Our respondents confirmed that there
are no limits to what the company can expect of the employee, as long
as it does not have a legally binding effect on the company.
One of our respondents confirmed a story where a captain, wearing
shorts and flip-flops, on a day where roads were flooded in Mumbai,
was asked to operate a flight, simply because he found himself in the
vicinity of the airport.
Our respondents confirmed that newcomers are not always happy with
the lack of flexibility and the fact that employees are constantly
expected to go beyond the call of duty. However, once employees are
familiar with circumventing official channels, employees can take benefit
of the organisational shadow-system, to maximise the situation for their
personal benefit. This situation is, according to our respondents, due to
the lack of planning and the constant notion of fire-fighting taking place.
The notion of job security was confirmed by our respondents, in that
they had never heard of anyone (except expats) being fired from the
organisation. Indian staff wishing to leave would always do so of their
own will.
The notion of using the organisational shadow-system for personal
advantage, whereby circumvention of official channels are possible,
even seems to have been officially institutionalised, in that pilots in the
organisation have been given a special forum which interacts directly
with the Chairman, Mr. Goel. Our respondents confirmed that pilots still
have the opportunity to go directly to the chairman, Mr. Goel,
circumventing the official channels via superiors.
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The notion of authority and power distance is also evident from the
acceptability of others’ ideas. Our respondents confirmed that very few
seniors accept different ideas and approaches.
In case they do, it will be for show only, as they will accept it but will not
implement it. The notion of power distance and unquestionability
towards your superior is moreover confirmed by our respondents as
managers would make decisions, arguing they were made because “I
am the manager, and because I am the manager it’s right”.
Our respondents confirm that only in the rarest of cases would other
ideas and approaches be accepted. If they were accepted, the superior
would use the idea or the approach of the subordinate, only after the
superior had put forward the idea of the subordinate as the superior’s
own idea towards his own management, and not the subordinates. The
subordinate would typically never be rewarded for such ideas and
approaches, suggested by the subordinate.
Our respondents also confirmed that all processes are clearly laid
down, and employees are expected to follow the procedures. As soon
as employees don’t do what is expected, the superior will pull-up the
employee. Employees are expected to know what they are doing right.
8.3 Basic underlying assumptions
As we know from the theory, basic assumptions are held unconsciously
and are very difficult to surface (Brown 1998).
The fact that none of our respondents wanted to be quoted; no-one
agreed to have their name included in the thesis, no-one agreed to
have the transcript of the interview included in the thesis; or in any way
being traceable in the thesis; indicated a deeply rooted fear of reprisals,
and a deeply rooted fear of being held accountable for actions or
opinions not being sanctioned or approved by a superior; or by the
company.
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This seems furthermore substantiated, by the onboard cabin crew,
pulling me aside, repeatedly questioning, if our interviews were truly for
research, or if we were indeed undercover investigators from Etihad.
Despite the fact that respondents were ensured that a transcript of the
interviews were not officially included in the thesis, but only the
interview guide would appear, and the fact that it would be kept on
personal record, solely for the use documenting to Frankfurt University
that they interviews had actually taken place, some respondents still
wanted to receive a copy of the transcript for their personal
safekeeping.
Moreover, this deeply rooted fear of accountability seems to be
substantiated also by the fact that an official written approval for any of
the interviews were never obtained from senior management at Jet
Airways, despite oral promises from vice president level in the
company. Repeated official written requests, as well as follow-up
telephone calls, for documentation, such as organisational charts, roles
and responsibilities for senior management, were never officially
answered or replied to.
On the other hand, the fact that our senior respondents were willing to
speak surprisingly openly, off-the-record, often in locations outside the
office, where no-one else could hear what was said, and that the
respondents mostly ensured that no-one else could hear what they said
during an interview, indicate a deeply rooted acceptability of getting
away with doing things, using the organisational shadow-system, as
long as no one-finds out.
This acceptability of being able to get away with doing things, using the
organisational shadow system, or even using the shadow system to
your advantage seems to be confirmed by our respondents as you
could make the organisation work to your advantage, if you know the
right people in the organisation. Our respondents also confirmed that
once you know how to manipulate the flexibility of the organisation, it
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can work to your advantage. Our respondents confirmed that lots of
planning happens outside the official channels, only making it official
after the personal favours have been called in.
The third underlying assumption that we found is the notion of job
security. This is based on the fact that our respondents only heard of
people leaving Jet Airways due to job offers elsewhere, but never heard
of anyone being fired.
This secureness in employment is almost resembling a government
institution, as the complacency such feeling of security induces in the
organisation, means that going the extra mile for the company, will have
little personal benefit at the end of the day, just as behaving complacent
will have no negative side effects on the employee.
One of our respondents noted that only 1-2 employees of the months
were exemplified as being outstanding employees. Our respondent
noted that due to the constant fire-fighting and personal sacrifices
made, the number of outstanding employees would be much higher, but
that this was never acknowledged by the organisation.
As one of our respondents said “have you ever heard of anyone getting
fired from Jet Airways?” This deeply rooted assumption also means that
there is little incentive to improve performance and that eventually
complacency will occur in the organisation.
The fourth underlying assumption is that the boss is always right, and
that the assumptions and directions of the superiors are not questioned.
This is furthermore supported by the fact that none of the employees
believe that the management is open to different ideas and approaches,
and that if an idea would indeed be supported, the respective superior
would only put forward the idea as his own and never give credit to his
subordinate.
This element of the underlying assumptions is also closely linked to the
Indian national culture and the concept of power distance.
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We have summarised our findings in Table 8.1.
Table 8.1 Corporate culture of Jet Airways
Artifacts
Organisational status
symbols
Power distance
Exclusivity
Proudness of historical
achievements
Espoused values
Professionalism
Mission-oriented behaviour
Courteous
Going beyond call of duty
Job security
Authority and power
distance
Unquestionability towards
superiors
Basic underlying assumptions
Fear of reprisals
Fear of being held
accountable for actions and
opinions not sanctioned or
approved by superior
Fear of accountability
Superior is always right
Using organisation shadow
system to own advantage
Job security and
complacency
Source: Own work
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9 Discussion
This chapter discusses the aspects of strategic change which has
occurred in Jet Airways since Etihad and argues from different
theoretical perspectives that there is a deliberate and intentional effort
to change the corporate culture in Jet Airways.
9.1 Shift from entrepreneurial school to positioning
school
We argue that since the introduction of Etihad, there has been a
deliberate and abrupt change from the entrepreneurial school of
strategy process to the positioning school of strategy process. This also
implies that there has been a deliberate change from the descriptive
schools to the prescriptive schools.
As stated by one of our respondents, prior to Etihad, strategic decisions
in Jet Airways were largely driven by Mr. and Mrs. Goel.
This way of strategic formation, where the focus of strategy formation
process focuses exclusively on the single leader, but also stresses the
most innate of mental states and progress – intuition, judgement,
wisdom, experience and insight; is typical of what Mintzberg (Mintzberg
et al. 1998a) calls the entrepreneurial school.
The Entrepreneurial school promotes a view of strategy and perspective
associated with image and sense of direction, namely vision.
The fact that Mr. Goel was the driver of strategic direction is well in line
with Mintzberg’s (Mintzberg et al. 1998a) strategic perspective that the
strategy process is not so much collective or cultural, as personal, the
construct of the leader. This is in line with the statement of our
respondents, that the strategic decisions were made like a tightly knitted
family business. The statements by our respondents also confirm that in
the in the entrepreneurial organisation of Jet Airways, power was
centralised in the hands of the Chief Executive, Mr. Goel, (Mintzberg
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1973) and that key decisions concerning strategy and operations were
together concentrated in the office of the chief executive, Mr. Goel.
In this way of strategic perspective, the Jet Airways organisation
becomes responsive to the dictates of that Mr. Goel, subservient to his
leadership; and the environment, if not exactly subservient, becomes
the terrain on which Mr. Goel manoeuvres with some ease, at least in
terms of directing the Jet Airways organisation into a protective niche.
According to Mintzberg (Mintzberg et al. 1998a) the most central
concept of this of this strategic school is vision; a mental representation
of strategy, created or at least expressed in the head of Mr. Goel.
That vision serves as both an inspiration and a sense of what needs to
be done – a guiding idea.
True to its label, vision often tends to be a kind of image more than a
fully articulated plan in words and numbers. The above is in line with
our respondents saying that Mr Goel often made strategic decisions
based on gut feeling.
According to Mintzberg (Mintzberg et al. 1998a), creating a vision often
as a kind of image, more than a fully articulated plan in words and
numbers leaves it flexible, so that the Mr. Goel can adopt the vision to
his experiences.
According to Mintzberg (Mintzberg et al. 1998a) this suggests that the
entrepreneurial strategy, such as the one performed by Mr. Goel in Jet
Airways is both deliberate and emergent; deliberate in its broad lines
and sense of direction; emergent in its detail so that it can be adapted
en route.
The new CEO, using what our respondents call a data driven approach,
we argue, has in fact been implementing a radical change in strategy
process from a descriptive school of strategy process, the
entrepreneurial school; to the prescriptive schools of strategy process,
in reality employing a mix of the tools found in both the design school,
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such as the SWOT analysis (David 2012), (Johnson and Scholes 1997),
and tools found in the positioning school, such as Porters five forces
(Porter 1980), Porters generic strategies, differentiation or low cost,
(Porter 1985), Porters value chain (Porter 1985); while performing the
strategy process in a formalised way, as described in the planning
school.
Although we do not know exactly which strategy tools Jet Airways new
CEO makes deliberate use of, generally all of the commonly used tools,
such as the SWOT analysis (David 2012), (Johnson and Scholes 1997),
Porters five forces (Porter 1980), (Johnson and Scholes 1997), Porters
generic strategies (differentiation or low cost) (Porter 1985), (Johnson
and Scholes 1997), Porters value chain (Porter 1985), (Johnson and
Scholes 1997) all originate from the prescriptive schools (Mintzberg et
al. 1998a) and are only reliable to use in a modernistic organisational
perspective (Hatch 1997) close to certainty and agreement (Stacey
1996).
