5/21/2009 Group Members: Adnan Khan (B.COM from Karachi University) Ahmer Zohaib (BS Computer Science from Karachi University) Ghazanfar Ali (BS Economics from Bahria University) Hammad-Ud-Din Qureshi (BS Software Engineering from Karachi University) Jibran Bahadur Khan (BS Computer Science from Karachi University) Leaders at PIA
Table of Contents
Introduction
Over the years many leaders have taken charge of Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) some being successful and some fails to handle this organization. The purpose of this report is to analyze the leadership style, approaches and skill of the leaders that impact the performance of
Pakistan International Airlines (PIA). The leaders we have selected for this report are:
Air Marshal Malik Nur Khan (a successful leader)
Tariq Kirmani (unsuccessful leader)
Captain Aijaz Haroon (Too early to say)
In the above, Air Marshal Nur Khan was the most successful leader among the above leaders. In this report we, by using the various leadership approaches evaluates the leaders in the context of their leadership skills, style and traits and come to a conclusion why one leader was successful
Page 2 Leaders at PIA then the other. We will also discuss the Teamwork and the influence of group in the decision making process at PIA. After a careful analysis, recommendations have been proposed to improve the efficacy of the organization.
Pakistan International Airline (PIA)
Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) is a national airline; Established in 1955, operating in passenger and cargo services covering eighty-two domestic and foreign destinations. It has a vast experience in the airline industry of Pakistan with a large fleet of aircrafts. The fleet size is 40.
More than 17000 employees are working at PIA. It is divided into the following departments:
Human Resource and Administration
Marketing
Corporate Planning
Information Services
Finance
Flight Services
Flight Operation
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Engineering
Procurement and Logistics
Customer Services
Training and Development
Quality Assurance.
The organogram of the organization follows, with the Chairman (PIA) at the top and directors of departments’ reports directly to him. The structure is centralized as shown in the fig.1 with the top-level management making the decisions.
Figure: Organizational Structure of PIA
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Vision
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‘To be a world class airline exceeding customer expectations through dedicated employees
committed to excellence.’
FIG. 3: SEVEN CHARACTERISTICS OF ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURE
CHARACTERISTICS PIA INNOVATION AND Low RISK TAKING ATTENTION TO Low DETAIL OUTCOME High ORIENTATION PEOPLE Low ORIENTATION TEAM ORIENTATION High AGGRESSIVENESS Low STABILITY High
The results show that PIA focuses more on the goal rather than means to achieve it. Therefore, tasks are highly valued in PIA. The characteristics and values form the organizational structure which determines the effectiveness of the organization and the behaviour of employees.
Culture
The culture is determined by the vision and values communicated throughout the structure and amongst people. Since, PIA is a bureaucratic organization, so the culture is similar to that of any government organization. The culture determines the type of leadership style, communication and group dynamics within the organization. The workers see this as the quality of work life which directs their degree of motivation. The final outcome is goal achievement, individual satisfaction, and personal growth and development.
Values
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Figure: Values of PIA
Brief Introduction of Leaders at PIA
Air Marshal Malik Nur Khan
Nur Khan was PIA's Managing Director from 1959 to 1965. His success in establishing PIA a firm and profitable financial basis in 6 years is now a fact of airline history. Under his charismatic and motivational leadership PIA became one of the leading and respected airlines of the world. During his tenure PIA became the first Asian airline to operate jet aircraft. The airline at that time inducted modern Boeing 720B jet in its fleet. It also started flying to China and flights to Europe via Moscow were also launched. In 1973, Nur Khan was particularly requested by the government of Pakistan to resume control of PIA. During his second term (1980-1984) as airline's head, PIA became operator of wide-body DC-10s and Boeing 747s. He was a dynamic leader and believed in innovation and new ideas.
