CASE STUDY: Managers and Managing

featuring United Airlines

Saniya Sheik
Hira Zaheer
Nayaab Paracha
Bdar Khan Lodhi
Osama Bin Farooq
Fahad Raja
Umer
September 28,2011
BBA 1- Section D- Mr.Aftab Haider

SYNOPSIS/ABSTRACT:

This case study is about United Airlines, who became the

worlds largest airline on July 12, 1994.It is focused on the
changing management culture of the company. Several
major processes are implemented to achieve the company
goals and objectives. The processes are focused on the
employees grooming, The company is becoming internally
strong by improving their communication system among the
different departments. They came to the right path by the
implementation of the different processes but were not able
to achieve their primary goal successfully due to lack of
customer satisfaction.

OBJECTIVES:
Some of the goals and objectives United Airlines created
were, to become a worldwide Airline of first choice and
become the worlds best employee owned company. Another
objective of United Airlines was to obtain an immense
amount of employee involvement for customer satisfaction.

STUDY QUESTIONS:

1) United Airlines managers use an approach called Mission

United to orient employees throughout the organization to

new initiatives, goals, and competitive position. Discuss in
class how managers should conduct these one-day sessions
to get maximum employee buy-in and commitment.
ANSWER: There are several ways in which Mission
United can be conducted in the best manner. There
will be many aspects which will be needed to discuss.
Managers should appoint specific people related to
their specific fields for discussion and speeches. After
the speeches, brief presentations of each department
should take place with graphs, flow charts, and other
evident materials for a more visual understanding. A
Q and A (Question and Answer) session should take
place for any unanswered questions or concerns.
Leaflets should be distributed at the door which
should contain a brief overview/description of the
event. Lastly, a suitable time and accessible location
should be selected for the event.
2) Best of the Best programs are cross functional teams
aimed at creating changes based on identified best
practices. Why do you think United organized these teams
cross functionally?
ANSWER: Best of the Best program is a method of
improvement known as Best practice bench
marking. In this method of improvement,
departments or firms mark all the good aspects of
other firms and apply them on there departments, in
order to improve the efficiency of their field. United
Airlines, being a self employed company, organized
cross functional teams so that every department gets
a chance to improve themselves by adapting good
qualities of the other departments in order to
improve the efficiency of the entire company as a
whole.
3) Employee ownership has been attempted before in the
airline industry through a company called People Express.
That company didnt survive, although it was initially

successful. What are some steps United Airlines can take to

improve its chances of success?
ANSWER: Some steps UAL could take to improve its
chances of success are: The company should become
externally strong by creating and maintaining a good
relationship with the competing industries. The
Airline should also be market oriented by satisfying
the needs of customers.

WHAT HAPPENED?
United Airlines was not internationally competitive. The
primary problem was that they were not an international
corporation and were not satisfied with the old
management culture. In order to achieve their goals, they
took several steps for the betterment of the company and
the grooming of the employees. There are chances of
management issues. In order to resolve these issues, the
company changed the management company entirely by
transforming UAL to be self employed. The corporation
wanted to improve the communication skills of the workers
and create a better leveled understanding amongst the
different departments. In order to do so, UAL brought forth a
program called, Mission United.
To overcome their average customer related issues, a
strategy called, Customer Problem Solution Teams was
developed to take customer satisfaction initiative and to
solve problems within the teams rather then reference to
managers.
For the improvement of the quality of service through the
employees, another program was developed, The best of
the Best. This program encouraged a friendly environment
and developed better relationship between managers and
employees.

SUGGESTIONS:

1)United Airlines should become more customer focused

rather then focusing entirely on the betterment of the work

force. Market research is highly recommended in order to
achieve success in the long-run. For reorganization, support,
and a learning experience, UAL should create friendly ties
with leading competitors.

CONCLUSION:
Although measures taken by the corporation were
beneficial, they did not exceed there goals and expectations.
UAL succeeded in terms of being internally strong as a team
and were headed in the right direction, but externally they
were weak.