As an aside, it is interesting to see the example of a SWOT analysis
created for Jet Airways in its earlier years, when Gilbert George,
Manager at Jet Airways, was interviewed by Triant Flouris, Montreal,
Canada (Flouris and Oswald 2006), in August 2003. The SWOT
analysis is listed in Table 15.2 in Appendix M.
Mr. Ball, the CEO, confirmed (Jet Airways 2014g) that there has not
been a sudden change in the Indian domestic market in such as way
that a full service brand is very well in demand and would be accepted
by the market at the yields that Jet Airways would command for such a
product. However he felt that there is brand confusion in Jet Lite and Jet
Konnect (Jet Airways 2014g). According to the CEO, Mr Ball (Jet
Airways 2014g), the customer wants to know what they are getting, and
he sees demand for full service and brand simplicity. The airline sells
one brand, Jet Airways, in the markets which are relevant to Jet
Airways (Jet Airways 2014g). He believes that there is more space and
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more opportunity in a business model that actually is competitively
priced and with good high quality service (Jet Airways 2014g).
The statement from the CEO on the reasons behind the change to a
single brand full service carrier, which is questioned by analysts in a
telephone conference (Jet Airways 2014g), clearly indicates that the
CEO, or the management team has performed an strategic environment
analysis, such as Porters five forces (Porter 1980),(Porter 1998b),
(Johnson and Scholes 1997) the result of which has made Jet Airways
change its strategic position in the market.
As we know from Mintzberg (Mintzberg et al. 1998a), Porters five forces
(Porter 1980), (Porter 1998b), (Johnson and Scholes 1997), clearly lie
in the positioning school of the prescriptive strategy process.
9.2 Leadership as change
In this section we argue that Mr. Ball, is in fact using Kotter’s 8 steps for
successful change (Kotter 1995), (Kotter 1996), (Kotter and Cohen
2002), (Cohen 2005), (Kotter 2008), (Kotter 2014), and we argue that
he has already commenced the first four steps of this change process;
1. Creating a sense of urgency;
2. Building a guiding team:
3. Getting the vision right; and
4. Communicate buy-in
Kotter’s first step, creating a sense of urgency, is easy to relate to of an
airline that year on year has posted negative financial results and
almost speaks of itself, in terms of urgency to change.
The recent closure of Kingfisher Airlines in India (Rapoze 2014) is still
fresh in the memory of aviation professionals in India, and no-one wants
to see the same story repeated with Jet Airways.
Kotter’s second step, building a guiding team, a group powerful enough
to guide a big change, has formally been formed, by the replacement of
15 existing Jet Airways senior executives, with 15 new senior
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executives, all with previous Etihad background, having been fully
integrated into the Jet Airways organisation.
These new senior executives, all having an inclination towards Etihad,
will provide widespread support for Mr. Ball’s change efforts in Jet
Airways.
Indeed, that also the Etihad CEO, James Hogan has been made Vice
Chairman of Jet Airways and that other Etihad employees are now
permanent members of the Jet Airways board of directors also
contribute to solidifying the Etihad change efforts taking place in Jet
Airways in ensuring support from the board of directors.
Kotter’s third step for successful change, getting the vision right, has
also been commenced, as it has been made public that Jet Airways has
a goal of returning to profitability by 2017 (ET Bureau 2014), (Taylor
2014).
The underlying strategies in terms of taking strategic direction of:
Route network; to align the route network to the Etihad network -
is presently in the process of being implemented;
Product; to unify the product offerings, to only one brand, Jet
Airways as a full service carries - was officially announced on 18
September 2014 (Jet Airways 2014e) and is presently in the
process of being implemented; and
Services; to upgrade the Jet Airways product to Etihad class-of-
service - was officially announced on 02nd December 2014 (Jet
Airways 2014i) with the introduction of the “Guest First” initiative,
and is presently being implemented.
We argue that Mr. Ball with the help of his 15 new senior executives, all
having an Etihad background, and by the help of powerful coalitions in
the Jet Airways board of directors, primarily backed by the Etihad CEO,
James Hogan, who is the Vice Chairman of Jet Airways, are using
Kotter’s view of leadership in coping with change (Kotter 1999) to create
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a set of processes that adopts the Jet Airways organisation to
significantly changing circumstances (Kotter 1996); thereby directly
paving the way for implementing an Etihad inspired change and
corporate culture in Jet Airways.
9.3 Cross cultural leadership style
In this section we argue that there has been a deliberate change of
leadership style in Jet Airways to a cross cultural leadership style.
Kotter argues in his set of ten interrelated observations (Kotter 1999)
that some essential action taken by effective managers with
transformational goals always vary from case to case to fit key
contingencies in their situation.
He also notes that people often get into trouble when they try to apply
tactics that have worked in their last change experience, without
considering how the new situations is different (Kotter 1999).
We believe this is particularly relevant when we talk about an
international leader, such as Mr. Ball finding himself performing a
change effort across different national and/or corporate cultures.
This is particularly the case when we have a leader from one culture,
and followers from another culture, in this case the CEO from one
national culture, Australia, and the followers, the Jet Airways
organisation, from another national culture, India.
National culture is an important situational factor determining which
leadership style will be most effective (Robbins 2001). Culture is a
powerful determinant of human behaviour (Cartwright 1999).
National culture affects leadership styles by way of the followers
(Robbins 2001). Leaders can not choose their styles at will (Robbins
2001). Leaders are constrained by the cultural conditions that their
followers have come to expect (Robbins 2001).
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The effect of cultural impact is even greater when we have a leader
from one national culture and one corporate culture and the followers
are from another national culture and another corporate culture.
In this case we have the CEO of Jet Airways from one national culture
Australia, and one corporate culture Etihad; and the followers, the Jet
Airways organisation, from India and from another corporate culture, the
Jet Airways culture.
The result of Javidan’s study (Javidan et al. 2010) is particularly
interesting as it gives a further elaboration on which leadership factors
are endorsed in some cultures and rejected in others. This is of
particular interest when performing leadership change efforts across
cultures. The failed attempts of NORDED and TAI BANK given in
Javidan’s case study (Javidan et al. 2005) clearly underline the need for
cultural awareness in change efforts.
Top leaders in individualistic societies may been seen as the cause for
an organisations success, but are less likely to be held accountable for
organisations failures; while in collective societies, top leaders are less
often seen as the sole source of the organisations success, but are
more frequently held accountable for the organisations failures (Dickson
et al. 2012).
In a collective society such as India, Mr. Ball would therefore be held
accountable for the Jet Airways organisation’s failures.
In the case or Mr. Ball in India, noting from chapter 6.5, Differences
among the clusters, that there are extreme differences between
Australia and India in terms of participative leadership and self
protective leadership, which he will have to be aware of, in working not
only with his senior management team, but also with the rest of the Jet
Airways organisation in India. Possibly a contributing factor to the
resignation of the previous CEO, Mr. Toomey, as he was not able to get
along with the culture of Jet Airways (Business Standard 2014),
(Cruising Heights 2014).
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From the perspective of an Australian national, Mr. Ball would feel the
need to exert participative leadership in the Jet Airways organisation
that is to involve his management team and obtain consensus.
However, the national culture of India, and the organisational culture of
Jet Airways finds this kind of behaviour ineffective
As Indian culture finds self-protective leadership much more accepted
than Australian culture, Mr. Ball would be faced with a leadership team
that would have no hesitation, and would even find it acceptable, to act
in a self-protective manner.
This aspect of leadership is not directly an act of leadership, but rather
a consequential effect that the leadership style can have on a cross
cultural leader. Combining the results of Javidan (Javidan et al. 2010)
repeated in Table 5.7 Relationship between culturally contingent
leadership factors and cultural dimension, and Appendix D, with the
knowledge of the leadership profiles gained from project GLOBE
(House et al. 2004) can give us a prescription for successful cross-
cultural leadership. Further combining these results with Kotters 8 steps
for successful change (Kotter 1995), (Kotter 1996), (Kotter and Cohen
2002), (Cohen 2005), (Kotter 2008), (Kotter 2014) add a cultural
dimension to Kotters 8 steps and makes successful cross cultural
leadership more achievable.
For any change effort to be successful, we argue that each of Kotters 8
steps should be followed (Kotter 1995), (Kotter 1996), (Kotter and
Cohen 2002), (Cohen 2005), (Kotter 2008), (Kotter 2014).
In each of the eight steps, the cross-cultural leader’s approach should
be carefully adapted to be attentive to the aspects of leadership which
are endorsed in the target cultures and rejected in his own culture; and
similarly also those which are rejected in the target culture and
endorsed in his own culture.
A better understanding of cross cultural leadership can also help in
terms of defining leadership behaviours and organisational practices
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that are acceptable and effective in some societies and those that are
seen as unacceptable and ineffective in others (Dickson et al. 2012).
In an expatriate leadership situation, such as with Mr. Ball in Jet
Airways, knowledge of leadership preferences and cultural values of his
own culture and the Indian culture can assist him in understanding
when unexpected conflicts arise or behaviours that is seemingly
incongruous occur (Dorfman et al. 2012)
In our view, the Jet Airways CEO, Mr. Ball should be taking the cultural
aspect into consideration in performing his cross cultural leadership
changes in Jet Airways. In doing this we argue that he should be able to
improve the outcomes of change efforts performed in Jet Airways.
In this section we have argued that there has been a deliberate change
of leadership style in Jet Airways to a cross cultural leadership style.
9.4 Organisational change
In this section we will highlight the remarkable resemblance between
the application of Lewin’s model with which Goodstein and Burke
analysed the changes initiated at British Airways in 1982, (Goodstein
and Burke 1991), (Hatch 1997) and the present changes happening in
Jet Airways.
