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Asia's largest low-cost airline. AirAsia is founded in December 2001 by Tony Fernandes (Fernandes) and Dato Kamarudin (Kamarudin). The head quarter of AirAsia (Red Q) at Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia which is modern office and excellent for employee. Fernandes and Kamarudin had no prior experience on operate airlines however they lead AirAsia into one of the fastest growing and most successful low fare airlines in the world. A company success comes from reason. Besides the marketing doing well in AirAsia the other factors that made AirAsia success are its unique culture and management style.
According to the Harvey, (2012) interviewed the founder of AirAsia, Tony Fernandes quoted and saying this.In AirAsia we consider ourselves basically a dream factory. We deliberately decided that we wanted a company where people can pursue their passion and we wanted to make use of all the talent that we have in-house. The culture that we have stems from the fact that we want openness and we want people to be creative and passionate about what they do.
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In order to do that, we've got to inspire them.
Fernandes created an environment where each Allstar can be learn, grow and achieve his or her own dreams in the dream factory just like himself. From the office design which can represent AirAsia is taking care Allstar, there have a clinic called ALLSTARS CLINIC in the RedQ to ensure the welfare and health of the staff are taken care off. This also from Fernandes's aim employees come number one, customers come number two.
If you have a happy workforce they'll look after your customer anyway. A tragedy strike on AirAsia that made the company to face a crisis on 28 December 2014, AirAsia flight QZ8501 crashed. This report uses Schein theory to analysis the issue of flight QZ8501 crashed and how AirAsia organization culture adapted. For aviation field, the biggest crisis and challenge for a company is after an accident happened, Airasia flight QZ8501 was carrying 162 passengers and crew and taking off from Surabaya, Indonesia, however it disappeared from radar screens and the plane wreckage found after few days (AirAsia Indonesia flight QZ8501 to Singapore missing,2014).
Explain/ Justify the chosen theoretical framework instead of 1 other alternative that I considered but have rejectedI will be using the three levels of organizational culture as defined by Edgar Schein (1985) to analysis AirAsia culture. Organizational cultures are created by leaders, and one of the decision maker in leaderships may well be the creation, the management, and-if and when that may become necessary- the destruction of culture (Schein, 1985). The theory is defined the most important thing is leader who do is to create and manage culture and also work with culture. There have on other alternative I considered to analysis AirAsia organizational culture which is Harrison (1972) model. Harrison's model splits culture into four classification, which including Role Culture, Task Culture, Power Culture, Person Culture (Harrison, 1972). Most of the organizations tend to focus on one or another of them. For the case if AirAsia apply to Harrison model, AirAsia is belonged Person Culture which mainly to serve the need of its members. Individuals within the organization are allowed to pursue their own destiny and get on with their roles within considerable interference. However the person culture disadvantages are difficulty directing its member, difficult to achieve internal cohesion (Harrison, 1972).
The reason I rejected to use Harrison model to analysis AirAsia's organization is because of the person culture disadvantage cannot be apply to AirAsia. The disadvantage as mentioned before was not happened in AirAsia. As the ideal of Fernandes was not going to direct the member but to making everyone more accountable and giving them more autonomy to get on with their jobs (Fernandes, 2017).3. Explain the Main Concept of Edgar Schein TheoryA pattern of shared basic assumptions that the group learned as it solved its problems of external adaptation and internal integration, which has worked well enough to be considered valid and, therefore, to be taught to new members as the correct way you perceive, think, and feel in relation to those problems (Schein, 1985). This definition continues to explain organizational values, beliefs and ideas about the staff to pursue and achieve the goal. According to Schein, culture is the most difficult organizational attribute to change, organizational products, services, founders and leadership and all other physical attributes of the organization. His organizational model explains culture from the standpoint of the observer, described by three cognitive levels of organizational culture.
