tisfy only the purveyors of capital. In the process, they have, with great effort, managed to alienate the suppliers of both capital and labor (Wald, 2000).
Airline management teams also must satisfy entities other than the purveyors of capital and labor. Although airlines are not public utilities per se, the role of airlines in the national transportation structure has grown in importance to the point where the denial of air transport services (either passenger or freight) imposes severe penalties on the national economy and on many critical functions within society generally and within the lives of individuals and families. Thus, in this context air transportation may be viewed by both government and the public as an essential service. Within the context of an essential service, the airline industry assumes some of the characteristics of a public utility. The federal government, in critical situations, thus, can require airlines and their employees to continue functioning, just as government can shut down the operations of an airline if the state of labor relations creates a safety risk for the flying public (Sharpe, 1999).
Because of the obligations (at times conflicting) to stockholders, employees, customers, and society, airline companies have not been served well by the policies of most airline management teams that create adversarial relationships between management and labor. Adversarial relationships tend to inhibit the level of cooperation between management and labor that is required in the early years of the twenty-first century if airline companies are to compete successfully in the global market (Gamble, 1995).
The approach that likely will bring greater success to airline management tea
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