In the IVEY British Airways case study, Mark Dunkerley has several constraints to contend with in order to implement change within the Latin America division of the corporation. The two most significant constraints I identified include: 1) lack of proper talent/change agents in Latin America to carry out organizational restructuring and operations’ changes and 2) a communication breakdown that is currently reinforced on the organizational level by British Airways’ corporate structure.
Dunkerley begins hinting at the issue of lack of proper talent/change agents in Latin America to carry out organizational restructuring and operations’ changes on page 106. In speaking about BA’s poor performance he states that it is “an absence of vision, focus, and investment…There was no clear sales and marketing strategy. There was no teamwork between different functional areas.” These comments, that clearly highlight a communication issue, are really the symptoms of the deeper problem—lack of change agents on the ground in Latin America to implement or champion change. Although one could argue that the London headquarters should be aware of problems in Latin America (economic and organizational), even if headquarters begins working on a vision of how the LA division could change, run more efficiently, and be more profitable; it would still need a team/coalition on-site to oversee the changes on both a gradual and daily basis. Since Dunkerley arrived in Latin America in 1997 and has had time to observe the Latin America division’s underperformance and assess its inconsistencies, he should use this time as an opportunity to “manage up” by forming alliances with respected members of the Latin America team and hiring the outside talent necessary to begin implementing change. Once he establishes small wins through the efforts of this coalition, he will be able to use these examples to illustrate the LA division’s potential to headquarters and petition for more financial backing to implement larger impact changes such as buying more slots and upgrading the information technology to improve communication. On-site, he needs to create a coalition to determine ways to incentivize managers and staff to collaborate and move away from the current cultural, hierarchical mentality mentioned on page 108 in which people don’t share information because it could put your job in jeopardy.
The constraint of communication is seen in various forms throughout the case. These include: 1) Dunkerley’s inability to speak Spanish, which might be perceived by the Latin America division a sign of apathy or insensitivity to cultural differences between the LA division and corporate, 2) the breakdown in communication between Latin America country and regional managers and staff, and 3) the breakdown in communication Dunkerley is experiencing between expressing the LA division’s need for more funding to acquire slots and technological advances to make the division more profitable and corporate’s need to see an improvement on the division’s bottom line before it allocates money to reinvest in the division. If Dunkerley wanted to create trust with the Latin America division, the first major change he could institute would be to learn Spanish. By learning the language, he would physically be able to bridge the existing communication gap between himself and the LA division employees. In addition, Dunkerley should meet with as many country and regional managers to open communication with them directly and find out how he (and the coalition previously mentioned) might be able to incentivize them to listen to staff and better implement changes. Finally, the chicken-and-egg-situation of the LA division needing more financial backing to improve its structure and acquire better technological resources to improve communication (and possibly market share which can be generated through more accurate and current communication sharing by computer) and corporate headquarters needing to see better division returns in order to increase spending in the region (page 107) seems to be the biggest constraint Dunkerley will have to face. Dunkerley should create corporate buy-in by building one-on-one relationships with management at headquarters and championing his divisions’ small wins.