Premium Essay

Air Canada

In: Business and Management

Submitted By mariuml
Words 1590
Pages 7
Chapter 3 – Action, Personnel, and Cultural Controls

ACTION CONTROLS
Action controls are the most direct form of management control because they involve taking steps to ensure that employees act in the organization’s best interest by making their actions themselves the focus of control. Can be in 4 forms: behavioural constraints, preaction reviews, action accountability, and redundancy.

Behavioural Constraints * Are a “negative” form of action control. They make it difficult for employees to do things that should not be done – these constraints can be applied physically of administratively * Physical constraints – locks, computer passwords, limits on access to areas where valuable inventories and sensitive information are kept * Effective physical constraints are crucial especially due to increased data protection and privacy concerns faced by virtually all organizations that electronically store info about their clients, customers, patients, or citizens * Administrative constraints can also be used to place limits on an employee’s ability to perform all or a portion of specific tasks or actions – involves the restriction of decision making authority, separation of duties (internal control) * Physical and administrative constraints can be combined into what is known as proka-yokes designed to make the system foolproof – poka-yoke is a step built into a process to prevent deviation from the correct order of steps; that is, where a certain action must be completed before the next-step can be performed

Preaction reviews * Involve the scrutiny of the action plans of the employees being controlled * Reviewers can approve or disapprove the proposed actions, ask for modifications, or ask for a more carefully considered plan before granting final approval * Commonly done during planning and budgeting processes characterized by

Similar Documents

Free Essay

Air Canada

...Air Canada is Canada’s largest domestic and international full-service airline and the largest provider of scheduled passenger services in the domestic market, the transborder market and each of the Canada-Europe, Canada-Pacific, Canada-Caribbean/Central America and Canada-South America markets. Passenger transportation is the principal business of the Corporation and, in 2009, represented 87% of its total operating revenues. During 2009, Air Canada, together with Jazz, operated, on average, approximately 1,331 scheduled flights daily and carried almost 31 million passengers. In 2009, Air Canada and Jazz provided direct passenger air transportation to 156 destinations and, through commercial agreements with other unaffiliated regional airlines referred to as tier III carriers, to an additional 11 destinations, for a total of 167 direct destinations on five continents. The Corporation’s primary hubs are located in Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver and Calgary. Air Canada also operates an extensive global network in conjunction with its international partners. Air Canada is a founding member of the Star Alliance Network, the world’s largest airline alliance group. The Star Alliance Network includes 26 member airlines. Through its strategic and commercial arrangements with Star Alliance members, Air Canada is able to offer its customers access to approximately 1,077 destinations in 175 countries, as well as reciprocal participation in frequent flyer programs and use...

Words: 78010 - Pages: 313

Premium Essay

Air Canada

...Air Canada to overhaul maintenance software 1 Comment Greg Meckbach @itworldca Published: April 17th, 2008 The airline has signed a contract with Mxi Technologies of Ottawa to install Maintenix software, which will be hosted by a third party. Among other things, the software allows Air Canada to ensure qualified technicians are available before they schedule maintenance. Find out how it integrates with PeopleSoft When Air Canada technicians work on airplanes, they use several different legacy software packages that have been installed over the last 15 years. The systems don’t always talk to each other or the finance and inventory systems, so the Montreal-based airline has hired Mxi Technologies Ltd. of Ottawa to replace it. The companies announced this week Air Canada is scheduled to start installing Mxi’s Maintenix software next year. The companies did not disclose the total cost, though the contract is worth “multi millions of dollars,” said Hans Downer, Mxi’s executive vice-president for sales and support. Maintenix is designed to let maintenance, engineering and finance divisions share information, and Mxi claims this reduces repetitive tasks. “One of the benefits of the Mxi product is, all of this is integrated into a single system, gives us a single view and a single planning mechanism for our entire fleet,” said Steve Bogie, Air Canada’s program director for the software implementation. “It gets us off that legacy platform and puts us on to a Web platform...

