Assessment 1
Preparation
Use the Internet and Capella University Library to research
an airline currently in business to use as the basis for this assessment. You
will need to incorporate a minimum of four resources to support the points in
your 4–6-page analysis described below.
Deliverables
Complete the following:
Conduct a SWOT analysis on your chosen airline.
Consider using the SWOT Analysis Template document, linked
in the Suggested Resources, or a similar format of your choice for this
assessment. Examples of criteria for the SWOT analysis are provided in the
tables below.
Write a 4–6-page analysis of the airline’s internal and
external environments, as well as the interrelationships among its internal
businesses. Include the following subheadings and content:
Introduction: Provide an overview of your chosen airline and
its place in the industry.
Include background information on what business strategies
the airline is using and where it fits in the industry.
Internal Environment: Using your SWOT analysis, analyze the
airline’s internal environment for the conditions and factors that influence
its activities and choices, including its business strategies. The internal
environment includes:
Human resources—staff, volunteers, board members, target
population.
Physical resources—location, building, equipment, funding
for resources (grants, funding agencies, other sources of income).
Activities and processes—programs run, systems employed.
Past experiences—building blocks for learning and success,
reputation in the community.
External Environment: Analyze the selected organization’s
external environment for the conditions and factors surrounding it that
influence its activities and choices, including its business strategies.
External forces the organization does not control include the following:
Future trends—in the field or the culture.
Economy—local, national, and international.
Funding sources—foundations, donors, legislatures.
Demographics—changes in the age, race, gender, culture of
those served by the organization.
Physical environment.
Legislation.
Local, national, and international events.
Interrelationships: Analyze the interrelationships among
internal business functional areas and external constraints and opportunities.
Conclusion: Describe the key issues you believe should be
addressed to make effective decisions and business plans, and provide your
recommendations or suggestions for handling these issues.
Internal Environment Criteria Examples
Criteria Examples Strengths Weaknesses Criteria Examples
Capabilities.
Competitive advantages.
Customers.
Suppliers.
Financial strength.
Physical facilities and equipment.
Resources, assets, people, employees.
Experience, knowledge, data.
Marketing—reach, distribution, awareness.
Innovative aspects.
Location and geographical.
Price, value, quality.
Licensing.
Gaps in capabilities.
Lack of competitive strength.
Reputation, presence, and reach.
Financials.
Known vulnerabilities.
Pressures.
Cash flow.
Continuity.
Morale, commitment, leadership.
Licensing.
External Environment Criteria Examples
Criteria Examples Opportunities Threats Criteria
Examples
Social forces, lifestyle trends.
Consumer desires and values.
Political impact.
Legal and governmental issues.
Economic factors.
Environmental issues.
Technology development and innovation.
Competitors.
Industry trends.
Global influences.
Geographical.
Business and product development.
Political effects.
Legislative effects.
Environmental effects.
Technology development and innovation.
Competitors.
Market demand.
Economic factors.
Global influences.
Additional Requirements
Written communication: Written communication is free of
errors that detract from the overall message.
APA formatting: Resources and citations are formatted
according to current APA style and formatting.
Number of resources: A minimum of four resources.
Length: 4–6 typed, double-spaced pages.
Font and font size: Times New Roman, 12-point.
Assessment 2
Preparation
Use the Capella University Library or other sources to find
information on mission and vision statements from at least three business
publications in the field. You will need to incorporate these resources in your
assessment.
Deliverable
For this assessment, assume the airline you chose in
Assessment 1 has just made you president. As the new president, create an
organized and well-written 8–10-page report for the airline’s stakeholders that
includes the following subheadings and content:
Introduction: Briefly introduce the airline and the
situation leading up to you being made president.
Assume that you have been brought in to improve
profitability and long-term success for the airline.
Provide a paragraph or two overviewing the current situation
with the airline (from your SWOT analysis) and introducing yourself as
president.
Mission and Vision: Describe the new purpose and mission for
the airline.
Review the airline’s current mission and vision.
Explain what you will change and why. Support your changes
to the mission and vision statements with factual information from at least
three business publications in the field.
