Qantas Airlines Business ReportEstablished in 1920, Qantas is the 11th largest airline in the world and the 2nd oldest. It was founded in outback Queensland as the Queensland and Northern Territory Aerial Service (QANTAS) Limited, by pioneer aviators Hudson Fysh, Paul McGinness and Fergus McMaster. Qantas was a former government company; it did not consider profit or efficiency its primary objective. In 1993 a 25% stake was sold to British Airways. Qantas was privatized in 1995 and had to adopt management practices to overcome internal and external influences and had to change its narrow-minded culture. While Qantas is primarily a passenger airline, air cargo is also an integral part of its core business. Other Qantas businesses include food and beverage, tourism and e-commerce dedicated to transportation and air travel. Qantas has undertaken significant changes over the past decade to address internal and external factors such as the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, which effectively reduced demand for international travel. Qantas initially reduced its international flight capacity by 11%. Fortunately, the collapse of Ansett, which ended domestic competition in the Australian aviation industry which had abandoned price wars for consumer finances, softened the shock of September 12, 2001. The source of change : The factors that caused Qantas to change were: Qantas needed to become: • A more competitive, efficient and profitable company with less competition in domestic markets. • Qantas needed to pay taxes paid by other companies in Australia• Qantas was expected to make an increased profit and pay a dividend to its shareholders which increased over the years of management. The main factors that caused Qantas to change were that the company was under government ownership until 1995, with a classical/scientific management structure. This means that the company has maintained: • A strict hierarchical organizational structure • Clear lines of communication and accountability • Jobs broken down into simple tasks; division of labor and specialization • Strict rules and procedures • Impersonal evaluation of employee performance to avoid favoritism and bias • Formal record keeping Qantas also operated with an autocratic leadership style, meaning autocratic managers like to take all the important decisions and closely supervise and control workers. Managers do not trust workers and just give orders (one-way communication) which they expect to be obeyed. This approach stems from Taylor's views on how to motivate workers and is linked to McGregor's Theory X worker view. This approach has limitations but it can be effective in certain situations.