BUILDING HIGH-PERFORMANCE SERVICE DELIVERY TEAMSThe nature of the working environment on board requires people to work effectively as a team to deliver service excel-lence. In fact, effective teams are often a prerequisite to service excellence. In view of this, SIA aims to create esprit de corps among its cabin crew. The 7,700 crew members are formedts as a counsellor to guide and develop the crew members. Ward leaders issue newsletters for their teams and organize face-to-face sessions and activities with their ward members. These activities include inter-ward games, overseas bonding sessions, and full-day engagement ses-sions on the ground. The ward leaders learn about their ward members individual strengths and weaknesses, acting as counsellors to whom they can turn to for help or advice. There are also check trainers who often fly with the teams to inspect performance and generate feedback that aids the teams development. According to an assistant manager of training, Team leaders are able to monitor and point out what can be improved in the crew, team leaders are the ones to evalu-ate the crew, monitor staff development, staff performance, and supervise them. They see the feedback and monitor the performance. According to Mr. Sim Kay Wee, former senior vice president (cabin crew), The interaction within each of the teams is very strong. As a result, when team leaders do staff appraisal, they really know the staff. You would be amazed how meticulous and detailed each staff record is, even though there are 7,700 of them. We can pinpoint any staffs strengths and weaknesses easily. So, in this way, we have good control; and through this, we can ensure that the crew delivers the promise. If there are problems, we will know about them and we can send them for retraining. Those who are good will be selected for promotion. In addition, SIA organizes activities that reach out to the wider crew population. The management staff have frequent interactions with crew members at the Control Center (where crew report for work) over food and drinks. The senior crew members are invited for full-day engagement sessions with the management. SIAs cabin crew engages even in some seemingly unrelated activities, such as the performing arts circle for talented employees where, during the biennial cabin crew gala dinner, they raised over half a million dollars for charity. Currently, there are 30 diverse groups whose activities cover arts, sports, music, dance, and community service. These interest groups provide an avenue for crew members to come together to pursue their passions outside of work. This helps crew members to further develop team spirit. The company believes that such activities encourage empathy for others, an appreciation of the finer things in life, camaraderie, and teamwork, and it therefore supports cabin crew members who set up interest groups.EMPOWERMENT OF FRONT LINE TO DELIVER SERVICE QUALITYOver time, the soft skills of flight crew and other service personnel get honed, leading to service excellence that is difficult to replicate, not only in terms of how the service is delivered, but also in terms of the mindset that supports this delivery. Virtually all outstanding service firms have legendary stories of employees who recovered failed service transactions, walked the extra mile to make a customers day, or averted some kind of disaster for a customer. A senior manager (crew performance) shared such a story:This particular passenger was a wheelchair-bound lady in her eighties, was very ill, suffering from arthritis. She was traveling from Singapore to Brisbane. What happened was that a stewardess found her gasping for air owing to crippling pain. The stewardess used her personal hot-water bottle as a warm compress to relieve the passengers pain and knelt to massage the ladys legs and feet for 45 minutes. By that time, the ladys feet were actually swollen. The stewardess offered her a new pair of flight support stockings without asking her to pay for them. She basically took care of the old lady throughout the trip, seven to eight hours. When the old lady got back to Brisbane, her son called the hotel in which the crew were staying to try and trace this stewardess to thank her personally. He then followed up with a letter to us. I dont know if training contributes to it, or if it is personal. I mean, you dont find people whod do this purely as a result of training, I think. We find the right people, give them the right support, give them the right training, and with the right support, people will do this kind of thing.Such thoughtful actions are part of the culture at SIA. According to a senior manager crew performance, the crew members are very proud to be part of the SIA team, very proud of the tradition and very proud that SIA is held up as a company that gives excellent care to customers. So they want to live up to that. Employees need to feel empowered in order to expenddiscretionary effort. It is pertinent that employees are able to make decisions independently, as front-line staff frequently have to handle customers on their own, since it is not feasible or even desirable for managers to constantly monitor employees actions. At SIA, senior management emphasize that staff must have a clear concept of the boundaries of their authority and that it is the responsibility of management to communicate and explain the empowerment limits. Empowerment of the front line is especially important during service recovery processes and in situations where customers have special needs.MOTIVATING STAFF THROUGH REWARDS AND RECOGNITION Rewards and recognition constitute one of the key levers that any organization can use to encourage appropriate behavior, emphasize both positive as well as undesirable practices, and recognize excellence. SIAs various rewards and recognition