Faculty of Business Management, Villa College

Module name: Managing Organizational Culture and Change

Module Code: BUSS1105

Assignment title: Organizational culture of emirates

Student name: Mariyam Moosa

Student ID: S2100312
Programme: BAHRMD

Lecturer name: Dr. AMZATH AHMED

Due date: 15th July

Time: 23:59
Introduction

Emirates airline is a multinational company owned by Dubai in the middle east. The demand of
the people for air-travel, eventually led to the start of its operation from 2 aircraft. But now, they
have expanded its fleet size to 252 aircraft flying over 100 destinations in 60 countries. The
initial investment cost more than $10 million and ever since the company has been striking
upwards with profit. Even though emirates have been operating for 36 years, they are one of the
most successful and respected airlines as they have always focused on the quality of service
rather than quantity. Their aim is to convert Dubai into the most populated aviation center to
decrease the price of hotels so it will improve tourism. Managers try to reduce the cost of
operation while implementing innovative ideas. Emirates also has an objective of satisfying
customers’ needs by using advanced technology while sustaining eco-efficiency. The result of
these objectives will qualify emirates as the leader in the aviation industry. (Discussion on
Emirates Airlines Strategy Analysis) (Naeem, 2014) (The objective of emirates airline is
building up)

Main services include the departure of passengers to and from international borders. Staff is also
allocated for the ramp and ground handling, cargo services, catering, safety and security,
ticketing, and airline information development technology services.

Description of four key cultures in the organization

Excellent explanation of corporate culture

Corporate culture is the beliefs and values that differentiate one organization from another. The
differentiation occurs due to dress code, employee benefits, the way how customers are treated,
and other aspects of the business. The corporate culture paves its way for employees to learn
about the importance of sustaining and maintaining a positive relationship with the stakeholders
by improving their perception.

Emirates has been carrying their fame of having a sustained corporate culture. Innovation and
feedback are encouraged for the perceptional growth of individuals. Due to the supportive
leadership, their personalities are refined which also improves employee motivation and job
satisfaction.

Emirates has an open system culture indicating that the organizational culture is flexible and
highly diversified as they are welcome to changing needs in different geographical areas.

Corporate culture exerts a positive influence on the organizational culture of emirates.

Hierarchy culture:

The major type of culture sustained in Emirates is the vertical hierarchy culture. Emirates has
established a strict work discipline where management withholds decisions and employees work
with a strong attitude. The duties and responsibilities are allocated according to throughout the
whole organization so that there are no gaps for the positions that need to be filled. Every
individual employee is responsible for the actions resulting from their deeds. As a barrier to stop
the negative consequences, they are given a manual with set-off rules. In addition, the new
recruits are given a full-day grooming course of uniform code and conduct where they are taught
instructions such as the nail polish color, height of shoes, type of bag, hairstyle, etc.

(Emirates Airlines Cultural Diversity) (Sundaram Nataraja)

Market culture:

The products and services must be of high quality to ensure loyalty and enthusiasm of
employees. Safety practices and standards are adopted to protect employees, customers, and the
valuable assets of the company. Employees are goal-oriented, putting their best effort even in the
most critical situations. There are also some cases where the senior staff has put too much
pressure on the dependable staff to maximize task performance which led to burnout. However,
they have balanced the situation by giving rewards, trainings, and mentoring to guide them when
a new challenging task is assigned. (Harry, march 19 2020)
Adhocracy culture:

innovation: Emirate’s probability is the result of providing services that are integrated with the
most technological equipment and the creation of innovative ideas. By introducing a greater
number of fleets with higher capacity, the passengers are able to get a more comfortable and
promising experience. In order to promote innovation, employees are celebrated with monetary
or non-monetary rewards. The company has promoted a culture of learning and reinforcement so
that employees learn from their experience and they can implement the ideas to create a better
product/service. (Harry, march 19 2020)

One example was the innovation of a hub monitor application which made it possible to identify
causes for the aircraft delays and other activities. Also, the development of the new data
collecting source reduced the time spend for data collecting, tracked competition, and helped to
quickly make decisions which helped to grow the revenue of the company.

Clan culture:

Due to the aspects of employee benefits such as good salary, free/discounted tickets, flexible
work schedules, and performance appraisal, employees are motivated to work harder.
Management also ensures that the work environment is a mix of the younger and older
generations so that there is a flow of experience and job knowledge. This leads to the
development of the skill of delivering the information more professionally, the quality of
interaction between employees and the customer will be enhanced. Also, the teamwork will help
them to focus on the needs of the whole organization as actions are more harmonized and
coordinated. Employees discussed their feelings, frustrations with one another which promoted
bonding as a team.

Key HR policies and their roles in sustaining culture:

Human resources policies have linked employee’s perception to a result-oriented organization

where employees are committed to working harder and create a highly involved work
environment. To promote self-management and self-programming, HR departments have
developed these HR policies.

Training policy

Emirates has strong training procedures for newly recruiting and highly experienced employees.
They are trained from emirates aviation college before being allocated for duties. By increasing
their awareness and knowledge about their spectrum of work, it creates an environment where
employees are encouraged to take initiative to improve their own performance.

For cabin crew’s safety and emergency procedure and image and uniform training, service
personality training, etc are given. These training ensure that the hostess is guided with the
necessary skills to ensure the safety of all passengers while keeping his/her image in line with the
emirate’s brand.

