In the study of Alaska Airlines, it is easy to tell that this company is definitely heading towards a downward spiral. Only 60 percent of their flights are on time, 4 mishandled packages per 1,000 people, and this was leading to declines in sales. The Executives realized that there was something that had to be done and this would mean major changes for the company. To create these changes let's look to see how Kotter's Steps could help with this change. A. Create Urgency 1. Describe a plan to create urgency within the organization and convince stakeholders that this change needs to take place. To create a sense of urgency the executives will have to come up with a good plan to get this started. According to Kotter's Steps this first …show more content…
In the early part of 2005, it seemed like the company was more focused on labor issues and concentrated on terminating employees to save money. In order to make the company turn around its customer satisfaction they will need to create a process for the change. This process should include, as stated above getting the employees on board with this sense of urgency. Once they understand that they company really needs to change hopefully this will allow them to start to agree with change. After you have started convincing folks that a change is necessary, Alaska airlines would be smart and let the employees get involved where they can. Allowing employees to feel like they have some sense of power, this is a key component with dealing with any sort of change. Another process that the airline should start to look on how to penetrate the culture, this change will require a shift in culture. The company is going to have to seriously invest in its employees to make them happy and not overworked. Once the employees feel appreciated then customers service satisfaction should rise, just as when employee moral feel so did customer …show more content…
Build a Guiding Coalition 1. Identify who should be involved in this guiding coalition. When selecting this coalition that is going to help Alaska Airlines turn their customer service satisfaction around will definitely need to follow Kotter's guidelines. Alaska airlines is heading in the right direction when they are talking about adding a new VP to their Seattle hub. A shake in leadership is just what they need. But along with this buy-in from leadership Alaska must keep in mind the rest of the company. Alaska Airlines needs to gain buy-in from middle management. "Organizations don’t prosper unless managers in the middle ranks, like Healy, identify and promote the need for change. People at that level gather valuable intelligence from direct contact with customers, suppliers, and colleagues." Lastly after executives are in and managers, the next best step are perhaps regular employees who seem to have a lead role naturally. These folks will most definitely have some ideas and will be able to easily convince the rest of the company to buy-in on the change. Aon Hewitt writes, "Connection with co-workers—Employees need to see their co-workers pulling together, providing reliable support and making personal sacrifices during these stressful times." Pulling employees into the coalition will most definitely have a positive effect on the rest of the