Easyjet Concept Of A Learning Organization example essay topic

The bigger easy "The bigger easy" states the headline on the EasyJet article in People Management Magazine of 22 March 2001. The article critically analysis the management style and concept of Easy-Jet. The airline EasyJet started business 5 years ago, offering low-cost, no ticket flights, which could be booked informally via phone and now as well the Internet. The young founder, Stelios Haji-Ioan nou, eliminated paperwork and made use of the new technologies. But the real success of EasyJet is due to its people, the way they are seen in the organization.

The EasyJet concept is similar to the one of SouthWest Airlines (US airline company based in Dallas, Texas), which is since 30 years also successful with the low-cost model. Chris Gascomb, head of People and Organisational Development at EasyJet, stresses the importance of the learning and culture building process, which helped the airline to its success and which, according to Gascomb will ensure successful survival. The culture is symbolized by an "orange-wheel" representing various aspects of company life, hanging at the entrance of the head office in London Luton. At EasyJet people are the key to success; commitment to developing the employees is number one priority. Learning goes on all the time, employees are thought to think creatively.

Selecting the right people is a crucial point, as people who just want to" fly the plane and do not care about anything else", will not fit into the culture of learning and innovation. EasyJet moves on in the airline market, the need for new pilots is immense. Nevertheless the requirements are rather tough; only fully qualified pilots are se-lected. In order to cope with its future needs, the company has built up a huge database of suitable pilots, also including pilots who would be considered as suitable only in a couple of years as they are still too young. The selection process consists of several steps. After having applied online, suitable candidates have to undergo assessment days and an interview, checking the personal and technical qualities.

The company is also learning from their applicants, by asking for feedback concerning the recruiting and selection process. As they follow the concept of inclusion they ask pilots to spend some time working at Luton in order to learn about the EasyJet culture. Management wants to create a so called "speak-up" culture, everything is constantly reviewed and questioned in order to be improved. Tensions are abolished before they even can develop, e.g. the merger of the training and rostering department. The expansion of the "orange" culture has even included the staff of the ground-handling firm, ServisAir. The performance of the outside contractor should fit into the EasyJet concept, therefore all ServisAir employees have received EasyJet induction and training, and learning along with the outside company is stressed.

Another step towards employee development, has been the overtaking of some ground func-tions and employees from Reed Aviation. Soon EasyJet was confronted with the problem that former Reed employees needed "culture" training, as they influenced new recruits by saying "this is the way it always has been done". Therefore Reed and new recruits received training. At EasyJet the learning and the job are completely intertwined. The question is now, whether this culture, existent in the EasyJet centres Luton, Liverpool, and Geneva, can duplicate the brand's success in other areas, such as car rental and cybercaf-f'es. The Learning Organisation and EasyJet EasyJet can be considered as a learning organisation.

In the following paragraph we will out-line what characterizes this management style. Peter Senge has five disciplines make up his theory, and we will be referring to how the Human Resource Department of EasyJet relates to this disciplines in order to be a learning organisation. Peter Senge believes that a learning organisation is able to cope with continuous change, and thus becomes and remains successful. It first has to get rid of its learning disabilities, which are: - Excessive commitment of individuals to their own position, focussing on its own role. - Blaming only external factors, such as other departments, the government instead of taking the responsibility. - Focusing on immediate events, what excludes seeing the long-term patterns which lie behind these events.

- Being unaware of slow, gradual processes that present greater threat than immediate events. - Thinking that you only can learn from experience is a fallacy, as some results of to-day's decisions can be seen maybe only in a few months or years. In order to combat these pitfalls, the following five disciplines have to be met. Personal mastery: People must have complete mastery over themselves, this means, they have to focus and refocus on what they really want, their visions in an objective way.

People have to have a good understanding of themselves and what they want to achieve. Personal learning is the basis for organizational learning. Therefore a company's commitment to, and capacity for learning can be no greater than that of its members. Personal Mastery can be achieved by training and developing employees. At EasyJet people are encouraged to learn and to develop new abilities.

This is enforced by the fact, that every-thing they have learnt can be implemented in the job immediately. In this way all the employ-ees at EasyJet acquire the same level of knowledge concerning the job. Mental models: Mental models are deeply integrated assumptions, generalizations, pictures or images that influence how we understand the world and how we take action. You have to work with the mental models by starting to turn the mirror inward; you have to learn to un-earth your internal assumptions, pictures etc., to scrutinize them with others. Mental models have to be continuously reviewed in order to make thinking more open to a wider range of new ideas. At EasyJet this is achieved through communication, which they have given a special name, the "speak-up" culture.

The "speak-up" culture shows employees that their opinions, suggest-tions and complaints are treated with respect, and are taken seriously. The learning culture is already existent during the recruitment workshops, as the trainers and selectors seek feedback from the applicants about the recruitment procedures. We consider this as a very useful and positive approach. Building of shared visions: Goals, values and missions have to become deeply shared throughout the organization. You have to bind people together around a common identity and a sense of destiny; create a culture. People will learn voluntarily to achieve this shared vision.