At the first and most outside level of Schein's model is organizational attributes that can be easy to seen, felt and heard by the observer which is artifacts and creation. This is including the facilities, offices, furnishings, visible awards and recognition, the way that its members dress, how each person visibly interacts with each other and with organizational outsiders, and even company slogans, mission statements.The second level also the middle level is the values and beliefs. At this level, local and personal values can be expressed within the organization. The moral and ethical code would shape an organization. The values and beliefs must be followed through to create a culture in an organization.At the third and deepest level is the organization's basic assumptions, the core which is the most important for an company. These are the elements of culture that are invisible and not cognitively identified between organizational members every day. This is existing unspoken rules between the organization and employee. Those with sufficient experience to understand this deepest level of organizational culture usually become acclimatized to its attributes over time, thus reinforcing the invisibility of their existence (Patnaik, 2011). For an organization, first identify then understand organizational culture at this level. Using Schein's model, understanding organizational behaviors becomes more noticeable. Organizational rewards can imply one organizational norm but at the deepest level imply something completely different. Therefore, the organizational model of Schein is very important because it shows how culture works by presenting the culture of an organization at three levels.
A tragedy strike on AirAsia that made the company to face a crisis on 28 Decemeber 2014, AirAsia flight QZ8501 crashed. There was a lot of debate about whether Fernandes should go to Indonesia or stay put and let the Indonesians handle when the accident was happened, he didn't care what the people said, he think he had to go there. Fernandes thinks the reasons were simple, I had to be there because my staff had been killed and I had to be there for the families of the passengers (Fernandes, 2017). He could do was be there and answer whatever questions the passengers families had. The staffs were next on Fernandes's list, he visited the AirAsia Indonesia offices to reassure and comfort them. The company is like a family and the tragedy was not just about the passengers, it was about the loss of friends and colleagues in a close-knit group, this applied to all AirAsia, not just the Indonesian company (Fernandes, 2017). From this tragedy, AirAsia represent they are concern Allstar, after the CEO Fernandes went to the Indonesia to visit the victim's family, the second thing he did which is visited the AirAsia Indonesia offices to comfort them and sent an email to Allstar about a conversation with a victim family member, the purpose was to help the staff understand that the families weren't blaming AirAsia completely for the loss of their loved ones. From the conversation, it shows how did Fernandes respect and care the customer, how does the customer support and admire AirAsia's aim, how did Fernandes handle strikes to all staff and have confident to the company. This is applied to Fernandes's philosophy which throughout business career is that you should always be transparent and honest, your business is your people which are still one of the strongest elements of AirAsia culture (Fernandes, 2017). Fernandes believes that his employees are his greatest assets and encourages a culture that positive vibes to ensure that the entire player in the team is committed and achieving their shared goals.
The deepest level of culture and its essence (Schein, 1992) is the basic underlying assumptions. These are the unconscious, taken for granted beliefs and feelings about the organization. The basic assumptions are important because it allows the group to build its own integrity, identity and autonomy and thus differentiate itself from the other groups (McLaurin and James, 2008). Fernandes once said We Asian have this habit of kicking ourselves and saying it can't be done. Anything is possible when you put your mind to it. At AirAsia, there is a sense of being in a good family. The two biggest causes of unhappiness in an organization are offices and job titles. For years I have wanted to remove job titles from business cards " apart from emphasizing the title rather than the role, they shut down a conversation about what you do at a company, hierarchy is one weight I've tried to reduce at AirAsia. Another is bureaucracy, which I think is possibly the biggest enemy of an organization (Fernandes, 2017). Fernandes break down the hierarchy, thus AirAsia is flat hierarchy now, this is to encourage people to speak up and get every brain in the game by relaxing formality and breaking down walls. Allstar can be approach any management level to voice out an opinion and share the idea, there is the platform and opportunity to let all the staff to say it without fear in some way. For example, Fernandes withdrew some discounted flight coupon because they were being abused, after that he got lots of messages to complain about it, the staff complained it was wrong, unfair and suggests a different way to tackling the problem (Fernandes, 2017). After Fernandes listened to the ideas and the company reformed the policy in six hours.