At the unfreezing stage in British Airways, a new top management team
was established. An industrialist became chairman of the board and a
new CEO with marketing background was named (Goodstein and
Burke 1991), (Hatch 1997). These background of these men differed
considerably from their predecessors, Goodstein and Burke (Goodstein
and Burke 1991) argued that the effect of these appointments were to
signal an imminent change in cultural values at British Airways.
In British Airways a new passenger programme “Putting People First”
was established.
British Airways reduced its workforce from 59.000 to 37.000.
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In British Airways a corporate wide training programme was initiated to
help workers and managers understand the service nature of the airline
industry.
In Jet Airways, a new top management team was established, putting
15 former Etihad employees in senior roles, including the CEO. The
CEO of Etihad has become the Vice Chairman of Jet Airways,
presumably to a large effect pulling the strings behind the existing
Chairman and founder, Mr. Goel. Just as in British Airways, the
background of these men differs considerably from their predecessors.
Just as in British Airways, we argue that the effects of these
appointments are to signal an imminent change in the cultural values at
Jet Airways.
In Jet Airways a corporate wide training programme involving workers
and managers have been initiated to help workers and managers
understand the service nature of Etihad and upgrade the Jet Airways
service to the perceived higher level of service offered by Etihad.
In Jet Airways a new passenger concept “Guest First” was introduced
on 01 December 2014, intending to challenge the prevailing wisdom
about things were done in Jet Airways, just like to “Putting People First”
programme was introduced in British Airways.
In Jet airways, the second phase of Lewin’s model, the movement
phase has been initiated through corporate wide change programmes,
changes in the management structure both as the senior management
level and at the level of the board of directors. The movement phase
has also seen changes in crew appraisal systems from annual to
semi-annual and better operations management systems reducing
paperwork for flying crew.
In British Airways, movement was accomplished through management
training programmes, changes in structure and reward strategy, a more
user friendly management information system and team building
(Goodstein and Burke 1991), (Hatch 1997).
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In Jet airways, the cabin crew spoke enthusiastically about the video
message they had received from the new CEO, Mr. Ball. The CEO is in
this way becoming a symbol of participation in the movement phase;
just like the British Airways CEO became a symbol of participation in
the change efforts at British Airways by engaging in questions and
answers sessions during training programmes(Goodstein and Burke
1991), (Hatch 1997).
One of the main differences is that Jet Airways has not (yet!) made any
reductions in its workforce.
We argue that the CEO Mr. Ball is in fact using Lewin’s 3 step model for
achieving organisational change in Jet Airways (Burnes 2006),
(Mintzberg et al. 1998a), by deliberately influencing the corporate
culture of Jet Airways.
We have summarised the comparison in Table 9.1.
Table 9.1 Comparison between changes in Jet Airways and British Airways
Jet Airways British Airways
New top management team New top management team
New CEO with accounting
background
New CEO with marketing
background
New concept “Guest First” New concept “Putting People First”
Corporate wide training
programme
Management training programmes
and team building
??? Reduction in work force
Changes in employee appraisal Changes in structure and reward
strategy
Better operations management
systems reducing paperwork for
flying crew
Friendly management information
systems
Source: Own work combined with adaptation of (Goodstein and Burke 1991) Exhibit 2
Page 81
9.5 Influencing the corporate culture
The changes introduced by Etihad, with their introduction of the “Guest
First” programme will also affect the values level of the corporate
culture, and needless to say the artifact level.
It will influence the artifact level, since things involving the look-and-feel
of Jet Airways are to be aligned with Etihad. The artifact being
influenced include aircraft configuration, aircraft carpets, aircraft seat
cushions, but also the physical working environment for the on-board
crew, such as the layout and configuration of the in-flight crew’s
physical working environment, the aircraft galley.
We argue that this is a deliberate and intentional attempt to induce a
change in the artifact level of the corporate culture at Jet Airways.
One of the values being institutionalised by the new CEO is the notion
that the Etihad product as a better product, that Jet Airways product is
inferior to the Etihad product and that Jet Airways needs to “upgrade”
their product. Our respondents confirmed that they now see Etihad as a
better product and that Jet Airways needs to “upgrade” their product.
We argue that this is a deliberate and intentional attempt to induce a
change in the values level of the corporate culture at Jet Airways.
We furthermore argue that the introduction of a corporate wide training
is a deliberate and intentional attempt to change the behaviour and
values level of the corporate culture at Jet Airways. After all, Jet
Airways are suddenly now teaching aircraft crew, with more than 12
years of experience, to serve a meal on board a flight?
We argue that the introduction of a corporate wide training programme
is another example of a deliberate and intentional attempt to induce a
change in the values level of the corporate culture at Jet Airways.
Page 82
If we are to assume that Jet Airways will continue in their resemblance
with the British Airways restructuring programmes from 1982, it will also
mean that the new CEO of Jet Airways might make staff reductions in
order to increase effectiveness and financial performance.
In case he does so, he will inadvertently be touching one of the basic
underlying assumptions in Jet Airways of job security and the notion
that an employee will never get fired. If large scale firings are initiated
as part of the present profitability improvement programme, it could
affect some of the basic underlying assumptions in Jet Airways.
The fact that the new CEO has now introduced a new assessment
programme, which includes bi-annual assessment of staff and the fact
that promotion, at least amongst cabin crew, will now be linked to the
results of the assessment performed every six months, indicated that
the new CEO is touching the notion of job security and complacency.
There is not yet any evidence to support the notion that it will have any
career consequence for employees who are not changing their
behaviour towards the new values and reducing any complacency.
However the facts that cabin crew are confirming that there are
changes in behaviour also indicates changes in the corporate culture.
Page 83
10 Criticism
Very few academic references seem to deal directly with South Asia.
The academic literature which we have found seems to discuss mostly
strategy, corporate culture and leadership from a predominantly
western and developed country point of view.
Huge differences as well as significant stages of maturity of the concept
and awareness of cultural influences on strategic analysis processes
seem to have been experienced by the author when travelling in India
and when travelling abroad; and a concepts that works well in, say
Scandinavia may not at all be applicable across the globe, or in places
like India without significant modification or adaptation to very local
circumstances.
In relation to performing a single handed cultural analysis of an
organisation like Jet Airways, the results, can become highly
questionable, in particular the basic underlying assumptions. This is
primarily due to the reason that the analysis of the corporate culture
becomes a subjective analysis. It could therefore easily be contended
that another researcher, having performed the same interviews and
obtained the same results, would have reached entirely different results,
in particular, as mentioned, concerning the analysis of the basic
underlying assumptions of the corporate culture of Jet Airways.
A much more profound work of this nature, would ideally involve
interviews in Jet Airways with not only vice presidents, captains, cabin
crew and airport staff, but particular, in an organisation, such as Jet
Airways, having an entrepreneurial driven approach, interviews with the
Chairman, Mr. Goel himself, and his board of directors; the new CEO,
Mr. Ball as well as the remaining vice presidents and CxO’s in the
company.
It would ideally also encompass several more groups of respondents at
various levels in the Jet Airways organisation, such as the middle
Page 84
management layers as well as widening the scope to other locations
than Mumbai.
In relation to Etihad a substantially more comprehensive work of this
nature, would not only include interviews with Jet Airways, but also
involve the Etihad side of the story, ideally performing identical
interviews with the Etihad counterparts of Jet Airways. Taking the
perspective even further, it could even encompass similar undertakings
in the entire group of Etihad-equity alliance partners. The Etihad side of
the story, and for that matter, the remaining group of Etihad equity
alliance partners is an aspect which is deliberately and entirely left
untouched.
On the theoretical side, several other theories could be additionally
explored such as:
- The upper echelons theory (Hambrick and Mason 1984); one of
the most popular theories of executive influence, which argues
for the importance of demographic factors (age, functional
background, career experiences, education, socioeconomic
roots, etc.) as proxies for psychological aspects (cognition,
values, and personality) in influencing firm outcomes.
Wang (Wang et al. 2011) argues that following the logic of the
upper echelons theory, culture influences either strategic
leadership prototypes or leadership effectiveness through five
important aspects: (1) Observable experiences, (2) personalities,
(3) values, (4) cognitive style and (5) leadership behaviours.
- The change in the organisational theoretical perspectives
towards a modernistic perspective (Hatch 1997), (Johnson and
Scholes 1997), (Stacey 1996), from a predominantly social
constructivist perspective (Stacey 1996) or even a postmodernist
perspective (Hatch 1997), (Stacey 1996).
- Going from double loop learning (Argyris 1991), (Stacey 1996) in
the mind of the founder in an entrepreneurial organisation
Page 85
(Mintzberg et al. 1998a), to single loop learning (Argyris 1991),
(Stacey 1996) using modernist strategy tools (Hatch 1997),
(Johnson and Scholes 1997), (Stacey 1996) in the management
team.
In its early days, Jet Airway would have found itself in an
unpredictable newly liberalised aviation market in India.
Implementation of the social constructionist perspective would
have been a useful way to react in such a complex and unclear
market, thereby creating an improved strategic position in the
market of Jet Airways in situations far from certainty and
agreement.
- Theories of mergers and acquisitions.
However, none of these have been further considered in this thesis.
Page 86
11 Conclusions
We believe that our thesis has provided substantial circumstantial
evidence to support our hypothesis that there is a deliberate and
intentional effort to change the corporate culture of Jet Airways,
influenced by Jet Airways’ new investor Etihad Airways, and that these
cross-cultural influences are also reflected on the strategic analysis
processes of Jet Airways, following Etihad’s acquisition of a 24% stake
in Jet Airways.
The evidence of cross cultural influence on a strategy process is not
something which can be measured directly or in absolute terms. In
order to support our hypothesis we have concluded on circumstantial
evidence based on a number of different theories, that when combined,
we believe, support our hypothesis.
We have argued that the CEO Mr. Ball is in fact using Lewin’s 3 step
model for achieving organisational change in Jet Airways (Burnes
2006), (Mintzberg et al. 1998a), thereby deliberately influencing the
corporate culture of Jet Airways.
