United Airlines Flight 3411 HR Case Analysis Guide
2 min read
In April 2017, United Airlines Flight 3411 from Chicago to Louisville became an international news story after a passenger, Dr. David Dao, was forcibly removed from the overbooked flight. Passengers recorded the incident, and the video became instantly viral across social media, creating significant backlash for United Airlines.
The incident raised questions about employee decision making, company policies, customer service, training, and HR’s role in preparing employees for difficult situations. Following the incident, United made changes to its policies and procedures and rolled out additional customer service training to better prepare employees for navigating challenging situations such as this one.
Your Role
Imagine you have just been hired as the Human Resource Manager at United Airlines following the Flight 3411 incident.
Senior leadership has asked you:
What could HR have done differently to better prepare employees for a situation like this?
Analyze the situation and develop recommendations for United Airlines (use what you’ve learned in Chapters 1 through 6, as well as any relevant outside research).
As you analyze this case study, consider:
Role of HR: What responsibility does HR have when employee actions create a significant problem for an organization?
Job Analysis & Design: What knowledge, skills, and abilities should employees have when handling difficult customer situations? How should these requirements be reflected in the job?
Employee Selection: How could United assess customer service, communication, and conflict resolution skills when hiring employees?
Training: What training could have better prepared employees to handle this situation?
Policies & Employee Judgment: How much discretion should employees have when dealing with unusual or stressful situations?
Employee Discipline: If you were the HR Manager, how would you address the employee’s actions following the incident?
The post United Airlines Flight 3411: When Employee Decisions Become a Company Problem first appeared on Writeden.
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