EasyJet has formed the so called "orange" culture. This culture is supported by all employees and is one of the most important criteria when recruiting new employees. This culture stim u-lates all employees to share the same views and goals for the company's future. Expectations and requirements are stated on the EasyJet web page (web) in order to inform prospective employees about the essential elements of the "orange" culture. Successful applicants will be invited to an ex-tensive recruitment workshop, which consists of psychometric assessment, team exercise, multiple choice technical questionnaire and a competency based interview. For successful workshop participants, the last step of the recruitment process is a flight simu-later flight, which has to be mastered in a good way.

By means of several selection tools EasyJet can figure out quite clearly who would fit in the orange culture, namely team player, people who seek for challenge, who put in a lot of input, who think about what they are doing etc. The next step towards shared visions is to orient and train the new employees, what is another important step to develop the "orange" culture. All new employees undergo the induction and training. Even staff from outside contractors go through this step. A strong culture and same visions are crucial points which have to be present in a learning organization. Everybody has to understand the basic principals of the company, its strategy and goals in order to be able to contribute in achieving them.

Another important part in the employee development towards culture is the "culture commit-tee", which ensures that learning goes on all the time. Staff from all sections is present in this committee and senior executives are regular visitors to the committee. Team learning: Examples in sports show us that when teams are learning, not only are they producing extraordinary results but the individual members are growing more rapidly than could have occurred otherwise. Team learning starts with an open dialogue, with thinking together. In order to be a team, communication is vital. EasyJet has the already mentioned "speak-up" culture, resulting in a lot of communication.

The communication is simplificated through a very flat management structure. There are some senior managers, trainers, pilots and ground staff. The important thing for EasyJet is that the top managers do not have a secretary and they work in an open office, what takes down the hierarchical structure - an important step towards employee empowerment. This open communication structure is another important step towards the learning organization, as a good communication is crucial for ongoing learning and improvement in a team. Systems thinking: The fifth discipline unites all the previous mentioned disciplines. The es-sence lies in thinking in a systems ways, instead of focusing on immediate events.

You have to understand that each event has influence on the rest, an influence that is often hidden from view. You can only understand the system by contemplating the whole, not only a part of the system. As Peter Senge says, you have to see "the wood and the trees". Pro-activity and the "speak-up culture support the Systems Thinking at EasyJet. Pro-activity is one important element in the learning organization, you have to think in a system, focusing only on immediate events is a pitfall and you would be to late to react or take corrective measures. You have to see the whole picture, that is why employees are trained to look be-yond the obvious through special training that gives them the big picture of company opera-tions.

The people and development department at EasyJet focuses on proactively developing learning events instead of only providing courses when they are needed. EasyJet invests in its people, as they are their key to success, and they thrive to intertwine management and learning completely. Motivation Theories and EasyJet In the next paragraphs we will discuss to which extend the Maslow theory, Frederick Herz-berg's two-factor theory and Douglas McGregor's theory of X and Y are prevalent in the EasyJet structure. Maslow's hierarchy of human needs model is a theory of motivation describing five levels of human needs, and arguing that basic needs must be fulfilled before people work to satisfy higher-level needs. On bottom of the pyramid are the psychological needs, which can be fulfilled by paying an adequate salary.

Of course this is guaranteed by EasyJet. Specifications on payments can be found on the web page web On the next level you find security needs, which can be met by offing a good pension plan. This is as well ensured, the outlines of the pension plans are described on the EasyJet home-page. Furthermore it is stated what kind of insurances are paid by the company, how much the payment is to the beneficiaries is, in case of death of an employee. Social needs are the third point. These can be covered by creating a nice working atmosphere, where friendships at the workplace develop naturally.

The informal organizational structure, the good communication system and the focus on team work, guarantee the fulfilment of this need. Esteem needs include the needs for status and recognition as well as the need for self-respect. Respected job titles and large open offices, such as the EasyJet headquarter in London Luton, are among the things that businesses can provide to address these needs. Self-actualization needs are on top of the pyramid. These are needs of self-fulfilment. People have needs to grow and develop one's capabilities to achieve new meaningful goals.

It is un-necessary to say that is of course guaranteed through the company structure of EasyJet, which excels itself with employee development, which results in company development. According to Herzberg's two-facto theory the determinants of job satisfaction, lie in two types of factors: hygiene and motivation: Motivation Factors: Hygiene Factors: - Achievement - Supervisors - Recognition - Working conditions - The work itself - Interpersonal relations - Responsibility - Pay and security - Advancement and growth - Company policies and administration The essence of the two factor theory is that hygiene factors affect the motivation and satis fac-tion only if they are absent or fail to meet the expectations, e.g. a bad pay and security plan would dissatisfy the employees. But if the plan is good, employees will not necessarily be satisfied. Only the motivational factors can create motivation, e.g. recognition, responsibility. Therefore management must focus on fulfilling all hygiene factors sufficiently and addition-ally create motivational factors. At EasyJet these motivational factors are taken really care of.

