Managerial Problem: Emirates Airlines During COVID-19 Research Paper

Introduction

The research was aiming to look at the impacts that COVID-19 has had on the airline industry, taking the case of Emirates Airlines. The following were the objectives of the research.

1. How COVID-19 has impacted the nature of work among the employees of Emirates Airlines.
2. How the pandemic has influenced the job stability of employees in the airline industry.
3. Whether the employees needed to work remotely or not.
4. How the employees can describe the work from their perspective.
5. To find out whether the workers experienced psychological pressure due to remote work.

Emirates Airlines

Emirates Airlines has become one of the companies, which are proliferating in the contemporary airline industry. It is a state-owned corporation based in Dubai, United Arab Emirates (Emirates, n.d). Since 1985, the company has shown excellence in service provision to customers, thereby receiving over 400 internal awards (Emirates, n.d). It has a large customer base, both nationally and internationally. It is one of the companies that provide service in more than 100 destinations in Europe, the Middle East, the Far East, Africa, Asia, Australia, and North America.

It is a large corporation in the Middle East and it currently operates over 3600 flights in one week from Dubai where its hub is located to the rest of the 6 continents and over 100 destinations (Emirates, n.d). By revenue, it is the second-largest company in the world. It has expanded its operations where it also carried out a mixed fleet of Airbus and Boeing with a number of over 230 aircraft. The vision statement of Emirates Airlines is to “To be the leader in aviation innovation, environment protection as well as the best airline in the world with a global network of coverage thanks to its strict compliance with flight safety, responsibility, reliability, product and service quality, and competitiveness while making travel without borders to change the lives for the better” (HealthTechArena 2020. para. 1). The Emirates airline’s mission is to “deliver the highest standards of service quality to support business in the air transportation industry and to achieve complete customer satisfaction through innovation and refinement of service levels” (HealthTechArena 2020, para. 2).

Most businesses worldwide have suffered from the crisis amidst the global COVID-19 pandemic. The airline industry has not been spared from the flaws of this particular pandemic, mainly from reducing the number of passengers (Serrano & Kazda, 2020). This has been due to government regulations to contain the spread of the virus among individuals. Emirates, as a company, has also suffered from the pandemic.

How Data was Collected

To examine the impacts of COVID-19 in the airline industry, data collection was a necessity to achieve the objectives that were set for this particular research. Data was collected using a survey and analyzed according to the responses. Primary data was directly obtained from the employees of Emirates Airlines which was administered online. Survey data questions were contained in the samples where 20 responses were received and analyzed.

Key Results

The following were the key results that were obtained from the survey data.

1. All employees responded that COVID-19 has affected their work’s nature, for example, financial impacts as most people are not traveling.
2. Out of the 20 respondents, it was revealed that 10 (50% of them) agreed that the pandemic has affected their job stability, while other 10 (50%) said that the pandemic has not impacted it.
3. Out of the 20 responses, they all needed to work remotely.
4. Most of the employees ascertained that they work remotely as it saved their time and concluded that this type of work will one day be the future.
5. Out of the 20 responses, 9 employees (45%) revealed that they experienced psychological pressure, while 11 (55%) stated that they did not have the same experience.

Recommendations

1. To increase the number of respondents in the survey.
2. To use other methods of data collection such as interviews for clarification.

Research Plan and Research Questions

1. Identifying and clarifying the topic
2. Formulating the research questions and objectives
3. Identifying the company to study
4. Collecting enough materials for data collection
5. Carrying out the actual study
6. Recording and analyzing data collected in the field.
7. Presenting the data
8. Writing the report of the research.

Research Questions

1. How has COVID-19 affected the nature of your work
2. Has the pandemic influenced your job stability?
3. Did you need to work remotely?
4. How would you describe the field of work from a distance and what is it from a positive aspect?
5. Did you experience psychological pressure due to remote work?

Methodology and Research Process

Data Collection Methods

The data collection method that was used is the survey. This was administered to the participants through an online platform, where they were required to respond to the research questions. There are various reasons for this particular data collection method to be chosen. The first one is that due to the pandemic outbreak, the survey would be most efficient as there have been various directives from the authorities for limiting face-to-face interaction. This would be difficult if interviewing methods were used for collecting data. The other reason for choosing survey data collection is due to the time allocated for this research. The online survey was efficient as the responses are given were recorded as fast as possible because it was system generated, which increased the accuracy of the obtained results. Lastly, some of the respondents were still working, thus an online survey was efficient and worked well. This was to avoid any inconveniences and also to increase the level of confidentiality. No names of the employees were revealed in the survey data collection.

