Qantas Airlines Business Report Founded in 1920, Qantas is the world's eleventh largest airline and second 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-owned company; he did not consider profits or efficiency to be his primary goal. 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. Although Qantas is primarily a passenger airline, air transport is also an integral part of its core business. Other Qantas operations include foodservice, 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 11 September 2001 which have effectively reduced demand for international travel. Qantas initially reduced its international flight capacity by 11%. Fortunately, the collapse of Ansett which halted domestic competition in the Australian aviation industry which had abandoned the bidding price war for consumer finances, softened the blow on 12 September 2001. The source of the change: the factors which had caused the changes to Qantas were that Qantas needed to become: • A more competitive, efficient and profitable company with less competition in domestic markets. • Qantas had to pay taxes and duties paid by other companies in Australia • Qantas had to make a higher profit and pay a dividend to its shareholders which increased over the years of management. The main factor that caused Qantas to change was the fact that the company was government-owned 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 responsibility • Jobs divided into simple tasks; division of labor and specialization• Strict rules and procedures• Impersonal evaluation of employee performance to avoid favoritism and bias• Formal record keepingAlso Qantas ran an autocratic leadership style, which meant that autocratic managers like to make all the important decisions and supervise and monitor workers closely. Managers do not trust workers and simply give orders (one-way communication) that they expect to be followed. This approach derives from Taylor's views on how to motivate workers and links to McGregor's Theory X view of workers. This approach has limitations but can be effective in certain situations.