to follow current industry practices, as well as on the slow
developmental paces (caused by the bureaucratic management
structure and practices). This in turn, put the company
in a critical situation, allowing minimal or zero maneuverability
and leading to a series of knock-on effects, which influenced
the other phases of the change process.
Forming a powerful guiding coalition
The formation of a highly skilled project team was apparent.
Also, the respondents identified that this team worked in a
rather independent mode, having enhanced operational flexibility
and efficiency. Nevertheless, some performance deficiencies
occurred from restrictions imposed by the company’s
protocol, in terms of decisions that had to be made
by the top management. Since the top management was not
part of the project team, this led to delays (nonproductive
time) in the course of the project.
Creating a vision
All of the respondents recognized the creation a vision
for this project, which was the introduction of the new eservices
in a constrained timeframe (imposed by the IATA
requirements). This was in direct relation to the company’s
viability, as well as with the necessity to improve the company’s
market profile. In contrast, the strategies developed to
lead the successful realization of this vision were not clearly
identifiable, based on the responses received from the team
members. This, in fact, brings out the issue of inconsistent
communication between the different parties involved in
this project (management, project team and associated staff).
Communicating the vision
The interview results showed that the company has used a
variety of means and ways to communicate and disseminate
the information relevant to the project aims and objectives,
as well as its implementation. A significant finding is that the
modeling and transmission of new behaviors to the company’s
staff, which was one of the project team responsibilities,
had a rather successful implementation. Most interestingly,
one may highlight that these efforts were not a result of a
systematic approach, which in turn led to insufficient update
of the staff on the progress of the project. As an additional
note, even the individuals with the most extensive involvement
in the project did not have a clear view of the strategies
that the company asked them to implement.
Empowering others to act on the vision
The research results indicated an agreement in the interviewees’
opinions with respect to the level of involvement
of people in the project. In particular, the research identisame