Introduction
Etihad Airways is the United Arab Emirates’ national airline. The airline was established in July 2003 through Royal Decree and it started operating in November 2003. Currently, it is one of the fastest growing airlines across the globe. Etihad Airways airline deals with passenger and cargo delivery to various destinations across the globe.
Currently, the airline serves 84 destinations and it expects to open more destinations in the near future. Besides the passenger and cargo delivery, the airline also operates a contact centre and Etihad Holidays (Etihad Airways 1-3).
The airline’s ultimate goal is to be a real 21st century world airline by enhancing the existing norms of airline hospitality, and to achieve this goal, the airline has established numerous strategies. This paper focuses on some of the current businesses, operations, strategic, and unit plans that are underway in the company as ways of helping it to achieve its goals.
Discussion
Organisational plans
The success of any business depends on its existing strategic, operations, unit, and business plans. Strategic plan plays a significant role in business development and marketing (Ticoll 18). Etihad Airways has come up with a strategic plan to help it in realising its goal. Currently, the company is seeking to increase its revenue base by opening new passenger and cargo destinations.
The company is exploring new markets and aims to launch numerous routes across the globe by the end of 2013. For instance, the company aims at opening new destinations in Ethiopia, India, the United States, and Brazil (Etihad Airways 9). Moreover, the company intends to increase the number of its aircrafts to meet the increasing number of passengers and demand for cargo delivery.
For an organisation to achieve its strategic plans, it has to come up with appropriate operational plans (Ticoll 19). Etihad Airways has come up with an operational plan that will help it to achieve its goal. Currently, the company is working with Universities in the United Arab Emirates to train its staff and equip them with the requisite skills.
Moreover, the company has stationed numerous staff in different destinations that are responsible for selling the company’s products to potential customers (Etihad Airways 7). One of the ways of enhancing organisational operations is through improving on the quality of services offered.
The company is continuously upgrading its aircrafts to meet the needs of the different classes of passengers. The move aims at helping the company to attract more customers thus becoming the leading airline company in the world. Moreover, Etihad Airways is renovating its airport to facilitate in enhancing the quality of services it offers to its clients (Etihad Airways 3).
Besides the strategic and operations plan, Etihad Airways has come up with a business plan to help it to achieve its objectives. As away of enhancing its operations, the company has come up with a business plan that will help it to increase the number of aircrafts and buy the state-of-art airplanes to meet customer demands.
As the company aims at expanding the number of its destinations across the globe, it is gradually working on embracing diversity within its workforce, and thus the company employs people from different countries.
In addition, as a way of enhancing the quality of services it offers to local customers, the company has come up with an Emiratisation policy, which helps in hiring and developing the career of local employees (Etihad Airways 5-7). Currently, the company has split its operations into the cargo unit, passengers unit, and contact centre. Presently, the airline is working on increasing the number of its freighters by 2014.
Organisational structures
For any organisation to operate efficiently, it ought to have an efficient organisational structure. The order in which an organisation structures itself dictates the organisational values and beliefs held by that particular organisation. An organisation with few employees does not require formal organisational structure (Brews and Tucci 429-435).
There are four different organisational structures, viz. pre-bureaucratic, bureaucratic, post-bureaucratic, and functional structures. Presence of a single decision-maker characterises the pre-bureaucratic organisational structure. Bureaucratic structure exhibits a degree of standardisation, which comprises strict hierarchies through which the organisation makes its decisions.
The post-bureaucratic structure is almost similar to bureaucratic structure with respect to hierarchies. Nevertheless, this structure encourages modern ideas like culture management and total quality management (Brews and Tucci 437-442).
Etihad Airways is a large company; hence, the company requires a formal structure to enhance and monitor its operations. Etihad Airways uses a functional organisational structure. The company is structured in a way that it has varied segments based on the operations it undertakes.
Etihad Airways makes sure that it aligns its operations along geographical zones to facilitate their management. The company has established six geographical regions to facilitate in its sales objectives. Each region has a regional vice president who is responsible for managing sales operations with the help of general managers.
The company consists of three management levels. The highest level in the management structure comprises of the board of directors, which is responsible for making final decisions on matters affecting the company.
Right below the board of directors is the Executive Committee that is responsible for managing organisational operations and ensuring that the company is working towards the realisation of its goals (Etihad Airways 1-2). The Executive committee works closely with the Audit Committee, which is responsible for assisting the company to make better use of the available resources.
Human resource issues
Organisational strategic plans lead to the emergence of numerous human resource issues. As an organisation seeks to improve its operations through changing its existing strategic plans, it ends up affecting its employees in one way or another (Ticoll 20). The desire by Etihad Airways to become the leading airline company in the world has made it embark on various strategic plans. In return, it has spurred some human resource issues in the company.
Changes in technology and the desire to equip its staff with requisite skills have pushed the company to liaise with Universities to facilitate in training its staff (Etihad Airways 7). In addition, the company seeks to offer employment opportunities to the local people, and to achieve this objective, it has embarked on an Emiratisation policy, which gives the Emiratis an opportunity to train and work for the company.
Etihad Airline is opening new destinations across the globe. Hence, it requires staff with experience in diverse cultures. Today, its employees come from over 126 nations, thus embracing varied cultural practices (Etihad Airways 4).
The company has come up with a succession plan to help in identifying and nurturing talents that would help it to implement its strategic plans. Besides, the company intends to ensure that it helps in environmental conservation. Consequently, it seeks to work with like-minded staff and business partners.
Conclusion
Since its inception, Etihad Airways endeavours to be the leading airline company in the world. Hence, the company has initiated numerous strategic, operations, business, and unit plans to help in realising this goal. The company has not only increased the number of its destinations, but is also training its employees to equip them with requisite skills.
Works Cited
Brews, Peter, and Christopher Tucci. “Exploring the Structural Effects of Internetworking.” Strategic Management Journal 25.5 (2004): 429–442. Print.
Etihad Airways. Our Story, 2012. Web.
Ticoll, David. “Get Self-Organised.” Harvard Business Review 82.9 (2004): 18–20. Print.