Human Resource Industry Audit - Reflection Paper
Tommy Kramer
Nov 4, 2006
Human Resource Industry Audit - Reflection Paper
Change is the one constant in the highly competitive business world. Industries are consistently exploring different ideas, techniques, and processes to make or keep their organizations moving forward in the competitive environment. The commercial airline industry is an extremely competitive, safety-sensitive, high technology service industry (Appelbaum and Fewster, 2002). This industry is struggling to remain competitive and effective management of personnel plays a large role in its viability. People, employees, and customers must remain the center of the industry's core competence (Appelbaum and Fewster, 2002). The human resource audit focuses on the management of people in the airline industry. The purpose of this paper is to summarize the key human resource (HR) challenges in the airline industry, the recruitment challenges, and the training and development issues of the airline industry.
The airline industry underwent deregulation in the 1980s. This previously protected, regulated and sometimes thriving industry has undergone enormous changes bringing about major challenges for the industry. Improving labor relations between unions, management and employees is a central challenge for the industry. The airline labor relations model carries a fundamental assumption that labor and management are natural enemies and the gain of one would be at the expense of the other (Miller, 1992, p. 390). HR can achieve excellence for the airline industry if HR can mend years of division. Labor and management must work together as partners to defend against external adversaries and forget the past and salvage the future (Miller, 1992).< ...