The Long Way Round - An airline's response to the Russian Airspace closure : optimising organisational resilience.

Abstract

Given the increased occurrence of exogenous shocks in recent years, the importance of organisational resilience has become evident. Airlines have recently been subjected to major shocks, such as COVID-19. The Russian airspace closure commencing in February 2022 happened in close succession to the pandemic, thus effectively forming a double crisis. This Master’s thesis is an inductive case study of an airline’s successful response to the Russian airspace closure, with the research aim of uncovering the measures undertaken to survive this double crisis and establishing a generalizable framework to optimise organisational resilience. The research questions are: How has the airline responded to the impact of the Russian airspace closure? How can organisational resilience be optimised, particularly in the face of exogenous shocks? This qualitative research is based on empirical evidence obtained from semi-structured interviews with ten senior white-collar employees of the case company, focusing on network management and revenue management. The Gioia Methodology was used for the data analysis, and the findings were discussed in the context of existing literature, utilising theories and frameworks of organisational resilience and organisational values. The study proposes four pillars of organisational resilience, encompassing employee engagement, business operations, work methodologies, and crisis preparedness, with organisational values forming the basis for these elements. This thesis has uncovered proactively grounding flights, speedily redirecting the network, safeguarding the cash position, introducing new business models, and a strategy update to restore profitability as the measures employed by the airline. The conclusions have revealed speed, and trust, as well as empowered, committed, and engaged people, as key behavioural facilitators for organisational resilience. Recommendations include incorporating creative solutions to ensure business continuity, paying special attention to employees’ mental health and wellbeing, including the ongoing showing of appreciation, and ensuring adequate information sharing at an expert level as a crisis unfolds.