Document Type

Journal Article

Publication Title

Sustainability

Volume

12

Issue

23

First Page

1

Last Page

24

Publisher

MDPI

School

School of Business and Law

RAS ID

32521

Funders

Edith Cowan University - Open Access Support Scheme 2020

Comments

Buhusayen, B., Seet, P. S., & Coetzer, A. (2020). Turnaround management of airport service providers operating during COVID-19 restrictions. Sustainability, 12(23), article 10155. https://doi.org/10.3390/su122310155

Abstract

© 2020 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. Many sectors worldwide have been impacted by government restrictions resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic. For example, restrictions on travel have resulted in major losses for organizations operating within the aviation sector. This study aims to emphasize the challenges faced by these organizations while they implement turnaround management strategies. The study is based on 30 semi-structured interviews with frontline managers working for airline service providers in three different departments of an airport in Australia. The organization has implemented several turnaround management strategies to survive the crisis caused by COVID-19 restrictions, creating new challenges for its work environment. Our findings indicate that the frontline managers faced two main challenges during and after the implementation of turnaround management strategies. First, inadequate human resources, caused by a lack of personnel resources and poor leadership selection. Second, a lack of communication, caused by excluding frontline managers from the turnaround management planning stage; poor sharing of information during the implementation stage; inadequate direction of frontline managers; and a lack of feedback channels regarding the change process. Based on its findings, the study recommends building a frontline manager task force and creating a strategic communication plan for frontline and senior managers.

DOI

10.3390/su122310155

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

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Link to publisher version (DOI)

10.3390/su122310155