using OB concepts and theory ,what are issues that need to be address ?

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HERIOT-WATT UNIVERSITY

PEOPLE, WORK AND ORGANISATIONS – MARCH 2021

Section I

Mandatory Case Study

Doha International Airways maintains global operations during COVID-19 crisis

The COVID-19 pandemic created an unprecedented challenge for Doha International
Airways (DIA), and the aviation industry as a whole. While the airline continued to maintain
operations where possible, overall demand for air transport declined significantly. “We
appreciate this is a difficult time and that many people around the world are trying to find a
way to get home. We continue to operate more than 60 flights per day so that as many
people as possible can get home safely to their loved ones,” a DIA spokesperson said.

The spokesperson further said: “We are operating services to around 40 locations
worldwide. We are constantly reviewing our operations to see where there is more demand
and requests, and wherever possible we will add more flights or bigger aircraft. This is a
challenging time for the aviation industry, and we are thankful to airports and authorities and
our staff around the world for their incredible efforts to help us get passengers home.”

In the space of a few weeks DIA carried over one million people home and transported over
70,000 tonnes of medical equipment and aid relief; acting as a partner for passengers,
governments, travel trade and freight companies in globally challenging circumstances.

Behind the scenes, a Global Crisis Operations Response Team (CRT) had been set up to
manage COVID-19 transmission awareness and protection of aviation personnel, staffing
and route scheduling, and aircraft/passenger procedures. This executive-level,
multidisciplinary and international team representing all the regions where DIA was still
operating was tasked with setting up and implementing emergency procedures in
cooperation with regional management teams, crew and ground staff; as well as liaison with
the World Health Organization and national governments.

Led by Dr Adel al-Jafari, DIA’s Chief Operating Officer, based in Doha, the CRT comprised:

Americas
Ms Phylicia Rashad, based in Dallas, US
Mr John Okafor, based in Montreal, Canada

Europe
Mr Riaz Ahmed, based in London, UK
Ms Eleni Paxinou, based in Athens, Greece

Asia and the Pacific
Ms Pooja Umashankar, based in Colombo, Sri Lanka
Ms Song Hye-kyo, based in Seoul, South Korea
Mr Julian McMahon, based in Melbourne, Australia

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Middle East
Mr Jassim Al Rumaihi, based in Doha, Qatar
Ms Asma Al Muftah, based in Doha, Qatar

The team had been hand-picked by Dr al-Jafari and DIA’s chief of staff Giovanni Mazzucato.
All of them had aviation experience, they had all spent time working at DIA’s head offices in
Doha, and had all been in their executive posts for a minimum of two years. Dr al-Jafari and
Giovanni believed this would give the team the broadest possible insight into the operational
pressures of the business as well as understanding the corporate ethos and strategic
priorities, even in this global pandemic. Each person was contacted individually by Giovanni,
to start immediately, or as soon as their organisational responsibilities could be handed over
to other members of the local executive teams; but no later than three days.

Forty-eight hours after everyone had been contacted, Dr al-Jafari hosted the first Zoom call
for the team. To try and accommodate the various time zones, the call was set for 2pm Doha
time, which meant it was 6am in Dallas, and 9pm in Melbourne. Most members of the CRT
did not know those outside of their region, with more than 45,000 staff in 150 destinations in
90 countries, the organisation was large and complex.

The purpose of the first call was to agree the team’s remit. DIA, like every other airline, had
emergency procedures and protocols, including major health outbreaks, but nothing that
assumed a global lockdown and grounding. Aside from the likely grounding of most flights,
and the impact on staffing, passengers would need to be transported home, cargo
dispatched, and aircraft maintained. An immediate focus on COVID-19 transmission
awareness and protection of aviation personnel, reduced staffing and route scheduling, and
aircraft/passenger safety procedures would need to be agreed and rolled out to the entire
organisation in a matter of weeks.

The call was high in energy and productive. Everyone was keen to speak, to offer to help
and to form smaller working groups on various priority areas. Some locations were already
severely impacted by COVID-19, and a couple of the CRT members had staff members,
friends and family who had been infected.

Three working groups were set up: 1) COVID-19 global operating procedures, 2) health and
safety, and 3) communications. Giovanni and Dr al-Jafari had assigned CRT members to
each working group before the call:

1) COVID-19 global operating procedures: Phylicia, Julian, Jassim
2) Health and safety for staff and passengers: John, Pooja, Asma
3) Crisis communications and government relations: Eleni, Song, Riaz

Dr al-Jafari was to lead the global operating procedures team, Giovanni would lead the other
two. Dr al-Jafari asked if everyone was OK with the being in the team that they had been
assigned to, no-one said no. The Zoom call ended with the agreement that these working
groups would meet on a daily basis, and that the CRT would meet twice per week at the
same time: 2pm Doha on Wednesday and Sunday. Riaz offered to set up a CRT WhatsApp
group so that they could all stay in touch in between times.

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1) COVID-19 global operating procedures: Dr al-Jafari, Phylicia, Julian, Jassim

Phylicia was the most directly experienced of this team. She had joined DIA when it
launched operations in the US, and with a background in civil aviation and engineering she
had significant technical expertise and institutional knowledge. During her time in Doha,
Phylicia had been mentored by Dr al-Jafari, who had spent 15 years as a commercial and
military pilot before joining DIA’s executive leadership team. As the team got into a routine of
meeting on a daily basis, so the conversation became dominated by Phylicia and Dr al-
Jafari, but they spent a lot of time on technical detail that Julian and Jassim were not sure
was directly relevant. Phylicia and Dr al-Jafari spent no time focusing on the number of flight
cancellations, grounded aircraft and crew and the potential furloughing of more than 50% of
the workforce. Even though all executive staff members were practising social distancing,
the head office in Doha was still open for staff members who arranged in advance to go in.
Jassim knew that Dr al-Jafari was in the office to host the Zoom calls; Jassim decided to go
into the office a little early to try and speak with Dr al-Jafari on an informal basis about what
the team should be focusing on.