Write a new formal mission and vision statement.
Communications Plan: Describe how you will communicate your
new presidency and your future direction for the airline to the existing
employees and the press.
Financial Objectives: Any airline is concerned with safely
getting people from one point to another and doing so in a way that is
profitable. Detail how your airline plans to accomplish this by listing four of
the airline’s new financial goals.
For example, you might want to increase profitability by a
certain percentage. Explain how you plan to do that—for example, spending less
on staff training or food service, or leasing planes rather than buying them.
Identify at least four specific financial goals, all geared
toward increasing profitability through bringing in revenue or reducing
expenses. Describe the rationale behind your goals.
Consider the market standing, productivity, facilities,
stockholders (if applicable), worker performance, profitability, innovation,
and social responsibility.
Action Plan: Create an action plan for achieving the four
goals that you set.
Considering what you learned in the SWOT analysis you completed
in Assessment 1, include items such as intended markets (staying where you are
or moving and why), hiring and training, and technology.
For each of the four goals you identified, explain which
strategy you will use, the time it will take to assess the results, and your
exit strategy if the plan does not work. For example, if you decide to increase
revenue by generating more customers through a fare sale, explain how you will
advertise the fare, how much of a reduction it will be, how you expect it to
impact your profits, and so on.
Include, when applicable, items such as communications,
employee relations, route planning, public relations, advertising, et cetera.
Methods of Control and Feedback: Describe how you will
assess meeting your goals and how you will go about making changes as
necessary.
Remember that setting a goal is only valuable if you take
steps to achieve it and then measure your success.
Consider how you will measure success of each goal. For
example, if you choose to add food service, consider how you will know whether
this has been successful. Financials will not answer this question, but what
will? Customer surveys? Staff feedback? How many tickets would you sell after
the announcement is made?
Additional Requirements
Written communication: Written communication is free of
errors that detract from the overall message.
APA formatting: Resources and citations are formatted
according to current APA style and formatting.
Number of resources: A minimum of three resources.
Length: 8–10 typed, double-spaced pages.
Font and font size: Times New Roman, 12-point.
Assessment 3
Preparation
Read and carefully consider the scenario in the Assessment 3
Scenario document, linked in the Required Resources, before beginning on the deliverable
for this assessment.
Assessment 3 Scenario
You have just been informed that the captain of one of your
aircraft became unconscious as the airplane was about to land; the co-pilot
took over and landed the craft safely. Upon landing, the aircraft was met by an
ambulance, and the unconscious captain was taken to the hospital. Within an
hour, you learn that the captain suffered a heart attack and is in critical
condition.
The passengers did not know of the captain’s collapse or
that anything was amiss at the time. Fortunately, everyone is safe. The station
manager who reported the situation to you believes that the passengers all left
the airport terminal without talking to the press, but he is not certain that
is the case. He is now asking how to handle the situation, suspecting that
passengers may talk to the press soon.
You know that a report must be made to the FAA within 24
hours and that this information will become public, even if it is not already.
The concern is how this situation will impact public opinion
toward your airline. You wonder: Will people be afraid that you have an aging
workforce and that they are not safe? Will potential customers think that this
problem could reflect on your airline in other ways, putting maintenance and
overall safety into question? In short, will this situation have a negative
effect on sales and, thus, profitability?
You, the president, must decide how to handle this
situation.
You might choose, for example, not to comment at all and
hope that the situation is never revealed. Or you might prepare a fast press
release for immediate release, stating that the captain was taken to the
hospital but that the plane landed safely, offering no other details. On the
other hand, you might prepare a full press release with all details of the
incident. Or you might send the CEO on a quick business trip, so that you can
claim that no comment is available until the CEO returns, in hopes that the
situation will calm down on its own. You might even try to put a positive spin
on all of this and create a press release that focuses on the heroic efforts of
the first officer who landed the plane.
Research and consider reactions to similar incidents to
envision possible reactions to this incident. It is likely to receive
commentary in the press; with that, passengers or others may choose to comment.
While it is not known currently whether the public is aware of the situation,
it will be necessary to proactively determine an approach.
