MSc International Business Management

British Airways Corporate Communication Lecturer: Amerjit Walia Student: Tsering Lhamo 21163136

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Contents
1. 2. 3. 4. Summary ......................................................................................................................................... 3 Introduction .................................................................................................................................... 4 Corporate Communication Strategy ............................................................................................... 5 External Communication................................................................................................................. 7

5. Internal Communication ..................................................................................................................... 8 6. 7. 8. Corporate Image, Identity and Reputation ..................................................................................... 9 Conclusion ..................................................................................................................................... 11 Bibliography .................................................................................................................................. 12

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1. Summary
Any organisation that fails to realise the need and importance of communication (corporate communication) is certain to fail in this highly competitive corporate world. An organisation needs to define their corporate image as a means to improving corporate performance, and this is done by corporate communication (Van Riel, 1992). Different corporations use different corporate communication strategies to communicate with their concerned parties like their shareholders, media, customers and other concerned institutions. British Airways corporate communication strategy is analysed in this paper. British Airways corporate communication model is applied to a theoretical communication model and this shows how British Airways evidently distinguishes between external and internal communication to achieve a presence. British Airways approach to external communication is centralised to ensure that there is no communication gap and uses formal channels for its internal communication. British Airways engages with their stakeholders in social and environmental report. In British Airways 2010 annual report, their values and objectives are customer, excellence and performance.

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2. Introduction
When one is an expressing an idea and another one is listening to the idea being expressed is defined as communication (Smith 2011). In terms of corporate communication, it is defined as a management function that offers a framework for the effective coordination of all internal and external communication with the overall purpose of establishing and maintaining favourable reputations with stakeholder groups upon which the organisation is dependent(Joep Cornelissen, 2008). Corporate Communication is responsible for helping organisations craft and build their identities and brands, it helps organisations to create and shape their identities, their presence and also their reputation. Corporate communication is used as strategic means in modern information-driven environment. Clear and concise communication messages are used to reinforce an organisations image reputation and brand. In corporate context, communication is typically divided into two categories namely external and internal communication. The corporate communication strategy of British Airways will be examined in this assignment. British Airways is the airline of the United Kingdom. The British Airways Board was founded in 31 March 1974 after the merger of British Overseas Airways Corporation and British European Airways. British Airways, headquartered in Harmondsworth, England is the largest airline in the UK. British Airways has 49,957 employees with an average of 35 million passengers flown annually. British Airways flies to 169 destinations, its main hubs are London Heathrow Airport and Gatwick Airport and have revenue of 7.9 billion (2010). On 21 January 2011, British Airways and Iberia Airlines merged and formally created the International Airlines Group, which is now the seventh largest airline in the world. (ba.com) The purpose of this report is to decentralize and examine specific corporate communication models on the corporate communication strategy of British Airways, more so, to evaluate and assess their tactics which is by analysing their means and methods they use to communicate with their external and internal stakeholders. By examining British Airways culture, it will be possible to know what their values are and what their identity is and the effect it has on their corporate communication strategy.

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3. Corporate Communication Strategy

A manager spends up to 90 per cent of their time talking to others (McCall Report 2000), this is due to the ever changing business environment, the focal point of a managers job is skilled interaction. A manager must have good communication skills in order for the company to have an effective corporate communication strategy.

Suppliers Supervised Staff Customers

Trade Union Officials The Manager

Supervising Managers

A role set (Philip Baguley 1994) All communication conducts within the corporation must be incorporated in order to support the achievement of the corporations aims and goals (Aberg, 1990). In order to make corporate communication effective within a company, the company should follow four functions, which are supporting internal and external core operations, organisation and product profiling, informing internal and external audiences and socializing individuals into a good organizational citizen. (Aberg, 1990)

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Total Communication Domain (Aberg, 1990) By comparison, British Airways strategy more or less follows the same principles of the strategy by Aberg. British Airways strategy is Global Premium Airline. By appealing to customers across the globe, by making their customers enjoy a unique premium service and innovating in the aviation industry, British Airways call their strategy a compete strategy which will help them achieve their business objective.

