The Change Process in a State-Owned Airline: the Implementation of New Electronic Services

This paper investigates how innovative electronic services were implemented in a state-owned airline. Olympic Airlines and the Olympic Airways Services decided to implement e-ticketing later than the other airlines following the instructions given by the International Air Transport Association (IATA). This study explores whether these new services followed the phases of change that John P. Kotter (1995) suggested. According to Kotter (1995), changes and innovations should follow eight (8) phases in order to succeed. If one or more phases do not take place there is a great risk to the expected results. Kotter’s theory will be questioned with reference to the experience of a number of employees, those who were involved more in the change process. CEOs, General Directors and members of the team who was accountable for the implementation of the above project participated in a semistructured interview. The data enable us to have an insight and draw useful conclusions about the process and the phases of change.