Singapore Airlines

People in organizations

Introduction
When you run a large organization, you are likely to have a large number of employees. The Singapore Airlines Group has more than 29,000 employees. This large workforce comprises a diverse mix of people who bring a range of skills, attributes and personalities to the workplace. They are employed in the Group’s homebase in Singapore and in as many as 80 diverse locations, all around the world.

An airline’s employees include people whose work is predominantly ‘in the air’ for example, pilots and cabin crew, whilst others work ‘on the ground’ like baggage handlers, check-in staff and engineers. Depending on how an airline is organized and on how much work it ‘contracts out’, it may also employ chefs, cleaners, telesales personnel, insurance experts and accountants. Some airline employees will spend nearly all of their time in offices, whilst others work in passenger terminals, cargo terminals or aircraft hangars. Somewhere behind the scenes there will also be a group of managers who make sure that the airline and its many operations run smoothly. All these people are of different nationalities.

This case study shows how one large company, Singapore Airlines, organizes itself to make the most effective use of its resources, particularly its human and fiscal resources to achieve its organizational goals.

Organizational Systems
In the most efficient organizations, all employees should know and understand their role and how it fits into the work of the organization as a whole. They will also want to do the best that they can, not only in the interests of the organization that employs them, but also in their own interest. With such a large and diverse group of employees operating in widely differing working environments, giving each of them a sense of belonging to a community with a common goal is a