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GENERAL OPERATING AND HR REFERENCE
MANUAL
This White Paper is submitted to
Agreement 123 Date of submission: 05 April 2016
(PLEASE SIGN ON LINES ABOVE AFTER VOLUME IS PRINTED)
Introduction / Background
The purpose of this document is to provide all management levels within the Airline Company with the basic outline of the philosophy, policies, procedures and practices. This document is the General SOP which provides a high-level overview of the operational regulations and HR practices for the United States and Canada. It and does not have as an aim to explain the tactical level of operations of each respective department. It will rather serve as a guide for reference on responsibility, roles, and scope of each of the operational departments in the company. Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) is a universally recognized basic tool for setting central concepts of operational efficiency and safety at all levels and departments within the organization. This SOP aims at clarifying and outlining the expected behavior among flight crew, flight planning and the general operating rules for the company. It is essential that all the operations are conducted in accordance with the United States regulations as well as well as applicable standards in the partner countries. The below document is based on the 4P's Model, which communicates philosophy, policies on the solution side and the procedures and practices as the structure of the operational standards.
Problem Statement / Introduction
American Airlines is a large international organization and the major airline in the United States. Our company employs over 82,000 individual in the United States and Canada alone. The size, scale and intensity of operations along with high level of diversity places numerous pressures on the company. One of the major elements of effective, efficient and safe operation is transparent communication of individual, departmental and strategic goals to our employees at all levels and their commitment to the sustainable and ethical business. Given the complexity of the organizational structure and the specificity levels of skills and expertise within the departments, it is critical that each supervisor and management level employee has access to a concise and coherent document, guiding them through the structure and general operating regulations within the company. The company faces the constant challenge to ensure that training and development of new employees, employees making a departmental switch or expatriating individuals. The volume of information and specificity of the responsibilities places pressure on the HR department, making SOPs essential to support the purpose of the HR operation within the company. It was noticed that, while the company signs off and prepares SOP for each specific operation, it does not offer any solution on a high level, which would give employees a helicopter view of the philosophy, policies, departmental structure and major procedures and practices. Recognizing this gap, the HR department has prepared the following document.
AA Structural Outline - The 4P’s Model
It is essential to provide a unique reference point, where these employees can clear their doubts or understand in which manual they can obtain their answers.With this purpose, General Operating and HR Reference Manual will contain the reference to more specific SOP documents and will be made available to all the responsible parties.
Internal Structure and Values
Philosophy
Our people are the key to lead the company to success. Investment in talent and personal development ensures that agility, effectiveness and tenacity are the core functions of our competitive advantage. American Airlines works hard to maintain an internal culture, based on four pillars:
Safety;
Achievement;
Diversity;
Effectiveness.
With the above in mind, we strive to work in close compliance with all the national and international regulations that affect the activities of American as well as where the company can make the difference. The philosophy of American Airlines goes beyond the compliance and we will continue to look for opportunities to build on Corporate Social Responsibility and follow sustainable and ethical business practices all points of the American Airlines supply chain. It is essential that this commitment is shared with our suppliers and our customers, as we fight for a better society and life.
We want to ensure that our management operates under the values of AMR Standards of Business Conduct, which include the following SOPs:
For further details and more specific internal regulations and expected attitude you can refer to the AMR Manual and its specific section as outlined above.
Policies
American Airlines recognizes the importance of specific and clear policies for each of the operation and the group of operations. The company structures its policies in major policy groups (MPG) and specific policy manuals (SPM), including:
Safety policies based on Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) for operations personnel including flight crew, maintenance, and dispatch staff.
Security policies are regulated by FAA and are aligned with the Hague Convention 1970 and the Federal Transporation Security Act.
Internal and External Communication policies are subject to provisions of the Internal Communications Manual (CM).
Quality Management and Development policies are outlined in the Quality Implementation Manual (QIM), which outlines the comprehensive guide to an AA quality management system and organizational structure, design to support the same.
Ethics at work, Substance abuse, and Dress Code policies are subject to provisions of respective sessions in the AMR sStandard Business Conduct.
Digital Safety and Security policies govern the use of computers in the workplace and outline the limits of the internet use, outside communication and access restrictions to particular sources. The policy and procedures are outlined in the ICM).
