Global aviation human resource management: contemporary recruitment and selection and diversity and equal opportunity practices

Abstract

The commercial airline is an extremely competitive, safety‐sensitive, high technology service industry. People, employees and customers, not products and machines, must be the arena of an organisation’s core competence. The implications are vast and pervasive affecting no less than the organisation’s structure, strategy, culture, and numerous operational activities. Completed by 13 respondents (executives), this audit presents a series of select findings of a human resource management audit carried out in 2001‐2 and contains extensive data on airlines from nine countries from around the globe. The conclusion drawn from these three bodies of work is that, with the exception of a handful of high performing airlines, the industry as awhole continues to function as per a traditional, top‐down, highly divisionalised, industrial model of operations and governance. This model is manifestly inappropriate in such a highly knowledge‐based service market as the airline industry. HRM expertise in general and recruitment and selection as well diversity and equal opportunity in particular are required now, more than ever, to spearhead the strategic development of a customer‐centric, learning‐oriented workforce that is capable of adapting quickly to the strategic goals and change imperatives facing the airline industry.

Aviation Managers’ Perspective on the Importance of Education

“…There was a lack of aviationspecific research examining the relationship between aviation manager education and workforce demographic data, such as salary, management level, type of industry, and type of degree (Appelbaum & Fewster, 2002). Therefore, the study contributed to addressing a gap in the literature, by providing current data on aviation manager's perceptions of education; furthering Carteek's (1980) seminal work.…”

“…As noted by Appelbaum and Fewster (2002), there is scant attention given in the literature toward airline management, leaving a major gap that needs to be filled. Though there are several reasons that could be given for this, Eaton (2001) noted that airline managers appear to be more closed to academic research than other industries.…”

“…Carkeet (1980) conducted the first study on aviation leader education. Since then, there has been little aviation-specific research examining the relationship between aviation manager education and workforce demographic data, such as salary, management level, type of industry, and type of degree (Appelbaum & Fewster, 2002). Although Jensen (2010) demonstrated that there is a positive return on investment for the majority of individuals who received a college education, there are no empirical studies to demonstrate the applicability of those studies specifically to the aviation industry.…”

Equal opportunity and diversity management meet downsizing

“…RQ4. What has been the impact of downsizing on different employee groups in the GlobalAir workforce, and are certain groups at greater risk of job discrimination and redundancy, irrespective of their performance and qualifications (Zeffane and Mayo, 1994;Applebaum and Fewster, 2002)?…”

“…The second includes those who work on a freelance or short-term contract basis, and the third is newly-appointed workers. Zeffane and Mayo (1994) and Applebaum and Fewster (2002) have gone further and suggested ways in which this could be managed to ensure that equal opportunities employment rights are not infringed, including strategic planning detailing fundamental criteria and principles, human resource monitoring of the impact and regular audits. However, there has been little further discussion of how downsizing can co-exist with EO and diversity management initiatives.…”