Air canada vs. canadi>n: competition and merger in the framing of airline culture ∗

This paper is concerned with airlines, metaphors and organizational cultures. Specifically the paper seeks to answer the question, ‘why, when so many political and economic commentators are agreed that Canada has only room for one viable airline, has it proven impossible to merge the country's two main commercial airlines?’ To answer the question we draw upon Jenkin's (1994) critical historiographic approach, focusing on the development of the organizational cultures and associated discourses of each airline over time. In the process the paper traces the metaphorical use of the concept of competition in the development of the commercial airline business in Canada. We conclude that the culture of an organization may not, of itself, be enough to explain certain organizational outcomes (e.g., a failure to form a merger or alliance) - particularly organizations that are, in large part, dependent on broad policy concerns, but that broader social discourses (e.g., government policy), mediated by specific organizational cultures, may be the major influence.     

Airline deregulation and the airline labor market

The Airline Deregulation Act of 1978 has had a significant impact on the airline industry and its labor market. The structure of the airline labor market before the Act is examined in light of certain significant historical events including legislative intervention and regulatory practice. The Act and other coincident extraneous events are considered to show how deregulation and other unrelated economic and technological factors operated as a catalyst, sparking substantial short-term upheaval in the airline labor market. It is argued that in the longer term airline employees have little to fear from deregulation and that deregulation may eventually enhance labor’s position in view of the increased employment opportunities that an expanded market may bring and the abolition of the industry strike insurance scheme. I thank Bo Carlsson, Paul Gerhart, and Paul Salipante for their comments and suggestions.     

AIRLINE PRICING BEHAVIOR UNDER LIMITED INTER‐MODAL COMPETITION

This paper empirically analyzes airline pricing for short‐haul flights in contexts with no credible threat of inter‐modal competition. To this end, we explore the southern Italian market since it is less accessible by other transport modes and thus fares are the direct outcome of air‐related competition. We show, in fact, that market power matters, depending on the level of intra‐modal competition, and that airlines apply differentiated mark‐ups. Besides, consistent with the implementation of inter‐temporal price discrimination (IPD), we find a non‐monotonic inter‐temporal profile of fares with a turning point included in the interval of the 43rd to 45th days before departure. Finally, we provide evidence that in more competitive markets, airlines are more likely to engage in IPD. (JEL L11, L13, L93)     

The influence of macroeconomic variables on the probability of union decertification

This study focuses on the role macroeconomic factors play in explaining the proportion of decertification elections lost by the union movement in the postwar period. Previous research has neglected the importance of such macroeconomic variables. Our results indicate that the union-nonunion wage differential, inflation, strikes, state of the labor market, and union density are related to the phenomenon of decertification. The authors would like to thank Greg Hundley, Mike Bognanno, Paul Schumann, Jim Scoville, the editor, and a reviewer for valuable comments and Michael Wachter and William Wascher for providing some unpublished data.     

The changing character of strikes involving permanent striker replacements, 1935–1990

Using NLRB cases reporting hiring of striker replacements, I provide a longitudinal analysis of 165 strikes from 1935–1990. Strikes since 1981 most closely resembled strikes occurring from 1938–1947: They lasted longer and involved more strikers and more replacements than strikes in the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s. Interestingly, NLRB disposition of employer unfair labor practice charges remained fairly constant throughout the 55 years analyzed and overwhelmingly favored unions. Although my findings are preliminary, they suggest that more empirical analysis of replacement strikes is warranted. I also suggest how some existing strike models can be readily adapted to explain replacement strike phenomena. I thank Stephanie Mason and Brian Dilley for their research assistance and an anonymous referee for insightful suggestions.     

The Role of Social Context in Students' Anticipatory Reaction to a “Fighting Word”

Abstract

On May 11, 1996, ValuJet flight 592 crashed in the Florida Everglades killing all 105 passengers and five crew members. The technical cause of the crash was a fire that erupted after one or more oxygen generators exploded in a cargo compartment. Governmental investigations have indicated that both ValuJet and SabreTech (an airline maintenance company) failed to comply with a host of regulations concerning the presentation, storage, and transportation of hazardous materials by air. More generally, however, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has been found to be negligent in its oversight of airlines by not adequately monitoring the general safety of commercial aircraft as well as by its refusal to institute safeguards and guidelines that would have protected passengers and crews from crashes like that of flight 592. This paper follows the tradition of state-corporate crime theorizing and research by identifying the organizational and structural forces that contributed to the ValuJet crash. This includes an examination of the FAA's contradictory roles as both regulator and supporter of the airline industry, as well as a discussion of both ValuJet's and SabreTech's violations of federal air safety regulations.     

Economic effects of right to work laws

This article examines the effects of Right to Work laws on wages, unionization, and strikes in the context of a simultaneous equation framework. Unlike most past studies, the effects of the factors leading to the existence of a Right to Work law are separated from the effects of the Right to Work laws themselves. Both state and individual data are examined. The results show that the Right to Work laws do not have the negative effects often attributed to them. The author wishes to thank the participants of the session on labor economics at the SEA Annual Convention in 1978 (Washington, D.C.) and of the Labor Workshop at North Carolina State University (Raleigh) as well as Bob Fearn, Daniel Hamermesh, Barry Hirsch, William Moore, H. Gregg Lewis, and many others for their comments on earlier versions of this paper. I would especially like to thank Dan Hopler for his aid and support. Any errors in this paper are solely my responsibility.     