We have uncovered he corporate culture of Jet Airways in Mumbai
using Schein’s, three layer model (Schein 1990), (Schein 1992),
(Schein 2006), and we have argued that there is a deliberate and
intentional attempt to induce a change in the artifact levels as well as
the values level of the corporate culture at Jet Airways in order to align
the corporate culture of Jet Airways to that of Etihad.
We have argued that there has been a deliberate, intentional and
radical change in the strategy process in Jet Airways, from Mr. Goel’s
entrepreneurial strategies found in Mintzberg’s (Mintzberg et al. 1998a)
descriptive school of strategy process, the entrepreneurial school; to the
prescriptive schools of strategy process, in reality employing a mix of
the tools found in both the design school, and in the positioning school.
We have moreover argued that it is highly likely that Mr. Ball has in fact
Page 87
employed strategic tools from the prescriptive school of strategy
process (Mintzberg et al. 1998a), the positioning school in order to carry
out an environmental analysis of Jet Airways.
We have argued that Mr. Ball with the help of his 15 new senior
executives, all having an Etihad background, and by the help of
powerful coalitions in the Jet Airways board of directors, primarily
backed by the Etihad CEO, James Hogan, who is also the Vice
Chairman of Jet Airways is using Kotter’s view of leadership in coping
with change (Kotter 1999) to create a set of deliberate change
processes inside Jet Airways that adopts the Jet Airways organisation
to significantly changing circumstances (Kotter 1996); thereby directly
paving the way for implementing an Etihad inspired change and
corporate culture in Jet Airways. We have moreover argued that Mr.
Ball is using Kotter’s eight steps for successful large scale change to
implement these deliberate change processes (Kotter 1995), (Kotter
1996), (Kotter and Cohen 2002), (Kotter 2008), (Kotter 2014).
We have argued that there is a deliberate and intentional effort to
change to the corporate culture values in Jet Airways, just as there was
in British Airways in 1982 (Goodstein and Burke 1991), using Lewin’s 3-
step model of change (Burnes 2006), (Goodstein and Burke 1991),
(Hatch 1997), (Johnson and Scholes 1997), (Stacey 1996).
We have argued that there has been a deliberate change of leadership
style in Jet Airways to a cross cultural leadership style, using House’s
results from the GLOBE project (House et al. 2004) as well as Javidan’s
findings of the culturally contingent leadership factors, of the GLOBE
Project (Javidan et al. 2010).
Page 88
12 Recommendations and predictions
Strategy analysis in itself is useless unless the results are implemented
in the organisation.
Strategic implementation describes the concrete measures that
translate strategic intent into action that produce results (Luecke 2005).
The main task of strategic implementation is to bring the strategy into
life as part of everyday decision making process of the organisation
(Mišanková and Kočišová 2014). According to Mišanková and Kočišová
(Mišanková and Kočišová 2014), strategy will not be successful in the
case of absence of implementation of the strategy throughout the entire
organisation.
In order to ensure implementation of the strategy throughout the entire
organisation, it is necessary to apply the strategic implementation
framework to ensure alignment between the formulated strategy and
the implemented strategy. Strategic fit is important, because when
achieved, it creates competitive advantage and superior profitability
(Porter 1996).
One approach which Mr. Ball should consider using for implementation
his strategy is the 7-S model, developed by Waterman and Peters at
McKinsey & Company in 1980 (Waterman et al. 1980). A more detailed
description of the theory of the 7-S model is found in Appendix J.
12.1 Modernist perspective
The strategic analysis tools (Johnson and Scholes 1997) typically found
in the Prescriptive Schools of strategy formation (Mintzberg et al.
1998a), having a modernist organisational perspective (Hatch 1997),
should ideally be used in situations close to certainty and agreement
(Stacey 1996).
Mr. Ball having an accountant background is likely to do serious number
crunching on all aspects of the profitability of Jet Airways.
Page 89
In order for his number crunching to be successful, Mr. Ball would have
to deal with the basic underlying assumption of using the organisational
shadow system for own personal gain.
We believe Mr Ball would have to introduce consequence of using the
shadow organisation for own personal gain, which does not contribute
to the overall profitability goals of the organisation.
Mr. Ball would also have to introduce consequence of sidelining official
reporting structure, as his modernistic strategy tools would not
necessarily give a correct picture of the organisation and its
environment, due to the fact that middle managers would not have the
correct knowledge of the situation on ground. The reason is that senior
management would receive two possibly conflicting pictures of the
status and actions of the organisation, one from the formal organisation
and another from the organisational shadow system, without certainty
on which information paint the correct picture.
12.2 Corporate culture
In implementing change efforts in the organisation, one of the biggest
challenges that Mr. Ball would face is dealing with the basic underlying
assumptions of the corporate culture of Jet Airways, which is hindering
a successful change effort.
In achieving better organisational performance, in a bureaucratic and
top heavy organisation like Jet Airways, Mr. Ball would also have to
deal with the basic underlying assumption of job security and the fact
that no-one gets fired from Jet Airways. He would have to get rid of
complacent and ineffective employees that do not contribute to his
profitability goals, in order for the organisation to be working in a lean
an optimised manner.
12.3 Leadership and change
As an Australian working in India, Mr. Ball would have to be careful of
the culturally differences between India and Australia.
Page 90
In practice it would mean that Mr. Ball would have to exert different
leadership style than typically attributed to Australians.
In particular, paying attention to the two biggest differences between
India and Australia as illustrated in Figure 6.1, participative leadership
and self protective leadership.
He should exert less participative leadership and be cautious of the fact
that organisation as well as his leadership team will be acting in a self
protective manner.
In order to be successful in his change efforts, Mr. Ball should ensure
that he closely follows the remainder of Kotter’s 8 steps for large-scale
successful change (Kotter 1995), (Kotter 1996), (Kotter and Cohen
2002), (Cohen 2005), (Kotter 2008), (Kotter 2014); as listed in Table
12.1.
Table 12.1 Steps still to be implemented in Jet Airways change efforts
Step Action
5
Empower action, to make more people feel able to
act and do act on the new vision of profitability in
2017
6
Create short term wins and illustrate that his short
term wins are attributable to the change efforts, so
that momentum builds up and fewer resist change
7
Don’t let up, but continue to encourage employees
to make change
8
Make change stick, ensuring that new and winning
behaviour continues despite the pull of traditional
turnover of leaders
Adapted from (Kotter and Cohen 2002), Page 7
Page 91
12.4 Lewin’s 3 step model
Assuming that the events in Jet Airways continue to follow closely the
change efforts of British Airways, we can then predict that just as in
British Airways the a number of further changes will occur on the three
stages, unfreezing stage, movement stage and refreezing stage.
The changes which happened in British Airways and are predicted to
follow in Jet Airway are listed in Table 12.2.
A lot of the predicted change efforts are directly challenging the basic
underlying assumptions of the corporate culture in Jet Airways, and
dealing with these cultural changes will be a considerable task on Mr.
Ball.
Finally, in implementing change and profitability in Jet Airways, Mr. Ball
could also consider following in the footsteps of Delta Airlines.
An innovative example of vertical integration in the supply chain is Delta
Airlines, that have acquired an oil refinery which has given Delta an
advantage of 5-10% less on fuel prices than the industry average over
the past two years (Anderson 2014).
Page 92
Table 12.2 Predicted changes in Jet Airways
Un
freezin
g
Downsizing of non crucial workforce, such
as firing of middle managers in Jet Airways
Reductions in the levels of hierarchy
Modification of budgeting procedures
Redefinition of the business
Top management commitment and
involvement
Mo
ve
men
t
Personnel staff as internal consultants
Peer support groups
Profit sharing
Greater emphasis on open communication
Data feedback on work-unit climate
Off-site team building meetings
Refr
eezin
g
Continued commitment of top management
Promotion of staff with new Jet Airways
values
New performance appraisal systems based
on both behaviour and performance
Performance based compensation systems
Continued use of task force
New uniforms
Development and use of cabin crew teams
Continued use of data-based feedback on
climate and management procedures
Source: Adapted from (Goodstein and Burke 1991) Exhibit 2.
Page 93
13 Perspectivation
The aviation world is in an ever changing environment. Etihad is with
their assimilation strategy of airlines forever changing the game for
International airline alliances.
With most of their equity partners, Etihad seems to be following the
same methodology for creating a worldwide alliance. Buying up nearly
bankrupt airlines, pumping substantial amounts of oil money into the
airline and putting their own people, or at least some of their own
people, in key positions in the acquired company.
The method deployed by Etihad, of placing former Etihad employees
into key strategic roles in the airlines that Etihad acquires, seems to be
their modus operandi (Buyek 2012), (Moores 2014).
Recall, that the present Jet Airways CEO, Mr. Ball, was appointed CEO
of Air Seychelles, after Etihad bought a 40% stake in Air Seychelles
(Buyek 2012).
The strategy that seemingly worked on a smaller scale in Air Seychelles
is presently being rolled out on a much larger scale at Jet Airways in
India.
Alitalia, which is another Etihad Equity Alliance partner, where Etihad
holds a 49% stake, announced their new senior management team on
06 December 2014 (Moores 2014). The new senior management team
of Alitalia has 3 Etihad employees on CxO posts in Alitalia, including the
CEO, Mr. Silvano Cassano (Moores 2014). Further details are found in
Appendix E.
From a cultural perspective, the two nations, India and Seychelles are
relatively similar, and therefore what cultural changes have worked in
Air Seychelles, might be transferable to India and Jet Airways.
However, when we consider the German based Air Berlin, the Serbian
Air Serbia and the national Italian airline Alitalia, things could be quite
Page 94
different. For Etihad to deploy the same assimilation strategy across the
board, without taking cultural differences of these individual airlines and
nations into careful consideration could prove complicated and in worst
case might not give the desired results.
Culture encourages the production of unique outcomes (Mintzberg et al.
