Please consult the guidance at the end of this form before completing and submitting your application.
1. Name(s):
2. Current Position:
3. Contact Details:
Division:
Email:
Phone:
4. Is your research being conducted as part of an education qualification?
Yes No
YES
5. If yes, please give the name of your supervisor:
Name of the Supervisor
6. Title of your research project/study:
What Makes Successful Strategic Leadership in the Airline Industry: A Case Study of British Airways in the United Kingdom
7. Briefly describe the rationale, aims, design, and research questions of your research
Rationale
In my experience as a research enthusiast, the airline industry is now more aggressive in its strategies as well as revised strategic decisions. My observation is that despite strategic choices such as route expansion, efficiency, partnership agreements, and optimisation made by airlines, the aviation sector has not fully utilised their potential in the global market. This calls for an intensive as well as extensive evaluation of the management decisions and underlying challenges. Another observation that urged me to pursue this research topic is my understanding that successful strategic leadership offers a conducive environment for strategic planning in the airline sector. Strategic choices can range from effective implementation of management programs to staff empowerment to improve customer service. Therefore, I would like to apply for ethics approval for addressing the identified research gap by assessing what makes successful strategic leadership in the airline sector, which is highly competitive in recent times.
Research Design
This study will adopt descriptive survey design. Descriptive survey techniques are most appropriate in preliminary as well as exploratory studies as they enable researchers to collect data, summarize, and interpret information for clarification purposes. The descriptive research design will be appropriate for this study as the method determines, reports, and helps in the establishment of the actual present situation of the study population. The design is recommended for this study due to its ability in ensuring that bias is minimised whereas reliability of evidence collected is maximised.
Research Aims
The primary aim of this proposed research is to determine what makes successful strategic leadership in the airline industry. Primarily, the study will seek to provide an understanding of the strategic direction and also provided an in-depth analysis about the airline industry through an intensive as well as extensive research of British Airways and identify success factors that enhance strategic leadership in organisations.
Research Questions
The research will seek to provide answers to the following research questions
1. How do organizational resources influence strategic leadership in British Airways?
2. In what ways does industry competitiveness affect strategic leadership in British Airways?
3. To what extent do industry challenges influence strategic leadership in British Airways?
To what degree does leadership style affect strategic leadership in British Airways?
8. Describe the data you wish to analyse
In this proposed study, previous studies, journals, books, and websites will be examined to provide both qualitative and quantitative secondary data for this research. The data collection method will be appropriate as it contains vast volumes of data from a significant number of sources. In addition, the collection instrument will be used because it provides information in a faster and relatively cheap way hence saving time and financial resources. The data to be collected will revolve around strategic leadership in the aviation sector.
9. What are the terms and conditions around the use of the data? Did data subjects give consent for their data to be re-used? If not, on what basis is a re-use of the data justified?
The proposed research will be ethically rigorous, as the researcher will ensure that all relevant parties grant consent. In addition, the researcher will ensure that mention of name is made of confidentiality throughout the entire study except for public media such as journals where names are provided to meet the requirements of proper referencing. Also, the researcher will ensure that only relevant data on the research problem is collected and properly analysed.
10. Do you intend to use personal data (https://ico.org.uk/media/1549/determining_what_is_personal_data_quick_reference_guide.pdf) or sensitive personal data (http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1998/29/section/2) as defined by the Data Protection Act (even if the data are publicly available)?
Yes No
If YES, please specify what personal data will be included and why.
NO
11. Do you intend to link two or more datasets?
Yes No
If YES, please give details of which datasets will be linked and for what purposes.
NO
12. How will you store and manage the data before and during the analysis? What will happen with the data at the end of the project?
A copy of the dissertation will be given to British Airways, and a summary of the findings and recommendations shall be discussed with the leadership of the airline. The dissertation will be made available at the library at the University of Southampton.
13. How will you minimise the risk that data subjects (individuals or organisations) could be identified in your presentation of results?
Before the collection of data, I shall visit the organisations I intend to collect data from and reassure them of anonymity and or confidentiality of the research. I intend to assure them that their names or those of their organisations will not be mentioned in my dissertation or any other of my publications and that no disclosed data will be used against them in any circumstance. I would serve them with the letters of my informed consent as well as permission letters provided by all stakeholders to enable me to collect data, which is sufficient evidence that letters could not have been granted if there were any unethical issues involved. I also intend to explain what the letters allow and do not allow me to do during the research process. Lastly, I will also explain the meaning as well as the implications of the consent letters.
14. What other ethical risks are raised by your research, and how do you intend to manage these?
In this study, there will be no potential risks because the researcher will only be reviewing existing data on the research topic. The researcher will be gathering research as well as providing his/her informed opinions regarding successful strategic leadership in the airline industry.
15. Please outline any other information that you feel may be relevant to this submission.
All the secondary that will be used in this study is already in the public domain. As such, the findings of this research will be available at the library of the University of Southampton. The conference as well as seminar papers will be studied based on the analysis after which they will be published as articles in credible journals.
16. Please indicate if you, your supervisor or a member of the study team/research group are a data controller and/or data processor in relation to the data you intend to use as defined by the Data Protection Act, and confirm that you/they understand your/their respective responsibilities https://ico.org.uk/for-organisations/guide-to-data-protection/key-definitions/).
I declare that I know my role as a researcher pertaining Data Protection Act. I also wish to declare that I know the duties of my supervisor in this study. I declare that I am cognizant of the objectives of the Research Ethics Committee, and that I subscribe to the principles of voluntary participation, informed consent, safety in cooperation, as well as trust. I would also like to declare that I understand that collected data in the course of the research become the property of the University of Southampton and I will transfer of all raw data and documents related to my research protection as required.