(www.ba.com) The next section examines the method and approach of British Airways corporate communication strategy in relation to the model and strategy above and British Airways.
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4. External Communication
External communication plays an important role in a corporate marketing plan. External communication consists of Informing, Profiling and External Support (Aberg 1990). It is important for organisation to have good and effective customer communication especially in this modern day with technologies like the Internet, which is now a major channel used by organisation for their corporate communication. British Airways uses their website to provide information to concerned parties to external stakeholders such as customers, shareholders, potential investors, government and the media in salutary way. The web site of British Airways is available in eleven languages which is accessible to in British Airways main locations. The website gives access to their Sustainability Report which in turn provides an insight to the Corporate Social Responsibility, their annual report is also accessible, and so is the Values and Vision of the company, their strategy for sustainability and their social engagement. British Airways external communication, deals with issues relating to the media, be it taking and answering enquiries from journalists when a major event occurs or proactively getting stories relating to the airline covered within the media. The team briefs journalists on all manner of issues on a daily basis, while the press office takes on average a call every minute from journalists wanting answers to all manner of queries. (www.ba.com) By informing them actively about reached goals and objectives for the future and presenting itself in the best positive way the company is trying to built up a goodwill with the stakeholder which makes it much easier to reach their goals. (Argenti, 1998) In British Airways sustainability report, their four strategic priorities are Environment, Community, Marketplace and Workplace. Using communication means such as the internet, telephone, action days, research projects, British Airways gets its message across to its external concerned parties. Advertisement is a powerful communication channel. A number of specialist communications agencies are deployed to deliver the airlines key messages to customers and media in more than 80 countries where British Airways operates. This is of strategic importance in British Airways strategy. Another important British Airway communication channel is British Airways Media. British Airways Media is the sales arm for the communication channels offered by Britains premier airline brand. The communications environment that British Airways Media offers is both unique and ever expanding, providing an opportunity to reach its audience. British Airways Media is responsible in the production of High Life Magazine, Business Life Magazine, First Life Magazine, Supplements & Classified which are distributed on airplanes, lounges marketing material, TV, Entertainment, Radio etc (British Airways Media, 2010). British Airways strategy adopted in terms of achieving excellence within the aviation industry is

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achieved through its communication channels and through coordinated teamwork and collaboration between BA and its various team players and service providers. External communication is the management function that establishes and maintains mutually beneficial relationships between a company and the public on whom its success and failure depends (Cutlip, 1994)

5. Internal Communication
Effective internal communication is essential for the smooth running of your business, both to convey your company culture and values and to stay on top of employee concerns (Robert & Neil, 1995). As stated by (Quirke 2008), the purpose of internal communications should be business focused and help employees understand the business competitive strategy and how to deliver on it to produce profit. British Airways is very much aware of this statement and follows this principle. Every organization has its own set of rules that govern how it expects its members to act. British Airways adopts the values of the worldwide codes and standard. The Code of Conduct which are about general corporate principles and are supportive for employees to appropriately respond when they are faced with legal and ethical issues, The Code of Corporate Sustainability which is about the companys principles and expectations of sustainable business and corporate social responsibility and The Code of Teamwork and Leadership which is a guidance for the conduct of managerial and non-managerial staff at all levels. British Airways is a global company; therefore with the help of modern technology, various channels are used to keep their employees informed and up to date about their policies, news and any developments. British Airways communication strategy relies heavily on IT systems (Britishairwaysjobs.com). British Airways uses Intranet content, which is one of the key channels used in keeping the mobile workforce up to date with the latest news and policies. British Airways has a remote employee population that is constantly travelling in all corners of the world. Despite this challenges, British Airways employees are well connected via the companys Intranet; being in the sky, in airports, on the road (Communitelligence Learning Academy, 2008). In 2001 British Airways also introduced the Employee Self Service (ESS) project to provide tools that allow staff worldwide to manage their own day-to-day administration over the web (Computing, 2001). A secure, robust and reliable 24/7 worldwide IT operation is used to ensure an enhanced teamwork (networking) and communication channel; leading through communication. IP Telephony is another important communication channel for BA. Cisco Systems and Prime Business Solutions were responsible in the setting up of a new infrastructure during 2005 8|Page

2006 to improve communications for over 14,000 BA offices and airport staff (Cisco Systems Report, 2003). Like most organisations, British Airways welcoming seminars for newly elected managers and also uses weekly newsletters to target specific departments and teams in their organisation. This approach used by British Airways can be applied to Abergs communication model which consists of Internal Informing, Socializing and Support of Core Operations. Internal Communication is a fast-moving, interesting area at the heart of reinforcing what the business does, in order to keep employees motivated and ensure that they are working towards the companys goal, the manager has the task of making sure the staff is doing what needs to be done (Quirke, 2000). British Airways demands that their communication manager should have the ability to influence other managers within their organisation to deliver open and honest communication to staff. British Airways believes in active engagement with internal stakeholders. They have well developed forums for employee communication and consultation, including BATUC (British Airways Trade Union Council) and the British Airways Forum. In addition to that, they have an active programme of communication with employees, which British Airways call Employees Day, which the companys plan are fully discussed. (ba.com) In this Employees Day, British Airways gets feedback from the staff to ensure that they are working towards the companys goals. Building an internal culture that creates unity and pride among employees acts as a competitive edge that is difficult for competitors to copy (Quirke, 2000). British Airways communication managers have regular face to face contact with other staff; this is done to reinforce key points and messages and keep employees motivated. British Airways behave towards each other has a direct impact on the way they behave towards our customers. So engendering an environment where everyone is treated with respect and the utmost professionalism is one of our highest priorities. (Willie Walsh, British Airways CEO). British Airways offer service ranging from recruitment to training, from reward management to diversity and inclusion and from change management to employee relations, this becomes that a proactive and progressive human resources function is vital to the continued success of their business. (Britishairwaysjobs.com)

