Jet Study Case Study Essay

1. What types of information systems and business functions are described in this case? Information systems: JetBlue’s reservation system used for tracking baggage and scheduling is an example of a Transaction Processing System (TPS) – a computerized system that performs and records the daily routing transactions necessary to conduct business. JetBlue’s system for managing planes and crews is an example of a Management Information System (MIS). The system served middle management with information obtained from its TPS that was essential in making the right decision when managing planes and crews. Business functions: JetBlue’s communication, reservation and computer systems were described in this case. They represent Sales and IT business functions. 2. What is JetBlue’s business model? JetBlue business model was saving money both from streamlined information systems and lean staffing, while offering top-notch customer service at budget prices. The airline featured new Airbus A320 planes with leather sears, each equipped with a personal TV screen, and averaging one way fares of only $99 per passenger. JetBlue was able to offer low fares by using information systems to automate key processes such as ticket sales by mostly selling them online and baggage handling, by introducing electronic tags to help track luggage. Both initiatives eliminated paper, increased efficiency and lowered costs. Initially, JetBlue flew only one type of aircraft: the Airbus 320. This approach enabled the airline to standardize flight operations and maintenance procedures. Both measures resulted in significant savings. How do its information systems support the business model? JetBlue used a single vendor, Microsoft, to design JetBlue’s extensive network of information systems. Using a single vendor provided a technology framework where JetBlue could keep a small staff and favor in-house development of systems over outsourcing or relying on consultants, allowing the company to keep its costs low. 3. What was the problem experienced by JetBlue in this case? JetBlue’s senior management made an incorrect decision to maintain its schedule during an ice storm. Nine airplanes were stranded on the tarmac for anywhere  between six and ten hours. JetBlue waited too long to solicit help for the stranded passengers because the airline figured the planes would take off eventually. Meanwhile, the weather conditions and the delays and cancellation of other flights caused customers to flood JetBlue’s reservation system, which could not handle that much traffic. At the same time, many of the airline’s pilots and flight crews were also stranded and unable to get to locations where they could replace crews that had just worked their maximum hours without rest, but did not actually go anywhere. What management, organization, and technology factors were responsible for the problem? Management factors: JetBlue did not have a Decision Support System that would support nonrou tine decision making and focus on unique and changing problems by using information from TPS, MIS and other external sources. Such a system would allow JetBlue’s management to make a better informed decision whether or not they should maintain their schedule during an ice storm or cancel all flights. Organizational factors: JetBlue lacked an Enterprise Resource Planning System that would help significantly to help locate missing baggage and quickly locate airline’s pilots and flight crews. Technology factors: JetBlue’s transaction processing system and lean staffing were responsible for the problem. Under normal circumstances, the lean staff was sufficient to handle all operations and the computer systems functioned well below their capacity. However, during a radical increase in activity, tasks such as rebooking passengers, handling baggage and locating crew members became impossible. 4. Based on what you’ve learned in this chapter, what kinds of systems and business functions were involved in JetBlue’s problem? It seems the company did not plan for something like that to ever happen. All systems and business functions focused on performing day-to-day activities. JetBlue did not have any enterprise applications that are designed to coordinate multiple functions and business processes. Enterprise systems integrate the key internal business processes of a firm into a single software system to improve coordination, efficiency, and decision making. It would allow their SkySolver and Sabre systems to communication more effectively and efficiently. During the crisis, some flight attendants were unable to get in touch with anyone who could tell them what do for three days. The system  would help locating the flight crews and off-duty crews and direct them to the correct destination. The transaction processing systems (TPS) used by JetBlue was not designed to handle a significant increase in activity. The principle purpose of TPS is to answer routing questions and to track the flow of transactions through the organization. Due to an increased number of phone calls, the system was not able to perform those functions. It also looks like JetBlue did not have a decision-support system (DSS) in place to support nonroutine decision making. Since DSS focuses on problems that are unique and rapidly changing, it could have helped the company deal with the crisis more efficiently and effectively. Since a well designed ESS system would expose the fragility of the infrastructure, it can be assumed that company’s executive support systems (ESS) was either non-existing or did not function as intended. There was also no Customer Relationship Management System. A well designed Customer Relationship Management System would allow JetBlue better communication with its customers. During the crisis when so many flights were cancelled, the process of rebooking and looking for baggage became unma nageable. 5. Evaluation JetBlue’s response to the crisis. What solutions did the airline come up with? Throughout the debacle, JetBlue’s CEO David G. Neelman was very visible and forthcoming with accountability and apologies. On the technology front, JetBlue deployed new software that would send recorded message to pilots and flight attendants to inquire about their availability. Once the call is returned, it would be entered into a system that stores the date for access and analysis. From a staffing point standpoint, the airline promised to create backups from the airline corporate office for the departments that were stretched too thin by the effects of the storm. JetBlue also created a customer bill of rights to enforce standards for customer treatment and airline behavior. The company changed its operational philosophy to make more accommodation for inclement weather. How were these solutions implemented? The new software was implemented by JetBlue. 100 employees from the Corporate Office were trained to serve as backups. Customer Bill of Rights enforced standards for customer treatment and airline behavior. JetBlue set the  maximum time for holding passengers on a delayed plane to five hours. JetBlue would be penalized when it failed to provide proper service and customers who were subjected to poor service would be rewarded. Do you think that JetBlue found the correct solutions and implemented the correctly? I think JetBlue’s took a step in the right direction. It implemented a new software that would search for available pilots faster and trained additional employees to serve as backups. What other solutions can you think of that JetBlue has not tried? I believe there are many solutions that would be beneficial to JetBlue. They are: * Creating an Enterprise Risk Management process in the organization. The process would allow JetBlue to identify possible shortcomings that might happen in the future and allow the company to be more prepared. * If JetBlue lacked expertise within the company to identified areas of concern, it could have brought outside consultants that would be able to pinpoint all of the company’s shortcomings. * The case did not talk about how JetBlue fixed its Open Skies reservations system, its website or its system for tracking lost luggage. All of the abovementioned systems failed during the crisis on February 14, 2007. Solutions such as a more powerful reservation system, an enhanced website that would allow more traffic and a computerized system for recording and tracking lost bags would be beneficial to the company. 6. How well is JetBlue prepared for the future? Are the problems described in this case likely to be repeated? Even though JetBlue made some changes to ensure that another crisis won’t happen, I am not convinced all necessary actions were performed by the company. JetBlue should be more proactive in ensuring that future problems won’t affect its operations – rather than being reactive and fixing problems that came to the surface. Which of JetBlue’s business processed are most vulnerable to breakdowns? The bigger problem for JetBlue is changing its culture and philosophy. It seems that JetBlue is still unwilling to invest significant amounts of money into modern and reliable technology and ensure they have proper staffing – that’s why I feel that IT area is most vulnerable to breakdown first. How much will a customer bill of rights help? The customer bill of rights was designed for the protection of the customer,  not the airline. It is there to ensure the airline is responsible for the unfair treatment of the customer. It will help bring some of the customers back, however, it won’t fix JetBlue’s problems to future breakdowns.