Words: 742 - Pages: 3

Free Essay

Air Canada

...Canada 3000 was once considered to be the main alternative airline to Canada’s two national airlines, Air Canada and Canadian Airlines. They offered a comparative advantage to other airlines by offering low fares. In 2000, Canada 3000 decided it wanted to be in the same field as the national airlines, and attempted rapid expansion by acquiring Royal Aviation Inc. and Canjet Airlines. Their expansion strategy was to increase their market by purchasing already existing companies. This growth added many financial problems, resulting in major losses. This led to the companies bankruptcy as they were unable to cope with the new problems caused by the September 11th, 2001 Terrorist Attack. WestJet on the other hand, has become a major competition to Air Canada by sticking to their plan. WestJet’s business strategy was to be the lowest cots operator in the market specializing in short non-stop flights. Another key element of their business strategy which ties into their growth strategy is that they want maximum use of their aircrafts. Unlike Canada 3000, WestJet had a planned growth strategy that the company followed. They planned to grow by adding new frequently flown routes while maintain the already existing ones. They also hoped to initiate their inter-border business by expanding into the United States. A more steady expansion plan has allowed them to expand into a competitor against Air Canada. This is just one example of the competition Air Canada has to deal with. The...

Words: 969 - Pages: 4

Free Essay

Air Canada Case Study

...AIR CANADA Introduction: Air Canada was founded in 1937, it was privatized in 1989. After facing net losses from 1990-1993, entered into profits in 1994. It was a founding member of star alliance in 1997, which has 27 partners headquartered in Montreal. Air Canada’s mission was to connect Canada and the world. For this it followed an international growth strategy. Making partnerships with Lufthansa and united/continental, helped its growth strategy and connection mission. To reach the goals it followed a strategy involving engaging with customers, mainly focusing on passengers and products. Air Canada mainly depends on IT for their activities. The IT department of Air Canada was made of both recent applications and the back-end applications. In 2007, Air Canada introduced electronic boarding passes for the passengers and in 2009 it introduced iPhone and blackberry application which allows passengers to track flights, and also introduced a rebooking tool allowing the passengers to rebook the flights in case of emergency. For this in 1994, Air Canada made a seven-year contract with IBM. Dual strategic objectives and challenges: Along with IBM Air Canada selected telecom as its provider for telecommunication In 2003 Air Canada started to follow multiple-vendor strategy to get best services available in the market and to reduce cost. For that it selected operation SYS, a company which provides several applications’ which Air Canada need. But, dealing with multiple vendors...

Words: 660 - Pages: 3

Premium Essay

Air Canada

...History Canada was seeing as one the countries that are industrialized in the 1930s but didn’t have a national airline for the country but they did have a bush airline that were regional in the country at the time and the Canadian Pacific held part ownership in the Canadian Airways (CBC) The regional airlines were serving the transported mail and mining communities but the airline didn’t provide a service between the Atlantic and pacific oceans which made it hard for people to travel to these areas. In 1935 Mackenzie King came into power and he created the Transport department and Clarence Howe was appointed to be Air Canada architect and be the minister (CBC). Clarence Howe wanted to the airline to be put under the control of the government and he wanted it initially to be private enterprise to have a role in it. In 1936 Trans Canada Air has been legislated on this year and it was a Subsidiary of CNR and then it was turn to be owned by the federal government of the country (CBC). The Trans Canada Air lines have started their airline with only five million dollars and this help pay for the three airplanes that it was from the Canadian airways and they have hire executives that are from the U.S. airlines(cbc). In 1937 the Trans Canada Air has set forward on its inaugural flight and the flight between going to Seattle and Vancouver round trip would only cost $14.20(Cbc). Canadian Pacific gave an idea to the government for Canadian airways that it...

Words: 929 - Pages: 4

Free Essay

Air Canada

...Air Canada Evaluation Executive Summary Air Canada is a full service airline company with the largest market share in the Canadian market making it the largest airline in Canada and 15th in the world. I don’t recommend lending Air Canada due to: * Weak industry conditions * Poor historical performance/financial health * Risk factors assessment * Poor credit ratings Summary of Main Points The airline industry is a very volatile industry with a lot of uncertainties. Based on Porter’s five forces, companies in the airline business are faced with challenges such as threat of new entrants, high buyers power, high suppliers power, availability of substitutes, and intense competition. Historical operating results are poor. The company has been having continuing losses since 2008. Also, financially it is not healthy. Air Canada leverage ratio is very high, and obligated to significant debt due to pension fund, employees’ benefit, and orders of new crafts. Labor strike is a major risk factor. Recently, the company was faced with several strikes that caused many flights delays or cancelations. Negotiation is taking place between the company and labor unions. Outcome this negotiation might result in higher labor cost preventing the company from enhancing its cost structure. According to S&P, Air Canada credit rating is B-, which is a non-investment grade. Also, Moody’s downgraded the company from B3 to Caa1 due to its debt obligation and high...

