CASE: DELTA \/ UNITED<\/p>\n
Although all airlines have an incredibly long list of policies and rules, they have to follow in order to be consistent and to guarantee passenger safety and security, two examples show that there can be a great deal of latitude in how employees approach unique and novel situations. On April 9, 2017, a video of United Flight 3411\u2019s passenger Dr. David Dao went viral. The video showed Dr. Dao being forcibly removed from the airplane by Chicago airport officers after he refused to leave his seat after the airline had overbooked the flight and needed to sit some of its own employees on the plane. Dr. Dao ended up with a broken nose and two missing teeth. United ended up with a public relations nightmare, a drop in its stock price, petitions to boycott the airline, and calls for the CEO to resign. Dr. Dao settled with the company for damages, but United is still feeling the impact of what many say were culture-based decisions to this day. According to insiders and ex-employees, United had developed an efficiency culture to where employees were expected to \u201cfollow manuals\u201d and were hesitant to do anything that wasn\u2019t strictly according to written guidelines. On the day in question, once United gate agents had no takers for their offer of $800 and a hotel voucher, the agents (following the rules) used a computer program to identify the passengers of \u201cleast value\u201d to the airline. Once Dr. Dao was identified and refused to de-plane, the agents (following the rules) called for airport security. The airline was vilified on social media for not coming up with other options. United CEO Oscar Munoz called the event a \u201csystem failure\u201d and that United hadn\u2019t given employees \u201cthe proper tools, policies, and procedures that allow them to use their common sense.\u201d In contrast, six months prior to that United episode, a computer outage caused all of Delta\u2019s flights to be grounded for an entire day. (Delta was forced to cancel about 1,000 flights on the day of the outage and another 1,000 over the next two days.) Delta employees recall the event being a horrible experience for themselves and all the passengers involved. CEO Ed Bastian credits Delta\u2019s culture for saving the day. Stories of Delta employees\u2019 empathy with passengers and consistent showing of positive emotions seemed to go a long way with customers, some of whom even expressed support in various ways to Delta employees during the outage. Although most expected a decline, Delta\u2019s monthly customer satisfaction scores actually went up following the incident. <\/p>\n
16.1 Why is an organization\u2019s culture perhaps the most evident during crisis situations? <\/p>\n
16.2 What causes companies like Delta and United to become so different in regard to organizational culture? <\/p>\n
16.3 What will it take for United to overcome its culture that has been built up over such a long period of time? <\/p>\n
Sources: E. Bastian. \u201cWhat I\u2019ve Learned in My First Days as Delta\u2019s New CEO,\u201d linkedin.com, May 26, 2016: https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/pulse\/what-ive-learned-my-first-days-deltas-new-ceo-ed-bastian; D. Bennett. \u201cThe United Way,\u201d Bloomberg Businessweek, January 18, 2016, pp. 50\u201355; S. Carey. \u201cBehind United Airlines\u2019 Fateful Decision to Call Police,\u201d The Wall Street Journal, April 16, 2017: https:\/\/www.wsj.com\/articles\/behind-united-airlines-fateful-decision-to-call-police1492384610; A. Hartung. \u201cWhy United Airlines Abuses Customers: The Risks of Operational Excellence,\u201d forbes.com, April 10, 2017: https:\/\/www.forbes.com\/sites\/adamhartung\/2017\/04\/10\/why-united-airlines-abuses-customers-the-risksof-operational-excellence\/#78b1a38fbb10; J. Ostrower. \u201cUnited CEO Oscar Munoz Is Walking a Tightrope to Fix an Airline,\u201d cnn.com, April 18, 2017: http:\/\/money.cnn.com\/2017\/04\/18\/news\/companies\/united-oscar-munoz-employees\/; and J. Roberts. \u201cDelta,\u201d Fortune, March 15, 2017, pp. 106\u20139.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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