Goals and policy
In may1996, a small private airline based in Scotland emerged calling itself Scotia airways. A group of business owners and investors did this but with a goal of becoming a worlds leading airline, they have managed to take their company on top and the whole airline will continue to concentrate more on the services rendered to the clientele through out the journey. Scotia’s goal has three areas with one of them being global. They give the best services to all their customers so that they can retain them and make them come time to time and even refer their friends to the airline. The second area is premium and this ensures that all passengers on any Scotia airliner get the best services to a point that passengers encounter the airline. The third one is airline where the company must get latest equipments, products and services. The airway does not intend to offer any economy class travel because the flights use wide-bodied custom-made aircraft.
The airways for example aspire to mark its presence globally and this is by the introduction of flights to major tourist destinations in Europe. What enables the airways maintain their goals and objectives is having a good policy. They have a policy that minimizes movement of employees from one department to another. For example, Scotia has been able to maintain management since 1996 in the same departments. Efforts have been there to strengthen the policy and the management is doing a good work. The airways have another policy of giving best service to the clientele. Scotia has a policy of one client, one cabin crew at a time. The passengers get personalized services, it is good for them, and it keeps them coming back.
Any company that has good policies, good objectives with a SMA|RT concept and good goals has to do well. It is evident that the company has made it and little did they know that time would come where they appear in the front line when it comes to airlines services. There is also the policy of working together in planning and evaluating services. This is a good policy because many organizations prefer having distinguished departments set aside for planning and evaluating. Some of the goals that Scotia has are strategic like being the airline of choice. They believe will enable them remain on top when it comes to international flights for all classes from premium, cargo, short flights and economy. Providing top quality service is a strategic goal, which enables the airline to provide the best services to passengers in all routes. Strategic goals relate with the general goal and a company has to have a good strategy in order to develop good strategic goals. However, some employees in Scotia say that changing the strategy and strategic goals will affect the ethos of the airline. The best strategic goal the airways ever had is expanding to be one of the best airlines and meet every customer need.
Objectives
The airways do not only develop objectives but uses the SMART approach to develop them. This is one of the best ways of developing written objectives. It requires time to develop such objectives and orderly thinking as well as having a clear picture of expected results from program activities. Scotia believes that the more specific the objectives are, the easier it will be to demonstrate success. The objectives in Scotia are specific, measurable, achievable, and relevant and time bound.
Specific objectives
Scotia has a question of what exactly do they do and for whom. This is what drives them to developing such part of an objective. Scotia for example tells the public what will change and for whom in very clear terms. The specific part of the objectives identifies the setting or population and clear resulting actions. Scotia indicates how to implement changes for example, they train their cabin crew and pilots and give them specific training for specific people and for specific reasons. From the research conduct, verbs like partner, coordinate, support and facilitate are not found within Scotia.
This is because they are difficult to measure and are vague. Scotia believes in using verbs such as training, providing, publishing, increasing, purchasing and decreasing because they clearly indicate what to do. Such objectives in Scotia are training the employees in order to cater for different language speaking countries. They train their employees to speak many languages so that they can serve a wider clientele with ease. Decreasing the economy class flights is also a good objective because the airline targets long distance fliers. Research shows that the airline has in the past attempted to publish the names of those traveling, departure and arrival time. This good objective makes it easier for passengers to monitor their flights. These kinds of objectives mostly target the passengers.
Measurable objectives
Not once, not twice and not thrice has Scotia asked itself if the objectives are quantifiable. They have always wanted to know if they can measure their objectives. Measurable implies that there should be an ability to count the activity and quantify the results. Scotia identifies the source and mechanism for data collection measurement in all of their objectives. There is feasible data collection for all programs and partners in Scotia. Some of these partners include Scotia travel agency. Scotia considers if change is measurable in a meaningful and interpretable way given the measurement method and tool. The main objective in Scotia with such an objective is changing from one language to many languages. Initially they offered only one language but it is surprising to say that the cabin crew communicates in more than three languages with mother tongue included. Scotia incorporates its measurement instruments into objectives and this has seen it go far.
Attainable objectives
At no one time has, Scotia used objectives that are not attainable or achievable. Scotia has had problems in specifying expected level of change. These objectives require a lot of interaction and the airline interacts with the passengers to make use of the limited resources. All the objectives in Scotia are attainable and achievable.
Relevant
Scotia ensures that its objective to move from one language to all languages in the world will have an effect on the economy, strategy and the desired goals. There is relevancy in the literature review, best practices from Scotia and the change theory. An example of this is their way of doing things. They have a timely objective of going global.
Time bound
The question of when to go global has always been Scotia’s main objective. They have a specified period, which they incorporate into the objective statement. All these objectives, goals and policy go together and failing in one could translate to failing in all.
Open systems theory
Any open system receives input from the environment and releases the output back to the environment. Regarding Scotia airways, the clients have more influence because without them, airlines would not exist. The main principles are input, transformation process, out put and external influences. When Scotia airways get cabin crew, they use them as an input and transform them by taking them to school to learn the basic etiquette in a plane. They then use them as an output to the clients where they give them better services. Once the cabin crew is paid, they improve where they come from and that is how the process works. The same case happens when they use limited resources like energy. Process it to serve people in the plane but the influence it leaves in the environment is not good at all. Scotia does not specialize in this type of theory and it should be one thing they emphasize.
Difference between formal and informal organization
The main difference between formal and informal depends on the organization. Scotia has different formal and informal power in that power does not come from once party but from diverse parties. The concepts of formal and informal organizations in Scotia relate to the nature of relationships and processes in the airways. A formal organization is the literal structure of the organization including its hierarchical reporting relationships, chart and process of work. The informal organization in Scotia is often referred to as grapevine and refers to the informal relationships in working that develop into organizations such as Scotia travel agencies and greatly contribute to the work culture. The agency for example has made changes to the airways because it handles all the customers on the ground.
Stakeholders
The main stakeholders in the Scotia are the customers who have the interest of making the airline better airways. They influence the airline indirectly by recommending what to be added or reduced. Without them, Scotia would not exist. The second stakeholder is the management whose main interest is making profits and improving the services in order to maximize on the latter. They influence the company directly by giving guidelines and managing the airline. The third stakeholder is the shareholders whose main interests is association. These stakeholders have less or no influence to the company. All they do is increase their shares so that one day they can chair the company. The fourth but not the list are the employees who work every day to ensure that the airline gives the best services to the clients and they have the most influence. Without them, Scotia airways cannot fly their airlines.
An effective control strategy
The most effective control strategy is cost control in all over the world. Scotia would best implement the strategy because the low costs attract many passengers who get better services. The strategy is competitive and it will make it the preferred airways from all over the world. Scotia is a good airline company and it should specialize in cost control strategy to make it maintain the good name it has globally.
Reference:
Open Corporates (2012). Scotia Airways. Retrieved on 10th October, available at http://opencorporates.com/companies/gb/SC157703
