Employee Ownership in the Airline Industry
Author: Johnson, Jennifer
Source: The Aspen Institute Center for Business Education
Year: 2010
Abstract:
One of the most visible examples of employee ownership in companies has been in the airline industry, where players like Southwest and United have made efforts to increase employee participation, responsibility and ownership. This Reading Collection features case and other material highlighting airlines' experiences with employee ownership.
The following Collection discusses a number of companies's experiences, often from multiple angles. It points to successes as well as challenges, and provides a useful resource for discussions of employee ownership in an industry often under organizational and economic pressures.
Related Documents
JetBlue Airways
Author(s): The National Center for Employee Ownership
Product Type: Mini-Cases
JetBlue employees are given the opportunity to own a direct stake in their company through the Crewmember Stock Purchase Plan, better known as a Section 423 employee stock purchase
plan, or ESPP.
The Southwest Airlines Way
Author(s): Gittell, Jody Hoffer
Product Type: Books / Book Chapters
The Southwest Airlines Way examines how the company uses high-performance relationships to create enormous competitive advantage in motivation, teamwork, and coordination among employees.
Southwest Airlines Corporation
Author(s): Govindarajan, Vijay; Lang, Julie B.
Product Type: Cases
Southwest Airlines, consistently ranked as one of the top performing airlines in the business, began a profit-sharing plan in 1974.
Nuts! Southwest Airlines' Crazy Recipe for Business and Personal Success
Author(s): Freiberg, Jackie; Freiberg, Kevin
Product Type: Books / Book Chapters
Southwest Airlines has created a culture where employees are treated as the company's number one asset.
People Express Airlines: Rise and Decline
Author(s): Beer, Michael
Product Type: Cases
This case describes the innovative approach to organizing and managing employees by People Express and describes the company's eventual demise.
TWA: The Second Bankruptcy
Author(s): Barth, Mary E.; Yildiz, Nese
Product Type: Cases
In May 1995, about 19 months after emerging from the Chapter 11 bankruptcy it filed in 1993, Trans World Airlines issued a proxy statement to seek the consent of its shareholders and certain creditors for another debt restructuring plan.
The United Airline Bankruptcy and the Future of Employee Ownership
Author(s): Gordon, Jeffrey N.
Product Type: Research Notes / Working Papers
UAL suffered from particular design flaws in its stock ownership plan and, more seriously, the absence of complementary institutions focused on the distinctive problems of employee-owned firms.
United is a Poor Model for Employee Ownership
Author(s): Flanigan, James
Product Type: Magazine / Newspaper Articles
It would be easy to look at what’s happening at United Airlines, now on the brink of bankruptcy, and conclude that the concept of employee ownership in America has fallen into a tailspin.
United Airlines
Author(s): Kochan, Thomas A.
Product Type: Cases
In 1994 United Airlines became the largest employee majority-owned enterprise in the United States, with various groups of employees – most represented by unions – having purchased 55% of its stock in exchange for various concessions. The employees accepted pay cuts and made other concessions, but were also granted representation on the company's board of directors...
United Airlines: Employee Buyout
Author(s): Chaplinsky, Susan J.
Product Type: Cases
This case focuses on a large-scale corporate restructuring that involves changes to United Airlines' (UAL) operating strategy and financing. Through a recapitalization of the company, UAL's pilots, machinists, and salaried workers become majority shareholders of the firm.
UAL Corp.
Author(s): Gilson, Stuart C.; Cott, Jeremy
Product Type: Cases
In the largest attempted employee-buyout in history, a large U.S. commercial airline seeks substantial wage concessions from its employees in return for 53% stake in the airline's common stock and guaranteed seats on the board of directors.
Employee Ownership and Unions: Lessons from the Airline Industry
Author(s): Hansmann, Henry
Product Type: Books / Book Chapters
The U.S. airline industry has, in recent years, offered some conspicuous examples of a phenomenon that has now become familiar, both in the U.S. and abroad, among firms that face economic difficulties: the granting to employees of a substantial ownership stake in return for wage and work rule concessions necessary to maintain the firm’s viability.