The Allstar understand that propose an idea is not limited to senior management of the company and everyone can be contribute ideas regardless of their tile in the company. Wherever I spend time within the AirAsia family I get suggestions and pick up ideas. Way back in 2004, one Allstar suggested we fly to Macau. We've been going ever since and now operate four flights a day from Kuala Lumpur and more from other hubs (Fernandes, 2017).RedQ was Fernandes and Allstar designed together, has no offices. Everything is open plan apart from a series of glass-walled meeting rooms (Fernandes, 2017). It's so important to have a space without brick walls, it encourages the staffs to speak freely and it eliminates office envy.The other important decision I took was to try to bring everyone together. The staffs were originally quite isolated, before the RedQ build, pilots spoke to pilots, engineers to engineers, cabin crew to cabin crew. After the AirAsia head office RedQ is developed, it really changed the working environment, each party have communication. I'm forever learning new things, and I want to encourage it as a key element of our corporate culture at AirAsia (Fernandes, 2017). In AirAsia, the company always provides opportunity and respect to Allstar. There is a case that proved AirAsia had implemented this into the staff. According to Harvey's interview, when a woman asked Fernandes was she possible to be a pilot, Fernandes encourage her go to the class to study about it (Harvey, 2012). She became a first women pilot in Malaysia (Toh, 2012). It also enables Allstar to realize their dreams in the dream factor just like Fernandes and Kamarudin are living their dreams, it is one of the reasons Allstars love their jobs at Airasia.
Values and Beliefs In AirAsia is all around Trust. According Harvey interview, all staff has Fernandes contact number from errand boys to the senior management will just call, SMS and email to him directly (Harvey, 2012). When they have any problem they would contact him directly, so that everything solved very quickly. Besides of Allstars have Fernandes contact number, he also gave his contact number to every victim family in QZ8501, and he is still in touch with some of the families (Fernandes, 2017). He gave his number to everyone and opens to all topics, which is a good communication without bureaucracy based on trust. From the Harvey's interview, AirAsia is meritocracy, no matter ethnicity, creed, age and gender, if the staff is capable, AirAsia will promote or hire you. They hire the right people by look for hunger in their eyes and passion in their hearts. AirAsia recruit people who are determined and are humble, and believes that recruiting people who are humble enough to admit the mistake they have made and fixing the problem themselves is the best one as well. This practice also poster up on the wall in RedQ Work hard. Stay humble (Fernandes, 2017). AirAsia staff was called Allstars by Fernandes caused of the staff were loyal and constantly humbling in their dedication.
This is the most visible level of Schein's model which can be seen, felt and heard by the uninitiated observer. NormsMulti-task, AirAsia is about multi-tasking. This means the staffs usually have to juggle several equally important things at the same time. From the AirAsia website, staff saying this:You may also end up doing many different things for the business. It maybe doing different things for your department or different things across several departments. This is normal here. SymbolsAirAsia is a large company that across different cities in Asia. The way the staffs communicate by preferring internal social media over intranet, and chat message over e-mail. Within AirAsia also use cloud-based apps to collaborate with colleagues across different locations quickly. Fernandes saw an article about Facebook's new platform for business communication, Facebook Workplace, in the Wall Street Journal and then contact with Facebook the next day and signed a deal to install it for all our staff within four days. Allstars are talking to each other instantly (Fernandes, 2017).
RitesAccording BBC 2010 reported about AirAsia, there have a culture department whose sole job is to organize parties. This can make the employee feel the caring nature of the company by organizing parties. Dress codeAirAsia Group Head of Ground Operations mentioned Our people are our most valuable assets as their hard work and dedication is the reason for our proud achievements and success over the years. Their persistence in delivering quality and excellence is the key in elevating our brand, setting AirAsia apart from the rest of the field. This inspired us to design new uniforms to further highlight their professionalism and enhance their performance in providing the best travel experience for our guests. (Sepang, 2014). The bright red uniform which is also AirAsia corporate color, it also for Allstars represented an added impulse and hard work in AirAsia to deliver high productivity and performance. The new uniform idea was came from AirAsia reality show " The Apprentice Asia, AirAsia posed a challenge to the show's participants to design uniforms which match with AirAsia's innovation and entrepreneurial spirit.