Words: 3643 - Pages: 15

Free Essay

Environmental Analysis of Air Canada

...have learned from the posts from CBC done on Air Canada since 1991, it has been a battle for the organization. Many factors have influenced Air Canada's position in the market. Political factors that Air Canada has always dealt with is the fact that it is Canada's national airline. Out of the $160 million dollars the industry received, Air Canada received $100 million (CBC). It seems Air Canada is sightly shielded from the marketplace as the minister of transport believes it should be the national airline carrier. In 1991 (check!) the merging of Canadian Airlines and Air Canada showed that although government tried to split resources for both Canadian airlines, they could not offer enough support for both. During the economic downturn, it became a luxury to fly. The recession had a major impact on the amount of unnecessary flying the public did. In conjunction with soaring fuel costs, it was difficult for Air Canada to keep their prices low (coupled with the recession, that does not equal more flying). Global Health Threats (such as SARS) and terrorism (9/11 and various scares) does not translate to customers wanting to jump on planes. Also, as the media does not portray Air Canada accurately (as per last video) and prices are exactly accurate across all airlines (with meticulous monitoring) there has to be another way for Air Canada to differentiate itself. As mentioned earlier, the sociocultural attitude towards Air Canada is not positive. Though this may be media influence...

Words: 345 - Pages: 2

Free Essay

Air Canada vs West Jet

...Course: Professor: Date: Compare strategies between Air Canada vs. WestJet Introduction These report focuses on comparing the strategies between air Canada and WestJet. It does this by first discussing a brief background of the airlines together with their objectives. In addition, the paper goes a mile further to discuss how the two airlines carry out their market research and also the marketing tools they apply. Furthermore, it also gives an opinion on whether their strategies are in line with their objectives. Moreover, it also discusses the similarities and differences between the airlines’ strategies not forgetting the influence of the national or local government on their strategies. The conclusion gives a brief summary of the entire report. Air Canada Air Canada is a the largest full service airline in Canada and also the largest schedule provider of passenger services for fights within Canada, to U.S. and to all other major international destination to where it operates. Today the airline serves more than 32 million customers every year and its flies to more than 170 destinations in five continents. In a member of Star Airline which is the world’s number one air transport network. Nevertheless, it is the 15thlargest commercial airline in the globe and has approximately 23,200 full time employees. It has a market share of about 80% in Canada and its prime competitor is WestJet Airline (Air Canada 12) Major objectives ✓ To protect and enhance...

Words: 2363 - Pages: 10

Free Essay

Air Canada

...MỤC LỤC LỜI MỞ ĐẦU 5 A. GIỚI THIỆU CÔNG TY AIR CANADA 6 I. TỔNG QUAN VỀ CÔNG TY 6 II. LỊCH SỬ HÌNH THÀNH VÀ PHÁT TRIỂN 7 1. Từ khi thành lập đến năm 1988 7 2. Từ năm 1990 đến năm 1999 7 3. Từ năm 2000 đến 2003 8 4. Từ năm 2004 đến nay 8 B. PHÂN TÍCH SỨ MỆNH, VIỄN CẢNH VÀ GIÁ TRỊ 10 I. SỨ MỆNH 10 1. Định nghĩa kinh doanh 10 2. Tham vọng 10 3. Các giá trị cam kết 10 3.1. Cam kết cho khách hàng: 11 3.2 Cam kết cho nhân viên: 12 3.3 Cam kết cho cộng đồng: 13 3.4 Đối với bên hữu quan khác: 14 II. VIỄN CẢNH 15 1. Giá trị cốt lõi 15 2. Mục đích cốt lõi 15 3. Hình dung tương lai: 15 C. PHÂN TÍCH MÔI TRƯỜNG BÊN NGOÀI 17 I. PHÂN TÍCH MÔI TRƯỜNG TOÀN CẦU 17 1. Tăng trưởng kinh tế và tăng trưởng vận tải hàng không: 18 2. Giá dầu biến động 18 3. Tình hình bất ổn chính trị 20 4. Biến đổi khí hậu toàn cầu 20 II. PHÂN TÍCH MÔI TRƯỜNG VĨ MÔ 21 1. Tác động của đổi mới công nghệ ( thuộc môi trường công nghệ) 22 2. Nhân tố bảo vệ những tác động của sự biến động chính trị 23 III. PHÂN TÍCH MÔI TRƯỜNG NGÀNH 25 1. Phân tích tính hấp dẫn của ngành 25 1.1 Khái niệm về ngành vận tải hàng không 25 1.2 Mô hình 5 lực lượng cạnh tranh 26 1.3 Các nhóm chiến lược trong ngành 32 1.4 Chu kì ngành hàng không 33 2. Động thái của đối thủ cạnh tranh 35 3. Nhân tố then chốt thành công của ngành 35 4. Lực lượng dẫn dắt thay đổi trong ngành 37 D. PHÂN TÍCH CHIẾN LƯỢC CÔNG TY 40 I. CHIẾN LƯỢC CÔNG TY 40 ...