As mentioned above employees enjoy a lot of work recognition, responsibility, growth = development. One way how EasyJet motivates its employees is by rewarding those, who are willing to de-velo p through learning and putting in a lot of effort, by means of promotion. The informal and flat management structure gives a lot of responsibility to the company's employees. At EasyJet employees are not just told what to do, but instead they are requested to make suggestions, improve performance, and generally act like the owners of the company = commitment. The Theory X and Y of Douglas McGregor is one that indicates the motivational tendency of a company. Theory X of motivation holds that people are naturally irresponsible and uncooperative.

They resist change, dislike responsibility. This theory is of course not supported by EasyJet. EasyJet beliefs in theory Y, which is, that people are naturally responsible and growth-oriented, self-motivated = they have visions they want to achieve, and are interested in being productive. They are energetic and want to contribute to business growth and change. EasyJet is hiring exactly these kind of people as they are needed for a learning organization. Of course you have to support employees in being productive and self-motivated by providing the tools with the right concept, e.g. training, commitment, communication etc.

Can the EasyJet concept of a learning organization be implemented in the hospitality industry? EasyJet is part of the hospitality industry, as it is an airline company, which is part of the in-dusty. EasyJet is very successful with their concept, this is shown by the latest figures concerning expansion; by now EasyJet has 18 aircrafts and in 3 years (2004) they will have 44 more than double, one can imagine how many new pilots will be employed in the coming years. Furthermore EasyJet is rapidly adding new destinations on its flight schedule and after opening ground basis in Liverpool, Geneva, Amsterdam there are news that they are in negotiations with the airport Paris Orly for the next ground basis. Easy Everything cybercaf " es have been successfully opened in several European cities. In total there exist 21 one caf " es with a total of 8635 PCs, which are available 24 hours a day, every day.

The same orange culture is behind the concept. Cybercaf " es could be considered also a part of the hospitality industry, it is a new form of caf'e. The EasyRentaCar company is as well operating successfully in several European cities, e.g. London, Amsterdam, Barcelona, Nice, Geneva and the list is getting longer and longer. Here as well the same concept has been used: having only one type of car (most centres offer the Mercedes A, some only the Smart), Internet reservations, low-cost (it starts with 9 Pounds a day), and of course the "orange" culture.

EasyRentaCar is an additional service for EasyJet fliers offering them exceptionally low rental prices, thus completing the service range. They offer an additional service, or lets say service at a cheaper rate than other airlines, which co-operate with outside car rental companies. This is a plus point in the hospitality EasyJet provides. Probably you have to define this hospitality concept EasyJet is using. It is not the traditional one, of course the commitment to satisfy the guest / client is number one priority. But EasyJet just offers a limited service within their concept of hospitality.

Their clients just require cheap and punctual transportation, they do not expect for instance meals being served during the flight. In case they request some snacks they can get the extra service by paying an extra for it. The new concept starts already with the booking of the ticket. Basically it is the client himself who is doing it. He books the ticket online, or reserves the car, pays with the credit card and prints out a reservation confirmation. He does not receive an additional flight ticket, nor does he receive any seat reservation when checking in.

This new concept of hospitality attracts one target market, people who just want to have good transportation without paying for extra service they do not need. The expansion of EasyJet into the car rental service and Internet caf " es has been successful, but to which extent can this management concept be successful in other sectors of the hospitality industry? Taking Formula 1 hotels of the Accor group. This hotel chain offers simply accommodation at a very low-cost basis. Clients also simply request accommodation without any special services. All the hotels have the same structure and service, what simplifies managing them.

As there are only few services which will be offered, not that many different jobs have to be carried out, thus you do not have a difficult complex organizational structure, what requires less levels of supervision. Employees at these hotels can receive more responsibility and authority. In the hotel industry, there are more and more steps towards the learning organisation. Some large hotel chains such as "Le Meridien", now offer intensive training programs and focus on developing their employees. However there are still many levels of supervision, what results in hierarchy in large hotels. The above examples demonstrates that the basics of a learning organisation are already applied in some hotels.

However the traditional hotel industry is reluctant to apply this management style, as there are several inhibitors such as complexity, centralisation of organisation to bring about this organisational change. Their managers are afraid of change as it means rethinking everything and living in uncertainty, but one has to see an advantage in change, take the opportunity and make a business out of it. The important point of a learning organization and what makes it to a winning organization form of the future is, that it is not anticipating change and looks critically in the future. It does not only focus on parts of problems which are present, but tries to get the whole picture in order to contemplate problems. In the hospitality industry, like in all other industries, there will always be new developments and trends, which make existent procedures and concepts inappropriate.

One significant sentence by Peter Senge is "today's problems come from yesterday's solutions". EasyJet has foreseen a gap within the changing market, the need for low-cost flights in Europe, created a niche market within the travel industry, and succeeded. If hotels want to stay competitive in tomorrow's economy they have to develop people, who think along, who constantly question whether the way they are doing things is still appropriate. A company today needs strong employee commitment, people who stand behind the company who want to achieve the companies goal and are one with its culture. This can only be achieved if management starts to think strategically, and creates the culture of a learning organisation step by step, it is a process that takes time to be implemented. The traditional way of thinking has a negative effect on creating the learning organisation.

This will have to change if hotels want to stay competitive and; the learning organisation will be for many the way to success in the coming years in a rapidly changing world.

Bibliography

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