Principles and Practice of Management

Principles and Practice of Management Case Studies Case (20 Marks) Safety of aero planes has been a major issue with airlines. The human life in itself is priceless and any accident evens a minor one is a setback to the accountability and reputation of the airline. Apart from this loss, accidents destroy assets worth in crores of rupees including aircrafts, crew and pilots. The magnitude of an air accident is large and thus all the airlines have to constantly maintain and improve upon safety standards. One critical factor in these accidents is human error. The fact about accidents is that majority of them occur at taking off or landing or within ten minutes of any start or end of journey. These operations are done by pilots and administered by the ground control authorities, thus the human factor becomes important.

Considering this, International Airways, a private airline, has recently taken up the issues at major level. The top management has decided to compare and study the best available monitoring systems and adopt the one which is most suitable for their process. The top management decided that one of the actions taken in this direction will be to provide the best training to their pilots and crew. It decided to approach one of the best and most advanced airlines. Eska which is a multinational leader in equipment and quality to train their employees. The deal was finalized and a team of twelve senior trainers and pilots came to International Airways. After initial introductions, twenty pilots and twelve senior crew managers were to start their training under these foreign trainers. The top management also took keen interest in their system developed in house and training schedules. Generally the people at International Airways have been very positive about this training. The Group Chief training Anil has served many national and international airlines and is considered an icon in the industry. He had cultural differences in the company and its counterpart, Eska.

He also felt that the cultural difference is even more apparent in the area of development and training. The trainers have a task oriented style and very upright about it. During training, the trainers used the class room teaching and flight simulators to achieve maximum benefits. The group of trainees for around tendays was fully captivated by the teaching style and the techniques displayed. The concept advocated strongly by the trainers were the ones they never encouraged for in their company. The trainers on the other hand emphasized that the ultimate aim to the pilot and the crew is to avoid a crisis.

Answer the following question. Q1. What is the case all about? Give brief. Q2. Compare the cultural aspects of the International Airways with those of their trainers.