Motivation at Ryanair
Motivation at Ryanair
Ricardo Lopes UC - MBA 2010-2013 Organisational Behaviour Introduction Nowadays flying for a few pounds is a reality in Europe, due to low cost airliners, like Ryanair. Management at Ryanair has only one view, to reduce costs in all ways possible to give their customers the lowest price in the market (Boru, 2006). This was the type of management that changed civil aviation in the last 20 years. For this reason, human resources in Ryanair are considered one more resource in the company that must be reduce like the others (Boru, 2006). In the light of this culture, Ryanair has motivation problems in all areas of the company, such as cabin crew, pilots and ground staff. It might be possible to use: Maslow’s hierarchy of the needs theory; Herzberg’s two-factor theory; Equity theory and Expectancy theory, to solve the Ryanair’s motivation problems, however while all these theories can influence motivation of Ryanair employees, for some of them it would be difficult to analyse the results (e.g. Maslow’s and Herzberg’s theories). Next I will describe the characteristics of Ryanair culture, indicate the importance of motivation from an organisation point of view, and give a brief introduction about each theory, then I will analyse these theories strength and weakness, and finally I will explain how these theories can be used to influence motivation at Ryanair. Characteristics of Ryanair Culture At Ryanair there are several rules in regard to their company culture, such as, cuts of office expenses, and costs like training, uniforms or crew meals that staff has to pay for themselves. Normally, these costs are support by the airliners companies, which does not happens within Ryanair; thus due to the above mentioned rules Ryanair employees have a high turnover of staff. In facto, International Transport Workers’ Federation (IFT) has received hundreds of messages with complaints regarding the poor working conditions that exist at Ryanair workplaces
Ricardo Lopes UC - MBA 2010-2013 Organisational Behaviour Introduction Nowadays flying for a few pounds is a reality in Europe, due to low cost airliners, like Ryanair. Management at Ryanair has only one view, to reduce costs in all ways possible to give their customers the lowest price in the market (Boru, 2006). This was the type of management that changed civil aviation in the last 20 years. For this reason, human resources in Ryanair are considered one more resource in the company that must be reduce like the others (Boru, 2006). In the light of this culture, Ryanair has motivation problems in all areas of the company, such as cabin crew, pilots and ground staff. It might be possible to use: Maslow’s hierarchy of the needs theory; Herzberg’s two-factor theory; Equity theory and Expectancy theory, to solve the Ryanair’s motivation problems, however while all these theories can influence motivation of Ryanair employees, for some of them it would be difficult to analyse the results (e.g. Maslow’s and Herzberg’s theories). Next I will describe the characteristics of Ryanair culture, indicate the importance of motivation from an organisation point of view, and give a brief introduction about each theory, then I will analyse these theories strength and weakness, and finally I will explain how these theories can be used to influence motivation at Ryanair. Characteristics of Ryanair Culture At Ryanair there are several rules in regard to their company culture, such as, cuts of office expenses, and costs like training, uniforms or crew meals that staff has to pay for themselves. Normally, these costs are support by the airliners companies, which does not happens within Ryanair; thus due to the above mentioned rules Ryanair employees have a high turnover of staff. In facto, International Transport Workers’ Federation (IFT) has received hundreds of messages with complaints regarding the poor working conditions that exist at Ryanair workplaces
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