Communication and Work Development as a Change Management Tool in the In-flight Customer Service Department : Case Finnair

Abstract

The challenges and changes in the air transport sector have increased the need for radical changes also in the airlines organizations. Finnair has chosen to be a quality airline to focus on operations into customer-orientation and delivering improved customer experience to its customers. The objective of this thesis is to find development suggestions to the In-flight customer service department how to develop communication and work development to be used as a change management tool. The study aims to answer to the following development questions: 1) What is the role of communication in a change in an organization? 2) What are the obstacles in developing internal communication in the department? and 3) How to achieve successful change in delivering improved customer experience?

The methodology in this thesis is mainly based on empirical research, consisting of interviews, participant observation and document analysis. The theoretical framework provides the theoretical foundation for the study which consists of organizational communication, change management and work development. The case company’s employees were interviewed for their experiences of and views on the department’s communication and changes taken place in the company.

The results show that communication in the In-flight customer service department is not effective as it could be. The systematic, goal-oriented and regular communication and discussions expected by the employees is missing in the department and for this reason the change communication will not succeed in achieving its objectives. In addition, in view of the development of communication, the department is missing training and work development instruments in order to provide tools for spontaneous development. On the basis of the findings of this research development suggestions were presented for the department regarding how they could improve communication and work development in order to motivate and commit the front-line service employees.