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Tariq Kirmani Tariq Kirmani was MD of PIA between 2006- 2007, it was seen as a good omen for the national flag career. Pakistan International Airlines at that time was already in heavy waters and bearing unimaginable losses. Tariq Kirmani during his tenure took a number of steps that bore favorable fruits. He hired in young educated recruits thus brought a fresh air to the stale environment of the
PIA offices. Unluckily the Fokker crash was a big low to his repute and then the banning by
SAFA was the last nail in the coffin.
Capt. Aijaz Haroon
He is the Managing Director of PIA since 2008. Sources tell that he is a drinking buddy of Asif
Ali Zardari and appointed as the MD right after Asif Ali Zardari took over the reign. He has got no previous management experience and comes from a political background.
As a Leader Air Marshal Nur Khan
Nur khan as a leader was a motivator and an intellectual stimulator. He motivates his employees by challenging their ability to solve the problems. He setup the infrastructure for PIA and was committed to the development, growth and the expansion of PIA. He treated each employee separately but equitably. To be precise he was a charismatic leader that gives him a superhuman power. All his characteristics projected him to be a transformational leader.
Tariq Kirmani
Tariq Kirmani was a visionary leader. He was more focused toward the task. So, this leads him to be the authoritative leader. To accomplish his tasks he establish mission, vision and goals i.e. he sets direction that how to achieve goals. He also brings in the concept of performance based
Page 8 Leaders at PIA bonuses. Apart from this he also focuses on the rebranding of PIA. In short, he was a transactional leader.
Capt. Aijaz Haroon
Capt. Aijaz Haroon is Laissez-faire leader i.e. he takes a “hands-off- let things ride” approach.
The reason being he abdicates responsibility, delay decisions, give no feed back to his employees. As a leader he is very much ineffective and de-motivating. He doesn’t make any decision on knowledge; he is a intuition make decision maker. His leadership style is delegating i.e. low supportive and low directing. He got no management experience and comes from a political party.
Trait Approach
Intelligence:
According to the employees Nur Khan was considered to be the intelligent leader as against the
Tariq Kirmani and Aijaz Haroon. He got a very strong verbal, perceptual and reasoning ability as against his descendents.
Self Confidence:
All the leaders possess this ability. They were very much certain about their competencies and skills.
Determination:
It basically refers to the desire to get the job done. Mr.Nur and Mr.Tariq were very determined leader i.e. they were very enthusiastic to get the job done where as Mr.Aijaz is very much less concerned about the task as well as the people as a result lacks determination.
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Integrity:
Integrity inspires confidence in other we see this quality in Mr. Nur as against the other two leaders. May be the reason behind is that Mr. Nur was an emergent and assigned leader as
Against Mr. Tariq and Mr. Aijaz who both comes from a political party.
Sociability:
This characteristic is found in all the leaders that we are considering. They all are sensitive to other needs and show concern for their well being.
Skill Approach
Technical Skills:
It refers to having a specific knowledge about and being proficient about a specific type of work and activity. We see that that only Mr. Aijaz is the one who have the technical knowledge about how things are carried out. Where as Mr. Nur and Mr. Tariq has a little technical knowledge. But as a leader technical skill is not that much important then the conceptual skill.
Human Skill:
Human skills are the people skills. These skills help leaders in dealing effectively with the followers, peers and superiors. Mr. Nur was a leader with a human skill as against the other two leaders; he was sensitive to the needs and motivation of others, and taking into account the other needs in his decision making.
Conceptual Skill:
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Conceptual skills are critical for creating a vision and strategic plan for the organization. We found that Mr. Nur and Mr. Tariq possess this skill as against Mr. Aijaz who lacks this skill. This skill makes both the leaders to work easily and effectively with ideas and concepts.
Leadership Style Grid
Air Martial Nur Khan
On the leadership grid MR. Nur leadership style is (9, 9) i.e. Team Management. He places a strong concern for the task and for the people. This style not only satisfies the employee needs but also promote high degree of participation and teamwork in the organization.
Tariq Kirmani
His leadership style is Authoritative-Compliance Management i.e. (9, 1) on the leadership Grid.
