Leading Change in a VUCA World: Qatar Airways Company Report (Assessment)

In the circumstances of rapidly changing requirements to leadership and management in modern organisations, I have prepared this report for you to consider. The report covers three major issues:

• the analysis of the suggestions for leadership and the management of strategic change in a VUCA environment;
• the investigation and evaluation of the company’s change leadership capability, including our organisation;
• the recommendations for choosing and developing VUCA’s change leadership potential in institutions, including Qatar Airways;
• the description of obstacles to implementing VUCA.

I hope that my report will provide a sufficient explanation of the issues mentioned above, and with its help, you will be able to make some critical strategic decisions concerning the movement of our organisation towards a VUCA-based development.

Implications for Leadership and the Management of Strategic Change in a VUCA Environment

An abbreviation VUCA that was coined in 1998 became the embodiment of modern business affairs in the world. VUCA stands for “volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous,” and the implementation of these principles in a company poses many requirements to leaders and managers (George 2017). Traditional methods which have been successfully practised for many decades are not sufficient to reach the best outcomes in the modern world. Therefore, scholars and specialists in the sphere of business perform a careful analysis of the contemporary needs and possibilities of organisations that want to gain worldwide success.

Scholars emphasise that adapting to VUCA requirements is not an easy matter (George 2017; Hall & Rowland 2016; Rodriguez & Rodriguez 2015). However, they unanimously admit that without such an adjustment, any company is doomed to failure (Codreanu 2016; George 2017; Johansen & Euchner 2013). Therefore, it is crucial to get acquainted with the determinants of VUCA and do our best to conform to their requirements.

Volatility is the first component of VUCA, and it encompasses unexpected and multi-layered changes in social politics, economy, and geopolitics (Codreanu 2016). Volatility expresses the difficulty of establishing and explaining the innovations that have occupied the place of certain and stable state of things that prevailed in the past (Codreanu 2016). Therefore, it is no longer enough to own experience and have a beneficial practice to survive in the current business world. As Codreanu (2016) remarks, past achievements can no longer help in defining the present and future goals. People tend to base their decisions on desires and emotions rather than securities and principles. Rodriguez and Rodriguez (2015) mention that even if a person is highly qualified and performs one’s duties promptly and diligently, there is a high possibility that he or she will be replaced when company wants to save money and finds someone who will do the same job at lower.

The second element of VUCA is uncertainty that may be encountered in any sphere of social or personal life (Rodriguez & Rodriguez 2015). According to Codreanu (2016, p. 32), the possibility to predict the future is “more than uncertain.” This feature of modern business presupposes that whereas people have clear goals, they may choose the methods of reaching these objectives in an emotional way. As a result, it is highly difficult to maintain long-term promises. According to Rodriguez and Rodriguez (2015), the only thing business partners can rely on is their colleagues’ ethical conduct.

The complexity is the next component of VUCA, and it is related to the fact that there is quite a loose connection between the past, present, and future. Every sphere of modern society is complex, which leads to a possibility of accepting as many ideas as possible. Because of a great number of options, it is difficult to gain clarity of decisions. (Rodriguez & Rodriguez 2015). Other things that add to complexity are the increased mobility of individuals all over the world and the intensified use of technology (Codreanu 2016). The complexity results in the organisations’ inability to identify the causes of events and find the ways of solving the problems.

The fourth element of VUCA – ambiguity – is concerned with the existence of too many options, which inevitably impacts the core values of companies, people’s ethical standards, and the performance of people in the society (Rodriguez & Rodriguez 2015). The environment’s ambiguity appears as an outcome of the first three VUCA features (Codreanu 2016). According to Codreanu (2016), the fourth VUCA component causes the inability to make clear solutions and results in wasting time on trying the variety of possibilities.

Taking into account the complexity of the problems that are faced by organisations in the VUCA world, it is necessary to come up with the ways of overcoming the difficulties. The first thing that should be considered in this connection is the role that leaders and managers play in dealing with strategic change in the VUCA environment. Bob Johansen, who was the first to have an idea of viewing VUCA as a possibility of positive change, suggests the following approach to turning the challenges presented by VUCA into opportunities. Volatility in his perspective yields to vision, uncertainty – to understanding, complexity – to clarity, and ambiguity – to agility (Johansen & Euchner 2013, p. 10). Johnansen mentions that the major requirement of the VUCA world in the nearest future will be concerned with the changes in leadership skills (Johansen & Euchner 2013).

