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BUS 661 Week 4

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British Airways- Case Study
The scenario upon which this paper is based relates to the British Airways Swipe Card Debacle case study from the textbook, Managing Organizational Change: A Multiple Perspective Approach (Akin, Dunford, & Palmer, 2009). The purpose of this paper is to analyze and discuss the organizational change associated to the implementation of a new swipe card system that led to strike of over 250 British Airways check-in staff, losing 40 million pounds and negatively effecting the company’s reputation. Additionally, this paper will relate the case study to several change approaches (organizational development, sense-making, change management, contingency, and processual) and identify key issues. Additionally, this …show more content…

While the Future Size and Shape project team may have had a shared vision of the swipe card change, this same vision was definitely not shared by the 250 check-in staff.
Contingency Approach Similar to the change management approach, the contingency approach has many different variations. For instance, one of these approaches is categorized into the following four ideal types: commanding (change intervention, directed by leadership and is typically driven by the need to implement quickly and abruptly), engineering (change agent, who also acts as an analyst implements the change along with those who designing the change to process and systems), teaching (third party consultants work with internal staff to assist with identify new ways of operation and is change intervention that is a long-term plan), and socializing (democratic approach that is a gradual change process approach) (Huy, 2001). Each of these approaches are acceptable but may not all work in every type of situation. For instance, within the British Airways case study, it seems as though the project team chose to utilize the commanding approach for the implementation of the swipe cards. The check-in staff were completely resistant to not only the swipe card change but were also resistant to the actual approach taken to implement that change.
Processual Approach Similar to the sense-making approach, the processual approach also looks at the relationship of

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