Stakeholder Engagement and Criticism
The three airlines have managed to engage stakeholders proactively and reactively. The proactive engagement has mostly involved employees and the general public in the airlines’ efforts towards corporate social responsibility. The reactive engagement occurred when the airlines faced criticism from their customers and the general public in the way they manage crises. United Airlines has engaged in extensive programming for celebrations such as black history month, Martin Luther King Jnr parades and disability employment awareness (United Airlines, 2018). It has supported its employees by allowing them to engage in Business Resource Groups (BRG’s) to advance diversity and inclusion. Recently, the airline donated flights to reunite families detached at the United States border.
Most criticism for United Airlines has occurred during flights in the way they have handled crises in customer service. At one time, a passenger was violently removed from their aircraft. The trip was overbooked, and no passenger was willing to accept compensation for flight cancellation. The airline faced criticism on social media networks with most people complaining that an apology was inadequate.
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Southwest Airlines has been the official sponsor for major league baseball teams such as Arizona Diamond Backs and Texas Rangers. Southwest has also sponsored NBA teams such as the Denver Nuggets, Houston Rockets, and other sports teams. It has also allowed its employees to be part of various workers’ unions in its endeavor to maintain healthy labor relations. Southwest faced criticism in two incidents within a week involving discrimination against Muslim passengers. Some passengers had claimed they felt unsafe in the presence of the Muslims.
Spirit Airlines has recorded a 46 percent rating on corporate social responsibility (Spirit Airlines, 2018). Employee satisfaction has been above average. A significant number of employees have complained about poor management and incongruence between work and compensation. A labor dispute with the pilots that was inadequately addressed led to the cancellation of flights. Spirit has faced heavy criticism due to customer dissatisfaction. Credible reports indicate that the airline has been resulting in customer complaints to the Department of Transportation. Further, Spirit has faced criticism for overbooking, fee increments, and small seats. They have also faced criticism for canceling hundreds of flights amid a labor dispute with pilots.
Reporting and Communication
The three airlines have used their websites as the primary channel for communication of reports, updates, and releases. United has posted their financial report updates, fleet updates and corporate social responsibility engagement on their website (United Airlines, 2018). Southwest has published press releases, financial report updates, customer satisfaction reports, and flight schedule extension (Southwest Airlines, 2018). Spirit has also featured financial reports; fleet plan, recent earnings release and investor update reports on their website (Spirit Airlines, 2018). All the three airlines have managed to present some of their statements in printable PDF file formats.
Recommendations
The three airlines have mostly suffered from criticism arising from the quality of customer service mostly on social media. In most of the incidents, they have issued apologetic statements that were deemed inadequate by customers. The airlines may consider having social media managers who respond to customer complaints and criticisms at individual levels. Firms that have social media managers have significantly improved in conflict resolution (Stefania, Murtarelli, & Valentini, 2014). They should invest in training their crew on customer service dispute resolution. Further, they should seek to introduce stricter disciplinary measures for their staff members who do not adequately handle crises by revising their policy documents. They also need to review their booking to eliminate cases of overbooking.
Spirit needs to address their corporate social responsibility that is below average. They may consider engaging in more projects involving various community groups and sports teams. They also need to overhaul their management that has been cited as weak by both employees and customers. Adept management has higher chances of solving stalemates involving customer dissatisfaction and complaints (Freeman, 2010).
References
Freeman, R. (2010). Strategic Management: A Stakeholder Approach. New York: Cambridge University Press.
Stefania, R., Murtarelli, G., Valentini, C. (2014). Organizations’ conversations in social media: Applying dialogue strategies in times of crises. Corporate Communications: An International Journal, 19 (1), 10 - 33.
Southwest Airlines. (2018). Releases . Retrieved from https://www.swamedia.com/releases
Spirit Airlines. (2018). Investor relations . Retrieved from http://ir.spirit.com/?_ga=2.124252045.648207297.1532902274-864590748.1532902274
United Airlines. (2018). Newsroom resources . Retrieved from https://hub.united.com/newsweek- names-united-airlines-global-2567373624.html