He predicts that clarity will become the most significant managerial skill, but he mentions that it is not an easy task to get clarity right (Johansen & Euchner 2013). With the help of clarity, managers will be able to motivate their employees and keep them dedicated. As for the leaders, Johansen considers their ability to employ “commons creating” and reach a “shared asset” as the most beneficial feature (Johansen & Euchner 2013, p. 11). Apart from that, Johansen emphasises agility as a feature that can conquer ambiguity. As he remarks, one has “to be an athlete to thrive” in the VUCA environment (Johansen & Euchner 2013, p. 10). For modern leaders, there may be no choice whether or not to be mentally and physically fit. According to Johansen (Johansen & Euchner 2013), such fitness is a necessity for leaders.

Johansen is not the only one who draws attention to agility as the key feature of successful leaders. Hall and Rowland (2016) define agility as a feature that allows leaders to reach the highest performance in professional dimension. The higher the agility is, the better results the leader can gain. The one who uses agility as the key strategy demonstrates excellent performance and results. Such a leader is able to take large-scale assignments and implement them in new areas. Most of all, according to Hall and Rowland (2016), agility helps to predict and adapt changing tendencies that have impact on the company. As a result, an organisation can reach its best results if its leader strives for agility and dedicates efforts to keep his employees motivated to work hard for the mutual result.

Johansen and Voto (2014) outline ten skills having which allows the leader to reach competitive advantage in a confusing world of VUCA. These skills are the maker instinct, clarity, dilemma flipping, immersive learning ability, bio-empathy, constructive depolarising, quiet transparency, rapid prototyping, smart mob organising, and commons creating (Johansen & Voto 2014). Out of these ten features, Johansen and Voto (2014) highlight the first five as the most significant ones. The maker instinct is defined as the inner desire to create or grow something. While the urge to build is not a new notion, the possibility to put together the efforts of many makers is an innovation that works as a highly productive element. With the help of the maker instinct, leaders can create change and come up with innovations. Clarity helps leaders to look behind the contradictions and notice the future possibilities that are not visible to others. Leaders communicate their objectives with the help of clarity and use flexibility to reach these goals (Johansen & Voto 2014). Whenever the challenges presented by the VUCA world seem not to have any solution, the skill of dilemma flipping may be applied by a leader. In such a way, even though the problem is not solved, it may be divided among several people or teams, and its complexity will gradually disappear. Immersive learning ability is useful as it allows leaders to become actively involved in a variety of environments and gain unique experience. Finally, bio-empathy is defined by Johansen and Voto (2014) as the leader’s ability to arrange work according to the rules of nature and in a way that will not harm the environment.

Thus, although working in a VUCA environment is not an easy task, many suggestions are made by specialists to help leaders outline their strategy and make it as advantageous as possible. Agility is emphasised as the crucial feature for a VUCA-world leader. Other important skills include clarity, ability to learn and create, and willingness to be environmentally friendly.

Change Leadership Capability in Qatar Airways

Sarkar (2016) outlines the following features of a successful organisation:

• solid business foundation;
• the ability to respond promptly;
• flexibility;
• promotion and support of innovations;
• managing diversity at all levels;
• change management;
• market intelligence;
• productive cooperation with all stakeholders – clients, employees, shareholders, suppliers, and the society.

In order to investigate whether Qatar Airways Company has the mentioned features and to evaluate its change leadership, it is necessary to analyse the current leadership type and structure of the organisation. According to Soni (2016), Qatar Airways can boast great success in many countries by providing excellent services. However, Soni (2016) also mentions that Qatar Airways Company is undergoing a restructuring process in order to implement innovative technologies and improve its leadership and management strategies. Therefore, it is quite possible to say that the organisation has a strong desire to enforce change leadership. If to compare the company’s features to those defined as successful by Sarkar (2016), it appears that it has all the necessary elements constituting a profitable business.

First of all, it has a strong business foundation. The company has been operating for only nearly two decades, but it has reached enormous popularity due to a number of exclusive features and services it suggests to its customers. Also, Qatar Airways Company is known to provide quick response in case if anything happens or a customer is dissatisfied with something (Soni 2016). The flexibility of the organisation cannot be doubted. It is not opposed to changing something if the expected outcomes bring benefits. Probably the most vivid feature that Qatar Airways Company owns is its support of innovation (Soni 2016). The company’s planes are equipped with the most modern and comfortable technological achievements. Akbar Al Baker, the organisation’s Group Chief Executive, takes care to provide the clients with the most advantageous opportunities (About Qatar Airways 2017). Qatar Airways Company constantly works on opening new destinations and arranges the highest employee performance.

