Up in the air : how airlines can improve performance by engaging their employees / Greg J. Bamber ... [et al.].

Format:

Book

Contributor:

Bamber, Greg, 1949-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Airlines--United States--Employees.

Airlines.

Airlines--United States--Personnel management.

Airlines--Employees--Labor unions--United States.

Industrial relations--United States.

Industrial relations.

Airlines--Employees.

Airlines--Personnel management.

Airlines--Employees--Labor unions.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (236 p.)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Ithaca : ILR Press/Cornell University Press, 2009.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

When both an industry's workers and its customers report high and rising frustration with the way they are being treated, something is fundamentally wrong. In response to these conditions, many of the world's airlines have made ever-deeper cuts in services and their workforces. Is it too much to expect airlines, or any other enterprise, to provide a fair return to investors, high-quality reliable service to their customers, and good jobs for their employees? Measured against these three expectations, the airline industry is failing. In the first five years of the twenty-first century alone, U.S. airlines lost a total of $30 billion while shedding 100,000 jobs, forcing the remaining workers to give up over $5 billion in wages and benefits. Combined with plummeting employee morale, shortages of air traffic controllers, and increased congestion and flight delays, a total collapse of the industry may be coming. Is this state of affairs inevitable? Or is it possible to design a more sustainable, less volatile industry that better balances the objectives of customers, investors, employees, and the wider society? Does deregulation imply total abrogation of government's responsibility to oversee an industry showing the clear signs of deterioration and increasing risk of a pending crisis? Greg J. Bamber, Jody Hoffer Gittell, Thomas A. Kochan, and Andrew von Nordenflycht explore such questions in a well-informed and engaging way, using a mix of quantitative evidence and qualitative studies of airlines from North America, Asia, Australia, and Europe. Up in the Air provides clear and realistic strategies for achieving a better, more equitable balance among the interests of customers, employees, and shareholders. Specifically, the authors recommend that firms learn from the innovations of companies like Southwest and Continental Airlines in order to build a positive workplace culture that fosters coordination and commitment to high-quality service, labor relations policies that avoid long drawn-out conflicts in negotiating new agreements, and business strategies that can sustain investor, employee, and customer support through the ups and downs of business cycles.

Contents:

Front matter

Contents

Preface

1. Low-Cost Competition in the Airline Industry

2. Developments in the U.S. Airline Industry

3. Developments in the Airline Industry in Other Countries

4. Industry Trends in Costs, Productivity, Quality, and Morale

5. Alternative Strategies for New Entrants: Southwest vs. Ryanair

6. The Legacy Responses: Alternative Approaches

7. Building a More Balanced Airline Industry

Notes

Index

Notes:

Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

0-8014-5833-1

OCLC:

726824255