A bargaining model and empirical analysis of strike activity across industries

This study extends the analysis on the inter-industry propensity to strike found in Leigh (1983) by (1) developing a more elaborate model, (2) developing proxies for all the parameters of the model, and (3) testing the modified model on two new data sets. The results suggest that strikes are more frequent in hazardous industries employing few women and where the average level of schooling is low. In addition, the evidence suggests strikes and wages may be simultaneously determined.     

Sky Service: The Demands of Emotional Labour in the Airline Industry

Following Hochschild's The Managed Heart, which emphasized the problematic features that emotional labour had for women flight attendants, a critical literature emerged which focused on the more enjoyable aspects of emotional labour in service employee experience. This article draws on this literature and analyses emotional labour as a gendered cultural performance but takes issue with the individualizing and pluralistic tenor in the post‐Hochschild discussions. Using a qualitative and quantitative study of nearly 3000 Australian flight attendants, it focuses on organizational and occupational health and safety variables, as well as sexual harass‐ment and passenger abuse — factors barely discussed by Hochschild's critics. The qualitative data indicate that emotional labour is both pleasurable and difficult at different times for the same individual. Gender is still pivotal, as Hochschild suggested, linking emotional labour with sexual harassment. At the same time, the most significant predictors from the quantitative study of whether emotional labour would be costly were organizational. Variables such as whether flight attendants felt valued by the company show that the airline management context is highly influential in the way in which emotional labour is experienced. As a means of understanding the complex relations in this important and eroticized area of service work where flight attendants, airline crews, airline management and passengers have convergent and conflicting interests, the article also deploys a new concept: ‘demanding publics’, to refer to trangressions of the legitimate boundaries of the service worker.     

The impact of the minimum wage in West Virginia: A test of the low-wage-area theory

VI. Conclusions West Virginia counties do provide evidence of significant dis-employment due to the minimum wage, a finding that supports the theory that low-wage areas are more susceptible to employment losses when the legislated minimum wage is increased. My results show that a 10 percent increase in the minimum wage will reduce total employment in the average West Virginia county by 1.1 percent. The most rural counties may also respond more severely, up to 1.4 percent for the same minimum wage change. I thank Clifford Hawley, Sudeshna Bandypadhyay, George Hammond, Stratford Douglass, Brian Cushing, Tom Garrett, Victor Claar, Gary Wagner, and an anonymous referee for helpful comments.     

Inter-industry strike frequencies: Some pooled cross-sectional evidence from canadian secondary manufacturing

This note reports the results of a pooled cross-sectional time series regression of strike frequencies in Canadian secondary manufacturing for the years 1969, 1971, and 1974. The basic conclusion is that a bargaining model approach performs well for interpreting work stoppages associated with contract negotiations, but provides a less than satisfactory explanation of mid-term and unorganized strikes. The research reported in this paper was supported by a grant from Labour Canada. We wish to thank Harry Grosskleg of Labour Canada who provided the strike data; Ingrid Strauss, Kathy Meredith, and Mark Muth for research assistance; and Leonard Laudadio and an anonymous referee for helpful comments. The paper is an abbreviated version of Jones and Walsh (1983).     

航线运输驾驶员执照理论考试改革初探

分析了我国民航现行航线运输驾驶员执照理论考试存在的不足,通过借鉴和总结欧洲JAA和澳大利亚CASA航线运输驾驶员执照理论考试的相关规定,提出了我国航线运输驾驶员执照理论考试应从考试内容、考试形式、通过标准等方面进行改革,以期利用考试的导向作用,引导航空公司、飞行训练机构以及飞行员对航空理论知识的高度重视,从而从根本上提升我国航线运输驾驶员队伍的职业素质与安全水平,为我国由民航大国向民航强国迈进奠定坚实的人力资源基础。     

Does motivating language matter in leader–subordinate communication?

This study examines the relationships among motivating language, intrinsic motivation, supervisory effectiveness, job performance, and organizational citizenship behavior. It compares the effects of motivating language across different organizational categories. Of the 500 questionnaires that were distributed, 277 were found to be usable (161 for the airline organization and 116 for the army organization). The findings of the study contribute to the literature on human resource management, communication, leadership, and organizational behavior by showing the effects of motivating language on supervisory effectiveness and organizational citizenship behavior, as well as by identifying the mediators of intrinsic motivation. However, the study offers no evidence that motivating language has an effect on job performance. The study also notes that, regardless of whether a person is in an army or airline organization, motivating language can produce the same result and does not vary much across cultures.     

