Andrew von Nordenflycht’s Forthcoming Article in the Journal of Industrial Relations

Assistant Professor Andrew von Nordenflycht‘s article co-authored with Greg J. Bamber, Jody Hoffer Gittell, and Thomas A. Kochan titled “Contrasting Employment Relations Strategies in European Airlines” is forthcoming in the Journal of Industrial Relations.

Article abstract:
We discuss deregulation (liberalisation) and some of the international institutions that influence the management of people in airlines. As a point of departure, we summarise contrasting models from successful ‘new entrant’ airlines: Ryanair and Southwest. We consider examples of various categories of airlines in different ‘ideal types’ of institutional context: liberal market economies and coordinated market economies. These are two varieties of advanced capitalism. The former include the United States, Britain, Ireland (and Australia). The latter include the Germanic and Scandinavian countries. We classify airlines according to which strategies dominate their efforts at cost reduction. Alongside these differences in strategies, we analyse differences in two aspects of employment-relations strategies. First, airlines can focus on controlling employee behaviour or seeking their commitment to the goals of the airline. Second, airlines can seek to avoid, accommodate or partner with unions. We show that, in terms of employment relations, the variety of capitalism context helps to influence employers’ strategies, but airlines (and other enterprises) still have some scope for exercising strategic choice, in spite of their institutional and regulatory context.

The Journal of Industrial Relations is an ISI-ranked, peer reviewed journal that takes a broad interdisciplinary approach to the subject of the world of work It welcomes contributions which examine the way individuals, groups, organisations and institutions shape the employment relationship.

For more information on Dr. von Nordenflycht’s research please follow this link.