1998a). An organisation’s inability to understand and reproduce it own
culture may be the best guarantee of its strategic advantage, of course
it also makes it vulnerable, easily destroyed by any leader who makes
dramatic moves without being able to assess their impact on the
organisation (Mintzberg et al. 1998a).
While culture itself may be difficult to build in the first place, and even
more difficult to reconstruct later, it is rather easy to destroy; give some
disconnected “professional” manager enough authority and watch what
happens (Mintzberg et al. 1998a).
The fact that the thesis work takes place in the middle of one of the
most profound changes in the Indian airline history, literally affecting
everyone in the Jet Airways organisation, makes this work extremely
interesting, as the effects of the topic of the thesis are happening in
real-time.
It makes it no less interesting, that the strategies of Etihad Airways and
its influence on the corporate culture of Jet Airways, whether
deliberately intended or purely emergent, and in all probable sense,
actually somewhere in between, are kept closely guarded, and only
likely to be known, or certainly communicated to be known, by a few
select high level executives within Jet Airways and Etihad.
Irrespective of the outcome, we believe that the combined efforts of Jet
Airways and Etihad will be followed by many.
It is our hope that the combined work of Etihad and Jet Airways will
return the proud heritage of Jet Airways and the life-long achievements
of a world renowned aviation entrepreneur, Mr. Goel, to its rightful glory.
Page 95
14 Declaration of independent preparation of the Master
Thesis
“I, José Joaquim Fernandes, herewith declare that the thesis presented
here was completed independently and without the use or help of
others. All passages from published and unpublished sources,
appearing either verbatim or in adapted form, were properly identified
as such.
The thesis has not been, in this form or in a similar form, submitted to
any other examination authority”
Mumbai, 24 December 2014.
Page 96
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Appendix A Selection of literature
The research articles were selected by undertaking a search through
the electronic databases ScienceDirect and ResearchGate in addition
to a general search on Google.
Following the recommendations of Tranfield (Tranfield et al. 2003) that
searches should not be restricted to bibliographic databases we also
used Google Scholar to identify unpublished studies, conference
proceedings industry trials and similar publications.
In addition to this, research also involved studying Economic basis
textbooks and articles recommended for use of the MBA in Aviation
Management at Frankfurt University of Applied Sciences by Doganis
(Doganis 2005);
strategic management textbooks recommended for use of the MBA in
Aviation Management at Frankfurt University by David (David 2012) and
Porter (Porter 1985), (Porter 1980) as well as Copenhagen Business
School MBA and GDBA programmes (Markides 2000), (Stacey 1996),
(Hatch 1997), (Brown 1998) (Johnson and Scholes 1997);
professional aviation text books by De Neufville (De-Neufville and
Odoni 2003), Daley (Daley 2010), Deshpande (Deshpande 2001),
Horonjeff (Horonjeff et al. 2010) Graham (Graham 2008), Kazda (Kazda
and Caves 2007), Marais (Marais and Waitz 2009), Flouris (Flouris and
Oswald 2006) and Wells (Wells and Young 2004);
professional text books on culture by Brown (Brown 1998),Schein
(Schein 1992), Trompenaars (Trompenaars and Hampden-Turner
1999), Cartwright (Cartwright 1999), and Hofstede (Hofstede et al.
2010);
professional text books on Strategy and Strategic Analysis by Johnson
and Scholes (Johnson and Scholes 1997), Mintzberg (Mintzberg et al.
1998b), (Mintzberg et al. 1998a), (Mintzberg 1983); Markides (Markides
2000), Hamel and Prahalad (Hamel and Prahalad 1994), (Hamel et al.
1998);
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professional text books on Leadership and Change by Cohen (Cohen
2005), Kotter, (Kotter 1996)(Kotter 1999), (Kotter 2008), (Kotter 2014);
professional textbooks on methodology and consulting by Andersen
(Andersen 1997), Andler (Andler 2011),Haslebo (Haslebo 1997), Rasiel
(Rasiel and Friga 2007), Rassam (Rassam 2010), Obolensky
(Obolensky 2010), Saunders (Saunders et al. 2011).
For the search engines and databases a number of searching keywords
related to strategic analysis, such as “strategy”, “strategy process”;
keywords relates to corporate culture, such as “culture”, “cross culture”,
“artifacts”, “corporate culture”, “values”, “basic assumptions”; keywords
related to leadership and change, such as “leadership”, “change”;
keywords relates to GLOBE Project, such as “GLOBE”, “cluster”; as
well as words related to a geographical region (such as, “Asia”, “South
Asia”, “India”). This produced an extensive range of diverse articles
which had to be narrowed down by considering their significance to this
paper.
One of the major difficulties in determining the relevance of articles was
that the articles varied from highly technical documents, to overarching
high level documents. Consequently a subjective judgement had to be
made as to whether there was different coverage of focus for the
relevance of this thesis.
Whilst the database search ensured that international papers that
conventionally tend to be written in English were identified, a potential
limitation was that papers written in other languages, such as any of the
Indian languages, may have been omitted, which in turn may have
influenced the geographical perspective of the articles.
Due to the usage of different theories in strategy, leadership, change
and culture, the bibliography and references came from a range of
specialist journals such as:
Academy of Management Executive
Academy of Management Review
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British Journal of Management
California Management Review
Harvard Business Review
International Journal of Business and Science
Journal of Air Transport Management
Journal of International Business Studies
Journal of World Business
Leadership Quarterly
Organisational Dynamics
Procedia – Social and Behavioral Science
The Leadership Quarterly
The Social Science Journal
Transportation Planning and Technology
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Appendix B GLOBE Project - 9 cultural dimensions
Appendix B1 Uncertainty avoidance
This dimension refers to the extent to which a society, an organisation
or a group relies on established social norms, rituals and procedures to
avoid uncertainty. Uncertainty avoidance is concerned with the way
cultures use rules, structures and laws to make things more predictable
and less uncertain.
Appendix B2 Power distance
This dimension refers to the degree to which members of a group
expect and agree that power be shared unequally. Power distance is
concerned with the way cultures are stratified, this creating levels
between people based on power, authority, prestige, status, wealth and
material possession
Appendix B3 Institutional collectivism
This dimension describes the degree to which an organisation or a
society encourages institutional or societal collective action. Institutional
collectivism is concerned with whether cultures identify with broader
societal interests rather than with individual goals and
accomplishments.
Appendix B4 In-group collectivism
This dimension refers to the degree to which people express pride,
loyalty and cohesiveness in their organisations or families. In-group
collectivism is concerned with the extent to which people are devoted to
their organisations or families.
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Appendix B5 Gender egalitarianism
This dimension measures the degree to which an organisation or a
society minimizes gender role differences and promotes gender
equality. Gender egalitarianism is concerned with how much societies
deemphasize member biological sex in determining the roles that
members play in their homes, organisations and communities.
Appendix B6 Assertiveness
This dimension refers to the degree to which people in a culture are
determined, assertive, confrontational and aggressive in their social
relationships. Assertiveness is concerned with how much a culture or
society encourages people to be forceful, aggressive, and tough as
opposed to encouraging them to be timid, submissive and tender in
social relationships.
Appendix B7 Future orientation
This concept refers to the extent to which people engage in future-
oriented behaviours such as planning, investing in the future and
delaying gratification. Future orientation emphasizes that people in a
culture prepare for the future as opposed to enjoying the present and
being spontaneous.
Appendix B8 Performance orientation
This dimension describes the extent to which an organisation or a
society encourages and rewards group members for improved
performance and excellence. Performance orientation is concerned with
whether people in a culture are rewarded for setting and meeting
challenging goals.
Appendix B9 Humane orientation
This dimension refers to the degree to which a culture encourages and
rewards people for being fair, generous, caring and kind to others.
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Humane orientation is concerned with how much a society or an
organisation emphasizes sensitivity to others, social support and
community values.
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Appendix C Cultural clusters classified on cultural dimensions
Table 15.1 Cultural clusters classified on cultural dimensions
Cultural dimension High score clusters Low-score clusters
Assertiveness
orientation
Eastern Europe
Germanic Europe
Nordic Europe
Future orientation Germanic Europe
Nordic Europe
Eastern Europe
Latin America
Middle East
Gender egalitarianism Easter Europe
Nordic Europe
Middle East
Humane orientation Southern Asia
Sub-Saharan Africa
Germanic Europe
Latin America
In-group collectivism Confucian Asia
Eastern Europe
Latin America
Middle East
Southern Asia
Anglo
Germanic Europe
Nordic Europe
Institutional collectivism Nordic Europe
Confucian Asia
Germanic Europe
Latin America
Latin Europe
Performance orientation Anglo
Confucian Asia
Germanic Europe
Eastern Europe
Latin America
Power distance No Clusters Nordic Europe
Uncertainty Avoidance Germanic Europe
Nordic Europe
Eastern Europe
Latin America
Middle East
Source: Adapted from (Northouse 2013) Table 15.1
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Appendix D An overview of the findings of Javidan
Appendix D1 Status conscious leadership
Status conscious leadership was viewed as contributing to outstanding
leadership in cultural context that highly value uncertainty avoidance.
Status conscious leadership was viewed as contributing to outstanding
leadership in cultural context that highly value power distance.
Status conscious leadership inhibited outstanding leadership in cultural
contexts that highly value assertiveness.
Appendix D2 Bureaucratic leadership
Bureaucratic leadership was viewed as contributing to outstanding
leadership in societal cultures that value uncertainty avoidance.
Bureaucratic leadership was viewed as contributing to outstanding
leadership in societal cultures that value power distance.
Bureaucratic leadership was viewed as contributing to outstanding
leadership in societal cultures that value institutional collectivism.
Appendix D3 Autonomous leadership
Autonomous leadership was viewed as inhibiting outstanding leadership
in cultural contexts that highly value institutional collectivism.
Autonomous leadership was viewed as inhibiting outstanding leadership
in cultural contexts that highly value in-group collectivism.