Words: 20427 - Pages: 82

Premium Essay

Air Canada

...Technology: UPS Georges bou chahine Case study 1) The inputs, outputs, processing of UPS package tracking system: * scannable bar coded label: it is attached to a package that contains detailed information about the sender and the destination and when the package shoud arrive. * Smart label: the information about the package are condensed in the smart label and sent to one of the computer centers and then sent to the distribution center near the final destination. * Dispatchers: dispatchers are found in the distributions centers, it downloads data and we use special software to create the most efficient route for each driver. Taking into consideration (traffic, weather, location stop). * Bar code devices: scan shipping information and send it to the computer center. 2) Technologies used by ups: * DIAD (delivery information acquisition device): it can access one of the wireless networks cell phones rely on. It helps to show the days route of the package, and it captures customers signature with pickup and delivery information, it provides proof of delivery for customers. It can monitor and even re-route packages through the delivery process. * Company’s web site: to track package, check delivery route, calculate shipping rate, schedule pickup… Ups business strategy is to keep up customers up to dated about their packages and to build trust in their relations through this technology that offer the customer the best service and keeping the lowest...

Words: 363 - Pages: 2

Premium Essay

Analysis for Air Canada

...Group Project: Air Canada Part 1: societal environment trends 1. Fuel prices: Oil price is highly related to the cost of air industry. According to Algoe, as the oil price increase, airline will spend more on fuel cost, which will have a direct impact on the cost of operation. Even in good time fuel costs constitute roughly 10-12% of operating expense. In addition, fuel cost increases will bring bad impact on economic, which in turn result in a substantial decline in demand for air travel and air cargo. Every penny increase in the price of jet fuel costs the airline industry $180 million a year. For Air Canada, this change would decrease their profitability and company performance. SAS Group reported that the global economic climate is weak, Jet-fuel prices and capacity continue increasing in next few years. High fuel prices presented a significant challenge for the entire aviation industry. Therefore, we consider fuel price is a threat for Air Canada doing their business. Retrieved from http://saraalgoe.hubpages.com/hub/rise-in-fuel-prices-airline-industry http://www.cisionwire.com/sas/r/sas-group-interim-report-january-march-2012,c9254790 2. GDP: According to Trading Economics, the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in Canada expanded 0.4 percent in the fourth quarter of 2011 over the previous quarter. Historically, from 1961 until 2011, Canada’s GDP Growth Rate averaged 0.8 percent reaching an all-time high of 3.3 percent in December of...

Words: 3772 - Pages: 16

Premium Essay

Air Canada Essay

...the one accomplished by Air Canada is not achieved by how excellent you work, is achieved by what you overcome. Air Canada’s innovation and market revolution was the ingredient to an increased recognition and profit spree. But this task was not easy, there are many airlines throughout the world and it is a market that is constantly evolving due to technology, development and the change in transportation. For any type of airline to drastically change the industry, requires a long process of well-crafted and executed management plan to take on an innovative project and deliver it perfectly. A very important observation stated in the case study is that this type of innovation is not limited to new airlines, this promotes competition, the continuous struggle to innovate and make your airline distinct from other airlines is what make employees strive and work hard. By continually looking for new ways to revolutionize and improve the market, in a way everyone boosts each other to achieve greatness. This concept can be applied in every single market and business, there is always a competition to improve and innovate. “Air Canada's development of transparent branded fares, accompanied by the introduction of "a la carte" pricing and travel passes, mark it as a Market Leader in reversing the commoditization of air travel and reestablishing a positive price/value equation for the customer.”-Perry Flint, Air Transport World Editor-in-Chief. This is what Air Canada’s innovative management...