Managing diversity is also one of Qatar Airways Company’s features. The management makes sure to offer a variety of options for each potential customer. There is a system of discounts and bonuses for regular clients. The organisation does its best to arrange an individual approach to everyone. Another thing the company can boast it its high level of market intelligence. In Qatar Airways, we know perfectly what people want and know how to provide clients with these opportunities (About Qatar Airways 2017). In comparison with its biggest competitors, Qatar Airways Company has a number of advantages: it has a high number of destinations, its accident level is rather low, and its customers’ loyalty is great.

What concerns the collaboration with its stakeholders Qatar Airways Company has it arranged at the highest level. It takes care of its employees, clients, suppliers, and stakeholders. It is of high importance for the organisation to keep on good terms with everyone they cooperate because the quality of their relationships impacts the future opportunities the company might have.

Although Qatar Airways Company already has fantastic achievements, its management team realises the need for change in order to increase its possibilities and reach more success in the VUCA world. Therefore, the organisation is integrating a new information technology system to improve its performance levels and increase client satisfaction (Soni 2016). An example of change management is the introduction of online check-in options and flight reservations. Also, the company has started using such information systems as enterprise resource planning, transaction processing system, and customer relationship management. With the help of these options, Qatar Airways Company became able to improve its internal and external productivity (Soni 2016). However, in spite of having implemented all the mentioned features, the company is still in need of other changes since it is the ability and willingness to change that enables any organisation to survive in the competitive business world, especially in the modern VUCA environment.

One of the most important factors on which an organisation’s leadership change capability depends is the style of leadership it has. There are several kinds of leadership that are preferred in different organisations depending on their goals and mission. In transactional leadership, a system of rewards and punishment is used (Sarkar 2016). Transformational leadership presupposes a high degree of understanding between the leader and his subordinates. In servant leadership, the leader’s role is to empower employees. Authentic leadership deals with ethical issues as a significant constituent of good decision making. As Sarkar (2016) remarks, the kind of government that combines the most positive features is the responsible leadership. The central point of such style is the collaboration a leader arranges between himself and his team. Therefore, responsive leadership is better than the more traditional forms because the latter do not enable any exchange between the leader and subordinates (Sarkar 2016). Such leadership style is closely related to the company’s corporate social accountability.

When a responsible leader implements some elements of transformational style, he achieves a high degree of employee encouragement, sets a high level of performance goals, and promotes his subordinates’ creative thinking (Sarkar 2016). A responsible leader who uses a servant leadership method puts his employees’ interests on the first place rather than his own ones. Under such circumstances, a leader will empower the subordinates and increase their dedication and creativity (Sarkar 2016). Since creativity is one of the crucial factors in the VUCA environment, it is necessary for a responsible leader to borrow some methods from the servant method. When a responsible leader employs the methods of authenticity style, he can avert fraud and guarantee the subordinates’ flexibility and agility. Such an approach allows the leader to listen to employees’ opinions and integrate the best of them in the final decision (Sarkar 2016). Several examples from the past such as the lessons from Enron (2001) and Satyam Computer (2009) indicate that the leaders’ ethical responsibility and integrity are of utmost importance when it comes to maintaining the success of their companies (Sarkar 2016). Therefore, responsible leadership establishes good relationships between the leader, employees, customers, and stakeholders. Since Qatar Airways Company has chosen responsive leadership, it is possible to say that it has a great capability of dealing with the VUCA environment.

Apart from choosing the most beneficial leadership style, Qatar Airways Company outlined nine core roles of strategic leadership that help to make the process of implementing innovations easier. These functions include:

1. navigation: leaders have to deal with problems promptly and clearly not to miss the best opportunities;
2. strategist: a leader should establish a set of objectives and strategies that are coordinated with the company’s vision;
3. entrepreneur: Qatar Airways Company leaders have to recognise and use the opportunities for original products and services;
4. mobilizer: a leader is responsible for creating and regulating resources and capabilities and aligning them with the stakeholders to fulfil various tasks;
5. talent advocate: leaders perform the function of attracting, retaining, and promoting talents to guarantee the right skills and motives to meet the requirements of the business worlds;
6. captivator: leaders in Qatar Airways play the role of captivators by creating passion and commitment in order to reach the mutual objectives;
7. global thinker: Qatar Airways leaders are global thinkers because they assimilate information from a variety of sources to build a well-informed and diversified perspective which is used to improve the organisational performance;
8. change driver: managers and leaders in Qatar Airways Company perform the function of change drivers because they are responsible for creating the circumstances that promote embracing change within the company;
9. enterprise guardian: a leader acts as enterprise guardian because he guarantees the value for the shareholder through resolute decision making. A decision-making process that is efficient and effective promotes the organisation’s growth and development (Soni 2016).