He place heavy emphasis on the task as against people needs. For him people are just the tools to get the job done.
Capt. Aijaz Haroon
He is a leader who is unconcerned about the people as well as the task. So, he lies on the (1, 1) on the leadership grid.
Figure: Leadership Grid
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Situational Leadership
Air Marshal Nur Khan
Nur Khan’s Leadership behavior is coaching i.e. high directive and high supporting as he was involed with the employees and encourage their input. He motivates his employees to think in a broader way and give his support whenever they need it.
Tariq Kirmani
Tariq Kirmani leadership style was a directing style i.e. high directing and low supporting. The main reason was that he was less concerned about the people all was that were the task to be completed within the specified time. As mentioned earlier he has got no technical background and we think this prevent him to give his support to his employees in how to do the work.
Capt. Aijaz Haroon
His leadership style is delegating i.e. low directing and low supporting. He gave the responsibility to the subordinates for getting the job done the way they see fit.
Figure: Situational Leadership
Contingency Model
Leader-Member Relations
Since, in the case of the Leader-Member relation the employee show confidence, trust and loyalty towards him and this make the relation good. Where as the Leader-Member relation was poor in the case of Mr. Tariq and Mr. Aijaz the reason being the employees shows distrust and lack of confidence in them.
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Task Structure
As mentioned earlier that the leadership style of Mr. Tariq Kirmani was directing i.e. leader has got more control over the task and as a result the task were clearly defined in Mr. Tariq Kirmani case. The task structure was low in the case of Mr. Nur and Mr. Aijaz as they haven’t had a complete control over the task.
Position Power
The position power of Mr. Nur and Mr. Aijaz is low as compared to Mr. Tariq which implies Mr.
Tariq has the authority to hire and fire or give raises in rank or pay.
Figure: Contingency Model of Air Marshal Nur Khan
Figure: Contingency Model of Tariq Kirmani
Figure: Contingency Model for Capt. Aijaz Haroon
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Comparative Analysis of Leaders
Air Marshal Nur Khan Tariq Kirmani Capt. Aijaz Haroon
Transformational Leader Transactional Leader Laissez-faire Leader
Human & conceptual skills Conceptual skills Technical skills
Team Management Authority Compliance Management Impoverished Management
Coaching Directing Delegating
People Oriented Task Oriented Indifferent
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Teamwork
Team Work is an important element in the airline industry and PIA is not any different; from ticket reservation to the landing of the plane team work is the decisive factor. Employees work in various teams such as ground staff, flight attendants, cabin crew, office staff etc. All these teams have different sets of tasks to perform but unity among these teams is necessary to run the day to day operations. Because of the diverse nature of employees at PIA, it is difficult to make team work efficient so, it is major challenge for them.
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Influence of Groups on Decision Making
PIA as one of the biggest organization that is operating in Pakistan having more than 17,000 employees has various formal and informal groups. The informal groups can manipulate the overall decision making process to some extent due to the nature of the workplace. These informal groups are formed because of most of the employees are working in the organization for several years.
Recommendations for Pakistan International Airlines
Decentralization
Pakistan International Airline (PIA) should decentralize its structure and that would lead to the easy management, increased motivation, easy access to information and resolution of the conflicts. As a result issues regarding their behavior would lessen, so it would ultimately lead to more satisfied employees and enhanced productivity of the organization.
Employee Empowerment
PIA should make efforts towards employee participation in the decision making process that result in more employee satisfaction and enhanced motivation. As a result employees would feel
Page 16 Leaders at PIA more comfortable and independent to discuss the issues explicitly without hesitation. The employees will work with more commitment and dedication as he was heard in the decision making process and this would increase the level of motivation.
Two-Way Communication
The implications of the employees can prove to be very effective in improving the operations as they are the ones who manage them. Hence, a top-down approach should be replaced with two- way communications. As a result, the employees would feel motivated and valued as they would be included in decision-making.
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