Case Application 2

Flight Plans

Discussion Questions

1. The four functions of managers are,

 Planning

 Organizing

 Leading

 Controlling

Jeff Bourk would face plenty of problems in managing the airport. First of all, would

be planning. Planning includes setting the goals for the company. Jeff has to set clear

goals for the airport. What kind of services they will provide to the passengers? What

kind of services will they provide to the city of Branson? What will be their

managerial structure? Do they need a very large number of people or a small staff

would work? How many air-line companies will they deal with? All these have to be

defined by Jeff. The next responsibility is to organize the company. He will again

have to deal with the question of how many managers or staff does he actually need to

run the airport? How many departments? How many passengers will they cater per

day, per month, per year? All these are also the questions that Jeff has to answer.

After setting up his airport, Jeff will have to lead the employees, train them and

motivate them to perform better and give their best services to the people so that their

company can run well. The last and most difficult thing is to control the airport. As he

is the owner of this private and the only airport in the region, he will have to take

strict measures to make his company the best because soon competitors will be
 coming. He will have to control the functioning of the airport and oversee that nothing

goes wrong.

2. Yes, the challenges are different from then and now. At first, he had to only oversee

the construction and the dealings with airlines and the city officials. He had to do

most of this work himself. But now as the airport is up and running, he has to lead a

fleet of staff to a brighter future for the company. He has to oversee the whole team

now and not the operations. His responsibilities have certainly changed.

3. The roles Jeff Bourk is playing in these situations are,

a) As he negotiates new contracts with other airlines, he is playing as a liaison,

entrepreneur, resource allocator and negotiator. Basically, he is playing

interpersonal and decisional roles.

b) While working with his employees in providing high level of services to arriving

and departing passengers, Jeff has to be a leader, a figure head, a monitor and a

disseminator. So, he is playing Interpersonal and Informational roles.

c) While resolving issues with Branson city, Jeff Bourk has to be a liaison, a

disturbance handler and a negotiator. So, he plays interpersonal and decisional

roles.

4. The most important skills to a manager like Jeff Bourk are human skills and

conceptual skills. He has to deal with the city officials, managers of other airlines and

his own staff. So, the most important to him is the human skill because he has to lead

his company. He also must have conceptual skills. He must know the technicalities of

the dealings he is doing with the city and the airlines. He must know how his

decisions will benefit the company. He must also be aware with the technicalities of

running an airport because that is what he is doing and without knowing it he can’t

lead his staff to better future.