Even by the standards of modern management myths, the British Airways transformation is impressive. At the end of the 1970s and the start of the 1980s BA was performing disastrously against almost every indicator.
Its fleet was old, which meant journeys were uncomfortable and contributed significantly to the airline’s record for unpunctuality; its productivity was considerably below that of its main overseas competitors; it was beset by industrial disputes; and it was recording substantial financial losses (£140 million or some £200 a minute in 1981). Staff discontent was more than matched by customer dissatisfaction and in 1980 a survey by the International Airline Passengers’
Association put BA at the top of a list of airlines to be avoided at all costs. By the mid-1990s this picture was reversed. Not only had BA become the world’s most profitable carrier, it was also voted the company that most graduates would like to work for and, in the year 2000, another survey declared it the second most admired company in Europe (Blyton and Turnbull, 1998;
Corke, 1986; Financial Times, 9 July 1997; Financial Times, 18 March 2000; Warhurst, 1995).
Much of the management literature attributes this turnaround to BA’s own cultural change which remodeled staff attitudes and set customer care as the primary focus of activity. As Doyle (1999:20) noted: In the 80s BA had been transformed from a disastrous loss-making state enterprise – the British Rail of the sky – into the world’s largest and most profitable international airline. It was a triumph for management, showing that Britain could produce world-class companies that could beat the best of the competition. Its success was the result of the process and strategy that management introduced.

The process focused on creating a vision that would inspire the BA staff and gain their enthusiastic commitment.

It is certainly true that a great deal of effort and energy went into shaping BA’s culture. At the heart of this was the ‘Putting people first’ (PPF) training programme launched by Colin Marshall, the company’s new chief executive, in 1983. Originally intended for staff who had direct contact with customers it was, in fact, attended by all 40,000 employees by 1986 and it aimed to revolutionize their attitudes. In a direct challenge to the hierarchical and militaristic culture which existed in BA at the time, staff were instructed not to attend in uniform and, once on the course, put into cross-functional and cross-grade groups. Attendees were encouraged to take a more positive attitude to themselves, taught how to set personal goals and cope with stress, and instructed in confidence building and ‘getting what they wanted out of life’. Lapel badges inscribed with the motto ‘We’re putting people first’ provided a visible reminder of the course’s message.

The approach was self-consciously ‘indoctrinative’

(Bate, 1994:195)

. As Colin Marshall said We . . . have to design our people and their service attitude just as we design an aircraft seat, an in-flight entertainment programme or an airport lounge to meet the needs and preferences of our customers. (cited in Barsoux and Manzoni, 1997:

14: emphasis added)

However, the most impressive aspect of BA’s cultural change was not so much the sophistication of the PPF programme itself, nor the commitment of executive time, but the extent to which other employment policies and practices were changed to fit the

‘new’ culture and the continued emphasis on these practices and programmers throughout the 1980s and 1990s. Three-quarters of the 100 Customer First teams, formed to propagate the message of PPF, survived into the 1990s. Not only were team briefings and team-working introduced, but these were developed and refined, with TQM, autonomous team-working and multi-skilling introduced in many areas. Direct contact with all staff was considered so important that ‘down route’ briefings were developed to ensure that mobile and isolated staff were not neglected, and in 1996 BA became the first company to make daily television broadcasts to its staff (Colling, 1995).

The way cabin crew were rostered was also changed. ‘Families’ of staff were created to work the same shift patterns. These were intended to provide mutual support, make cabin crew feel happier about their work environments and, as a result, facilitate the production of emotional labour (Barsoux and Manzoni, 1997). A new role of ‘passenger group coordinator’

was introduced and staff appointed based entirely on personal qualities. The importance of emotional processes was also reflected in the new appraisal and reward systems such that work was judged on the way in which it was performed as well as against harder targets

(Georgiades and Macdonnell, 1998; Höpfl, 1993).

Managerial bonuses could be as much as 20 per cent of salary and were calculated on a straight 50:50 split between exhibiting desired behaviours and achieving quantitative goals. ‘Awards for Excellence’ and an

‘Employee Brainwaves’ programme encouraged staff input. The personnel department was renamed ‘human resources’ with many decisions devolved to line managers and, in the first few years of the programme at least, a commitment was made to job security.

Closely following these developments, a ‘Managing people first’ programme targeted managerial employees and aimed to bring their behaviours into line with a list developed by two consultancy firms (see Table 10.1).

Other courses were developed to maintain the momentum created by ‘Putting people first’ and ‘Managing people first’. These included ‘Winning for customers’,

‘A day in the life’, ‘To be the best’, ‘Leading in a service business’ and ‘Leadership 2000’ and, while each was different, they all shared a focus on shaping staff emotions. The most dramatic form of this was probably the ‘love bath’ exercise in one of the early courses in which delegates took it in turns to sit in the centre of a circle while their colleagues complimented them (see Höpfl, 1993). Nearly 20 years after the launch of PPF, BA managers attending a training course were still being told about understanding themselves and taking responsibility:

‘understanding self is our starting point …

That means that to make a change within the airline we need to start with you – what can you do differently.’

In 1995, Bob Ayling, having newly taken over from Colin Marshall as chief executive, continued this active management of company culture and said of his staff:........

Question

1 Explain employee reactions to culture change initiatives in this case.
2 What lessons can managers learn from this case about managing culture?