Think carefully about the impact of any selected action on
the company, the industry, and, of course, the individuals involved. Also,
think about any repercussions that may result from the disclosure and the communication
approach you select.
Deliverable
After reading and considering the Assessment 3 Scenario document,
complete the following:
Write a 3–5-page analysis in which you complete the
following:
Analyze the challenges and issues presented by the public
relations situation described in the scenario. You are free to embellish
details but keep them realistic.
Suggest three different public relations approaches to
address the issue. Evaluate each approach.
Provide a course of action and detail why you chose that
action, what you hope it will gain for your airline, and what might go wrong if
you made the wrong choice.
Write a press release that supports your chosen course of
action. Identify which media you would target and how the targeted message
might differ among them.
Additional Requirements
Written communication: Written communication is free of
errors that detract from the overall message.
APA formatting: Resources and citations are formatted
according to current APA style and formatting.
Length: 3–5 typed, double-spaced pages for the analysis portion
of the assessment; there is no length requirement for the press release.
Font and font size: Times New Roman, 12-point.
Assessment 4
Preparation
Read and carefully consider the scenario in the Assessment 4
Scenario document, linked in the Required Resources, before beginning on the
deliverable for this assessment. Consider what criteria are important in
assessing the situation, and ask yourself what criteria will help guide you to
an appropriate and correct decision.
Assessment 4 Scenario
Your maintenance chief calls to tell you that a new mechanic
on his team has told him that the airline he just left has some potential
safety and ethical issues. Specifically, the employee is claiming that his
prior airline is conducting “pencil maintenance”; that is, they are
writing things in their maintenance logs that do not actually get done. This
includes required inspections, repairs, and standard replacement of parts. The
new mechanic said he feels as if the airline is “an accident waiting to
happen” and that he quit his job at the prior airline because he did not
like their dangerous and unethical practices.
Your maintenance chief is a staunch safety advocate,
concerned for your customers, and he wants to know if you want him to do
anything with this information. The airline in question has competed with your
airline in the past, and likely you will share markets in the future. You do
not know the CEO of the other airline well, but you do know the company has a
reputation for being aggressive and competitive.
As leader of your airline and as an advocate for safety in
airlines, you have a decision to make. Is this a situation in which you will
disclose what you have learned, or will you keep it to yourself? Do you have a
responsibility to share this insight, or might this be a case of a disgruntled
former employee that has little bearing on current activities? How might your
actions, or inaction, reflect upon your own airline? How could this impact the
industry overall? Would such an industry impact harm your airline?
As you think about the employee’s report that his prior
airline is doing pencil maintenance, consider the many actions you may take.
You know that you can report the airline to the FAA, but this will not be
anonymous—the other airline will know you made a report. Or you can report the
airline to the Airline Association, but you cannot be sure that they will take
any action, and your name could be given to the competitor. You could call the
CEO of the other airline and tell him or her the situation; this would be a
courteous thing to do. Or you could be anonymous and drop a tip to the local
investigative reporter at a newspaper. On the other hand, you could just do
nothing, deciding that this is either none of your business or likely to be the
ranting of a disgruntled employee.
Deliverable
After reading and considering the Assessment 4 Scenario document,
complete the following:
Complete a 4–5-page discussion of the problem detailed in
the scenario, including the following:
Analyze the business considerations presented by the
situation.
Compare two radically different approaches to addressing the
situation.
Choose your preferred course of action and evaluate its
risks and upsides. Include a discussion of the ethical considerations and how
you reconciled them.
Discuss what aspects of your decision you would communicate
and with whom they would be shared.
Write a 1–2-page professional correspondence to one of the
stakeholders you have identified, sharing relevant aspects of your decision.
Additional Requirements
Written communication: Written communication is free of
errors that detract from the overall message.
APA formatting: Resources and citations are formatted
according to current APA style and formatting.
Length: 5–7 typed, double-spaced pages (4–5 pages for the
analysis and 1–2 pages for the professional correspondence to a stakeholder).
Font and font size: Times New Roman, 12-point.
