This topical Symposium might be of interest to those who will be at the
US Academy of Management (AoM) Annual Meeting in S. California: “Up in
the Air: How Airlines Can Improve Performance by Engaging their
Employees”, Monday, Aug 11 2008, 12:20 - 2:10pm, at Hilton Anaheim, room
Huntington B. There are parallels between the issues confronted by
airlines and those confronted by hospitals !
By all means pass this on to others who may be at the AoM, who might be
interested. Thanks.
Chair: David Finegold; Rutgers U.
Discussants:
Patricia Friend -International President, Association of Flight
Attendants-CWA &
Jim Parker -former CEO, Southwest Airlines.
Presenters:
Tom Kochan; Massachusetts Institute of Technology;
Andrew von Nordenflycht; Simon Fraser U., Canada;
Greg Bamber; Monash U., Melbourne, Australia.
AoM Program Session #: 772, AoM Division Sponsors: Conflict Management
(CM); Critical Management Studies (CMS); Human Resources (HR).
This symposium includes discussion in the areas of: human resources,
employment relations, strategic management, critical management, work,
and public policy. The questions asked focus on airlines, but are also
relevant to firms in other industries that are facing pressures to
compete on costs while maintaining quality standards: can employers
provide a fair return to investors, high quality and reliable service to
their customers, and good jobs for their employees?
Measured against these three stakeholders’ interests, most airlines are
failing. In the first five years of the 21st century, US airlines lost
more than $30 billion. Four of the largest wiped out their equity
investors in bankruptcy. In 2006-07, there was one airline in the US
that operated with financials above junk bond status (Southwest
Airlines) and only a few others in the world. During this five-year
period, US airlines cut wages by more than $5 billion and laid off
100,000 workers. Worker morale fell, while customer complaints rose to
record levels.
In this symposium we discuss such challenges in the US and other
countries. The symposium considers what the stakeholders can do (in the
airline industry and elsewhere) to prevent low cost competition from
having counter-productive outcomes for customers, employees and
investors. (The academic presenters in this session have co-authored a
book with Jody Hoffer Gittell: Up in the Air! which will be available
from Cornell U. P. in late 2008. Jody herself will be present to
participate in this symposium.)
Thanks.
Kind regards.
greg
gregbamber@gmail.com
New address for other mail:
Greg Bamber (Professor), Department of Management, Monash University, PO
Box 197, Caulfield East, Melbourne, Victoria 3145, Australia.
Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) Telephony Skype Name: gregbamber.
For information on Skype see:
http://www.skype.com
Please consider our environment before printing this email. If this
email appears to have been sent to you in error, please let me know and
delete the communication from your system. Thank you.