Originally Posted by
jcatman
It's rather difficult to "work on consistency issues" when there are no rewards for properly performing your job, and no negative consequences for failing to perform your job. The result? The passenger receives a service experience which is heavily influenced by "the mood" of today's crew.
At American Airlines, management consistently exhibits an unwillingness to effectively motivate and incentivize its employees. Hence, your service experience in the air is a crAAp shoot, just like your chances of getting the business-class seat design that you prefer on certain AA wide-body aircraft.
The old saying is “corporate culture doesn’t trickle up from the mail room”. In the absence of leadership committed to the customer experience and concomitant dedication of resources to assure customer service is a priority (including training, rewards and compensation, supervision and corrective action, etc.), employees are left to interpret their own personal values, rules that may not be enforced and a lack of exemplary behavior by leaders.
While there are excellent employees, there are also burnt out, uninvolved and uncaring employees. One longhaul Flagship First flight can be brilliant, the next one entirely lackluster with cabin crew totally resistant to anything resembling caring, attentive service, as frequently reported here and in the blogs so many here follow.
Ain’t gonna change anytime soon, I’m afraid. Management seems more focused on the shareholder, short term performance and self interest. In my opinion (as a retired Organizational Development and training consultant who has worked with Fortune 500 corporations and well-known agencies to change corporate cultures successfully), of course.
/rant off - and that’s possibly another thread