Law of Tort Master Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Law of Tort Master - Case Study Example Stevenson (1932). It is well established that an employers owes a duty of care to his employee. In a negligence action, the employee will have to show that the employer's conduct fell below the standard that could be expected of reasonable employer. Because of the indirect relationship between Harry's wife and the three companies, the neighbour test should be considered. The courts will consider the interests of the victims whilst being fair to the said negligent parties. This brings in the question of sufficient relationship of proximity between the plaintiff and the defendant. 1 Proximity', does not mean physical. It is based on reasonable foreasibility. For example in Donoghue V Stevenson (1932). P's friend purchased a bottle of ginger beer manufactured by D and gave it to P. P drank most of the bottle but then noticed the decomposed remains of a snail in the bottom of the bottle. P subsequently became ill and sued D in negligence. D's defence was that he did not owe a duty of care to P because there was not contract between D and P. (Purchaser was P's friend) It was held that a contractual link should no longer be the unliquidated - damages determined by the court and previously not agreed by parties test for determining whether or not a duty of cares was owed. The House of Lords stated that a duty of care is owed to any person who we can reasonably foresee will be injured by our acts or omissions. The court described such persons as 'neighbours'. It was held that D could reasonably foresee that somebody apart from the original purchaser may consume his product and therefore P was held liable. 2 In the same argument, Betty could claim that despite not loving a contractual link with the three companies, they are liable for her injury. The plaintiff must show that as a result of breach of duty, she has suffered some damage: a) The damage must be caused to a substantial extent by the defendant's conduct. b) The damage must be sufficiently closely related to the negligent act, it must not be too remote. c) In most cases, the damage must be either physical injury to the plaintiff's person or property or economic loss consequential upon. The said breached duty of care by the three companies to Betty Bloke is arising due to their relationship with her husband, Harry. Harry worked for the three companies in a period of 35 years. He was employed by the companies. This implies there was a contract of employment between the companies and Harry Bloke, either expressly or otherwise. The contract of employment is a contract of service and not for services. Under a contract of service, a person places his/ her labour at the disposal of another and thus the relationship is constituted of employer and employee e.g. in the case of a chauffeur. In contract for services, the relationship is that of employer and independent contractor e.g. in the case of a taxi - driver. This distinction is important to determine general liability of torts within employment. (Dobson, P and Schnithoff, 1991). The employment protection (consolidation) Act 1978, (E.P.C 1978) S. 153 (1)