Our AA Policy Manual provides more specific details and insight into each policy and explains the limits of responsibility as well as authority tree for each of the MPG and SPM. You can refer to these manuals at any time. They are available in our virtual library under the codes PP001or in printed volume at the HR desk.
Departmental Structure
The American operates under a complex matrix departmental and management structure. The Board of Director is lead by the CEO, and two Directors, there are nice strategic managers that report directly to the Board (Chart below) and are responsible for a specific operational area. It is important to outline that the management structure is based on both, geographical division as well as functional. This gives more visibility and control to the strategic management but builds on the hierarchical complexity that should be understood by the employees.
Departmental Structure Chart:
Operational Standards
Procedures
Operational Standards are outlined in the respective manuals that are updated and reviewed by the strategic management on an annual basis. Operational standards are created to ensure that the quality of internal and external procedures is standardized across all the functions and locations. Each employee should familiarize himself with the following practices:
General Operating Rules, where the aircraft operations are are outlined and standardized according to the applicable FAR rules.
Flight Crew Check-in and Post-flight Period outlines the specificity of employment contract and safety procedures for flight crews and are discriminated in the Flight Crew Procedures Manual (FCPM).
Flight planning procedures, outlined in the Aircraft Maintenance Log (AML), Deferred Maintenance Log (DML) and Minimum Equipment List (MEL).
Environmental Safety and VOR Check Procedures are guided by VOR Manual and are aligned with the FAA regulations.
Standardization Program is a set of procedures aimed at reaching transparent and clear communication through the use of the same terminology across all the departments. The procedure outlines the need of SOP, checklist and terminology for each department.
Practices
Every policy and procedure, created for the operational and commercial department are strict regulation. However, we recognize that the framework of such procedures can be quite rigid. That said, in an actual environment, operating flight crew, as an example; have to take decisions, which may demand deviation from the standard procedure. Recognizing that, the company have outlined a set of practices that describe the expected and desirable attitude from all the members of the AA team.The purpose of practices and the General Practices Manual is to serve as a supportive document to AMR Standards of Business Conduct Code and explain our people in which way the deviation from the SOP's can affect the individuals, organization, and the external environment. With that procedures attempt to standardize the attitude and minimize confusion and uncertainty in routine operations, emergency situations and risk management practices.
Future Direction / Long-Term Focus
Standardization and creation of the unique organizational culture is a continuous process, which demands the rgular review of the internal and external environments.That said, General Operating and HR Reference Manual is a dynamic document, which will change along with the adaptation of operational and tactical procedures. The purpose of this document is to provide basic guidance and assist employees in finding their answers in various documents available for their reference and guiding their behavior.
References
AA. (2016). Profile: Ethics and Standards. Retrieved 05 Apr 2016, https://www.aa.com/i18n/aboutUs/corporateResponsibility/profile/ethics-and-compliance.jsp
Rhetorical Goals and Objectives
Large multinational companies, such as American Airlines, which served as a reference for building on this General Operating and HR Manual, have developed numerous documents, checklists, SOPs, specific manuals and guides. It is evident, however, that very often there is no guidance from the Human Resource Department (HRM) for new and existing employees on how to find the answers to basic questions and understand the structure of the company. Sure, the organization provides training and enables a number of virtual learning workshops to introduce these policies, practices and procedures to their employees. Often, however, the volume of new information does not allow these individuals to fully process the data. With that in mind, it is essential that each of the departments has a comprehensive and short documents, which describes the organizational structure, gives definitions of practices and policies and reference other more specific guides, SOPs, and manuals, where answers to the operational doubts and general questions could be found.
The purpose of this document is to save time and effort for all the employees with a minimum people management authority, by providing an all-in-one explanation guide about existing SOPs and Manuals and their scope.Additionally, it is essential that the users of this manual can understand the allocation of responsibility and scope of knowledge for the major levels within the organization: strategic and operational. This will contribute towards more effective communication process and overall productivity in solving immediate issues and addressing emergencies.
One of the major considerations in building this document is to ensure that it adapts a "simple language", which will be equally understood by commercial and technical staff and can translate specific technical elements into simple guiding principles. With that in mind, the document is created for a wide target audience. It is recommended, however, that its use is limited to the junior, middle and senior management; while tactical level employees should refer to specific SOPs and Manuals for their departments.