With the help of these roles, Qatar Airways Company’s leaders are able to create and maintain a high level of customer loyalty, reduce costs, and reach the most effective results.

Another determinant of a company’s readiness to survive in the VUCA world is its human resource management. Johansen and Voto (2014) emphasise the responsibility of the human resources department and remark that the term has been unfairly shortened to just HR. In their opinion, HR managers are the ones who can predict a future perspective, align the employees with the innovations, and develop the new features of leadership that are needed for organisational change (Johansen & Voto 2014). HR leaders are believed to do much more than merely assessing people’s abilities within the traditional scope. These professionals can discern what features are the most significant in the employees and work on the development of these characteristics (Johansen & Voto 2014). In Qatar Airways Company, much attention is paid to the development of HR department. Specialists of this division constantly work on creating the best conditions for the employees and reaching the enhancement of employee performance and dedication. Taking into consideration the efforts of HR managers, it is quite possible to assert that Qatar Airways Company has got the necessary features to deal with the demands of the VUCA environment.

After performing a critical evaluation of change leadership capability in Qatar Airways Company, it is possible to make a conclusion that the organisation is ready to successfully operate in the conditions of the VUCA world. The major reason for such an opinion is that there is a well-developed system of strategies in the company that enables leaders to arrange the most effective collaboration between employees, customers, and stakeholders. The nine basic roles established for leaders in Qatar Airways help to build employee and customer devotion and bring the best outcomes for the organisation. The human resource management in the company takes care to predict the market situation and align the employees with the changes that appear in the business. Therefore, Qatar Airways Company is ready to implement the changes required by the VUCA environment. Still, it is necessary to make recommendations for choosing the capabilities and overcoming the barriers to their implementation.

Recommendations for the Selection and Development of VUCA Change Leadership Capabilities in Qatar Airways

Since VUCA is a complex notion, many leaders tend to deal with it as a whole rather than break it into components and manage each of them separately (Bennett & Lemoine 2014). However, scholars note that such an approach is wrong and cannot bring positive results. Therefore, Bennett and Lemoine (2014) suggest addressing each of the VUCA elements independently in order to reach the best opportunities for their business. To address volatility, they recommend employing agility. As Bennett and Lemoine (2014) note, leaders should aggressively direct resources towards developing the potential for adaptability.

To deal with uncertainty, information should be used. Companies that do not move beyond the already known information can neither collect new data nor view it from other perspectives (Bennett & Lemoine 2014). To cope with complexity, scholars recommend to employ restructuring. With its help, organisations can find the ways of matching their operations with the environmental complexities (Bennett & Lemoine 2014). Finally, to decrease ambiguity, experimentation is required. With the help of intelligent experimentation, leaders become able to establish what approaches are beneficial and in what situations the existing rules are not applicable anymore (Bennett & Lemoine 2014). Therefore, the first recommendation for the selection and development of VUCA change leadership capabilities in Qatar Airways Company is to arrange the opportunities for agility, information, restructuring, and experimentation.

Another suggestion is to concentrate on optimisation rather than exploration (Bartscht 2015). Scholars remark that it is difficult to predict the course of actions in the conditions of a volatile and uncertain environment. Therefore, it is recommended to pay attention to exploring the situation, which will enhance the leader’s situational perception. As a result, a company will obtain a good position in the VUCA world (Bartscht 2015). The recommendation given by Cook (2016) is related to culture. The scholar suggests cultivating culture to adjust to the VUCA environment. However, Cook (2016, p. 297) emphasises that a leader should be careful not to cause too much “permanence” in a fluctuating environment. When a culture is too strong, it becomes too difficult for it to adapt. Based on Cook’s (2016) research, the following recommendations may be given for Qatar Airways Company in regards to developing change leadership under the conditions of VUCA:

• it is necessary to promote creativity and innovation in the organisation;
• leaders should encourage employees to dedicate their mind and soul to what they are doing;
• it is necessary to put emphasis on leadership rather than management and apply collaborative methods of doing business;
• collaboration should be arranged at all levels: when dealing with colleagues, clients, and sometimes even competitors; with the help of it, productive and innovative ideas can be developed;
• leaders should carefully select the tools for creativity and innovation since they can improve the efficiency of creative attempts;
• cultural management may be employed to encourage creativity (Cook 2016).

