Overview of Emirates Airway Corporation
Emirates is the UAE’s biggest airline and one of the two flag airlines in the country (apart from Etihad Airways). The company is part of The Emirates Group, which is under the control of the Dubai government’s Investment Corporation of Dubai. Emirates was also the biggest airline in the Middle East before the Cpsndemic, with over 3,600 flights per week. The company has a net income of $5.5 billion on $16.7 billion in sales as of March 2020, and 40,801 people around the world. Emarates operates in more than 150 locations in 80 different countries and has a fleet of about 300 aircrafts. Emirates was created in March 1985 in collaboration with the royal family of Dubai. The first two aircrafts were donated to the company by Pakistan International Airlines.
Corporate Communication
In today’s operations of any firm, corporate communication is a valuable instrument. It is the only method for diverse organs and persons, both internal and external, to comprehend one another in order to create harmony. Several factors must be present for business communication to be successful, including honesty, concentration, and congruence. An organization that is well-organized and has resources focused on precise pre-determined objectives is considerably more likely to succeed than one whose administration is riddled with inconsistencies and uncertainty. The concept appeared in the United States in the beginning of twentieth century and was conideb by journalist Ivy Lee. Corporate communication is one of the most important strategic instruments for modern organizations. It is utilized by managers to persuade, motivate, and raise awareness among both internal and external audiences. Emirates is a superb example of a company that has successfully integrated corporate communication into its operations.
Importance of Corporate Communication
Corporate communication in modern business environment that is highly digitalized defines the success of a company and has several advantages:
- It is used for raising brand recognition throug employee involvement for external communication with customers. Companies in the past use traditional marketing strategies for this purpose, which is less effective in modern business.
- Corporate communication also ensures better employee participation through building trust and engagement. These aspects, in turn, allow managers to achieve better performance, increase job satisfaction and employee retention.
- It ensures knowledge exchange and inter-departmnet interaction, which is the basis for innovation development and implementation.
- More effecive coprorate communication lead to better employee productivity, which results in lower costs and higher profits.
Barriers to Establishment of Corporate Communication at Emirates Airways
In the context of Emirates Airways, certain hurdles to the formation of a corporate communication process may exist:
- There may be challenges with a lack of enough financial resources throughout the corporate communication change initiative.
- There may be a barrier due to a lack of communication system inside the firm, which can lead to unwillingness of employees to implement relevant changes.
- Insufficient employee competencies and limited knowledge of new systems and technologies can hinder the transformation process.
- There may be a scarcity of managers or leaders to conduct staff training courses.
- A lack of organizational structure throughout the transformation process may also be a significant hindrance.
Application of Corporate communication by Emirates Airways
In the public relations team
The Emirates Airline has used a variety of corporate communication methods to ensure healthy and long-term external interactions. The Emirates Corporation is headquartered in Dubai, has both local and global airline stations: the firm’s market segment is therefore the inhabitants of the United Arab Emirates as well as the populace of the world where it has customers, with the public relations department being in charge. To reach this market, the industry’s PR department conducts interviews with key executives, hosts journalists, arranges media events, and distributes news.
Team in charge of events
Emirates hosts in-house events to raise brand publicity and foster positive relationships with third parties. The goal of Emirates’ events unit is to manage exceptional events and exhibits with the goal of marketing the Emirates brand with the refined touch that it is known for. This unit’s responsibilities include procuring and leasing local and international entertainers, choosing distinctive locations, designing and conceiving novel and communicative events, and finally executing events with a communication focus. Gala evenings, roadshows, workplace and new lounge premieres, special events, banquets, and many other events are held by the events section.
Merchandise team
In Emirates, the unit is known as Group Merchandise. It has grown from a marketing division to a stand-alone organization with marketplace responsibilities. Its purpose is to aid and support various Emirates Group brands that have been identified as the best for improving the corporation’s cost savings and productivity. The merchandising team is in responsible of the Emirates Official Store, monitors all legal obligations for the Emirates Group, and handles product design for promotional, retailing, and wholesale clients. The division works closely with the sponsorship and events units to ensure that Emirates-branded items fit the departments’ communication goals. The merchandising team uses traditional products like pencils, mugs, and key-holders, as are more nostalgic items like travel bags and fashion collections.
Sponsorship committee
Despite the fact that Emirates is a brand in the aviation business, it is undoubtedly the most well-known firm in sports, particularly football. The company has been at the vanguard of club sponsorship in the English Football League, the country’s most successful league. It has funded a number of clubs and is the proprietor of some of the world largest most opulent and well-designed sports arenas. Its sponsorship is not confined to the football field; it also includes other sports and teams.