Appendix D4 Face-saving leadership
Face saving leadership was viewed as inhibiting outstanding leadership
in cultural contexts that highly value performance orientation.
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Appendix D5 Humane leadership
Humane leadership was viewed as contributing to outstanding
leadership in cultural contexts that highly value humane orientation.
Appendix D6 Self-sacrificial leadership
Self-sacrificial leadership was viewed as contributing to outstanding
leadership in cultural contexts that highly value institutional collectivism.
Self-sacrificial leadership was viewed as contributing to outstanding
leadership in cultural contexts that highly value performance orientation.
Self-sacrificial leadership was viewed as contributing to outstanding
leadership in cultural contexts that highly value in-group collectivism.
Appendix D7 Internally competitive leadership
Internally competitive leadership was viewed as contributing to
outstanding leadership in societal cultures that highly values power
distance.
Internally competitive leadership was viewed as inhibiting outstanding
leadership in societal cultures that highly values gender egalitarianism.
Page 118
Appendix E Alitalia names new senior management team
Building on its recent change of ownership and new board, Alitalia has
released details of its new C-level management team, which includes
three veterans from new shareholder Etihad Airways (Moores 2014).
The appointments, which become effective Jan. 1, cover the roles of
CFO, COO, CCO, chief people and performance officer, chief customer
officer, and chief planning and strategy officer. Recruitment continues
for a CIO. All of the positions will report to new Alitalia CEO Silvano
Cassano (Moores 2014).
Three of these core management positions - CFO, chief customer
officer, and chief planning and strategy officer - will be held by former
Etihad Airways employees. Duncan Naysmith, who is currently Etihad
Airways VP of financial reporting, has been named as Alitalia CFO, with
responsibility for finance, treasury, supply chain and property. He will be
joined by Etihad Airways VP guest services, Aubrey Tiedt, who is taking
on the newly-created role of Alitalia chief customer officer. Etihad
Airways veteran John Shepley is coming in as Alitalia chief planning
and strategy officer. In this wide-ranging role, he will take on
responsibility for pricing, capacity and revenue management, route and
network planning, alliances and fleet. Shepley’s CV also includes
previous senior executive roles with Jetstar Airways and Gulf Air
(Moores 2014).
Following a recent €1.8 billion ($2.2 billion) capital injection, which saw
Etihad take a 49% stake in the carrier, the new leadership has been
tasked with turning Alitalia into a competitive, sustainably profitable
business from 2017 (Moores 2014).
Etihad presently own equity shares in as follows:49% of Air Serbia, 40%
Air Seychelles, 33.3% Air Berlin, 29% Air Berlin, 24% Jet Airways,
21.24% Virgin Australia, 4.00% Aer Lingus.
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Appendix F Interview guide – corporate culture at Jet Airways
The person to be interviewed has to be made aware of the following,
before the questions are put to him.
Explain the purpose of this project, as being part of the final thesis of
the MBA programme.
The following series of questions are intended to interpret the culture
which is found in this section of Jet Airways.
For several of the questions it may be important to get an explanation of
the differences in the replies from department to department. This can
be due to local working conditions, but it could also have its roots in the
culture.
Please give as many examples and stories as possible in order for us to
be able to interpret the culture.
1. Please give examples of special forms of Jet Airways Language
/jargon in the organisation?
2. What do you perceive as an example of language and behaviour
that identifies you as a member of the organisation?
3. How does your work behaviour influence your life outside the
organisation?
4. Have you discovered a behaviour, some way you act, which
comes from your work-situation in the organisation?
5. How does the individual employee perceive the difference
between being “newcomer” in the organisation and being “an
accepted member of the organisation”?`
6. Are there differences of how these two groups work – give
examples?
7. What is your perception of clear signs of hierarchal rank?
(clothing?)
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8. Which are other symbols of power in the organisation, that are
not obvious to newcomers or people from outside the
organisation? (parking space, contacts, influence, etc)
9. Do you perceive that there are certain departments within Jet
Airways which are an career advantage to have worked in, or a
career disadvantage to have worked in?
10. Please give a typical story from your start in the organisation?
11. Have you personally recommended anyone to the organisation?
12. What was important for your to prepare the person for the
organisation?
13. Which qualities in the person made you recommend the person
to work in your organisation?
14. How does the organisation feel about circumventing the formal
and official channels?
(Is is accepted, or even encouraged?)
15. What is the Management’s view to cooperation outside the
formal and official channels?
16. Which ways are used to address your immediate superior?
(Are there things which should not be said?)
17. Which examples do you have of different ways to address your
most immediate superior as opposed to managers on other
levels in the organisation?
18. What is the Management’s reaction to different ideas and
approaches?
19. How are employees rewarded in the organisation?
20. How do you as an employee know that you are doing the right
thing?
21. Which behaviour is appropriate?
(please give examples of what is viewed as appropriate)
22. In what ways s it customary to reward employees and to thrash
employees in the organisation?
23. What is the reason that rewards are kept secret or published?
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24. How is the focus on time?
(Is it an important factor – punctuality in meetings, payment of
salaries on time, etc)
25. What is the view on working hours, is it customary that you stay
longer in the office / work overtime or do the majority of
employees leave the office when their formal working hours have
passed?
26. How does this reflect in the different departments or on different
levels in the organisation?
(Is there any explanation to this, or is it just the way it is)
27. Which factors symbolises the influence / significance of an
employee?
(Position/Power/Rights, Location of office in the building, size of
company car. Office with Window ,etc)
28. Which physical elements in the working environment symbolises
the status of an employee?
(Is it culturally or strategically determined that there is a
difference between the status symbols of the individual
employee)
29. Which special effects symbolises power in the organisation?
Make sure that you thank the interviewee for his precious time
Page 122
Appendix G Interview guide - strategy process at Jet Airways
The person to be interviewed has to be made aware of the following,
before the questions are put to him.
Explain the purpose of this project, as being part of the final thesis of
the MBA programme.
The following series of questions are intended to interpret the strategy
process which is found in this section of Jet Airways.
For several of the questions it may be important to get an explanation of
the differences in the replies from department to department. This can
be due to local working conditions, but it could also have its roots in the
corporate culture and its influence on the strategic analysis process.
Please give as many examples and stories as possible in order for us to
be able to interpret the possible influence of the corporate culture on the
strategy process.
1. Please give examples recent significant strategic decisions (5
examples)?
Example 1:
Example 2:
Example 3:
Example 4:
Example 5:
2. Can you give more examples?
3. For each of these recent and significant strategic decisions, what
was the process of reaching this strategic decision.
Process for decision 1:
Process for decision 2:
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Process for decision 3:
Process for decision 4:
Process for decision 5:
4. In which ways has there been a difference in the process of
reaching each of these strategic decisions? (How do each of the
above processes differ from each other)
Difference of process in Decision 1:
Difference of process in Decision 2:
Difference of process in Decision 3:
Difference of process in Decision 4:
Difference of process in Decision 5:
5. In which ways has the process leading to each of these
decisions been different from the process of earlier strategic
decisions which have been made (How do they differ from
earlier)?
Process of Decision 1 – difference from earlier:
Process of Decision 2 – difference from earlier:
Process of Decision 3 – difference from earlier:
Process of Decision 4 – difference from earlier:
Process of Decision 5 – difference from earlier:
6. In what ways have this new process of strategic decision making
affected the decisions which have been made?
New process affect decision 1:
New process affect decision 2:
New process affect decision 3:
New process affect decision 4:
New process affect decision 5:
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7. In your opinion what has been the main factors influencing the
changes in the strategic decision making processes?
8. Why do you see these factors as the main factors of influence?
Make sure that you thank the interviewee for his precious time.
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Appendix H Interview guide – onboard airline crew Jet Airways
The person to be interviewed has to be made aware of the following,
before the questions are put to him.
Explain the purpose of this project, as being part of the final thesis of
the MBA programme.
The following series of questions are intended to interpret the culture
which is found in this section of Jet Airways and to help identify the
changes that are being felt by Etihad.
For several of the questions it may be important to get an explanation of
the differences in the replies from department to department. This can
be due to local working conditions, but it could also have its roots in the
culture.
Please give as many examples and stories as possible in order for us to
be able to interpret the culture.
1. In what ways has the introduction of Etihad in Jet Airways
affected Jet Airways?
How were things done before? How are things now?, what has
changed?
2. In what ways has the introduction of Etihad affected your work on
board?
3. Please give examples of such changes?
4. How does the new initiative being launched on 01 December
influence your daily work?
5. What are the five biggest changes in Jet Airways, since Etihad
has come into the picture?
6. What are the five biggest changes affecting your work in the
galley?
7. In what ways have you prepared for the new initiative launching
on 01 Dec
8. Do you have any comments for me?
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Make sure that you thank the interviewee for his precious time
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Appendix I Jet Airways - single brand launch
On 01 December 2014, Jet Airways officially announced the launch of
their single branding strategy for Jet Airways.
The below extract of launch of the single brand strategy is from Jet
Airways website:
http://www.jetairways.com/Newsletter/Html/WB9WSingleBrandLaunch_
1Dec2014.html
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Figure 15.1 Jet Airways single branding strategy
Source: Jet Airways Newsletter, (Jet Airways 2014h)
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Appendix J 7-S Model
One approach used for implementation of the strategy is the 7-S model,
developed by Waterman and Peters at McKinsey & Company in 1980
(Waterman et al. 1980). The model contains 7 elements, and is based
on the theory that, for an organization to perform well, these seven
elements need to be aligned and mutually reinforcing. The model can
be used to help identify what needs to be realigned to improve
performance, or to maintain alignment and performance during
organisational change.
Irrespective the type of change; restructuring, new processes,
organisational merger, new systems, change of leadership, etc.; the 7-S
model can be used to understand how the organizational elements are
interrelated, and so ensure that the wider impact of changes made in
one area are taken into consideration (Mindtools.com 2014).
The 7-S Model can be used in a wide variety of situations where an
alignment perspective is useful (Mindtools.com 2014):
Improving the performance of a company.