Another set of recommendations concerns the HR department. Some specialists consider VUCA not to be closely related to human management. Gorsline (2016) remarks that there is not much relevance between VUCA and HR management. However, other scholars are of a different opinion. Horney (2016) emphasises the need for HR managers to promote VUCA among employees and outlines several steps in which they can do it. Horney’s (2016) suggestions may be used as recommendation for Qatar Airways Company’s adaptation to the VUCA environment:

1. Predict change by performing an HR agility audit. HR should perform a talent evaluation and an analysis of performance management. It is also crucial to consult with customer functions in order to establish what tasks are performed well and which ones need improvement.
2. Engender confidence in the changes required to survive in the VUCA environment. Managers should be given enough training and coaching to provide a better comprehension of how to behave in the new circumstances.
3. Initiate action to alter the philosophies, processes, and policies of HR. Old rules of HR management may not be suitable to apply in the new circumstances. Managers need to pay attention to all employees rather than only focus on full-time workers. Each member of the team may have valuable suggestions and approaches that should be taken into consideration.
4. Create an environment in which the HR specialists could think creatively about changes in HR policies and processes that may reinforce the company’s success in the VUCA world.
5. Assess the outcomes. HR managers need to evaluate how the innovations influence the organisation’s performance and what should be done to reach the best results and minimise the risks.

When making recommendations about change leadership capabilities, it is crucial to take into consideration the barriers to their implementation. The greatest obstacle is the unwillingness or inability of a leader to admit the need for change. In such case, the company will not develop in accordance with the VUCA requirements and will be doomed to failure. Another barrier is that an organisation may not be prepared to meet the changes presented by VUCA in terms of agility and restructuring. Horney (2016) defines the following barriers to implementing VUCA:

• a limited competency in strategic business;
• no alignment of the company’s objectives with employees’ expectations;
• the emphasis on compliance issues;
• disputes between local autonomy and corporate government;
• the insufficient credibility of HR with the senior management team;
• resistance to innovations;
• outdated methods and processes;
• inflexible information systems;
• the inadequate access to crucial data.

Other HR challenges have been outlined by Gandhi (2017). The first problem is communication since it is not always easy to express one’s goals clearly. Gandhi (2017) emphasises the significance of clarity and alignment of the company’s needs with people’s expectations. The next challenge is constant acclimatising and learning. Gandhi (2017) remarks that the VUCA environment is all about learning, developing, predicting, and adapting to the new circumstances. Therefore, companies that fail to correspond to these expectations cannot gain success. Another challenge is presented with automation and digitalisation (Gandhi 2017). Organisations have to realise that social media and technology have occupied a prominent place in people’s lives, and it is no longer acceptable to treat technology as something entirely detached from work. One more challenge is concerned with “reinventing the wheel” (Gandhi 2017, p. 4). HR practices and policies have to be realigned in order to arrange the most efficient conditions for improvement.

Such challenges and barriers may hinder the process of adapting to the VUCA world. Therefore, prior to initiating the process of adjusting to the VUCA environment, it is necessary to make sure that Qatar Airways Company does not have any of such problems. If any challenges are present to a great extent, it will be necessary to manage them before launching the process of adjustment.

Conclusion

The report is focused on the analysis of Qatar Airways Company’s readiness to adapt to the VUCA environment. VUCA (volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity) has become an inevitable part of the modern business world, and it presents many difficulties for the leaders whose job is to enhance their organisations’ productivity and not let them lose success. As it has been noted in the report, the process of adaptation to the VUCA environment is rather complicated. However, it is necessary to arrange the most favourable conditions within a company if a leader wants it not to lose customers’ interest and employees’ dedication. In Qatar Airways Company, there are all the necessary prerequisites that enable its leaders to work on the accommodation in the new business environment. The organisation’s leadership style makes it possible to put forward new ambitious goals and work on achieving them. In Qatar Airways, leaders perform a set of goals which enable them to know the situation both from the inside and outside. The company’s readiness to change is manifested through its self-assessment activities as well as the analysis of the competitors’ results. Whereas there are all the necessary conditions for adjusting the company’s policies and processes to the VUCA requirements, there are still some barriers to overcome. However, with the talented leadership team that Qatar Airways Company has got, the likelihood of its successful adaptation to change is rather high.

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