These are the most important problems in the Northwest Airlines that has to be solved or improved for the company to have better prospects to achieve its objectives in the future.
2. Literature review.
In the tourism industry and more important in the airline industry change is constant, inevitable and imperative. Organizations worldwide are confronting turbulent markets, customers are becoming more demanding, competition is growing and in this circumstances companies are taking critical strategic decisions to meet these challenges. Bague (2003) state that change can provide an enormous opportunity to accelerate business growth, increase efficiency and innovation. .
2.1 Labor relations.
According to Watson and D"Annunzio-Green (1996) an integral part of the cultural change efforts is an attempt to improve the general employee relations climate. Confrontational relationship would not encourage or facilitate the dissemination or the new values among the workforce. Good relationship with employees can be achieved using methods such as, consultation and involvement, initiatives such as, focus groups and consultative management techniques. The concept of internal customer is helping to eliminate demarcation problems and improve internal employee relations. Epstein and Spiegel (1997) note that the firms total output is affected positively by the efforts invested in the relations with employees. .
Gittel et al. (2004) examine competing theoretical arguments regarding whether union representation, shared governance, wage levels, as elements of the labor relations structure, and two features of the quality labor relations - workplace culture and conflicts in negotiations - lead to better or worse outcomes for the airlines companies. Both qualitative and quantitative results suggest that quality relations factors - workplace culture and conflict- are more important determinants of performance than the structural factors of unionization, shared governance and wages.