The top management arranges these training as they want the trainees to respond in any situation.
Due to these training, the employees have sustained decisive action and quick thinking, saving
lots of lives from risky circumstances. This has created a culture in which passengers have put
their trust as they believe that emirates have the most well-trained staff.

As emirates employees are from different parts of the world, they are also trained to form groups
of individuals with different cultural backgrounds. This leads to effective team formation where
everyone is equally treated. (Organizational Behavior of Emirates Airlines Evaluation Essay ,
june 3rd 2019 )

Recruitment policy

The aim of recruitment policy is to collect quality candidates who are fit for the job according to
the short- and long-term staffing needs, community, and the society. Emirates does not support
discrimination unlike other developed organizations which discriminate due to the complicated
process and the high number of candidates. Both men and women who have different cultures
and religions are taken from a talent pool. The selected individuals is divided into groups and
each group are given scenarios of challenging situations. This will create a culture of working
together to solve the problems. The main part of recruitment, interviews are focused to select
individuals with high technical skills, educational background, and phycological abilities. This
promotes teamwork, commitment, and devotion to day-to-day operations which leads to the
development of the company.

The unique fact of emirates is that they have employees from all over the world as flights to
more than 100 international destinations are operated. (Good Research Paper About Emirates
Airlines Organizational Culture) (Emirates Airlines: Herzberg's Motivational Employee)

Performance appraisal

The performance appraisal policy is followed to constantly evaluate and monitor work and
behavior of employees. In emirates, each department has a performance appraisal system as each
department is expecting different objectives. For example, employees in lounge services will
measure the level of customer service and the success in resolving customer-related issues so that
the management can give direction for the contribution of customer loyalty.

Performance appraisal policy ensures that the quality of communication and the speed of
response to resolve cases is maximum. By conducting surveys and customer feedback, customer
satisfaction with provided services can be measured. (Emirates Airline’s Performance
Measurement System)
Compensation and reward

rewards are essential to establish a goal-oriented behavior of emirates. Awards are given for the
years of service and privileges are given for the different ranges of work during which they have
shown integrity, bravery, and teamwork. These types of work which was recognized range from
humanitarian action such as helping a choking child to breathe, to aircraft recovery issues. This
shows that emirates employees not only work for the salary and other benefits but for the
betterment of the customers. In addition to the competitive tax-free salary received, employees
also get discounted flight tickets, accommodation, free transportation, and annual leave, etc.

https://www.glassdoor.com/Benefits/Emirates-United-Arab-Emirates-Benefits-
EI_IE23433.0,8_IL.9,29_IN6.htm

3 solutions were given highlighting weak cultures and proposing the best types of culture
relevant to the organization

Emirates airline workers lack communication between manager and employee. Due to the goal-
oriented culture, the management is aggressive to both supervisors and low-graded staff. they
are in constant fear of getting punished especially if a colleague complained about them. A
culture of disrespecting and commanding mentality is widespread where the low-graded
employees are forbidden to ask questions. An employee reported that he was punished by
assigning him to the busiest checking area while not asking whether he is capable to handle
denied boarding counters where the passengers will speak aggressively. Therefore, they are
unable to find the motivation to boost work performances. Even though the management ensures
that they follow company policies, there are no codes of communication to govern tacit channels.
As a result, gaps are formed in between the management and employees. Therefore, in order to
prevent miscommunication, the clan culture of emirates should be developed. There shouldn’t be
just the communication of work-related matters through emails and officials’ announcements
through social media. Employees should also participate in out of office-related activities which
will help them to get to know each other better and give advice for their personal and office life.
While giving them advice, make your words simple and relate your body language to the
situation. Leaders should also give attention to their times of need while respecting their point of
view. This will form a trustable environment with open communication. (Green, October 23
2019) (Admin, November 12 2014)

The airline with the most educated HR department, unfortunately, lacks of efficient recruitment
policy which increases the turnover rate. In the present recruitment policy, it does not offer
retirement plans which eventually demotivates and finds it odd to work for this airline. Instead of
getting a pension scheme, employees get a ‘end of service benefit’ which means that even if you
have dedicated your lifetime serving this airline, you will not have any pension in your country.
So even if the employee feels tired from a busy shift, the management will not arrange any
money to go to the hospital. Emirates also does not have a trade union to fight for employee
rights. (Quora, March 11 2018)

Another reason for the weak culture of recruitment is due to the two contracts which disables
transfer of an employee from emirates to another airline. This violates the right for having
choices and therefore demotivates the worker. It is suggested that the hierarchy culture needs to
be enhanced so that employees can transit to other airlines so that they will develop more skills
and get more experience even if the chances for employees to leave the company are higher.
There should also be a pension scheme so that employees will be happy to be serving till their
retirement.

Conclusion

Emirates has a distinguished organizational culture and is influenced mainly by multiculturism.

The major type of culture is hierarchy which have established a strict work discipline.
Employees are goal-oriented and innovative and motivated to achieve their goals. Emirate’s HR
department has developed policies such as training policy, recruitment policy, reward policy, and
performance appraisal policy. These policies will be effective to promote a positive culture if an
open communication is established between the managers and employees. It will also be
beneficial if employees are given retirement benefits without using it all for company’s profit.
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