Examining the likely effects of future changes within a company.
Aligning departments and processes during a merger or
acquisition.
Determining how best to implement a proposed strategy.
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Figure 15.2 7-S Model
Source: Mindtools.com
The 7-S model contains hard and soft factors (Mindtools.com 2014).
Hard factors, or elements, are easier to define and management can
directly influence them. The three hard elements of the model are
(Waterman et al. 1980):
Strategy – expresses how the company achieves its vision and
how it responds to opportunities and threats from the
environment. It also includes the awareness of the strategy and
its explanation to external subjects as well as internal subjects.
Structure – expresses how the company is structured; its
inferiority and superiority relations. The way organisational
structure supports the implementation of the strategy.
Systems – are formal and informal everyday activities and
procedures carried out by employees. Systems are also systems
of planning, control and information that support the
implementation of the strategy.
On the other hand soft elements of the model are more difficult to
define, they are less specific and influenced by a company´s culture.
Soft elements are just as important as hard elements, if the organisation
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is going to be successful. Soft elements of the 7-S model are
(Mindtools.com 2014):
Style – the style of leadership and choice of the appropriate style
of leadership of the organisation. The style belongs to important
cultural factors affecting the implementation of the strategy.
Staff – the employees and their basic skills are key factors of the
success of the implementation of the strategy. It also means
having the right people in the right place.
Skills – the actual skills and abilities of the organisation’s
employees. Organisations should focus on the development of
the skills in the future as well as extension of knowledge and
acquisition of experience.
Shared values – values enforced in the strategy are based on
shared interests and are included in the mission of the
organisation. Shared values are a key element that influences
the effectiveness of all other factors and is an important feature
of an organisation’s culture that supports the creation and
implementation of the strategy.
The 7-S model can be applied to any type of organisation. If something
does not work in the organisation it is likely that a conflict exist between
some elements in the 7-S model (Mišanková and Kočišová 2014).
According to Mišanková and Kočišová (Mišanková and Kočišová 2014),
experiences from companies showed that the elements of the 7-S
model support the implementation of the strategy and contribute to the
long term success of a company.
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Appendix J1 Strategy
The overall purpose of the strategy element of the 7-S model is to
clarify the plan devised to maintain and build competitive advantage
over the competition (Mindtools.com 2014). It is those actions that a
company plans in response to or anticipation of changes in external
environment (Waterman et al. 1980). Strategy is about combining
activities into a reinforcing system that creates dynamic fit with the
environment (Markides 2000).
Appendix J2 Structure
Organisational units should be optimally organised to support the
strategy (Luecke 2005). If organisational structures do not sufficiently
support the strategy, the organisation will not produce optimal results,
and organisational shadow systems, rather than organisational
hierarchical systems will determine the strategic direction (Stacey
1996).
Appendix J3 Systems
The systems element of the 7-S model is meant to cover all the
procedures, formal and informal, that make the organization go, day by
day and year by year: capital budgeting systems, training systems, cost
accounting procedures, budgeting systems. If there is a variable in the
model that threatens to dominate the others, it could well be systems
(Waterman et al. 1980). Invariably, since the 7-S model was developed,
the notion of systems will also have to cover the procedures and
systems which are today highly complex and integrated IT Systems.
Ideally, procedures and processes should be clarified, performing
business process analysis, after which management should evaluate
which of these processes and procedures, could advantageously be
optimised or carried out using IT Systems. Unfortunately, far too often, it
happens the other way round.
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Appendix J4 Style
A company’s style, as a reflection of its culture, has more to do with its
ability to change organization or performance than is generally
recognized (Waterman et al. 1980). Culture refers to a company’s
values, tradition and operating style (Luecke 2005). Culture and
leadership must be supportive of both strategy and the day-to-day
activities that implement it (Luecke 2005).
According to Luecke (Luecke 2005) it is one of those vague qualities
that is difficult to measure or describe, but nevertheless exist and sets
the tone for managerial and employee behaviour.
Schein (Schein 1992) identifies cultures at three different levels:
Artifacts
Espoused values
Basic underlying assumptions
A more detailed description of culture and each of the three levels of
culture defined by Schein (Schein 1992), has already been given in
Chapter 5.3.
Cultures may be strong or weak. Strong cultures are difficult to change
without great effort, time and sustained disruption. Companies with
strong cultures are wise to adopt strategies consistent with their culture
(Luecke 2005).
In some cases where strategy and existing culture are not collaborative,
culture and strategy must be re-invented simultaneously. Changing a
corporate culture to better align it with a new strategy is the
responsibility of the CEO (Luecke 2005).
Organizations may listen to what managers say, but they believe what
managers do. Not words, but patterns of actions are decisive. The
power of style, then, is essentially manageable (Waterman et al. 1980).
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Appendix J5 Staff
The Staff element of the 7-S model relates to the specialisations or
positions represented within the organisation (Mindtools.com 2014).
Waterman (Waterman et al. 1980) observed that that the superbly
performing companies pay extraordinary attention to managing what
might be called the socialisation process in their companies. This
applies especially to the way they introduce young recruits into the
mainstream of their organisations and to the way they manage their
careers as the recruits develop into tomorrow's managers.
Considering people as a pool of resources to be nurtured, developed,
guarded, and allocated is one of the many ways to turn the "staff"
dimension of the 7-S framework into something not only amenable to,
but worthy of practical control by senior management (Waterman et al.
1980).
Appendix J6 Skills
The skills element of the 7-S model relates to the actual skills and
competencies of the employees working in the organisation
(Mindtools.com 2014).
The notion of skills was added to the 7-S model for a highly practical
reason. It enables to capture a company's crucial attributes as no other
concept can do. The dominating attributes, or capabilities, that help
companies gain a competitive advantage is what is meant by skills
(Waterman et al. 1980).
The skills element of the model is important, because Waterman and
Peters (Waterman et al. 1980) regularly observed that organizations
facing big discontinuities in business conditions have do more than shift
strategic focus. Frequently they need to add a new capability, in the
form of a new skill. Possibly the most difficult problem in trying to
organise effectively is that of weeding out old skills-and their supporting
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systems, structures, etc.-to ensure that important new skills can take
root and grow (Waterman et al. 1980).
Appendix J7 Shared values
The shared values, originally termed “superordinate goals” when the
model was first developed (Mindtools.com 2014), is a set of values and
aspirations, often unwritten, that goes beyond the conventional formal
statement of corporate objectives (Waterman et al. 1980). Shared
values are the fundamental ideas around which a business is built.
They are its main values. But they are more as well. They are the broad
notions of future direction that the top management team wants to
infuse throughout the organization. They are the way in which the team
wants to express itself, to leave its own mark (Waterman et al. 1980).
To be readily communicated, superordinate goals need to be short and
clear. Typically, therefore, they are expressed at high Ievels of
abstraction and may mean very little to outsiders who don't know the
organization well. But for those inside, they are rich with significance.
Within an organization, superordinate goals, if well articulated, make
meanings for people. And making meanings is one of the main
functions of leadership (Waterman et al. 1980).
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Appendix K Value chain analysis
Value chain analysis has been widely used as means of describing the
activities of an organisation and relating them to an assessment of the
competitive strength of an organisation or its ability to provide value-for-
money products or services. The purpose of using value chain is to
describe the separate strategies which are necessary to underpin the
organisation’s strategies and how they link together both inside and
outside the organisation (Johnson and Scholes 1997).
Porter (Porter 1985) argues that an understanding of strategic
capabilities must start with an identification of the separate value
activities.
An important outcome of the value chain analysis is to identify those
competencies which critically underpin the organisations competitive
advantage (Johnson and Scholes 1997). The bundle of skills and
technologies that enable a company to provide a particular benefit to
customers are also what Hamel and Prahalad (Hamel and Prahalad
1994) call core competence.
We are also aware of Stacey’s criticism (Stacey 1996) of Porter’s value
chain analysis in that the only circumstances to which a value chain
analysis can possibly apply are those close to certainty and agreement;
a situation that an airline nowadays would probably not find themselves
in; if for nothing else; due to the volatile nature of low cost carriers
(Graham 2008) and due to the risk of lack of long term certainty (De-
Neufville 2008).
Applying, however, a post-modernistic perspective to the systems of
value chains of organisations implies also that the borders of the
individual organisations’ value chains are not fixed (Stacey 1996).
The value chain remains a powerful tool to analyze a business at
strategic level by identifying and analyzing the core activities and
supporting activities and links them with the analysis of competitive
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strength of the organization. The value chain is a network of processes
that create value for customers (Evans and Collier 2007).
The focus is on primary activities of airport and airline companies, and
on the passenger side of the aviation industry.
In the below figure a generic model of a value chain is displayed with an
overall impression of the activities of a company that is created by filling
out the business specific processes
Figure 15.3 Porters value chain
Source: Source: http://eavoices.com/2014/04/05/business-architects-whats-at-the-core/
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Appendix L The aviation industry value chain
The aviation industry is a service industry providing transport services.
Air transportation shows many characteristics which are typical for
service industries, e.g. the intangibility and perishability of the product
and the high importance of personal contact to the customer. Airlines
and airports are the two main actors in the industry. Airlines offer the
actual transport service; airports provide the ground infrastructure to
handle aircraft movements. The manufacturing industry and aviation
suppliers assemble aircrafts and provide spare products. As a provider
of supplementary processes, the industry relies on general service
providers such as air traffic control (Tretheway and Markhvida 2014).
The aviation supply chain is characterised by a high degree of vertical
disintegration. As a general rule, airlines have limited or no ownership
interest in other sectors of the value chain. Over the years airlines have
gradually divested their ownership interest in several sectors of the
aviation value chain, either as a result of changes in national laws,
regulatory interventions or decisions to improve business
competitiveness and financial performance. Examples include airlines'
past ownership and subsequent divestiture of assets in aircraft
manufacturers, computer reservation systems (CRSs), maintenance,
repair and operations (MROs) providers and hotel chains, among
others. At the same time, airlines have invested in certain supply chain
partners such as providers of fuel, ground handling services, in-airport
customer services, catering or other services. Another sector where
investment by airlines can be observed is cargo terminal facilities, cargo
handling operations or trucking operations related to pick up and
delivery of air cargo. In some markets, airlines have also invested in
airport terminals, although this is a more recent trend.
