Brexit won’t be good for Easyjet.

EasyJet is a low cost airline based in the UK. (Easyjet n.d) Easy jets cooperate core values are, “Safety: We never compromise on safety, Simplicity: We cut out the things that don’t matter to keep us lean and make it easy, One team: Together we’ll always find a way, Integrity: We stand by our word and do what we say, Passion: We have a passion for our customers, our people and the work we do, Pioneering: We challenge to find new ways to make travel easy and affordable”.(Easyjet n.d) I have chosen Easyjet to examine what Brexit would mean to Easyjet because, Easyjet has one of the strongest credit ratings in the world for an airline and employs up to about 10,000people.(Easyjet n.d)

A formal organisation has been defined by Scheinas, the planned coordination of the activities of a number of people for the achievement of some common, explicit purpose or goal, through division of labour and function, and through a hierarchy of authority and responsibility. (Mullins 2016: 80) Easyjet is a good example of a formal organisation with its organisational chart as shown below,

Source: (Easyjet, 2015)

Easyjet after Brexit is going to have to re-evaluate its European routes in light of the changed European regulations because the UK will no longer be part of the European Union free trade zone. Easyjet following the Brexit vote might lead to a fall in its share price by 20 percent. (World Finance n.d)

Mullins (2016: 354) talks about Fayol’s 14 principles of management. Using 6 of the principles I am going to critically evaluate the impact Brexit is having on it.

1. Division of work: Brexit is going to force easyjet to try and figre out a way in which they can have more flights and faster routes in line with the new EU regulations they be abiding by with the same 10,000 employees that are currently working for easy jet.
2. Authority and responsibility: Easyjet will nolonger abide by the rules and regulations if the European Union but they as an airline company will have the responsibility of changing their own company regulations accordingly. The manager will have the responsibility to make sure these new company rules and regulations are updated and abided by since self-governance is not one of the rules of easyjet.
3. Discipline: Easyjet operates on discipline to ensure that flights take off on time, there are no delays for the customers and bookings are made easy and fast for customers. Easyjet will have to make sure Brexit does not affect them in terms of delayed flights.
4. Unity of direction: Easyjet must make sure their organisational chart remains the same as the chart above and that marketing, information technology, human resources, customer service and production are all receiving their orders from one CEO. If the production, human resources and the rest are receiving orders from more than one superior, Brexit will only cause more commotion/conflicts at easyjet.
5. Unity of direction: Easyjet despite Brexit should keep giving customers flights at a good price, make booking of flights even easier, reduce on the transit routes and make flights more safe and comfortable.
6. Subordination of individual interest to general interests: Easyjet should make sure they inspire their employees to see their company vision as their own integrating the individual/employees of EasyJet’s desire to also travel and go on holiday with their families. Just like Henry Ford did with the ford where he made sure he made cars that even the employees of ford could buy. If EasyJet manages to make the company vision and mission one with their employees’ individual mission and vision in life then EasyJet will be one of the most successful companies in the world despite Brexit. Because the employees that will be working for EasyJet will be happy employees and no better worker is better than a happy worker.

The root of the identified problem caused by Brexit is EasyJet will have to recalculate their ticket fares taking into account the new cost of visas for UK citizens who will no longer be part of the EU. (World Finance n.d)  Easyjet can benefit from the overcoming of this challenge by making air ticket fares seem even cheaper because customers will not know it’s because they are considering their new visa costs and attract more customers. Reduction of air ticket will attract more customers and eventually increase their bottom-line.

There are various actions I suggest EasyJet can do to overcome the challenges of brexit. Mullins (2016: 356) talks about the Drucker’s 3 tasks of a manager. These are the roles the manager will play in order to overcome the resistance to change and they include:

1. Integrating the purpose and mission of EasyJet into the collective purpose of the employees of EasyJet which is to enjoy life. The manager can do this by first ensuring the employees of easy jet can afford the tickets of easy jet and even get discounts on flights or even free flights for employees of easy jet where possible. Every/most individuals have the desire of enjoying life and a big part of enjoying life is traveling and seeing new places.
2. The managers of EasyJet can reward the best employees with fully paid vacations for them and their families to encourage workers to be productive and achieve organisational goals.
3. Managers can encourage employees to take 20percent of their workhours to work on personal projects from which employees will get better fulfilment from work and solve some of the social problems facing society including projects that are dealing with clean energy alternatives for their airplanes, charity works that solve poverty e.t.c. Managers can also encourage former criminals to apply for work at EasyJet as part of their social responsibilities as an organisation. For example greyston launched a breakthrough model to help people facing barriers to employment. Greyston now bakes for Ben and Jerrys ice-cream. (Greyston 2019) Greyston is a 20million dollar company. (Chhabra 2019)

I have the knowledge that has now let me explain what management is going to mean for EasyJet after brexit as they prepare for brexit. The range of factors a manager will have to consider to adapt his/her style to ensure EasyJet makes more profits especially after brexit are many and if I was the manager of EasyJet my first job would be to go on vacation with all 10,000employees of EasyJet. So if I was a manager of EasyJet, brexit wouldnot be good for EasyJet, it would be great!

References.

1. Easyjet (n.d) About [online] available from http://corporate.easyjet.com/about/what-we-do [ 22 November 2019]
2. World Finance (n.d) the industries hit hardest by brexit [online] available from https://www.worldfinance.com/home/the-industries-hit-hardest-by-brexit [22 November 2019]
3. Mullins, L.J (2016) Management and organisational behaviour. 11^th edn. New York: Pearson
4. Greyston (2019) how open hiring works [online] available from https://www.greyston.org/ [22 November 2019]
5. Chhabra (2019) this company has $20 million in revenues and hires anyone who wants work [online] available from https://www.forbes.com/sites/eshachhabra/2018/08/22/this-10-million-company-does-not-ask-for-a-resume-or-any-job-experience/#258399212517 [22 November 2019]