Impact Of Organization Characteristics On Sustainable Competitive Advantage During Strategic Change In Airlines

Firms in the airline industry are using resources and capabilities to build sustainable competitive advantage and how these resources and capabilities are used are subject to change when the organization is responding to change from external forces. This leads to change of the whole organization as a system. This study focuses on organization characteristics which make up the organization including business processes, structure and culture and how these are managed during strategic change to build sustainable competitive advantage in airlines. With Porter’s five-force model and the value chain model, this study aims at analyzing the dynamic environment of airlines with forces that lead to strategic change and how these affect the three organization characteristics. The study employed survey research design with a sample of 173 drawn from executive directors, senior managers and managers and pilots through stratified sampling who were picked by simple random sampling from airlines. Self-administered questionnaires and personal interviews were used as well as data from books, journals, periodicals, company reports, press releases and the internet. Data analysis was done using descriptive analysis (percentages, frequencies and averages) and chi-statistic followed by data presentation on bar graphs and tables. The study concludes the three elements of organization characteristics namely business process, culture and structure are interlinked. They are disrupted during strategic change and require integration for consistency help build sustainable competitive advantage. It is recommended that managers and policy makers in airlines view organization characteristics as subsystems that depend on each other to build sustainable competitive advantage during strategic change. Further researchers should incorporate operational level employees and customers in the target influence to establish their role in organization characteristics during strategic change process. Keywords: Organization Characteristics, competitive advantage, strategic change, dynamic environment, organization, culture, structure, business proces

Key Success Factors in Airlines: Overcoming the Challenges

The increased interconnectivity within the global airline markets has marked the airline with dynamism from both its external environment and internal operations. This paper reviews how the highly sensitive industry is faced by the challenge of product innovation by suppliers, fragile reputation powerful customers, intense competition from strategic alliances & bankruptcy protection and increased costs of labour, fuel and security measures. The review further identifies the Key Success Factors (KSFs) in the global airline industry in relation to the challenges that carriers face. These strategic factors include structure, culture, strategic alliances, planning and forecasting, technology, marketing and branding and outsourcing

Knowledge Management Practices and its Effect on Firm Performance: A Case of Commercial Banks’ Performance in Kisumu City, Kenya.

Knowledge Management has become an important strategic weapon for sustaining competitive advantage in firms. Banking statistics in Kenya indicate only 25 percent of customers believe their banks’ act on their best interests with 5 percent employee turnover annually. This had hampered Banks’ competitiveness and performance. Effective Knowledge Management promotes knowledge creation, knowledge sharing, knowledge acquisition and knowledge retention to maintain customer satisfaction and organizational performance. However little is known about Knowledge Management Practices in Kenyan Banks. The overall objective of this study was to analyze the effects of knowledge management practices on commercial banks’ performance in Kisumu city in Kenya. Specifically the study sought to establish the extent of knowledge creation; knowledge sharing; knowledge acquisition, level of organizational performance and determine the relationship between organizational performance and knowledge creation; knowledge sharing and knowledge acquisition in commercial banks in Kisumu city. The target population was 20 commercial banks operating within Kisumu City with a sampling frame of branch managers and operational managers. Data was collected by use of questionnaires and analyzed by descriptive statistics and correlation analysis. The study found there is significant relationship between knowledge creation and organizational performance (r=0.614, p<0.001). A significant positive relationship as also found to exist between organizational performance and knowledge sharing (r=0.501, p<0.005). Keywords: Knowledge Management, Knowledge Creation, Organizational Performance, Employees, Learning