Abstract
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.
Highlights
The COVID-19 pandemic became a global health crisis soon after its inception in late 2019 [1]
This study focused on the lessons learned from the mistakes and challenges that arose during the implementation of turnaround management strategies during COVID-19
We suggest that future researchers should consider different stages of turnaround management and incorporate the organization’s financial position as a contingent factor. This qualitative study aimed to explore the challenges of turnaround management strategies of organizations operating within the aviation sector in Australia during the COVID-19 crisis and government restrictions, from the perspective of frontline managers
Summary
The COVID-19 pandemic became a global health crisis soon after its inception in late 2019 [1]. Many industries have been negatively impacted, which has led to economic recessions for many countries around the world [3]. The unprecedented government lockdowns have caused severe financial losses for industries such as tourism and aviation [4]. External events that cause flight cancellations and travel bans have direct impacts on the financial positions of the organizations operating within the aviation industry such as airlines, airport service providers, and airports [5]. The unprecedented COVID-19 crisis and resultant government lockdowns have severely impacted the vast majority of organizations operating within the aviation industry. The COVID-19 pandemic resulted in lockdowns for many economies worldwide, which presented a unique challenge that existing change management literature has not documented. Turnaround management literature explains how to deal with an economic downturn from an organizational standpoint, as outlined
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