Reference no: EM132214756

Aili Zhang has worked for Mon-Air now for 5 years as a Pilot for mid-range international flights. With 15 years’ experience, Aili is considered by senior managers to be one of the leading pilots at Mon-Air and has great potential to advance into being a senior pilot flying the large Airbus 380s. Recently, Aili has returned to work from 6 months of Maternity Leave. Although, her baby is only 5 months old, she has chosen to come back to work as the company only pays 6 months of leave and her husband has recently lost his job as an accountant. Since she returned to work 2 months ago, her manager has noticed Aili is often late for her shifts, is obviously tired and stressed and keeps asking for shorter flights so she can return home as quickly as possible. Her co-pilots have disclosed that there have been times where she has made miscalculations and minor errors in the cockpit. They or the autopilot computer are then having to correct the errors to avoid possible dangerous situations when inflight. This is very much unlike Aili, nonetheless she was brought in for a meeting to discuss her underperformance. In that meeting, she admits to her manager she is exhausted as her baby is not sleeping and has been sick lately. Furthermore, her marriage is very strained as a result of her husband losing his job and now suffering some mental health issues. For this reason she no longer wants to fly internationally resulting in her being away up to 4 days at a time. She advised that she no longer wants to continue the career plan of becoming an Airbus A380 pilot. She responds that she is finding the pressure of being responsible for hundreds of people on a plane too much to handle and is having panic attacks while flying. Therefore she has asked to be taken off pilot duties and to seek out a different career within the company. Her manger discusses with senior management about Aili wishing to stop being a pilot. They all agree that this is not an option. “We hired her as a pilot! And we have big plans for her to be the chief pilot of the new Airbuses we’re getting in 2 years! No one else can do that role and we can’t cancel the order! Those planes cost US$375 million! We need her to stay as a pilot, offer her more money!” said one Senior Manager. “Her husband isn’t working! Why can’t he look after the baby? She needs to suck it up and stay in her current role. She won’t resign as she needs the money!” said another. Aili’s manager points out the danger of having a tired pilot and that if she continues to make errors it places lives at risk and has serious legal implications as they are now aware of her underperformance. Therefore he takes the concerns to the CEO. “I agree with the rest of the senior managers but you’re right this is concerning and a massive risk!” said the CEO. “This is not the first time this has happened and we have told the pilot they have to keep flying then they resigned or worse, in once incident the plane had to make an emergency landing as a result of the pilot. We end up losing great workers and placing more stress on their co-pilots and flight teams. Hmm… look I want you to tell me what we do. If it means we keep our pilots and we don’t cancel a $375 million plane order then let’s make it happen! We can’t keep pushing our pilots as one day they are going to break and that could result in us losing not just a pilot, but a plane!”

Using the any theories or concepts from the week 5 topic of Control, discuss relevant theory/concepts in relation to the case by explaining what has and is going wrong. Using this Control theory or concept, advise how the company can keep their pilots without pushing them too hard and not cancel the plane order by giving one recommendation.