KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 5 — For Malaysia Airline Bhd’s (MAB) chief executive officer Christoph Mueller, subtle behind-the-scenes improvements are better than “big bang” changes to maintain the morale of the ailing airline’s remaining staff.
In a report by local Australian daily The Age today, Mueller was quoted as saying that among some of these subtle moves were to maintain the airline’s old logo and product offering, which could help heal staff morale that took a dive after the twin MH370 and MH17 tragedies last year.
“It was deliberate that we did not want to have a transition and a big-bang type (of change) from August 31 to September 1,” Mueller was quoted as saying, referring to the dates when the Malaysia Airlines System (MAS) last operated and MAB’s first.
The MAB CEO noted that one of the major issues with MAS was its hierarchical system, which he said had hampered information flow as it did not travel “as fast as you wish upstream and downstream”.
To change this, Mueller said he wanted to create an environment that thrived more on teamwork.
“So, I invited the union representatives of the old airline together here last week in this building and proposed to them that I still feel the need to have employee representation...I said I would like you to elect work councils in December this year,” Mueller added in The Age’s report.
MAS had on June 1 sent termination letters to the entire 20,000 MAS workforce in a major revamp that would see only two-thirds offered posts in MAB.
The new airline, a smaller entity, would only be able to accommodate about 14,000 employees.
The national carrier was delisted in August after sovereign wealth fund Khazanah offered to buy out minority shareholders for a total of RM1.38 billion to restructure MAS.
The National Union of Flight Attendants Malaysia (NUFAM) later threatened to stop work if MAB refused to retract the termination of its 6,000 employees.
