Developing Manager

Project description
Ryanair Ltd
According to their website, Ryanair is Europe’s only ultra-low cost carrier (ULCC), operating more than 12,600 daily flights (over 500,000 per year) from 57 bases, across 12,600 low fare routes, connecting 180 destinations in 29 countries and operating a fleet of 303 new Boeing 737-800 aircraft. Ryanair has recently announced firm orders for a further 175 new Boeing aircraft, which will be delivered between 2014 and 2018. Ryanair currently has a team of more than 9,000 highly skilled professionals, will carry over 81.5 million passengers this year and has an outstanding 29-year safety record.
Controversies
Ryanair has been subject to criticism of, among other things, its employment relations, its charging policies, its advertisements, and its customer service, in particular its treatment of disabled customers.
And you thought the passengers were mad. Airline employees are fed up, too-with pay cuts, increased workloads and management’s miserly ways, which leave workers to explain to often-enraged passengers why flying has become such a miserable experience.€”New York Times, December 22, 2007
According to the article Up in the air, written by Greg J. Et al, when both an industry’s workers and its customers report high and rising frustration with the way they are being treated, something is fundamentally wrong. In response to these conditions, many of the world’s airlines have made ever-deeper cuts in services and their workforces. Is it too much to expect airlines, or any other enterprise, to provide a fair return to investors, high-quality reliable service to their customers, and good jobs for their employees?
Ryanair pilot sacked for handing our union form wins compensation €“ The Mirror, March 23, 2011
If any firm was going to try to take employment laws back to the dark ages there was always a good chance it would be Ryanair. Pilot James Anderson, below, was sacked by the airline because he allegedly compromised safety. His offence was to hand a membership form for Britain’s biggest union, Unite, to a stewardess. Jim McAuslan, general secretary of the pilots’ union BALPA, said: The union believes that he should never have been dismissed in these circumstances. Ryanair has repeatedly refused to negotiate with unions and an attempt by Balpa to win recognition failed just months before Captain Anderson was sacked.
The airline responded to the case with the grace you’d expect: We have no problem with pilots distributing leaflets in their own time, but not during a flight, when they should be attending to the aircraft, going through their checklists and prioritising the safety of Ryanair’s aircraft, and not the membership of failed BA trade unions.
Michael O’leary (CEO)
O’Leary was deputy chief executive of Ryanair between 1991 and 1994 and was promoted to chief executive of Ryanair in January 1994. O’Leary has a reputation for loose talk in the airline industry and among its regulators. Many press articles have often described him as arrogant, and prone to making comments which he later contradicts. He has been extravagantly outspoken in his public statements, sometimes resorting to personal attacks and foul language. His abrasive management style, ruthless pursuit of cost-cutting and his explicitly hostile attitude towards corporate competitors, airport authorities, governments, unions and customers has become a hallmark. O’Leary has been reported to have impersonated a journalist in an attempt to find information passed on to a newspaper following a safety incident on a Ryanair flight. On occasion he has apologised for personal attacks under threat of legal action. He has been criticised by a judge for lying, who said he was lucky not to be found guilty of contempt of court.

Assignment Brief
Task 1 Understand principles and practices of management behaviour.
1.1 Bearing in mind, the management and leadership styles practiced by Ryanair, discuss different management and leadership styles and its suitability to Ryanair.
1.2 How would you describe formal and informal communication processes that Ryanair can incorporate?
1.3 Analyse Ryanair’s organisation culture and discuss how you would recommend any changes in order to improve its image.
Task 2 Be able to review own potential as a prospective manager
Assuming you are given the CEO’s position at Ryanair in future, how would you assess your own management skills and potential strengths and weaknesses? How would you maximise your management potential in order to take up this challenge?
Task 3 Be able to show managerial skills within a business and services context.
As the new CEO of Ryanair, how would you lead and motivate your team in order to achieve organisational objectives? What recommendations would you make in order to improve the motivational levels of staff in order to improve their commitment?
Task 4 Be able to create a career development plan for employment within a business and services context.
Thinking about yourself as a potential senior manager within the tourism and hospitality industry, explain how your own managerial and personal skills will support career development. Review your career and personal development needs, current performance and future needs in order to produce a development plan.