Organizational Structure
International communication has become ubiquitous due to advancements in technology and organizational structure. This tranformations has an impact on Emirates as a international airlines.The company has a slender corporate structure, under which the airline President is responsible for the whole aviation and is reported directly to the Firm’s executive deputy chairperson. The President also oversees the central carrier operations, which includes logistics, aviation industry, as well as vacation operations. Since its inception, Emirates Airline’s organizational structure has remained mostly unchanged (Emirates, 2022). Only a few members of the senior management team have changed in recent years (Emirates, 2022). A small group of executives has controlled the company since its inception. The fact that one CEO was responsible for the bulk of Emirates’ operations minimized bloated bureaucracy.
In today’s corporate environment, the ability to make rapid judgments is critical. One of the most important aspects of this skill, according to Uhl-Bien et al. (2020), is good communication among teams and supervisors. Messages are transmitted considerably quicker inside Emirates’ workplace since rigorous communication rules are not necessary, as they are in the majority of firms. This advantage allows the company to complete tasks more quickly without additional tome and energy losses. Another important aspect of Emirates Airline’s corporate structure is how it handles conflicts (Emirates, 2022). The organization has a team-based approach, with each problem being allocated to a different team.
Cultural Diversity
Emirates hires people from all around the globe. This method makes a substantial contribution to workplace cultural diversity. Furthermore, Emirates does not believe that a person’s ethnic or racial background has an impact on their professional ability. As a result, foreign workers are sought for all positions within the organization, including pilots, cabin crew, administrators, and customer service (Emirates, 2022). There are various reasons why the corporation adopted this approach that are worth analyzing. Primarily, Emirates intends to serve a diverse worldwide community of countries, ethnicities, and cultures (Emirates, 2022). The company’s ability to service this group is enhanced by having a diverse team (Uhl-Bien et al., 2020). The second explanation has to do with organizational behavior theory (Driskill, 2018). Companies have realized that hiring a diverse staff boosts the chances of coming up with innovative ideas that may help them gain a competitive edge (Uhl-Bien et al., 2020). Furthermore, looking at a problem from a different cultural perspective might result in significantly different outcomes.
For more than a decade, the UAE has seen a steady increase in the number of international workers. Non-Emiratis made up approximately 50 % of the workers in the 1970s (Warner & Moonesar, 2019). This figure has risen to about 90% in recent years and continues to rise (Warner & Moonesar, 2019). Because of its socio-political goals, the UAE government encourages this tendency. Without proper workplace diversity, this aim will be hard to attain. The rationale for Emirates work’s diversity of cultures might be to fit with national goals.
Motivational theories
The adoption of Maslow theory of needs by Emirates Airways stresses career development opportunities by exposing employees to a range of problems and tough circumstances so that they may uncover their unique skills. The corporation, for example, provides outstanding accreditations and jobs to its personnel in order to boost their self-esteem (Mira et al., 2019). Social requirements are another important aspect of putting the theory into practice. Many cultural initiatives and companies involved under specific commands communicate with one another at Emirates Airlines to meet the needs of social contact and safety. In order to provide long-term protection and satisfaction, Emirates Airlines has created a sophisticated pension plan. Finally, physiological requirements include paying Emirates Airlines’ workers a fair wage and providing a pleasant working environment.
Emirates Airlines use two components of Herzberg theory. One is the hygiene elements, which encompass the interaction between the firm and its workers, as well as their managers, workplace culture, and co-worker interactions (Kondalkar, 2020). The other group is concerned with motivational factors like as advancement, achievement, responsibility, and the nature of the work, among others. In This case, Emirates Airlines prioritizes motivation over hygiene (Emirates, 2020). The dynamics of Herzberg’s theory at Emirates Airlines are shown in the figure.
Corporate Social Responsibility
Emirates is currently focusing on being responsible for the environment and reducing its negative impact on it. The Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) policy helps the company develop and implement initiatives to reduce flights while maintaining passenger comfort. The primary objective of the CSR adopted by Emirates is to reduce carbon emissions, which requires a reduction in the number of flights and using jet furl selectively. By effectively incorporating environmental impacts into their operations, airlines have been able to achieve reductions in emissions and engine-related pollutants. This approach enables airlines to maintain the comfort of their customers while maintaining an environmental balance.
Employee Personality and Job Satisfaction
The personality of an Emirates employee is determined by the job’s function and responsibilities. Cabin crew applicants, for example, are required to complete personality tests to verify that they are a fit for the position. All Emirates personnel have outstanding communication skills and are highly customer-oriented, since the company strives to be customer-centric at all times (Emirates, 2022). They are patient, tolerant, friendly, and amiable — essential personality attributes for anybody who interacts with clients (Emirates, 2022). When it comes to workplace communication, Emirates workers are eager to share fresh ideas and proposals. As a result, they are not reluctant to speak openly about working circumstances.
Employees frequently call to provide feedback on current employee job satisfaction concerns. Despite the lack of statistical data on employee perceptions of working conditions, the types of requests made by workers may give crucial information. Cabin crew workers, for example, have lately approached the company’s board to seek more rest hours between flights (Emirates, 2022). As can be seen, this problem is not as serious as low pay or poor living conditions. It indicates that employee satisfaction is strong, yet the organization is constantly open to new ideas.
