Reference no: EM133147899

Fly High Through Storms

Recently, AirAsia group Head of People and Culture, PK Medappa has announced that AirAsia has undergone a remarkable transformation throughout the pandemic from just an airline into a digital consumer and lifestyle platform and this is set to grow to form a significant half of its total business in years to come. A new identity of AirAsia.com, 'ASEAN's super app" with more than 15 types of products and services spanning from travel, e-commerce and fintech in Southeast Asia Medappa further said the company recognizes the contributions made by many senior executives, managers and every Allstar towards making this a reality. "However, the situation we are currently in with prolonged effects due to Covid-19 pandemic has made it rather difficult for the company to continue to remain competitive in rewarding its employees in the traditional manner with appropriate cash and bonus payments,".

He also added as part of the company's cost containment and cash conservation exercise, a salary sacrifice scheme ranging from 15-100 per cent was put in place in March 2020, affecting the take home amounts for many staff, or Allstars. "Allstars will always come  irst. They have suffered financially due to the Covid-19 pandemic, and still shown loyalty towards the company.

"We therefore want to reward these employees in a manner that aligns the upside in shareholder value creation to wealth creation opportunities for the Allstars," he said. "Through this proposed scheme; employee share option scheme (ESOS) and share grant scheme, we would be able to mitigate paying competitive cash bonuses in order to retain a strong talent pool over the next few years.

(Adapted from NST Business - March 29, 2021)

a) Based on the case above, discuss Air Asia strategy in the pandemic issue both to business and its employees.

b) Discuss and relate Air Asia strategy with at least 3 dimensions from Hofstede's.