Comparison Between Malaysia Airlines and Air Asia Organizational Behaviour

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Among well-known leaders of organizations in the world are Walt Disney (Disney Companies), Henry Ford (Ford Motor Company), Bill Gates (Microsoft) and the late Steve Jobs (Apple Inc.). It is undeniable that the leadership of these individuals had given a huge contribution in the success of the companies which they were attached to.

The transactional and transformational approaches in leadership have significantly affected the management of organisations especially in business environment nowadays. The world has gone almost without any boundary, and news travel in seconds. Hence, the decision made by the leaders will affect the organization in a very significant way. Not only that, all stakeholders including the customers, investors and not forgetting the staff will be affected as well.

There is a vast contrast and some similarities in leadership styles of two leaders in managing the two biggest airline companies in Malaysia namely, Malaysia Airlines and AirAsia. Strong leadership style and approach from Peter Bellew and Tan Sri Tony Fernandes will contribute/ have contributed to the success (or failure) of the two airlines.

We will be able to get some insight and perspective of the qualities much needed by the current leadership scene as leaders have substantial amount of responsibility to lead the direction and create positive organizational culture.

PETER BELLEW

[pic 3] (Image is taken from utusan.com.my)

Bellew is currently the Group Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of Malaysia Airlines. Originally from Ireland, Mr Bellew is only the second ever non-Malaysian CEO of Malaysia Airlines after his predecessor Cristoph Mueller.

He is a veteran in the tourism and aviation industry with 30 over years of experience in related fields. Mr Bellew was credited for being able to substantially increase passenger volume from 6,000 to more than 400,000 during his tenure as director and general manager at Kerry Airport in Killarney, Ireland.

Bellew joined Malaysia Airlines as Chief Operations Officer on 1st September 2015. The airline was restructuring its program amid huge financial losses. The aviation disasters MH370 and MH17 in 2014 did not help in making the financial situation better.

On 1st July 2016, Bellew officially took over as Chief Executive Officer from his predecessor Christoph Mueller. During his tenure, Christoph Mueller had cut about 6,000 jobs to try and improve the financial situation at Malaysia Airlines.

Many predict that Bellew is just going to continue is predecessor’s work, although it is said that some parties are not comfortable with having another foreigner to head the national flag carrier.

LEADERSHIP STYLE

If Bellew’s experience with Ryanair as Director of Flight Operations and Head of Sales and Marketing can be used as a benchmark, everyone can be optimistic with the turnaround of the national carrier in the near future. So far, with Malaysia Airlines, Bellew has been a key figure in the airline’s senior management team responsible for executing the biggest and fastest transformation of a company of this decade.

When his predecessor (Mueller) cut 6,000 jobs to stop the financial bleeding of the organisation, he was criticised badly by so many parties. Bellew was right behind him though as it had to be done to ensure that the organisation will be run better, and save cost.

Bellew is now in charge of all operations in Malaysia, including engineering, flight operations and ground operations. He will also have responsibility for all the pilots and in-flight crew across a fleet of 140 planes.

Bellew also insisted that he has not encountered any difficulties being a foreigner in Malaysia. The only challenge is the diverse culture in the country, and the need to try and balance all sorts of culture in the country. The opportunity to improve is vast since Malaysia Airlines has great talent, and the airline just needs a bit more leadership in the short term.

Peter Bellew was mainly chosen to be part of the strategy in setting the cost control management in Malaysia Airlines as he is a production-oriented leader. This type of leaders emphasizes on the technical or task aspects of the job, focusing on accomplishing the group’s tasks. The main challenge that is faced by Malaysia Airlines is imposing improved punctuality and efficiency of the flights.

Bellew worked for Ryanair for 9 years. Throughout his time at Ryanair, he managed legal disputes with pilots, and was also responsible for sales and marketing.

TAN SRI TONY FERNANDES

[pic 4] Picture taken from thestar.com.my

Tan Sri Tony is a Malaysian and has been the Group CEO of AirAsia since December 2001. Together with partners, Tony founded Tune Air Sdn Bhd in 2001, with a vision to democratize air travel and free it from the clutches of the elite by offering low fares and high quality services. They bought the then loss making AirAsia from its Malaysian owner DRB-Hicom, for a token RM1 (USD 0.25 cents), and agreed to take on the airline’s RM40 million debt.

Driven by Fernandes and with the help of his partners, AirAsia repaid that debt in less than two years; despite the fact that it was operating in an extremely challenging environment in the post-September 11, 2001, era. It started with two planes (Boeing 737-300’s), one destination (Pulau Langkawi) and a staff of 250.

Fernandes has been awarded the a few honours, among which the titles Tan Sri and Dato' Sri by the King of Malaysia and The Legion of Honour order by the French government.

He has also received many awards for his achievements. A few of them are International Herald Tribune Award for the "Visionaries & Leadership Series", "Malaysian CEO of the Year 2003",

"Emerging Entrepreneur of the Year" in the "Entrepreneur of The Year Awards" in 2003 and 2006, and "Brand Builder of the Year" 2014 at the World Branding Awards, for his work in building the AirAsia brand

LEADERSHIP STYLE

Tan Sri Tony is very popular in Malaysia and generally people categorize him as a ‘cool’ boss. His foresight and vision has turned Air Asia to become one of the most well-known airlines in the world. Due to strong leadership of Tan Sri Tony, he was able to create excellent organizational culture and instill the importance of working as a team to achieve goals together.

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