Competitive Pressures and Labor Relations in the Airline Industry

Rules, Sensemaking, Formative Contexts, and Discourse in the Gendering of Organizational Culture

This study examined the work experiences of men, a traditional workplace majority, as minority members of a female-dominated occupation. We used tokenism and social categorization theories to propose and test a set of hypotheses that link token status (a less than 15% minority) with male flight attendants' work attitudes through intervening psychological and job factors. Survey data from a sample of 236 male and female flight attendants supported a model in which a negative relationship between token status and the work attitudes of job satisfaction and organizational attachment was mediated by low self-esteem, increased role ambiguity, and poor job fit. The uncovering of these previously unmeasured intervening variables strengthens theoretical connections between demography and work outcomes and suggests leverage points for improving the work attitudes of individuals in the minority.

/pdf/token-majority-the-work-attitudes-of-male-flight-attendants-406dzvnfz9.pdf

Token Majority: The Work Attitudes of Male Flight Attendants

Building on past research, this article argues that organizational life can be usefully construed as a series of communicative performances that are embedded and enacted in everyday discursive practices. Specifically, this research explores the sensemaking process individuals undertake when faced with the dilemma of knowing when to invent appropriate ways to respond rather than being automatically constrained by past routines. The research presents case study evidence drawn from participant observation and interviews with flight attendants from a major U.S. airline. Shown to be high in emotional and impression management, flight attendants perform a feminized role that privileges accommodation over authority and reassurance over safety that may influence their performances in emergency situations. The work ends with an evaluation of the dominant air travel performance in relation to safety and offers recommendations for facilitating communication and coordination among flight attendants and pilots.

The flight attendant dilemma: an analysis of communication and sensemaking during in-flight emergencies

Beauty and business seem opposite terms but in fact have had an important and consequential relationship that business historians are only now exploring. This paper sketches several major themes and approaches to the topic. The first is the emergence of a large sector of the economy devoted to selling beauty aids, fashions, bodily care, and style to American women and men. Another is the deployment of beauty as a business strategy—in creating brands, sales, and marketing; in managing the workplace; and in projecting corporate identities. A third considers the sale of beauty itself, as a value added and attached to a wide range of goods, from art to bodies. These broad approaches suggest new directions for future research.

On Beauty … and the History of Business

From Sky Girl to Flight Attendant: Women and the Making of a Union.

The Airline Pilots: A Study in Elite Unionization.

What kind of machinery is appropriate for the settlement of disputes which arise from operation under collective agreements in industries in which the public interest is substantial? Under current railway labor legislation such disputes are submitted voluntarily to a bipartisan National Railroad Adjustment Board, whose awards are final and Binding on the parties. The organization and procedures of the Board and the effects on the settlement of railroad grievances are critically discussed in an article in the April 1952 issue of the "ILR Review" and in the present issue. (Author's abstract courtesy EBSCO.)

Mark L. Kahn

Papers

From Sky Girl to Flight Attendant: Women and the Making of a Union.

The Airline Pilots: A Study in Elite Unionization.

Railroad Grievance Machinery a Critical Analysis — Ii

Wage determination under national boards

Maintenance of Way Employment on U. S. Railroads: An Analysis of The Sources of Instability and Remedial Measures.