Words: 632 - Pages: 3

Premium Essay

Air Canada Case

...Case #1: Air Canada About Air Canada Air Canada is Canada’s largest domestic, U.S transborder and international airline and largest provider in Canadian market. Air Canada was the world’s 15th largest commercial airlines as of 2011. The reason which made Air Canada reach this position is that it is able to provide a wider range of services to meet its customer’s preferences. This enabled Air Canada to not only reduce the overall cost of serving its customers, but also serve them better. IT approach and Outsourcing Information Technology has emerged from a discipline that is primarily focussed on financial and administrative tasks, a core component of all systems in airlines. More comprehensive services are offered to the customers by airlines using IT. Given the critical importance to IT infrastructure to the airline’s successful operations, a set of IT principles should be implemented and often changed for a “productive” and “cost effective” environment. In 1994, a contract was signed between Air Canada and IBM with a view to reduce costs and to allow the airline to focus on its core business. But back then as Air Canada was not satisfied with the services offered by IBM, it proposed a request for proposals (REP) to find IT vendor to partnership with for innovation. A lot of requests were received from the potential suppliers but...

Words: 1315 - Pages: 6

Premium Essay

Apple Inc.-Organizational Culture and Change

...2009. Leaders of the company believe that the core to their success is care.” Handle with care” is the company credo and not only that. It is everyday reality and the way how the company does the business. Other two key elements contributing to the success are low–cost structure and company’s culture, which is unique in the airline business. WestJet was awarded four times as one of Canada’s Most Admired Corporate Culture and in 2010 survey as one of the best employer in Canada. Company History History of the company started with successful businessmen Clive Beddoe from Calgary. In 1994 he bought Western Concord Manufacturing Ltd., which brought him to the flying business. He bought small cabin plane and flew it himself, in order to save money on company’s executives’ high air travel expenses. Later he leased the plane to other businesses via local charter operation Morgan Air Service Co Ltd.Beddoe saw an opportunity in offering cheap flights which could afford everyone. Tim Morgan, the president of Morgan Air Service Co and two others investors liked Beddoe’s idea about starting their own discount airline. Together they approached other investors and in 1995 the accumulated more than $8, 5 million dollars for starting new airline. The company was officially founded in May 1995 under name West Jet Airlines Ltd. In February 1996, they started flight operation with three aircrafts and 220 employees, offering flights to Vancouver, Calgary, Edmonton, Kelowna, and Winnipeg. Since...

Words: 3286 - Pages: 14

Premium Essay

Management Information Systm

...Mini Project 1 WestJet Accepts Blame for Spying on Air Canada          The issue of the case is that WestJet spied on Air Canada -- one of the biggest airline companies to obtain confidential information. The competition in the airline market is fierce. As a competitor, WestJet tries to match the competition on the pricing, scheduling, and routes. In order to create a competitive advantage, WestJet gathered business information unethically from Air Canada’s website. For example, Westjet collected data to identify booking trends, so they can decide which route is more profitable and to start a new route. Also, if WestJet knows the buying habits of Air Canada, it will help Westjet to develop a pricing strategy to maximize their profits. In order to get these valuable and accurate information and to be more competitive with lower costs, WestJet chose to detect its competitor via the website. Information collecting helps WestJet to grow its business. To deal with the rivalry of existing competitors, Westjet needs to provide a product or service that their customers place a greater value on than similar offering from a competitor. For this organizational objective, WestJet needs to undertake some actions to gather these information first.   To deal with the issue, Westjet gained access to the Air Canada Employee website to steal confidential data by using a former Air Canada employee’s account and personal password. Moreover, in order to be more effective, one Westjet employee...

Words: 615 - Pages: 3