Airline Negotiations and the New Concessionary Bargaining

I ask whether the highly confrontational collective bargaining in the airlines is unique to that industry or a sign of a deepening crisis in union–management relations nationally. First, airline labor relations are reviewed in the context of extremely contentious negotiations, intense industry competition, complex and fragmented bargaining structures, frequent bankruptcies, and unpredictable external shocks. Next, concessionary bargaining in the airlines is discussed, and a new and extreme form of concessionary bargaining is identified. The emergence of the new concessionary bargaining in the airlines and its spread to the automobile sector is then interpreted as the early signs of a fundamental transformation of collective bargaining. The implications of the new concessionary bargaining are then described at the workplace, company, union, and societal levels.

Geography of Twitter networks

The paper examines the influence of geographic distance, national boundaries, language, and frequency of air travel on the formation of social ties on Twitter, a popular micro-blogging website. Based on a large sample of publicly available Twitter data, our study shows that a substantial share of ties lies within the same metropolitan region, and that between regional clusters, distance, national borders and language differences all predict Twitter ties. We find that the frequency of airline flights between the two parties is the best predictor of Twitter ties. This highlights the importance of looking at pre-existing ties between places and people.     

The effect of strikes on shareholder returns

Relationships between labor disputes and shareholder wealth are examined through analysis of 91 strikes between 1951 and 1973. Stock market reactions to strikes of different durations are analyzed through a market model methodology. Different market adjustments are found for short, intermediate, and long duration strikes. Shareholder returns prior to strikes are below market returns for firms in the short strike category, approximately equal to the market returns for firms in the short strike category, approximately equal to the market for firms in the intermediate strike duration category, and above the market for firms in the long strike category. After strikes, shareholder returns decline for firms in the short and long strike duration categories.     

Varieties of touching in greetings: Sequential structure and sex-related differences

The functional significance of structural and sex-related differences in greeting behavior was analyzed through systematic observation of naturally-occurring contact-greetings. Ss were 152 greeting dyads, composed of airline travelers and their greeters. Greeting sequences were found to contain one or more of seven discrete types of behavioral components. Type of greeting varied with location in sequence and sex-composition of dyad. The handshake, mutual-lip-kiss, and face-kiss occurred early in greeting sequences, whereas hand-to-upper-body was the characteristic terminating act. Male-male dyads typically engaged in a brief, mutual handshake. In contrast, female-female and cross-sex dyads displayed relatively longer contacts, composed of mutual-lip-kisses, mutual-face-contacts, embraces, and hand-to-upper-body touches.The authors would like to thank Susan Greenbaum and Neil Salkind for their comments on an earlier draft of this paper, and Joe Lucke for his assistance in the data analysis.     

The determinants of strikes over time and across industries

This paper presents a pooled time-series, cross-section analysis of strike activity across 27 major industry groups over the years 1970–1980. While numerous studies have analyzed the time-series behavior of strike activity and fewer studies have analyzed the cross-sectional pattern of strikes, little work has been done to combine both perspectives into one empirical analysis. This paper improves on this by incorporating variables into one regression model that is capable of explaining both dimensions of the variation in strike activity. The regression results suggest that strikes over time and across industries are affected by a wide range of economic, organizational, institutional, occupational, demographic, market structure, political, and other variables.     

Child-Care Choices by Working Mothers: The Case of Italy

In spite of relatively generous public subsidies and a reputation for high quality, only a very limited proportion of Italian families use public child-care and a large proportion use informal care. In this paper, we attempt to explore the determinants of the use of child-care among dual workers families. Given the limitations of data available we match two different data sets: the Bank of Italy (SHIW) and ISTAT Multiscopo. We find evidence that the availability of public child-care affects in an important way its demand. We also find that increases in costs of public child-care reduce the use of public as well as private indicating a shift to informal child-care. The presence of a grandmother who lives near and is in good health is an important explanation of the choice especially in presence of very small children. An understanding of the importance of these factors is relevant in the evaluation of child-care policies. This is particularly important in Italy, where the majority of families with children have only one child and children would benefit also from the socialization aspects of the child-care system. We would like to thank Christopher Flinn, Massimiliano Bratti, and Maria Concetta Chiuri for helpful comments, Donald Rubin for useful hints on the matching procedure, and participants at the ESPE meeting in New York 2003, the EALE meeting in Lisbon 2004. This research was partially supported by the EC Grant and the Compagnia di San Paolo.     

NAFTA and labor: A Canadian perspective

The North American Agreement on Free Trade (NAFTA) has stirred passionate debates in Canada. Proponents predicted that increased trade liberalization would create more jobs, greater multinational investment, and an overall better standard of living. Opponents, however, argued that NAFTA would lead to wage cuts, job losses, the erosion of labor standards, and the harmonization of labor laws to the lowest common denominator. I systematically examined the evidence and found that with some exceptions, the predicted negative effects have not materialized. Furthermore, the NAFTA labor side agreement has enjoyed moderate success in bringing labor concerns to the fore. This paper is part of a larger project on NAFTA and Industrial Relations done with Roy J. Adams (McMaster University). I am very grateful for his insightful views and assistance. I also thank Frantz-Pierre Jerome, Senior Policy and Program Officer at the Canadian NAO, for reviewing a previous draft of this article.