Review the Effectiveness of the UK Skills Strategy Essay

Review the Effectiveness of the UK Skills Strategy - Essay Example People will not be able to create a good society, if they can’t eliminate the void between the well-educated and uneducated people. Moreover, skills maintain the employment industry flexibility required to guarantee quickly-responding economic system in the modern altering conditions. The degree to which skills of the experts meet the requirements of the employers, and the effectiveness of the ways to eliminate the possible gap between supply and the requirements represent the measurement for this flexibility, defined in the EMU evaluation. While coming across modern challenges like enormous impacts of IT, impetuous globalization, firm demands for well-grounded social developments, international changes under the influence of knowledge-directed economy, and world-wide competitions in the 21st century, a great number of educational transformations and reforms were implemented all over the world. Thus, educationalist and policy-makers of many countries take into consideration how to modify education in general and make future generations ready for facing different kinds of challenges. In current rapidly changing time creativity, uninterrupted action learning, "perpetual" education, expansion, and manifold intellect development are often vigorously underlined in ongoing transformations generally in realm of learning in and considered as the major components for well-founded development of learners, and even of citizens in the scope of globalization, knowledge-directed economy, and IT. In the institutional context, knowled ge-driven management, organizational learning, and institutional intelligence in everyday activity are regarded as indispensable for permanent evolution and perfection of organizations. †¦a living organism, consisting of empowered, motivated employees, living in a clearly perceived symbiosis, sharing the feeling of a common destiny and profit, striving towards jointly defined goals, anxious to use every opportunity to learn

Issues of Transformational Leadership in the Organization Research Paper

Issues of Transformational Leadership in the Organization - Research Paper Example This research report will focus on the alleged benefits of transformational leadership style as a potential tool for ensuring higher motivation, less resistance to change, the improvement of organizational culture, and generally gaining more employee commitment. The literature surrounding transformational leadership style seems to be gaining ground as an effective leadership model based on known employee behavior patterns that could effectively serve multiple business environments. It is hypothesized that transformational leadership style can bring significant value-added benefits to a diverse organization over that of other less-progressive styles. What is Transformational Leadership? To understand the potential implications of adopting a transformational leadership model, it is necessary to engage with its dimensions and understand how it applies to a contemporary, diversified organization. Transformational leadership is a progressive style, much like that of a mentor or coach, tha t inspires others through behavior, policy and attitude. This leadership design engages others to share goals and uses â€Å"inspirational appeals of authenticity to focus on the best in people: harmony, charity and good works† (Bass & Steidlmeier, 1999, p.188). In this context, the transformational leader refutes some of the fundamental concepts of management through control or even incentives usage and instead elicits charismatic leadership style that gains ground with creating affiliation and belonging while also raising the emotional intelligence of employees and other staff members. A transformational leader â€Å"opens new thinking for fresh possibilities, re-imagines purpose and vision, ignites growth for employees, gives decision-making power, and manages through commitment strategies† (Adams & Adams, 2009, p.17). This leader takes the responsibility for the role of champion toward change philosophy and also teaches others how to make fundamental shifts in thei r thinking that align the organization toward a unified culture and does this through modeling positive new behaviors (Adams & Adams). In essence, the transformational leader takes on a personal role much like that of a human resources manager with a soft HRM approach that builds confidence, autonomy, and motivation. â€Å"Employers consistently mention collaboration and teamwork as being a critical skill, essential in all working environments† (Tarricone & Luca, 2002, p.55). Many of the pre-existing models of leadership, both justified through research and also through practical experience, do not have the ability to gain motivation in employee groups and build a sense of cultural unity. Transformational leaders have a progressive methodology that influences others with persuasive techniques and also by promoting ethical behavior that is consistent for the sake of modeling by others in the organization. This makes the transformational leader considerably accountable for thei r actions when others in the environment are building concepts of trust and team-based philosophy. Thus, it should be said that the transformatio