include interesting and varied job content, symbolic actions, performance-based share options, and a significant percentage of variable pay components linked to individual staff contribu-tions and the companys financial performance. SIA keeps base salaries low by offering employees bonuses of up to 50% of their annual base salary, a formula that is hardwired and depends on SIAs profitability. The numerous international accolades received by the airline over the years, including Best airline, Best cabin crew service, and Asias most admired company, serve as further sources of motivation. The company also circulates newsletters and holds company-wide meetings to keep staff updated about the latest developments. As an assistant manager cabin crew performance noted, Its about communication. For example, if we add a new service at check-in, we will talk to the people involved before, during, and after implementation. We will discuss the importance and the value of it, and make sure everyone is aware of what we are doing and why. It helps to give staff pride in what they do. Communication also aids in recognizing service excel-lence. Staff going the extra mile receive recognition through honors such as the annual CEO Transforming Customer Service (TCS) Awards. A former senior vice president cabin crew stressed the importance of recognition: We know that a pat on the back, a good ceremony, photographs, and write-ups in the newsletters can be more motivating than mere financial rewards; hence, we put in a lot of effort to ensure that heroes and heroines are recognized for their commitment and dedication. Finding the right people and creating a service-oriented culture are key. A senior manager (crew performance) said, Here, there are some intangibles. I think what makes it special is a combination of many things. First, youve got to ensure that you find the right people for the job, and after that, training matters a great deal: the way you nurture them, the way you monitor them and the way you reward them. The recognition you give need not necessarily be money. I think another very important ingredient is the overall culture of cabin crew. BEYOND HUMAN RESOURCES For four decades, SIA has managed to achieve what many others in the aviation industry can only dream ofcost-effective service excellence and sustained superior performance. Understanding the underpinnings of SIAs competitive success has important implications for organizations more broadly. One of the key implications concerns strategic alignment; in particular, aligning human resource practices to a companys competitive strategy. At SIA, the human resource management practices outlined above enable the development of service excellence, customer orientation, adaptability, and cost-consciousness capabilities, which in turn support its dual strategy of differentiation through service excellence and low cost. The SIA experience highlights how training and development should be employed in order to achieve a holistically fact that you have people who really are very proud of the tradition. And I think a lot of our senior peopleand it rubs off on the junior crewtake pride in the fact that they helped build up the airline; they are very proud of it, and they want to ensure that it remains that way. A senior manager (crew performance) added, Among other contributing factors is a deeply ingrained service culture not just among the cabin crew but also in the whole company. I think it goes back to the early 1970s when the airline was set up. A very, very strong service culture throughout the whole organization, very strong commitment from top management. We take every complaint seriously. We respond to every compliment and complaint. We try to learn from the feedback; its a never-ending process. SIAs reward and evaluation system is highly aligned with the desired behaviors. The key element is on board assessment, which encompasses image (grooming and uniform turnout), service orientation (crews interaction and passenger-handling capabilities), product knowledge and job skills, safety and security knowledge and adherence to procedures, work relationship (spirit of teamwork), and for the crew member in charge, additional factors of people management skills and pre-flight briefing sessions. The Appendix provides information on how cabin crew are evaluated. SIA offers about average pay by Singaporean standards,which is low by global standards. Occasionally, there have been disputes between SIA group management and the labor unions. In 2007, the airline was in the spotlight again when the Air Line Pilots Association Singapore (ALPA-S) disagreed with the managements proposed salary rate for pilots flying the Airbus A380, and the case had to be settled by the Industrial Arbitration Cdeveloped workforce that can effectively support the companys strategy. Key questions for leaders therefore are: What sort of behaviors and attitudes do our reward and evaluation systems encourage? Are these aligned with what is needed to support our strategy? Do we train and develop our people in a way that develops the right capabilities to support our strategy? Do we go beyond technical training to address attitudes and ways of thinking? No organization can stand still. The recent socio-economic crises at the macro-level and the fast growth of high-quality full-service airlines in the Middle East (e.g., Emirates, Etihad, and Qatar Airways) and Asian budget carriers (e.g., AirAsia) at the industry level mean that SIA needs to not only sustain its focus on achieving cost-effective service excellence but also re-examine and re-invent some ingredients of its recipe for success.

4.Decision Criteria (to be used to evaluate the alternatives and recommend( one)

5. Alternative recommended and why

6. Action plan (to implement the alternative recommended)