Cranky Flier blog post reveals United Airlines post-merger culture headaches

"No, I don't thank you for the fish at all" (notindetroit) 07/18/2014 at 10:45 • Filed to: Airline Culture, Planelopnik, Airlines, United, Continental

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Corporate cultures tend to dwindle into self-parodying jokes to the degree where Dilbert has been riding on this for decades. Force two clashing corporate cultures to merge and the result is pretty much what you expect.

Topshot from The Cranky Flier

Airlines can be frustrating - and they know this, !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! Much of what makes the flying experience frustrating is beyond the control of the airlines themselves - but much of it is also the result of their corporate culture. My experiences with the "old" (pre-merger) United weren't fun as I encountered very worn-down, apathetic and demoralized staff about as cheerful as waiting in the dentists' lobby. This wasn't just my perception - United has had a long history of bad management decisions, mismanagement, and shoddy labor relations. People talk about the corporate culture of GM perpetuating a penny-pinching mentality that lead to literally dangerous cost-cutting. Industry insiders' impression of United is that of perpetuating a poisoned atmosphere where customer and employee relations come to get beached and die. Many were hoping the merger with Continental would change that, but as !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! reports, it's only created a clash between two management cultures where one tries to assert its dominance and the other insists it's not only refusing to roll over and die, but that it was the real winner all along.

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Image from the Official Dilbert website

Cranky Flier's article is a good illustration not just of the ailments of air travel in general, but what can happen when egos and laziness interfere with business operations. Given the aforementioned GM scandal, it's not uncharted waters for the automotive world either. Likely at one point in all our lives we've experienced this type of corporate culture directly, and it's perhaps an inevitable outcome of when organizations become large and require multiple levels of management, let alone when an entire foreign management body is absorbed. But just because these problems are inevitable doesn't mean they can't or shouldn't be fixed. Eventually the "new" United will sort itself out, or continue to go down the bad financial road that led to its merger in the first place.

f86sabre > No, I don't thank you for the fish at all 07/18/2014 at 13:57

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Interesting read. Thanks for sharing. Having lived through similar, with similar, but less harsh circumstances, I can related. I think one of the secrets is getting your teams working together as a single unit as fast as possible is vital.