Data Sources

The data sources that were contacted in this research were six which were related to the topic of study. Most of them were contacted through the website of Emirates Airline and other relevant sources that would be useful for the study. This was done before embarking on the research so that it was possible to identify the kind of information needed for the research and the right questions that would assist in collecting data.

How the Research Reliability, Ethics, and Quality has Enhanced

The reliability of the data was enhanced by using the employees of Emirates Airlines. This was to ensure that actual results of the current situation of the company were dealt with in greater insight. Moreover, the survey method ensured that the actual results were obtained, which made it reliable. The names of the employees were not to be included in any case so that confidentiality and ethical concerns were upheld. The quality of the research was enhanced through a comprehensive approach of analyzing data and collection using the survey method.

Variables

Dependent Variables

The dependent variable for this particular research was COVID-19.

Independent Variables

The independent variables for the research were:

1. Nature of work
2. Job stability
3. Psychological well-being

Data Analysis and Results

The data were analyzed through a survey administered to the employees for responses. The key results were as follows:

1. All employees responded that COVID-19 has affected their work’s nature regarding its financial side, as represented in Figure 1 below.
   

   

2. Out of the 20 respondents, it was revealed that 10 (50%) them agreed that the pandemic had affected their job stability, while other 10 (50%) said that the pandemic has not impacted their job stability as shown below
   

   

3. Out of the 20 responses, they all needed work remotely.
   

   

4. Most of the employees ascertained that they work remotely as it saved their time and concluded that remote work will one day be the future of work.
5. Out of the 20 responses, 9 (45%) revealed that they experienced psychological pressure, while 11 (55%) revealed that they did not experience any psychological pressure as shown below

   1. 

Key Findings

From this particular research, it was found that the pandemic affected the nature of work for every employee in Emirates Airline. Moreover, a good number of employees revealed that the pandemic has impacted their job stability. This means that the pandemic affected them negatively and the whole company. Due to the impacts that the pandemic was having on various sectors, all employees agreed that there was a need to work remotely. Furthermore, most of the employees experienced psychological problems while working remotely (Tore, 2020). It can be revealed that generally, the pandemic negatively impacted the general work environment of Emirates Airlines, especially the employees. From the findings, no deviations from the objectives were found.

Hypotheses

• HI: COVID-19 pandemic has negatively impacted the nature of work in Emirates Airline
• H2: COVID-19 has negatively affected the job stability of employees in Emirates Airline
• H3: Due to the pandemic, most employees had the desire to work remotely.
• H4: COVID-19 caused psychological pressure on employees working remotely.

Causal Model

A one-way Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) test could be used in analyzing the data collected. Similarly, a simple regression model could be implemented to present the problem. This is because it involves one dependent variable which is the COVID-19 pandemic and psychological issues, work stability, and the nature of work as the independent variables. The correlation in this research could be between COVID-19 and the general work environment in Emirates Airlines. The sampling frame will be the employees of the organization.

Conclusions

This research can be used by Emirates Airlines to improve the work environment during the COVID-19 pandemic. Employees are still facing issues with the company despite the efforts that have been put in place to ensure that they continue with their work. The research has identified the loopholes within the employment sector, which should be handled with care to improve employee service during a hard time during the COVID-19 pandemic. Hence, the initial assumptions that were made before this research are correct. COVID-19 generally has affected the nature of work and job stability, and employees in remote environments are facing psychological issues.

Recommendations

In future research, the sample used in the survey should be increased to improve the accuracy of the data. The current research used only 20 responses, which implies that the results may be limited, especially when it comes to accuracy. Another recommendation is that the other methods of data collection are used, for instance, interviewing. This will help in the collection of more data so that analysis can be done as per the findings

Limitations

The advantages of this research are that it helped identify the loopholes that Emirates Airlines should address in remote working. Similarly, it is the first research, meaning that the information can be further duplicated to fit other organizations. On the other hand, the research had various disadvantages, such as a reduction in revenues and laying off of employees. The respondents would be based on the information they give because of little supervision when presenting their responses.

References

Emirates. (n.d). Emirates then and now. Web.

Serrano, F., & Kazda, A. (2020). Business continuity during pandemics–lessons learned about airport personnel. Transportation Research Procedia, 51, 56-66. Web.

Suau-Sanchez, P., Voltes-Dorta, A., & Cugueró-Escofet, N. (2020). An early assessment of the impact of COVID-19 on air transport: Just another crisis or the end of aviation as we know it?Journal of Transport Geography. 1-25. Web.

Tore, O. (2020). President of Emirates outlines the impact of COVID-19 on aviation industry. Web.

Kamel, D. (2020). Emirates taking ‘aggressive’ measures to tackle COVID-19 impact after Annual Profit Surges 21%.Web.

HealthTechArena. (2020). Emirates Airlines mission statement 2019. Web.