Change Management and Innovation: A Review of Qantas Airways Ltd.

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AbstractThe aim of this report is to present the issue of change management and innovation at Qantas Airways Ltd. Qantas Airways is a flag carrier in Australia and the nation’s largest airline company by size of fleet, international destinations, and flights. It faces a challenge when it comes to management of change and innovation. John Kotter’s change management theory is a model that best fits the organizations to facilitate successful change and innovation in its efforts to stay relevant. The report recommends that Qantas Airways makes use of a change management model that pays attention to the changes, its effect on both external and internal stakeholders, the vision, the consequences in the market, and device ways to retain the momentum to ensure that change and innovation go hand in hand to ensure success. It is also recommended that the company adapts the eight stages including urgency creating as a way to alert and motivate employees, establishing need for innovation and change, building a change team, defining the vision, communicating with stakeholders, identification of roadblocks, establishment of goals, and retaining momentum to ensure change is managed.

Table of Contents

TOC o “1-3” h z u Abstract PAGEREF _Toc84158027 h 2Introduction PAGEREF _Toc84158028 h 4Literature Review PAGEREF _Toc84158029 h 4Discussion PAGEREF _Toc84158030 h 4Recommendations PAGEREF _Toc84158031 h 5Self-Reflection PAGEREF _Toc84158032 h 5Conclusion PAGEREF _Toc84158033 h 6Reference List PAGEREF _Toc84158034 h 7

Introduction 

Qantas Airways is a flag carrier in Australia and the nation’s largest airline company by size of fleet, international destinations, and flights. An important landmark for the company is its status in the world as the third oldest airline in operation having begun operations in 1920 (Qantas.com, 2021). In the year ending June 2020, Qantas Airways made an underlying profit of $124 million before tax, a 91% reduction from the previous period, and a statutory loss of $2.7 billion before tax including non-cash and aircraft write downs according to IBISWorld (2021). The ASX (2021) recorded its 2021 revenue to be $5,934 million, a 58.4% drop from June 2020. The current share price as per Market Index (2021) is at $5.71, a 0.71% increase from July 2021 where share prices averaged at $4.5. This report will present the issue of employee retention at the organization and provide recommendations for future engagement.

Literature Review

To ensure that changes are present in organizational processes, policies, and strategies, organizations must innovate constantly. Change management relates to implementation of different visions (Hao & Yazdanifard, 2015), while innovation detects and develops new areas in organizational objectives in regards to vision and strategy development (Michaelis, Stegmaier, & Sonntag, 2009). Innovations are disruptive changes that challenge the core capabilities and core rigidness of an organization (Hao & Yazdanifard, 2015). John Kotter’s change management theory is presented by Rajan and Ganesan (2017) as a model that can be used by organizations to facilitate successful change and innovation in organizations. It can be used by Qantas Airways to implement change as the organization intends to readjust and realign its business model to fit to the need to conduct its business more internally as opposed to having international flights. The market demands at the moment call for restructuring in an effort to occupy the domestic market that has grown due to travel restrictions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

DiscussionThe issue of change management and innovation at Qantas Airways highlights the need for organizations to identify and develop strategies, policies, and new innovations that will enable them to stand out and lead in their respective markets and industries. The issue of change management and innovation at Qantas Airways highlights the need for organizations to identify and develop strategies to manage shifts in the market including reduced or increased demand. The Kotter’s change management theory presents several steps where urgency is created as a way to alert and motivate employees, establishing need for innovation and change, building a change team, defining the vision, communicating with stakeholders, identification of roadblocks, establishment of goals, and retaining momentum to ensure change is managed (Teixeira, Gregory, & Austin, 2017). Qantas Airways is going through changes to its business structure and business strategies, requiring change management theories to be applied in an effort to enable change. This means that management of change and innovation will have to bea conscious decision made by the organization to increase effectiveness.

