Keeping the Commitment Model in the Air during Turbulent Times: Employee Involvement at Delta Air Lines
Author(s)
Kaufman, BE
Griffith University Author(s)
Year published
2013
Metadata
Show full item recordAbstract
This study provides a four-decade review and analysis of the commitment model of employment relations at Delta Air Lines and the role played in it by employer-created structures of employee involvement (EI) and voice. The company has undergone wrenching changes, including deregulation, 9/11, bankruptcy, mergers, and entrance of numerous low-cost competitors. This study chronicles the resulting ups and downs in the company's fortunes and its efforts to maintain a positive win-win relationship with its employees despite the burden of management missteps, tens of thousands of layoffs, repeated pay and benefit cuts, and merger ...
View more >This study provides a four-decade review and analysis of the commitment model of employment relations at Delta Air Lines and the role played in it by employer-created structures of employee involvement (EI) and voice. The company has undergone wrenching changes, including deregulation, 9/11, bankruptcy, mergers, and entrance of numerous low-cost competitors. This study chronicles the resulting ups and downs in the company's fortunes and its efforts to maintain a positive win-win relationship with its employees despite the burden of management missteps, tens of thousands of layoffs, repeated pay and benefit cuts, and merger with conflict-embittered Northwest Airlines. The fact the company survives today and still has a discernible "spirit of Delta" among employees is not solely or perhaps even principally due to its advanced EI program; on the other hand, without it the company would probably no longer exist.
View less >
View more >This study provides a four-decade review and analysis of the commitment model of employment relations at Delta Air Lines and the role played in it by employer-created structures of employee involvement (EI) and voice. The company has undergone wrenching changes, including deregulation, 9/11, bankruptcy, mergers, and entrance of numerous low-cost competitors. This study chronicles the resulting ups and downs in the company's fortunes and its efforts to maintain a positive win-win relationship with its employees despite the burden of management missteps, tens of thousands of layoffs, repeated pay and benefit cuts, and merger with conflict-embittered Northwest Airlines. The fact the company survives today and still has a discernible "spirit of Delta" among employees is not solely or perhaps even principally due to its advanced EI program; on the other hand, without it the company would probably no longer exist.
View less >
Journal Title
Industrial Relations
Volume
52
Issue
S1
Copyright Statement
Self-archiving of the author-manuscript version is not yet supported by this journal. Please refer to the journal link for access to the definitive, published version or contact the author[s] for more information.
Subject
Industrial Relations
Applied Economics
Business and Management
Law