Human Resource Management at Emirates Airlines Essay

HR management is a very important aspect that need not to be overlooked in companies, as it is the most important process in most of the companies, especially the services based companies, one of the best company in the services sector of the world is emirates airlines, emirates airlines has been known as one of the best companies in the world in terms of servicing and quality in the airline industry business, emirates airlines being a services sector company implements HR as their main process, and they are doing it very effectively, but as every company has a downturn in its lifetime, the downturn faced by emirates airlines is more related to the conflicts in their diverse workforce, and is often been used in the HR field as one of the most important HR case to discuss, therefore we will analyze the HR processes in this project and will try to find the main cause behind the sudden downturn in the HR processes of emirates airlines, and the strategy that they applied for coping up fr om the issue. In the following article we will discuss the HR problems that emirates airlines had experienced in the downturn, we will analyze the situation under which emirates airlines had to suffer problem related to HR management, and the strategies that the HR department of emirates airlines had applied in their management process, we will also try to identify the correctness and the impact of the HR strategies that the HR department had implemented, we will also try to give alternate solutions to the HR problems that should have implemented alternatively, and that could have been proved to be successful to the company. Company overview Emirates airlines is one of the best example of how to manage best quality with reasonable cost, the airlines flew their first flight on 25th October, 1985, since then it had made it through a very long way through the history to arrive to their current position, emirates airlines’ success had been a topic of interest among peoples, as the concept that they had used and their way to work on every detail was astonishing. The unique style of emirates airlines had been one of the main factors behind the success of the group, the traditional way to serve peoples in the flights and the Emirati culture that they have introduced in the airlines are commendable, apart from the quality of services, the next major thing is the quality of emirates airlines. The company had already received more than 250 international awards for excellence, and it is emerging as one of the best airlines in the world, the revenue of the airlines shad increased by as much as 49% in the previous year, therefore accounting for one of the best growing company in the airlines sector. The human resource of the company also plays a very important role in the success of the company, as the employees of the company has a definite rule and set of instructions that they have to follow in the processes in the company, the services of the company are defined and should be practiced at every single flight of emirates airlines according to the company’s instructions, because the HR processes designed by the management of the company is unique and they are defined in such a way, such that the after following that set of steps, the success of the business process is sure. Emirate airlines is showing great growth in the business, and as emirates recruits peoples from diverse backgrounds and culture, therefore it is becoming even more difficult for them to manage the workforce conflict that often arouses because of different backgrounds, this is the only problem that the company is facing as the human resource of the company, and the workforce of the company had increased to a much larger extent in the past years. While emirate airlines provides travel services, Dnata the other group of emirate airlines provides, cargo and ground services, it is becoming more and more difficult for the corporation to handle the workforce in both the groups. Brief history of emirates airlines Emirates airlines are known as the best airlines in the Middle East, the number of flights operated per week is 2400, which is a phenomenal number. The start of emirates airlines date back to the 1980’s when gulf air refused to offer services to Dubai, as a result the royal family of Dubai, conceived emirates airlines with the first two planes provided by the â€Å"Dubai royal air wing†. After being conceived by the royal family, the airlines were needed to be administered independently; therefore a $10 million investment was initially made in the airlines. Ahmed bin Saeed al Maktoum was appointed as the chairman of the airlines, which he is still pursuing. After that, they have taken at lease, a Boeing 737-300 and an airbus 300B4-200. The first flight made by the airlines was from Dubai to Karachi, and the flight’s name was K600, the date on which the first flight was made was 25th October, 1985. Analyzing the problem  It is stated that â€Å"a manager’s ability is defined by its ability to cultivate, identify and to use the core competency of the company in a manner that would be beneficial for the company†, at emirates airlines clearly the management is finding it very difficult to manage the workforce in the company, as the workforce includes peoples from various nations and areas, but as emirates airlines is a very big group and is particularly very important for the growth of airline business in the world, therefore we must need to analyze the HR problems and other problems that might affect the working of the company, and the impact made by them on the Emirati business. As our main aim is to identify the HR related problems in the company, therefore instead of going into unnecessary details about the company, we will go into detail to understand the basic HR processes in the company i. e. leadership process, HR strategy, and organization behavior in the company to understand the additional factors that might lead to problems and conflicts in the organization. Leadership style in the company Leader can be considered as one of the most important person in a company, or more specifically an organization, the leader has the task to manage workforce in the company, therefore if any conflicts arises in the company, then it is the responsibility of the leader to check out that problem and to identify a proper solution to that problem, the success of any organization is very much dependent on the leadership style pursued in the company, and it is the most critical element in the company too, therefore if leadership is carried out in any negative sense then the consequences will be very bad, as can be identified and analyzed by observing some organizations in the world, in which a negative leadership led to poor sales and revenue generation in the company. The leaders should have that basic sense of observing the needs of the employees of the company, and should know how to encourage them and to identify the motivating factors that plays the most crucial role in the development of effective workforce in the company. The conflicts in any organization could be solved if the leader himself is a very generous