RecommendationsWithout a doubt, the discussion points out to the important role that change management and innovation play in ensuring the success of an organization. In terms of change management and innovation, Qantas Airways must make use of a change management model that pays attention to the changes, its effect on both external and internal stakeholders, the vision, the consequences in the market, and device ways to retain the momentum to ensure that change and innovation go hand in hand to ensure success. As mentioned by Rajan and Ganesan (2017), the company must adapt the eight stages including urgency creating as a way to alert and motivate employees, establishing need for innovation and change, building a change team, defining the vision, communicating with stakeholders, identification of roadblocks, establishment of goals, and retaining momentum to ensure change is managed.

Self-ReflectionThe learning exercise required me to work as a consultant tackling real business issues for real companies. In the increasingly competitive business environment, it is important to stay aware of what is happening both internally and externally. This exercise has enabled me to appreciate this need for business to stay on top of issues and challenges and to constantly device means to combat these issues using evidence-based best practices in the industry and in theory.

In regard to change management and innovation, I have gained a lot of knowledge on how businesses go about identifying a need for change, then proceeding to innovate new ways to implement the change in line with organizational goals. I realized that there was a lot of gaps in my experience and knowledge relating to how organizations see and interpret change or innovation. I also realized that change and innovation are two independent yet intertwined concepts in business where one calls for the need to use the other and vice versa. I found out that realizing change requires the use of theoretical and as well as practical concepts that are aligned to the structure and needs of an organization.

Lastly, the change in perspective on management of innovation and change has enabled me to see the bigger picture in terms of organizational goals and objectives. I now realize that change is more than a singular event in an organization, but a complex process that has a lot of pieces that must fit for it to be effective in attaining its goal. The theoretical analysis performed has also changed the way I view successful organizations, especially companies like Qantas Airways that have operated since the 1920s. these companies have had to implement a lot of changes in a successful manner, creating a culture of adapting to their environment to stay relevant. I am more aware of the process of change management and innovation.

Conclusion

Change management and innovation are important elements of an organization. They allow a firm to develop and grow relative to the competition in the industry. Employing effective change management models would help an organization to effectively implement and manage change and disruptive strategies through innovation. Qantas Airways has a number of structural and business-related changes and innovation made relevant by a changing work environment. In order to ensure efficiency in implementing the said changes, Kotter’s change management model can be effectively applied to ensure success.

Reference ListASX (2021). Qantas Airways Limited and its Controlled Entities: Preliminary Final Report for FY Ended 30 June 2021. ASX. Available at https://investor.qantas.com/DownloadFile.axd?file=/Report/ComNews/20210826/02412248.pdfHao, M. J., & Yazdanifard, R. (2015). How effective leadership can facilitate change in organizations through improvement and innovation. Global journal of management and business research.

IBISWorld (2021). Qantas Airways Limited – Premium Company Report Australia. IBISWorld. Available at https://www.ibisworld.com/au/company/qantas-airways-limited/32/

Market Index. (20201). Qantas Airways Ltd (QAN). Available at https://www.marketindex.com.au/asx/qan?__cf_chl_captcha_tk__=pmd_Zg5FJiTtwNfQ2GKR7ILuaGsOiykRMwLSOXxDcqYz9ds-1633250011-0-gqNtZGzNAvujcnBszQzR

Michaelis, B., Stegmaier, R., & Sonntag, K. (2009). Affective commitment to change and innovation implementation behavior: The role of charismatic leadership and employees’ trust in top management. Journal of Change Management, 9(4), 399-417.

Qantas.com (2021). About Us. Available at https://www.qantas.com/au/en/about-us.html

Rajan, R., & Ganesan, R. (2017). A critical analysis of John P. Kotter’s change management framework. Asian Journal of Research in Business Economics and Management, 7(7), 181-203.

Teixeira, B., Gregory, P. A., & Austin, Z. (2017). How are pharmacists in Ontario adapting to practice change? Results of a qualitative analysis using Kotter’s change management model. Canadian Pharmacists Journal/Revue des Pharmaciens du Canada, 150(3), 198-205.