6. Corporate Image, Identity and Reputation

Security, convenience and trust are characteristics that we seek for in our personal relationships. All organisations want us feel that way whenever we see their company name or logo, they want their customers to have an emotional feelings and attachment to their brand, product and service. This is achieved through effective corporate identity management.

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Corporate Identity is the total of visual and non-visual means applied by a company to present itself to all its relevant target groups on the basis of a corporate identity plan (Blauw, 1994). Employees need be aware and fully understand the companys values and visions, which in turn, they will be able to deliver a better service to the companys customers. Having a solid corporate identity tells customers that the company is here to stay, this shows sign of longevity, and this will attract more customers and also investors. (Linda Knapp, 2010).

(Argenti, 2002) The image above shows how a companys reputation is dependent on their corporate identity. British Airways is always looks for means to reinforce their corporate culture. British Airways uses agencies to create their corporate identity. (www.bbc.co.uk) British Airways have used several companies in the past decade to reshape and rebrand their corporate identity (prnewswire.co.uk). Prior to 2001, British Airways was infamous for changing the ethnic liveries, these are logos/drawings on the tail of their airplanes, this style of corporate branding drew criticisms. Former UK Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher said "We fly the British flag, not these awful things." In May 2001, British Airways Chief Executive announced they will only use the British Union Flag for their ethnic liveries. The Chief Executive said that while an attempt to increase the airline's appeal was not a bad thing, the exercise hurt the image of the carrier among its core customers those that are attracted by the British identity, which the ethnic tailfins diluted somewhat. (British Airways CEO, 2001).
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In comparison to Abergs 1990 communication model which separates product filing from corporate filing, British Airways combines both elements.

7. Conclusion
According to the Daily Mail, British Airways is the most trusted UK airline. British Airways communication model is similar to that of Abergs model. Like Abergs model, British Airways identified their strategic concerns. British Airways is a global company and has the right tools to communicate both internally and externally by using different types of channels. The effect of British Airways overall strategy can be measured to its financial performance. Since 2005, British Airways operating profit has been on the increase and has not fallen, this is clearly an indication of their effective communication strategy, especially in the airline industry where passengers are all concerned about their safety, British Airways has managed to attract and maintain passengers via communication strategy. British Airways communication strategy is effective and is in line with the companys mission statement. Word Count: 2274

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8. Bibliography
http://www.odgersberndtson.co.uk/gb/industries-functions/functional-practices/corporatecommunications/ http://www.britishairways.com/cms/global/pdfs/environment/ba_corporate_responsibility _report_2010-2011.pdf http://www.speedyadverts.com/SATopics/html/leadership_in_tourism5.html http://www.jerome-ball.com/british-airways.shtml http://www.ecademy.com/node.php?ihttp://www.odgersberndtson.co.uk/gb/industriesfunctions/functional-practices/corporate-communications/d=150213 http://www.britishairways.com/travel/crsereport/public/en_gb http://blog.communicaid.com/cross-cultural-training/british-airways-gains-a-new-wingmanby-merging-with-iberia-%E2%80%93-a-look-at-the-cultural-challenges-of-this-internationalmerger-and-acquisition/ http://www.britishairwaysjobs.com/baweb1/?newms=info33

Principle of Corporate Communication, Van riel, 1995, Prentice Hall Corporate Communication: A Guide to Theory and Practice, Jeop Cornelissen, 2 nd Edition, 1995, Cromwell Press Making the Connections: Using Internal Communication to Turn Strategy into Action, Bill Quirke, 2nd Edition, 1998, Cornwall Developing a Corporate Identity: How to Stand Out in the crowd, Selami,E.and Selami,J, 1975, New York Print Effective Communication for Modern Business, Plilp Baguley, 1994, McGraw-Hill Critical Corporate Communications, Langford-Wood and Salter, 2002, Wiley Ltd Corporate Communication, Argenti, 2003, McGraw-Hill

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