Management practices of the transport industry

Transport industry is one of the important industries in any Country.

It’s one of the leading industries for economic growth and employs billions of people world wide. The industry is divided in to three main categories, Air, Sea and land. All other means fall under these. Air transport is carrying of goods services and passengers through air while the same service through water is sea transport. Land transport is the most used world wide for is readily available everywhere and affordable.

Despite of all these, its faced with many challenges that completely jeopardize the welfare of the industry.Under the transport industry we have, there are four main and unique means of transport that practice different ways of management. Freight, Automotive, Public transport and airlines are the major categories in the industry. Automotive This is one of the major sectors and most complex in the industry. This includes the production of automobiles. Toyota is the most know automotive company today.

Through years down the line the Toyota Company has portrayed a great and unique principle in its management. This makes the company famous and raises the sales and production of high quality vehicles.For some years the company has gained fame for the quality of the vehicles produced and the way customers are handled and responded to. Toyota has vehicles for all categories of people, ranging from small to Lexus for executives.

According too the survey done in year 2004, about half of the highest ranked vehicles were Toyota. Toyota has many hubs in the world including Africa, Asia, Australia and other continents. It has unique principles that help in propelling the company to success. Toyota principles of management The Toyota Company has a well formulated management strategy. All management are based on long term and well followed.Even when a short term goal is made, all financial goals are to be based on long term.

This is done to motivate people in trying to achieve their goals and follow the right procedure to achieve the company’s goals. Example, if the Company wants to make a test model, it has to be engineered with the specifications give without altering as if the model has been in existence to give the expected results. Toyota Company always work continuous so as any mistake that could occur can be easily be detected and fixed. This helps in wasting of time and resources. This helps the company to have a continuous improvement avoiding any ideas go unused.The Toyota Company has a system called “pull” this helps the company to have a clear calculation of exact materials needed for a specific production to avoid over production.

This also helps in achieving the quality work without over burdening the work force either manpower or machine power. In Toyota Company, employees have freedom to stop any kind of work if the quality is not assured. It is believed to have quality work right at the beginning. Toyota is bureaucratic system, its implementation allows continuous improvement from the people affected by that system.

It empowers the employee to aid in the growth and improvement of the company.The company uses only reliable and tested sources. This help in reducing time looking for required information and tools. The company is lead by people who follows company’s philosophy. It has also an extended range of network of partners and suppliers that help them improve.

(www. toyotaway. com) Conclusion The Toyota Company is the most respected automotive company due to its distinctive principles in management and application. The company has well planed strategies that keep every employee informed on what is supposed to be done and the rules that govern them Airline sector This is another crucial sector in transport industry, it involve the transport of people and cargo through the air.In airline sector there are different management strategies used by various companies in achieving their goal in the market. British airway versus city hopper airlines Organization Structure The British airways, being a British national carrier, have a well planned leadership strategy which is an important factor that determines the viability of a company’s operation.

Good management is responsible for growth of the organization while unplanned leadership is responsible for collapse in an organization.Planning mode of leadership, there should be a procedure to follow and that will help in determining the weaker points in the management therefore avoiding collapse Management is the most important factor that determines the viability of any organization operation. The British airways is currently being held at ransom by the kind of leadership structure. There are many kinds of leadership that are used in running organizations depending on the kind of the organization. In City Hopper airlines the authoritative kind of leadership in the company has been responsible for some of the problems like making of decision for the organization.

In this regard it is clear that there is a problem in making decision since they are made from the top and the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) has to be consulted before any decision is made despite the fact that there are other people in the organization who are more experienced in this work. Authoritative leadership holds the organization to the management and it discourages innovation since the CEO has to be consulted on all matters regarding the operation of the organization. (Arthur 1996) The CEO acts to provide guidance for the organization and one of the duties of CEO are to delegate duties of the office.In this regard, the CEO has to give some of the authority to other managers in the organization in order to decentralize decision making process. Rise in the interest in developing people through out the organization could be attributed to a number of factors.

In CHC, employees are taking broader ranges of responsibility, managers, in particular are faced with a completely new environment. They are responsible for more people often worked in strategy-oriented companies and therefore, the skills and competencies that previously served them well no longer work.They have to make fundamental changes and come up with more planned productive strategies to avoid drift. Advertisement is another most important component that characterizes the operation of British airways in the market since it raises the awareness of the customers about the availability of the airline in the market.

Therefore a well planned advertisement is an important component that helps a company to penetrate the market especially when introducing a new service. Lack of a planned advertisement may have limited growth of the company which in return may cause losses.Keeping in mind that the company is operating in a very competitive market, there is a need to plan strategies to follow to avoid any sort of dissatisfaction to the customers. (Fred 1999) Both airlines markets have wide scope which comprises of many factors. These factors are essential for the maintenances of businesses competitiveness of the services being delivered by the company in the market, the marketing teams has the privileges of collecting relevant data from its market target which quite fundamental is its service improvements that enable the maintenances of high competitiveness in the international markets.HR Management Human resource management has become one of the most important aspects of running a company.