By the design of AirAsia headquarter " RedQ, there have no office and all the meeting rooms have glass walls, it is an open organization (Fernandes, 2017). Nobody has an office even senior management, the staff is free to walk to discuss thing with senior management, vice versa. MythsAllstar can express their feeling easily and their jobs can be understood by senior management. AirAsia is one of the largest airlines and one of the largest companies, that has no union (Fernandes, 2017). As in AirAsia have strong internal dialogue, the staff don't see the point of outside representation, they can still express their thinking about the company. It is also because Fernandes would get out and doing all the different jobs or walking around head office to understand every aspect of the company.
We will be using the three levels of organizational culture as defined by Edgar Schein (2010) to analyse AirAsia. “Culture”, as formally defined by Schein (2010, p.18) is “a pattern of shared basic assumptions learned by a group as it solved its problems of external adaptation and internal integration, which has worked well enough to be considered valid and, therefore, to be taught to new members as the correct way to perceive, think, and feel in relation to those problems”. The three levels of culture are namely artifacts, espoused beliefs and values, and basic underlying assumptions. Artifacts are described by Schein (2010, p.23) as the surface level of culture, as they can include the things that a person see, hear and feel when they join a new group and are experiencing their culture for the first time. Artifacts are visible and ‘feelable’ structures and processes, and can also be an observed behavior. However, one drawback is that they can be difficult to understand and decipher (Schein, 2010, p.24). Thus, the true culture of the organization cannot be understood by solely looking at the artifacts.
To understand more, it is necessary to look at the next level. Espoused beliefs and values are goals, values, aspirations and ideologies shared by everyone in an organization. Normally, these values are laid down by the leaders or founders of the organization (Schein, 2010, p.25). However, espoused beliefs and values can sometimes be mutually contradictory (Schein, 2010, p.27). Thus, the organization’s culture is only understood just on the surface level. Basic underlying assumptions, which are unconscious and taken-for-granted beliefs and values provide for a deeper understanding of an organization’s culture. Schein concluded that the essence of a culture lies in the pattern of basic underlying assumptions (Schein, 2010, p.32).
If the basic underlying assumptions are not deciphered, it will be hard to understand the artifacts and espoused beliefs and values correctly. As Schein (2010, p.32) himself had concluded, any group’s culture can be studied at the three levels. The three levels of culture allows for an analysis of AirAsia’s organizational cultural from an observational level. Information can be readily drawn from business reviews, news articles on AirAsia, interviews with AirAsia’s founder Toney Fernandes and AirAsia’s website, thus making Edgar Schein’s three levels of culture an ideal model for analysis of AirAsia’s culture.
AirAsia came out of the tragedy in reasonable standing with the public and handled the crisis in the best way they could do by being open, honest and natural to public and employee. What staffs think of the company, how they respond to the mission and strategy is more important. Employees come number one, customers come number two the staff understand and support the company ideals under happy workfore, they will look after the customer. By using Schein model to analysis AirAsia organization culture, basic assumption is invisible but it is the core of an organization culture which affecting the visible characteristic of culture -value and belief. It is also affecting the most visible indicators of culture " artifacts and creations. If you look at the growth of AirAsia, it's been about people, culture, a simple message and a brand (Fernandes, 2017).
From the analysis so far, we can see that AirAsia values its employees as much as its customers. The evidence is the environment created for its staff and its fulfillment of promises made to its customers. However, the leadership for AirAsia should not be taken for granted. In the face of the possible threat that Tony Fernandes may relinquish his role one day, career development programs can be rolled out to protect and preserve AirAsia’s culture. Top performing staff such as directors and executives could undergo training to prepare themselves for this potential role in the future. An internal candidate would be more suitable as this person would have been exposed to the AirAsia culture and familiar with the way AirAsia operates.
This program in place would likely ensure that the AirAsia culture can be preserved, and AirAsia will also retain its position in the aviation industry. Aside from this, regional meetings and team building sessions are recommended to be held periodically to keep the region abreast of each other’s activities internally, and it would also strengthen relationships between employees from different countries. This will also ensure that AirAsia is consistent in their visions and beliefs regardless of their location. In conclusion, AirAsia is doing a great job and they should preserve their culture and continue with their mode of operation to enjoy success in the future.
Analysing AirAsia Organisation. (2019, Aug 20). Retrieved from https://studymoose.com/analysing-airasia-organisation-essay
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