However, despite the high degree of vertical disintegration currently
observed, it is important to note that the aviation value chain is not a
collection of firms that operate in isolation of each other. There has
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been significant facilitation in terms of creating standards and operating
procedures across the value chain members, and this has lowered
industry costs and increased customer service levels (Tretheway and
Markhvida 2014).
The aviation industry value chain is shown in the below figure.
Figure 15.4 Aviation industry value chain
Source: Adapted from (Wittmer and Bieger 2011)
General Service Providers
•Air Traffic Control
•...
Manufacturing Industry and Suppliers
•Aircraft Manufacturers
•Propulsion Systems
•Equipment Manufacturers
•Commodity Suppliers
•...
Airline Industry
•Airlines
•Leasing Companies
•IT Providers
•MRO Providers
•Catering
•...
Airports
•Airport managers
•Ground Handling
•Fuel Suppliers
•...
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Appendix L1 The airline value chain
The airline industry is characterized by fierce competition. Airlines
compete on a polypolistic market. On the one hand, the latter is
characterized by low entry barriers and a variety of different business
models. On the other hand, the airline industry is extremely capital
intensive and comprises specific investments in long-term assets that
create high exit barriers. While information technology, maintenance,
repair and overhaul (MRO) and catering providers are usually located
nearby the respective airlines (commonly large airlines), the airline
leasing market is dominated by two companies (duopoly). Oligopolistic
structures occur in regard to airports, usually one or a few of them
dominating whole regions or nations. At airports, often only limited
competition exists concerning ground handling services. While airlines
and airports are enclosed by the manufacturing and supplying industry
on the upstream side, the final customer is located at the downstream
side. In addition to competition stemming from within the industry,
airlines and airports have to cope with new competitors and are subject
to potential substitutes (Wittmer and Bieger 2011).
Within each airline category, specific activities are presented to provide
a basic understanding of the underlying complexity and requirements of
the various processes. Within the airlines’ value chain, special attention
should be set onto the primary activity of operations since this includes
the hub management function. If an airline configures its route network
as hub-and-spoke system, hub management (as part of its network
management) is of special importance (Doganis 2005). It affects all
conceptual, coordinating and operational tasks for optimising the quality
of hub services. The most important factors influencing hub quality are
transfer reliability and punctuality. These influence both the airline
operations as well as the passenger‘s perception of the airline. Hub
management thus includes developing and implementing concepts for
optimising the use of central resources such as gates and aircraft
positions, as well as optimising and securing minimum connection
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times. Hub management (along with decentralised station/spoke
management) is one of the core functions vital for ensuring ongoing
operations. It also concerns the organising and monitoring of many of
the services and activities that are provided by third parties, significantly
increasing the complexity and number of interfaces of this core activity
(Albers et al. 2005).
The airline value chain is shown in the below figure.
Lost and found
Complaints mgmt.
Lounges
Reservation ServiceTransfer (Luggage and
Media announcement
Fleet assignment
Route planning
E-tickets
Frequent flier programs
Advertisement
Pick & drop cab service
Ground handling
Base maintanance
Security Checks
Catering
Hub Management
Catering
Flight Disruption Management
SU
PP
OR
T A
CT
IVIT
Y
FIRM INFRASTRUCTURE: Financial Systems, Accounting, Legal Affairs, Management
HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT: Personnel Recruiting, Pilot-, Crew-
and Security Training, Luggage Dispatching Training, Sales Training, In-flight
training
TECHNOLOGY DEVELOPMENT : Computer Reservation System, Yield
Management Systems, Customer Relationship Management Systems, Online Check-in,
Self Service Check-in, Product Development, Market Studies, Onboard Internet
PROCUREMENT : Fleet, Fuel, Information and communication Technologies
SERVICE
PRIMARY ACTIVITIES
INBOUND OPERATIONS OUTBOUND MARKETING & SALES
Slot Allocation
Yield Management
Fuel Calculation
Scheduling
Crew planning and
Supply of production
Ticket offices
Ground handling / Dispatching
Flight operations
Service on board
Figure 15.5 Airline value chain
Source: Adapted from (Albers et al. 2005) and (Khan 2012)
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Appendix M Jet Airways SWOT analysis - 2003
The aim of the SWOT analysis (Johnson and Scholes 1997) is to
identify the extent to which the current strategy of an organisation and
its more specific strengths and weaknesses are relevant to and capable
of dealing with the changes taking place in the business environment.
An example of a SWOT analysis created for Jet Airways in its earlier
years, when Gilbert George, Manager at Jet Airways, was interviewed
by Triant Flouris, Montreal, Canada (Flouris and Oswald 2006), August
2003, is listed in Table 15.2.
Table 15.2 Jet Airways SWOT analysis - 2003
Strenghts
Emphasis on customer service and customer service relationships
Better passenger services compared to the competition, especially
Indian Airlines
High aircraft utilisation: the best in the Indian airline industry for the
B737s and ATR72s
Youngest fleet age 3.14 years (2003) as compared to Indian Airlines
14 years and Air Sahara’s 5 years
Lowest number of employees per aircraft in India (171 per aircraft)
despite limited out-sourcing opportunities in the country
All India network of Jet Air offices (110 offices), a General Service
Agent (GSA) company established by Naresh Goyal in the 1970s.
Strong focus on cost leadership and benchmarking
Weakness
Too much dependence on business travel market segment
Increased dependence on passenger revenues rather than having a
diversified source
Domestic airline with no experience in the regional-international
segment
Limited viable expansion possible into newer destinations over and
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above currently served
Opportunities
Alliances, joint ventures and establishment of international cargo
warehouses should help improve revenues than what is being
achieved by the passenger revenue segment
Further liberalisation of Indian aviation sector will help the airline with
exposure to the international markets in order to compete effectively
with other international airlines
Given the growth of key destinations, it is possible for the airline to
further increase its market share by increasing capacities on the routes
Threats
Air Sahara, Kingfisher, other emerging low-fare airlines and a renewed
Indian Airlines may attempt to erode the existing market share held by
the airline. Its competition airlines may erode the share by waging a
fare war campaign which may lead to a shift of price-sensitive travel
segment
Possibility of new niche players eroding market share on regional
routes
The dominant position held by the airline is difficult to be sustained
without ensuring that the airline does not fall into complacency
Source: Adapted from (Flouris and Oswald 2006), table 7.1
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Appendix N Notes on Word automation and referencing.
The present document has been manufactured using to the extent
possible, and the skills and knowledge of the author, various forms of
Microsoft Word embedded automation found in Mamishev and Sargent
(Mamishev and Sargent 2014) and in Murray (Murray 2010), such as
word linked files, automated fields, objects, automatic generation of
tables of contents, list of tables, list of figures, list of appendices. It also
includes usage of section breaks, automatic captions on tables and
figures, automatically updated cross-references to headings, pages,
tables and figures. It also uses Windows orphan control for all Heading
1, automatically starting a chapter on a new page. It also uses Windows
orphan control for all tables and figures, deliberately preventing figures
and table to spread over several pages. This unfortunately also means
that a lot of empty space is created in-between.
The references section uses a personally modified version of an
implementation of the Harvard reference style based on the description
by the University of Exeter modified for Frankfurt University.
The original styles were created by Yves Dhont,
[email protected]), using BibWord stylesheet v.1.5. modified by
Peter Driver, Student and Learning Services based on Sheffield Hallam
University Learning and Information Services (LIS) "Guide to
referencing and citations". Further information about "Guide to
referencing and citations" is available online at
http://libguides.shu.ac.uk/referencing modified to reflect Saunders
Research Methods for Business Students 5th Edition.
This version has further been personally modified by the author José
Joaquim Fernandes ([email protected]) to further eliminate
discrepancies found for the version of referencing used at Frankfurt
University.
Page 145
The above automation means that, in the references section, Word
automatically sorts references by Corporate Author, then by Title. The
means that in the instance of separate corporate authors, such as for
example Jet Airways, having the same year, for example 2014, the year
suffix “a”, “b”, etc., is not automatically re-adjusted, which unfortunately
means that some references having the same corporate author, will
appear in non-alphabetic sequence in the references list. For example
(Jet Airways 2014c) could, in the list of references, appear before (Jet
Airways 2014b), due to the fact that references having the same year
and author, are subsequently sorted by title. Consequently the title of
reference 2014c could appear prior to the title of reference 2014b.
It also means that publications by the same author will first be sorted by
Surname, subsequently by title. This also means that (Kotter 2008)
appears in the list of references prior to (Kotter 1996), simply because
the title of (Kotter 2008) begins with the letter “A” whereas the title of
(Kotter 1996) begins with the letter “L”, despite the fact that the latter
publication was published prior to the former publication and probably
ought to appear in reverse order.
An unsuccessful attempt has been made to automate this discrepancy
using BibWord Extender, as suggested in the BibWord discussion
forum: https://bibword.codeplex.com/discussions/391921. Due to the
extensive automation employed in the document a manual solution has
been deemed too unreliable.
The author is aware of this discrepancy in relation to the guidelines of
Hayward referencing used at Frankfurt University according to
Saunders (Saunders et al. 2011).
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Appendix O About the author
The author has been a full-fare paying passenger on more than one
hundred Jet Airways flights during the period from 2007 – 2015,
primarily on domestic sectors within India, but also on Jet Airways
international sectors between Abu Dhabi, Bangkok, Brussels and India.
The author has also travelled on Etihad services between Abu Dhabi
and Brussels as a full fare paying passenger.
The author has never been formally associated with either Jet Airways
or Etihad.
