Airline article

[Ralph]

Another good read

http://www.avweb.com/news/columns/185019-1.html

"recognize that your future is largely in the hands of people who can move laterally or upward to another airline should they take yours into the toilet, while you, on a seniority system, will have to start at the bottom at a different airline should those managers screw things up. As a result, they have nowhere near the personal incentive you do for your airline to do well."

 

[SDF2BUF2MCO]

There isn't a whole lot of difference between ivory tower management and politicians except politicians have the ability to adversely (or perhaps positively) effect more peoples lives than business people.
The name of the game is power and control but above all serve self first.

 

[TriStar_drvr]

An excellent column. This guy really did his research.

 

[Publishers]

points

There were some valid points but nothing that goes to the origin or solution of the ills he is so quick to point out.

The fact is that there are large numbers of pilots and other aviation professionals that have not been in a sexual harrassment situation, been forced to fly a subpar aircraft, or sign off on some questionable repair.

There also is no question that airlines that came up in a regulated environmment have had some difficulty tring to avoid the path of other dinosaur's. The strict seniority he talks about you living under was a product of these times as well as the root of managment personnel that think entirely too short term.

Then again, in the world that managers are judged, short term performance is in fact the criteria that you are held to. We also live in a time when an event like September 11th and other lesser tramma have immediate consequences in an industry that will take two years and billions to figure out and adjust to.

Like our fried the dinosaur, it takes some real effort to change that bemouth from the direction it is going. I for one refuse to believe that it is a necessity for us to continue doing this to ourselves.

 

[SDF2BUF2MCO]

From Publishers:

"There were some valid points but nothing that goes to the origin or solution of the ills he is so quick to point out. "

This is probably an overly simplistic answer, but part of the solution would be for leaders to be honorable, respectful, and trustworthy in their dealings with people and running a business. I've seen a deteriorating of these basic fundamentals over the last several years and they continue to decline. Part of this is a result of reacting to the business pressures. However, there still seems to be a trend to serve self first and do what is expedient. That comes down to character. We certainly desire to have this in our spouses or even our car mechanic why not our leaders?

 

[Wats]

It can't be done imo. I've been in this business 16 years and have yet to meet one ethical manager.

 

[Publishers]

managers

Part of this comes from the fact that much of managment has become highly mobile. We are often not talking about a CEO who came to company and worked his way up or the same guy that was responsible for birth and growth.

Take SWA for instance, while the carry on with the tradition and policies that Herb instilled, the fact is that he was the guy responsible for the critical years. Likewise Crandall or even Bethune, who while brought in during BK is largeley responsible for what Continental is today.

These guys are tough but have an interest in the company far beyond a paycheck. I also think that they were pretty ethical and straight shooters.

One line l liked from an American Airline employee concerning Crandall was, " He is one tough son of a bitch, but, thank God he is our tough son of a bitch."

I really disagree with the concept that there are not any ethical managers. There are plenty of good and decent managers. What has happened is the short term thinking that has become prevelent. That coupled with the "me, me, me" philosophy has changed the landscape. You can blame everything on managment buy I think that would be ignoring the massive changes in our culture and the was employees feel.

My parents generation said you went to work for a company and then stayed there for a career. Today, the average college graduate has changed jobs 8 or 9 times by age 28.

Pilots are some of the most disloyal from the standpoint that the game is to get to bigger and bigger equipment with more and more pic turbine time. A company like Airnet is a stepping stone, next stop Comair which is a stepping stone, etc.

The Avweb column did not reflect both sides.

 

[Wats]

Oh no, you don't get off that easy. Airnet is a stepping stone only because management wants it to be! If you can't make a decent living you have to move on. Comair is pretty close to an end game, but only because we struck for 89 days. As for the short term thinking and culture argument, just because every one else is doing something wrong does NOT make it okay. Your momma told you that and it's still true. Btw, I am not talking about supervisor types when I say there are no ethical managers. I'm talking about the higher ups who didn't fund the pensions during good times and didn't plan for the inevitable down cycles in this business. They were out buying back the now worthless stock so that their options would be more valuable in the short term. That is the group from whom I have never seen one iota of ethics!

 

[Publishers]

Ethics

Disagree about Airnet. They are in a very specific business that was developed many years ago and which they took to a new height in sophistication.

It is a stepping stone because they only need certain aircraft to do certain things and the economic justification of the product is x and not changeable by Airnet. Their cost structure has to remain at a certain place or the product makes no sense.

I was not being critical of pilots who want to move on and move up, merely commenting that this being the case means higher turnover except in those "mecca" jobs at the major carriers.

The trouble with your ethics argument is that it only applies to the relatively few major carriers left in business. Bob Crandall often predicted that 5 would survive to 95.

My point is that managers high or low on the pole usually deal with the hand that is dealt. Our current culture does not reward long term thinkers.