This macro problem can be separated in two time segments: before and after merger with another airline company. In the first period the most important activity of the human resources department was to transform the corporation into a customer responsive and people oriented organization, but in the period after the merger the primary responsibility of the human resources function was to unite the employees from two companies and to make common organizational culture for the new corporation. .
Micro problems related with the macro problem in the Northwest Airlines are several:.
- Hard line labor relation policy - relations between managers and employees - and more important after the merger the problem with the union leaders taking the fact that huge percentage of the employees were union members;.
- Personal system, punitive, negative, no human relation policies, no participation or empowerment of the employees;.
- No human resources planning, especially in the period before the merger; .
- Problems with communication, because of geographical distance of the different departments or sections, making very difficult to disseminate new information about the changes in the culture to all employees, before the information from informal channels reach them;.
- No model of cooperation and coordination, absence of teamwork;.
Although some of the micro problems, such as, communication and employment participation in decision making or empowerment, are elements of the macro issue of motivation, in this case study I am going to analyze them from the point of view of culture changes. The issues of motivation and cultural changes are very close related because employees have to be motivated to change their working habits, and from other side changes in organizational culture always influence employees motivation. There are several studies that include communication and empowerment in the model of culture changes (Lin, 2002; Milliman and Ferguson, 1999; Attaran and Nguyen, 1999).