2) Health and safety for staff and passengers: Giovanni, John, Pooja, Asma

This team agreed that their first priority was to ensure staff were trained with the latest
hygiene protocols and cleaning procedures, using products recommended by IATA and
WHO. On closer inspection, it became clear that WHO guidelines were not always being
adhered to in different countries. This would have a significant impact on the sourcing and
use of personal protective equipment (PPE), cleaning products and processes, and physical
distancing procedures. The team agree to compare the WHO standards with those proposed
by IATA and to make a recommendation that could be rolled out across the whole of DIA,
even if the standards were higher than a local market’s government recommendations.
Giovanni said it was an opportunity for DIA to show industry leadership, something he
believed customers, partners and industry analysts would remember in the future. As Pooja
and John investigated how they could source the relevant PPE and cleaning equipment, and
Asma and Giovanni worked out how to rollout a COVID-19 health and safety protocol, it
became clear that the ambition could not be realised in the timescales they planned. Local
teams would have to source their own PPE and cleaning products by country, but this meant
the standards varying by country.

3) Crisis communications and government relations: Giovanni, Eleni, Song, Riaz

At the first meeting, Eleni said that this team would not function without Dr al-Jafari as a
member. The most important thing, she said, was that the CEO, Khalid Mubarak al Shafi,
became the face of DIA globally and the only way that could be done was if the COO was
involved in all communications planning. Giovanni said that as chief of staff it was his role,
and he would ensure that al Shafi would be fully briefed at all times. The meeting did not
proceed well, whenever Giovanni suggested a course of action, Eleni would object. Riaz
would attempt to mediate between the two, and Song would make practical suggestions
based on what she was seeing as successful communications by many Korean businesses.
As the team met on successive days, the situation did not improve. By the third day, Eleni
was arriving late for the Zoom meetings, she would switch her camera off and place her
microphone on mute. The dynamic quickly shifted, and Giovanni led the meetings and made
most of the suggestions. Riaz and Song would occasionally ask questions, sometimes make

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their own suggestions, but what was typically agreed and acted upon were Giovanni’s ideas.
After a week, Eleni stopped attending the meetings.

Two weeks after the first Zoom call, the CRT group is now exhausted. Eleni had been
attending the CRT Zoom calls, even though she wasn’t participating in the crisis
communications work. Dr al-Jafari asked Eleni to stay involved. Despite her individualistic
and highly conflictual style, her knowledge of government affairs is outstanding and in a
previous role she was a highly regarded industry lobbyist with a global network. Phylicia and
Asma have both contracted COVID-19. Their symptoms seem to be mild, but they are
finding it difficult to join the daily working group calls, and twice-weekly CRT calls. They are
contactable, but their response to emails and WhatsApp can be slow. Despite their
commitment and contribution, Giovanni and Dr al-Jafari wonder if Phylicia and Asma should
be replaced given how urgent their work is. Julian asks if it is possible to vary the times of
the Zoom calls so that they are not all in the evening. His partner is a key worker and the
demands on his time in the evenings is making it difficult for them to manage their childcare
commitments without the burden falling on his partner. It is creating conflict at home. No-one
responds to Julian’s request. Riaz, Song and John had been unable to find colleagues to
take on their workload and so they have all been doing their day jobs in addition to their CRT
roles.

It is also becoming clear that an informal CRT group, comprising Jassim, Asma, Giovanni
and Dr al-Jafari – all based in Doha – is emerging. Despite the intention to maintain a global
CRT, and to develop ideas and expertise from this group, many discussions and decisions
are being made informally between the Doha group to the extent that the CRT is starting to
become a channel for dissemination rather than discussion and agreement. Pooja
comments on this, with Riaz and John both agreeing with her observations. Giovanni says
that Pooja’s comments are taken on board and confirms that the CRT is an important
leadership group, and that all members are expected to contribute.

After the call, Giovanni and Dr al-Jafari meet with Khalid, who has asked for an update on
the CRT’s progress. Dr al-Jafari reports that the COVID-19 global operating procedures
team has been working collaboratively and constructively, despite the greatest time
differences, but with Phylicia now unwell it is difficult to know how to proceed without
replacing her in the group. A draft COVID-19 operating procedure had been developed and
was ready to be sent out to industry specialists to verify its suitability for a phased
implementation. In terms of health and safety, Giovanni reported that it might not be possible
to maintain one global standard across all countries and operations. Despite the best of
intentions, it might be necessary, in the short term at least, to allow each country to balance
WHO, IATA and government standards, even if that meant significance variance in their
global standards. When Khalid asks about the crisis communications group, Giovanni does
not mention the conflict with Eleni, nor the workload demands on Riaz, John, and Song.
Giovanni says that he has been in contact with a specialist crisis communications company
and is in discussion with them to develop a staff, customer and government communications
plan.

Two weeks into an executive leadership crisis with no immediate end in sight, the three must
now decide how to take the CRT forward so that it can best serve the airline in responding to
the global pandemic.