Business Research Project

Area of Research:Strategies and Decision-making

Project/Dissertation Title:Exploring the Strategies and Decision-making Approaches that Boeing should Adopt to React to the Business Challenges after 737 Max Crash.

Project/Dissertation:

This research project explores how the Boeing company strategizes and makes decisions specifically after the 737 Max crash, significantly affecting its business operations and model. The two crashes of 2018 and 2019 hit the company's core and had to reflect on its infrastructure and management (PBS, 2021). The research paper intends to compare the strategies and decision-making process before and after the crashes. The goal is to assess the mistakes and explore what the future holds for Boeing by analyzing the already implemented strategies and conducting extensive research to allow for recommendations.

Research Aim Objective and Question

The research aims at finding out how Boeing has revolutionized its business strategies and decision-making approaches after the 737 Max Crash. The main objective of the research is to explore the strategies and decision-making process for Boeing before the 737 Max crash.

This objective follows a couple of specific sub-objectives:

i. Toexamine the strategic and decision-making changes after the 737 Max crash.

ii. Toexplore how the Boeing Company can explore diverse strategies anddecision-making processes to enhance its business operations.

The central research question guiding this research is: How has Boeing revolutionized its business strategies and decision-making approaches after the 737 Max Crash?

To explore the above questions and objectives, the research is broken down into the following specific questions:

Which strategies and decision-making methods did the Boeing Company use before the 737 Max crash?

i. Did the Boeing Company change its strategy and decision-making process after the crash?

ii. Which strategy and decision-making methods can the Boeing Company use tostreamline its business operations and compete effectively?

Literature Review/Theoretical Framework

The research studies how the Boeing company strategizes and makes decisions specifically after the 737 Max crash, significantly affecting its business operations and model. This is within an institution-specific knowledge of Strategies and Decision Making. Herein, I

discuss how Boeing operated before, during, and after the 737 Max crashes and how it reacted to the business challenges.

How Boeing performed before and during the crashes

Boeing Company has been the world's core manufacturer of commercial jetliners for decades. It has been renowned as the greatest innovator in the aerospace industry-with over 14,000patents to prove it. Boeing has survived brutal market forces-the competitors. Nevertheless, Boeing is the most significant contributor to U.S trade competitiveness and the main guarantor of American leadership in global aerospace (Forbes, 2021).

However, Boeing's achievements have been overshadowed by the Aftermath of the 737 Max crash, which left hundreds of people and killed almost 350 people. At least two days after the Ethiopian Airlines crash, Boeing made crisis communication missteps that may affect the company's reputation and credibility for a long time. Initially, their approach was too defensive, slow, passive, and lacked openness and accountability.

Statements released on October 29, 2018, and March 10, 2019, communicated the company's deep sadness, extended their heartfelt sympathies, and stated how Boeing would provide technical assistance to the companies involved (Jong & Broekman, 2021, p.191). After the initial crash, the stakeholders-Lion, Air, relatives, and investigators, reacted neutrality and attributed no responsibility to Boeing.

However, the blame levels took a different turn when Boeing's management referred to its Operations Manual Bulletin, which directed operators to take care of circumstances where one of the sensors sent an erroneous input. The FAA (Federal Aviation Administration) portrayed its commitment to Boeing and reinforced the bulletin.

However, things changed rather drastically when the pilots reacted to the publication saying that the new procedure was not included in the standard operating manual and that the company's manual was incomplete. Boeing refused to take responsibility and claimed that they were confident that the Boeing 737-Max was safe to fly.

Boeing used 'denial' as their crisis response strategy after the March 10, 2019 crash-a strategy they also used five months later. They denied any association with disruption and failed to keep their options open-that; there might be a problem with the Boeing 737 max and an erroneous input from one of its sensors. Boeing's strategies and decision-making methods after the 737 Max crash disregarded best practices in crisis management in terms of a sense of humanity, visibility, and transparency (Segal, n.d).

The Aftermath of the 737 Max crashes

Boeing has since suffered the consequences of its denial of responsibility for the crashes. The CEO, Dennis Muilenburg, was fired by Boeing two months after testifying in court that they would have grounded the Boeing 737 Max after the first accident if they knew back then what they know now (PBS, 2021). Boeing claimed that it fired him to restore confidence as it works towards repairing its relationship with the regulators, customers, and stakeholders.

Besides, Boeing's pockets were hurt when the Department of Justice ruled that the company would pay a $2.5 billion settlement. This was to resolve a DOJ charge claiming the company's conspiration to defraud the FAA's Aircraft Evaluation Group. The acting assistant attorney general of the DOJ's criminal division said that its employees chose profit over candor when they concealed vital information from the FAA concerning the 737 Max airplane operation. Boeing and its executives would be granted immunity from further criminal prosecution if they lived up to the terms of the settlement (NPR, 2022).

Nevertheless, Boeing has since faced more than 150 lawsuits from families of people who died in the crashes. Most countries, including China, the European Union, and even the U.S. FAA, grounded the plane-the 737 Max after the second crash. However, after retesting and approving the planes, the FAA ended the grounding in November 2022 and put strict guidelines to be followed before placing the aircraft into service (PBS, 2021). Things got a little better for Boeing in March 2021, when it received the most significant order for 737 Max aircraft. News...

This qualitative research investigates a question without attempting to measure variables or look at potential relationships between variables quantifiably. It involves the description and interpretation of phenomena that is under investigation. A descriptive study is one in which information is collected without changing the environment. Boeing and the case study companies will continue their normal operations even while the research takes place.

Data analysis

To conduct data analysis in quantitative research, data collected from the sample field will be reproduced into a form that could provide straightforward interpretation and then coded into a system of statistical indices. Data analysis and organization will be undertaken in three steps, data validity, data editing, and data coding. Data validity aids in analyzing collected data by ensuring accuracy, quality, completeness, and relevance to the study since it permits cross-checking and confirmation of any inadequacies. Existing gaps in the data will be filled by inferences from memory or comparisons derived from other research methods.

Data editing will ensure consistency between the data collected and the facts gathered through uniform data entry, observation f completeness, and proper arrangement to expedite coding and tabulation. Nevertheless, data coding will include grouping and categorizing the edited information into groups which will e assigned precise numerical and alphabetical codes for more straightforward analysis.

The validity of the data collected in the field will be concerned with checking the subject's response to what existed in the area. This will involve a comparison with bookcase studies. The reliability of the data collected in the field will entail consistency and the probability of obtaining the same findings if the research is conducted again. Inconsistency will be avoided by repeating different wording questions to confirm the response. The reliability will further be enhanced by using internal checks through direct observation.

The researcher will use various data analysis methods in quantitative research, including descriptive and inferential statistics. Descriptive statistics includes analyzing the data collected through frequency, central tendency measures, dispersion, and position (Penn state Eberly College of Science, n.d.). Inferential statistics will involve making predictions about a larger population after the research and data analysis representing the population sample. The researcher will estimate parameters, and a hypothesis test will be conducted.

During data analysis in qualitative research, the researcher will use several techniques, including narrative analysis, discourse analysis, and grounded theory (BRM, n.d.). For example, content gathered from various sources such as questionnaires, observations, and interviews will be analyzed using narrative analysis. On the other hand, discourse analysis will be used to analyze the interactions between the respondent and the researcher.

Furthermore, to find out why phenomena like the 737 Max crashes happened, the grounded theory will be used to gather quality information from the provided data. Here, explanations will have to be altered, or the researcher will produce new ones until a conclusion.

The data analysis will…