and visionary person, if the leader would not discriminate peoples on the basis of color and region then it will be served as motivating factors for the others to take example of the leader and follow the same process as the leader process, if somehow any conflicts arises in the company, then the leader should know how to eliminate the conflicts. The leadership style of the leaders at emirate airlines, as analyzed by experts in this field can be related as highly patience, and active leaders that has the ability to cope up with changes and manage resources according to it very rapidly. Problems like CSR (corporate social responsibility) is also one of the most important practices that a leader should practice, as the name suggest, in this process the leader should have the responsibility to act according to the situations that arises in the company, and he should be responsible enough to take the responsibility of any conflict that arises in a company. As far as the leadership style of the managers and leaders at the company is concerned it can be said that the leadership style of the company is quite good, and that if any conflict may arises in the company then it can be very well handled by the leaders of the company HR strategy implementation at emirates airlines The implementation of HR strategies at emirates airlines, is also a very mportant factor as the HR strategies defines the way to handle peoples in the company and to make sure that no kind of conflict arises in the company, when we see the HR structure of the company, we can see that the HR processes in the company is divided into groups, the groups are mainly divided in order to handle the various processes in the company, for example, the HR strategy for managing in-flight crew is different, it is also different in case of ground staff, the ground staff is further divided into groups, that includes technical staff, and non-technical staff, apart from this the HR strat egy in the management of the company is also different, i. e. the management of administration of the company also comprises a group of peoples which are included in different strategy management area. In the in-flight crew the conflicts seldom happens, as the crew is comparatively comprises less peoples then other sections of the company, and that the main job of the crew is to handle the on-board customers therefore any conflict in terms of competition and in cooperation is seldom seen in case of in-flight crews but conflict on the basis of race or, conflict on the basis of competition can be aroused. The main conflicts however arouses in the ground staff and the management and administration of the company, as the ground staff comprises of peoples from different countries, and races therefore the chances of conflicts in terms of competition or any racists behavior might occur and the chances are very high in this case, emirates airlines employs peoples from all over the world, therefore the conflict management is very difficult in case where peoples are in large numbers and that too from different groups. Many a times it is seen that the HR processes in a company is implemented keeping in mind the majority of workforce population in the company, for example if the company has more men’s then women’s, then the possibility is very high that the strategy of the organization would be formulated keeping in mind the majority group in the company, and the other one would be ignored, same is the case when analyzing the races, conflicts might arise in the company if the HR processes and strategy is being implemented keeping in mind the majority race in the company, such as for one race a holiday is being provided, but for other race no holiday is provided to them for their festival, in these types of cases, the major conflict arises between the employer and the employee, therefore this thing must also be taken into consideration. The conflicts in the management can also arise, and this thing we have seen in many companies around the world, but the thing is we have seen conflicts in such companies but they are not of racism related or any other kind of diversity related, conflicts in the upper management usually occurs because of increase in competition in the management, however chances can’t be neglected that conflict because of diverse workforce might arise in the company. Organizational behavior in the company The behavior towards the employees forms the very basis of organizational behavior, the other aspects of organizational behavior includes, the time line for working hours for the employees, the reward techniques used to reward the employees, the leadership style of the organization and other micro and macro factors that relates the behavior in an organization. In case of emirates airlines, if we analyze the financial condition of the airlines, we can see that the airline is making good revenue year by year, and the growth in revenue of the company is very good, and as the company’s growth is very good, so as the growth of the employees of the company, if we consider the employee satisfaction in the company, we would rate emirates airlines at 4 on a scale of 5 as the company look out for every need of its employees and considering the packages that is offered to the employees of the company, especially the in-flight crew, we will see that the packages of the in-flight crew is among the highest packages in the world in the airline industry, the salary and perks like insurance, housing etc. of the ground staff is also very good and regular motivation in terms of rewards and bonus are provided to the employees, and considering the management and administration of the company, we can see that the management of the company is earning very heavy pay, therefore the chance of conflicts in terms of employee dissatisfaction is minimal. But however, taking apart the financial aspects of the company, if we analyze the workforce communication and coordination, and the behavior of boss towards the person who is under him, the major conflict can arise here, as the manager can be from different country or race or there may be a case that the manager or the employee is a women, then the case might occur that the manager could prefer a man over a women or a person from the same race as he is and will try to ignore the person of opposite race, this is a very possible case, and the chances increases at this level especially that the conflicts might rise between the employees of the company. These conflicts proves to be very negative for the company as the employees might stop the work and go to strike, or temporary pause in the world, the women’s are especially effected by the organizational behavior in the company, as if the women is placed in a section where the number of female population is comparatively less, the women’s might feel it very difficult in managing themselves in such workspace, therefore if appropriate behavior is not done with the women’s then chances are very high that the company might have to taste negative consequences of this thing, therefore the organization behavior can be one of the factors in awakening conflicts between the workforce in the company.