FACTORS OF SUCCESS OR FAILURE OF AVIATION INDUSTRY: A MULTIPLE CASE STUDY OF AVIATION INDUSTRY AND CONCEPTULIZATION OF NEW THEORY OF SUCCESS

Abstract

A study of six different airlines has been performed using a case study method, in which a full range of leadership development theories and themes, as well as organizational performance measurement themes to measure organizational performance have been used. Three failure airlines and three successful airlines were chosen for the study. The scope of the research is limited to the airline as a unit of analysis. In this unit of analysis, further leadership and organization are considered as two sub-units of analysis. In the leadership sub-unit, mainly leadership traits and determinants, leadership perspectives, leadership styles and types of leadership have been studied, whereas in the organization sub-unit of analysis, human resources, technology, structure, safety culture, strategy, environments, the role of government, unhealthy competition, political instability and its effects, have thoroughly been studied. The results indicate that leadership and organizational performance of Nepali aviation industries are two sides of a coin and without effective leadership, better organizational performance is not possible. Besides other factors like culture, environment, technology and financial constrain, most of the cases revealed that the role of government leadership while formulating the policies and aviation leadership that fails in coopetition with governmental bodies due to lack of political competency are the two main factors for aviation organizational success or failure in Nepal. Success factors, as per the research findings, are: merit-based employee selection process, no discrimination based on gender, consideration of all employees as owners, and ownership feeling within employees due to profit distribution, highly qualified and well-educated employees. Finally, a new theory of successful airline has developed at the end of this research based on multiple case studies.