Running head: British Airways

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British Airways Swipe Car Debacle Christopher Michael Worthington MGT351 ~ Organizational Innovation and Change Colorado State University ~ Global Campus Dr. Demuth, Ph.D. March 6th, 2015

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Introduction The case study, British Airways swipe car debacle, British Airways (BA) introduced an electronic clocking in system that would record employees work start and finish times for their work day. The decision was made by management to introduced swipe card but, lack proper and adequate consultation with the affected staff members (Palmer, Dunford, & Akin, 2009). As a result, the BA staff held a twenty-four hour wildcat strike which caused BA to cancel its services to over 10,000 passengers stranded during the onset of their busy season.

The lack of change management is apparent as management did not communicate thoroughly and reassure staff there would not be turn-overs and pay cuts. The changes in perspective, such as organizational development, change management, sense making, from the strikes are key issues to understand. Because all employees who operate the airline’s frontline employees were unintentionally not involved, the organizational plan to increase in efficiency by implementing the time card swipe system, resulted in a disaster, an employee walkout.

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Changes at British Airways British Airways mission, strategies and goals of management, in regard to a swipe card introduction, was not in parallel with their employees’ expectations in terms of proper communication. Before introducing such a system management should have told employees that their change outcome was not to intentionally going to affect their work and family’s schedules.

The objectives of management should have gone hand in hand with as many staff members as possible informing them in order to make the