In the wake of heavy lockdown restricts globally due to the spread of COVID-19, the airline and aviation industry still suffer from the hangover of travel restrictions as the corporate world has found unlikely alternatives to face-to-face meeting and conferencing.   Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, there has been a movement against flight travel by environmentalists and earth-conscious governments. This uproar has been the loudest in Europe, where business travel constitutes a significant portion in flight travel. With only 12% of the population [taking] 66% of the total annual flights, while in the UK, only 15% of the population takes 70% of the total flights. As for France, 50% of the flights were taken by only 2% of the population in 2008’ (ETX Daily up, 2021) .  The elite business class regular flight users have also contributed the most in the upsurge of Carbon dioxide emissions in the past two to three decades. To the airline industry’s dismay, countries such as France b...

As with a number of State-Owned Enterprises (SOEs), the challenges in South African Airways (SAA) can be traced back to earlier decisions taken by those in charge. With the state-owned airline intent on turning its fortunes, one has to consider the impact of leadership on management. This argument follows on the longstanding debate of leadership vs management. Drawing from John Kotter's table below, where he highlights the differences between leadership and management, one can really wonder as whether there practically exists leadership at SAA. This is in part owing to the lack of strategic direction that we have seen from the entity, coupled with the unstable and demotivated workforce who have been anxious about their job security over the years and shown their dissatisfaction through their trade unions. More so, as the ailing national carrier was losing its ground in the market, not even once did we see any sign of leadership coming forth to salvage the airlines fortunes by...

z Johannesburg Business School Contemporary Management  As 2020 has proven to business and society that the future remains uncertain and volatile. Often times, management has to navigate through a complex business environment, cloaked with immense volatility, uncertainty, and ambiguity (termed the ‘VUCA’ world by experts), in order to stay relevant and simultaneously maintain their market competitiveness. In appreciating this brittleness and incomprehensibility, management has been challenged to employ non-linear strategies to navigate through such anxieties about the future.    Aviation/ Airline industry overview Aviation is consequential to global tourism. The advent of the COVID-19 pandemic, wherein global economies were forced to a shutdown of economic activities, which meant that the aviation industry would be one sector to experience the wrath of this uncertain reality, as cross-country travel was highly restricted during this period. The Oxford Economics (2...