Need for Corporate Communication Plan
The Needs
In relation to the necessity for a Corporate communication plan in Emirates Airlines, the company should focus on building better consumer trust and enhancing customer experience by providing a variety of services. Many customers, as well as companies, have experienced challenges as a result of the recent pandemic; for example, they are afraid to go outside of the nation for fear of infection. Emirates Airlines’ management has to develop a Corporate Communication Plan for the company in order to improve customer experiences by delivering sanitary services on flights. As a result, the criteria listed below prompted the creation of a corporate communication strategy. Consumer tastes are changing- In the instance of Emirates Airlines, the COVID-19 problem has had a detrimental impact on the airline’s business. The lack of a competitive edge and customer trust has necessitated the implementation of a Corporate Communication Plan in Emirates Airlines’ business operations. The airline’s position influenced companies significantly, which resulted in increased operating costs and decreased profit margins.
Foreign flight limits- In essence, political and legal issues such as international flight restrictions and safety laws and guidelines have forced the airline to make modifications to its corporate communication strategy. The demographics of aviation services vary across the world. It is a chance for Emirates to boost its competitiveness in the aviation business (The Emirates Group, 2021). In order to overcome detrimental impact of the pandemic factors, ithe airline needs to discover and install technologies that would allow customers to get contactless services. The airline must devise a mechanism in which passengers do not come into touch with any staff members. In addition, new technologies and systems are needed to monitor and scan viral symptoms among travelers so that protective measures may be taken during flights.
The Plan
As previously said, initiatives should be modified in support of investors, particularly end-users of this industry’s trademarks, to prevent crises of consumers switching to other organizations that provide these products. This is made feasible by using developing innovations, such as the usage of Digital devices by final consumers to obtain the company’s products; customer assistance services are available around the clock any day. This is the stage at which new ideas are critical. This method include using social networks like as Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, and LinkedIn, all of which are only a few phone clicks away. Customers browsing for the greatest value airfares, monitoring flight schedule, and reserving hotels should all be part of the plan of action so that the airline and its staff have access to timely and reliable data.
During the ticketing system, the consumer should be given a range of data to facilitate early engagement. A code for verification upon boarding the aircraft at the terminal should be issued to the consumer’s phone. To save time on human verification, it is advised that the code be recognized digitally. Changes are needed in the part of accommodating diverse mobile device dimensions, according to their homepage. In order to maximize the consumer base, these footprints should be accepted on smaller smart phones as well as all other phone sizes. Instead of simply allowing certain phones, such as smartphones, it could be improved so that individuals with more basic phones may still use the same services. Clients should get computerized communications that are as precise to their needs as possible. To prevent delivering unnecessary information to clientele, it is necessary for clients to have access to distinct identities.
Summary of Key Points
In conclusion, Emirates Airlines is one of the world’s major air transport firms, as well as a very famous Middle East airline. The corporation has been a global leader in aviation development in the field of services, innovation, and luxury, with operations across the globe. Additional crewmembers, the acquisition of more aircraft, extending corporate responsibility to workers, building new safety alliances, and extending the worldwide routing path will all help the firm grow to a greater market share. The multi-cultural background of Emirates’ personnel, as well as organizational culture and leadership, are also discussed. Therefore, the firm has a distinctive organizational culture that is shaped by internationalization. Employee empowerment and good leadership appeared as intervening elements in dealing with diversity. Leadership and inspiration resulted in teamwork, management culture, and business ambition.
A communication strategy is necessary to help the process, which includes accomplishing set goals linked to reliability and effectiveness, client relevance, productivity, customer base, and price. Surprisingly, Emirates Airline is able to retain its market leadership while increasing customer engagement. As a result, it can be argued that Emirates’ corporate communication strategy is successful and well-managed, serving as a suitable example for any company grappling with internal and external communication. Regardless of its size, little or big, the company needs to alter its communication crisis management protocol to combat the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic and the market’s rising fuel prices in order to satisfy the expectations of the business world.
Key Recommendation
References
Driskill, G. W. (2018). Organizational culture in action: a cultural analysis workbook. New York, Routledge.
Emirates. (2022) About us. Web.
Kondalkar, V.G. (2020) Organizational behaviour. New Age.
Mira, M.S., Yap, V.C. and Chan, K.T. (2019) ‘The impact of human resource practices on employees’ performance through job satisfaction at Saudi Ports authority based on the Assumption of Maslow Theory’, International Journal of Engineering and Advanced Technology, 8(5), pp. 245-253. Web.
The Emirates Group. The Emirates Group annual report, 2020-2021. Web.
Uhl-Bien, M., Piccolo, R. F. and Schermerhorn Jr, J. R. (2020). Organizational behavior. Hoboken, John Wiley & Sons.
Warner, R. and Moonesar, I.A. (2019) Diversity within Diversity Management. Emerald Publishing Limited.