It has been realized that having a competent and a motivated workforce can help a company create a competitive advantage which other companies may find hard to replicate in the market. Therefore there is need for the company to take bold step in order to address issue of hiring and retaining a competent work force. It will begin by changing the style of leadership from the authoritative rule in order to give the workers more freedom to make their own decision as pertains to the operation of the organization.But them most important thing is for the organization to come up with a human resource plan that will be integrated in the overall growth strategy. A strategic human resource plan will define issue on hiring, retaining, training and development of the workforce in order to maintain a competitive workforce. According to the famous McGregor’s theory x and y, in x managers assume workers are lazy and irresponsible and require constant supervision and external motivation to achieve organizational goals.

The theory y managers assume workers want to work and can direct and control themselves. In advocating for theory y, managers who allow opportunities for individual challenge and initiative and who encourage participation would achieve superior performance. Through the years, British airways has consistently practiced and emphasized the development of human relation to achieve individual goals. Through practice, the company has managed to achieve notable achievements in attraction of new and retaining current customers.The company has also given a great consideration in strengthening relationship between the customers and the company which have brought about a great growth and achievements both locally and internationally.

The City hopper airline has well organized bureaucratic strategies which have eliminated variability in result especially in the engineering department. When new employees are employed, they come in with different skills, experiences and goals, the rules themselves are standardized so that the personnel changes do not disrupt the whole company’s human resource management.When each individual employs personal skills, ideas and goals they may not rhyme and this may cause difference in management and definitely misunderstanding between individuals or group. Therefore this has been fully put in to consideration and has helped the industry achieve in the competitive market. This have also helped the company position faster specialized skills eliminating many subjective judgments by managers where rules and regulations are established properly and have a set method to follow to avoid different individuals employing their rules hence causing conflict between the concerned parties.This has gone hand in hand with training of leaders and employees on the set rules to standardize their performance and reinforcing human resource department.

(Andrew 1996) Motivation Motivation is the force or impetus behind behavior and actions. This energizes behavior and directs behavior towards a goal. Managers are always expected to create a desire of working to employees by creating conducive environment and a favoring atmosphere for working. Reinforcement or rewarding should be used to motivate workers in the industry. An attractive object or event is supplied as a consequence of a particular work done perfectly.According to behavior approach to motivation, managers have an understanding role in employees’ motivation which begins with careful analysis of incentive and rewards that are present in the company.

These incentives are like privileges and money. It’s always managers’ responsibility in the industry to identify behaviors that need to be reinforced like outstanding performance, punctuality, neatness and completion of work. (Patrick 2004) The managers are always alert to notice when the desired behavior occur. Occurrence is always accompanied by reinforcement.An employee who shows an improved performance is rewarded.

The principle is that reinforcement strengthens behavior and gives that exact behavior a chance to occur again. Cognitive approach state that behavior is determiner by over thinking and not reward or punishment, it is initiated and regulated by mental process and not external events. Managers’ role in motivation is to help workers develop on curiosity and help them develop methods for searching for information, workers should be trained to be intrinsically motivated. The social working approach is an integration of cognitive and behavior aspect.

This theory sees motivation as a product of two main forces, individual expectations of success in a task and vicarious experience. Individual expectation of success is determined by personal effectiveness, personal effectiveness is also called self efficiency and refers to personal confidence. The manager should empower employees to become competent in performing a task. If the employee knows that he will succeed in doing a task, then his motivation will be high.

Vicarious experience constitutes the observation of other workers and compares performance.If the worker discovers that his performance is poor, he may lose his sense of competence. In this respect the manager should assist the employee to keep up with level of performance of other employees so that motivation is highlighted. Intrinsic motivation comes from the worker and is also referred to as ego involvement.

This results from employees’ identification with desired goal. The employee is fully involved in learning a task. Managers’ task is to empower the employee to identify that work if the need for confidence is madeCompetence means ability to perform or ability to master every a task. In a task every employee has interest and desire to perform confidently in a company’s task.

Managers’ role is to discover how to empower the employee to achieve. In transport industry, managers should assist the employee by providing them with opportunity to become competent and help them to avoid failure. They achieve this by giving them a task that they are intellectually capable of achieving. When an employee is successful in performing a task, his self concept is enhanced and this gives great respect to the industry.

In transport industry, motivation is displayed in personal goals and that very many motives are personalized depending on what the company wants to achieve. These personalized goals determine individual level of aspiration. Due to continued success, there is always an aspiration to modify and develop strategies that would enhance better performance for both managers and employees. (www. cityhopper. com, www.

britishairways. co. uk). Difference in organizational structure determines the tread of the company. A well structured organization management could lead the company to higher levels. Motivating workers is an0other