"And you thought the passengers were mad. Airline employees are
fed up, too-with pay cuts, increased workloads and management's
miserly ways, which leave workers to explain to often-enraged
passengers why flying has become such a miserable experience." New
York Times, December 22, 2007
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 $15
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."
General
Is the information for this product incomplete, wrong or inappropriate?
Let us know about it.
Does this product have an incorrect or missing image?
Send us a new image.
Is this product missing categories?
Add more categories.
Review This Product
No reviews yet - be the first to create one!