Evaluate and revise A Strategy for Scottish Tourism Essay

Evaluate and revise A Strategy for Scottish Tourism - Essay Example It was evolved primarily based on the views that the overseas target markets showed declining performance, there was considerable increase in short tours and also the expenditure was exceeding budgets as per the targets set. The new strategy was the result of a consultation document from Henry McLeish MSP, Honorable Minister for Enterprise and Lifelong Learning in 1999. The consultation document provided the broad items that could go to make for the new strategy, viz., optimal use of IT, tourism promotion to remote and rural areas, assuring quality, identifying future markets, domestic as well as overseas, extending the tourism season, improving training, improving accessibility of areas for tourism interest in Scotland, ATB functioning, as well as making tourism sustainable in the long term. It is therefore in this context that the strategy was examined. Acknowledges are due and hence conveyed in all earnestness to the university professors, fellow students as well as the different authors and experts who have permitted quoting their works in this report. In particular, mention needs to be made of JRB Ritchie and GI Crouch, whose painstaking work The Competitive Destination: A sustainable tourism perspective, 2003, has afforded this study to be made on the basic of fundamental strategy and tourism concepts outlined by these eminent authors. The study examined the new Scottish Tourist Board (STB) strategy according to the principle that tourism development needs to both competitive and sustainable in the long term. Sustainability means conserving the natural resources of Scotland and protecting its heritage structures. The strategy recognizes the natural advantages of Scotland in its scenic beauty and varied landscape and also highlights efforts to be undertaken like technology adoption, customer focus, service quality assurance, lifelong learning, training, better coordination among public bodies and greater involvement of

Do you agree with the view that new communication technologies Essay

Do you agree with the view that new communication technologies accentuate gender inequalities in transnational family care-giving arrangements - Essay Example In simple words, transnational families are defined as those families, where the members of the family stay in distinct nations for a long period of the time. The concept of transnational families have emerged on the basis of the notion that migration is a never-ending process and that migration can help obtaining better well-being opportunities. Due to these principle reasons, it is very commonly observed that an increasing number of people are attempting to migrate from one country to the other. However, economic challenges presented due to migration on these individuals often restrict them from taking their entire family to their host country, and thus have to leave behind their family in the country of their origin. In this situation, the families try to keep in touch with their family members through the various forms of digital media communication channels such as Skype, social networking sites, and using the mobile networks. The system of leaving few of the members of the fami ly behind and migrating to some other country or places is determined as a temporary solution of the problem, which may range from personal reasons to the economic reasons, such as need for better job opportunities (Coface, 2012). In the earlier days, it was very commonly observed that the male members of the family used to leave their family behind in the hometown and move on to the other places in search of a better job. However, now with the modern age, it has been observed that the female members are also relocating to the other places, reflecting a distinct trend from that observed in the earlier days. Arguably, it can be affirmed that it is due to the modernisation of the world and the introduction of the new communication technologies, which has brought about changes in the social environment. This popularity of the female members can be asserted as the significant blessing of the transnational families. In order words, the transnational families have introduced a

Evidence and support for your claim Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Evidence and support for your claim - Essay Example When talking about violence in media, advocates against violence state that they are pushing for more censorship in behalf of the youth. A study has shown that children who were non-violent showed a high level of brain activity similar to that of children with aggressive behavior. (Mathis, 2005) More research has to be conducted to ensure that the brain activity was a direct result of exposure to violent television shows. Nevertheless, theories on behavioral psychology explain that an individual’s behavior can be influenced by a number of things, one of which is through observance of the actions in his or her surroundings. As a child, the individual tends to mimic what he or she sees from the adults around him. (Observation, 2005) Children usually imitate behavior and language from the people around them. This is how they start learning to communicate. As such, adults are often mindful of how they act and what they say whenever around very young children. This is also why parents have their kids watch educational children’s shows. They are in the frame of mind that their children will pick up the words and lessons from the said shows. This way of thinking can also be applied when it comes to violent shows. By having children watch shows with gun-wielding teenagers, people fighting and individuals shouting foul words, media is sending a message that it is normal to act as violently. Media is reinforcing the notion that fighting is acceptable in society. It provides the young viewers role models who exhibit aggressive behavior. Producers of the show maintain that they cannot do away with action scenes and aggressive behavior as these will affect the quality of their shows. They may say that it is the responsibility of the parents to supervise what their children are watching. Also, they may say that their shows are classified for adult viewers who know the difference