OGL 481 Pro-Seminar I:

PCA-Human Resource Frame Worksheet

1) Briefly restate your situation from Module 1 and your role.

On a short, routine flight from New York to Washington, D.C., I was the service

manager, flying with the minimum required crew. One of my first-class passengers

requested alcoholic miniatures to take with him off the airplane when we landed. I

politely explained to the passenger that we were not allowed to offer alcohol to be taken

off the aircraft for safety and legal reasons. The passenger became angry, getting up

from his seat and threatening to go to the cockpit to speak to the pilot. I was able to

employ my interpersonal skills and understand the situation and how to handle him. I

calmed him down and said I would talk to the pilot later in the flight. He settled down,

and I carried on with what I was doing. And then, while serving another set of

passengers, the man threw his glass with ice, mix, and miniatures from his tray table at

me but luckily missed me. In following TWA operating procedure, I immediately

informed the captain of the incident. When we arrived in D.C., the passenger was

removed from the flight and taken away by police. The cockpit crew and I filed a police

report and continued on our trip. Several years later, the airline contacted me to testify in

a lawsuit that the passenger filed in court against them resulting from the incident.

2) Describe how the human resources of the organization influenced the situation.

Because as a flight crew, your job is flying around the country and world, you

don't have a human resources department that you can go to when things happen. You

rarely see your supervisor and are primarily on your own to make sure you are where you
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PCA – Human Resource Framework Worksheet

need to be when you need to be there. You will hear from your supervisor only when

you don't call in for flights or show up for flights. Because this was before cell phones

were so widely used, they would put a note in our mailbox to stop in and see them if they

needed to speak to us. So, the human resources department was mainly absent from this

situation. It wasn't until after the flight and likely, and not until the lawsuit was filed that

they became aware of what had occurred. Even after the event, I did not contact human

resources concerning what happened. The airport police station would have alerted

TWA that there was an incident. But I was never contacted by human resources about it

after it happened. Both the flight attendants and the pilots were unionized, and the chain

of command hierarchy followed, which is that the captain is responsible for what happens

on the aircraft at all times.

Being in charge of the whole flight crew and plane, the captain acted like our

human resources department. Whenever a situation happened on board, we were told to

speak to the captain and keep him informed, and he had the final say on the actions taken.

When I talked to him about what happened, he asked questions about the situation and

the passenger in question and determined he should call ahead and have the flight met by

the police. After the ordeal on the jetway with the man, I was a bit shook up. I was

young and certainly didn't expect to have someone throw something at me and then get so

angry that he had to be taken away in handcuffs, screaming the whole way. Because I

followed our chain of command and went to the captain immediately, and he could tell I

was upset, he knew that they could not allow this man to continue to a connecting flight

with the chances this might happen again on the next flight.

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Another thing to consider is that this man put me in danger as well as other

passengers. When we had to go to the airport police station, the captain and first officer

were incredibly supportive, especially after they witnessed what happened on the jetway

with this man. They offered to go down to the police station with me and stayed with me

the whole time. The captain acted as a manager would, and I felt very supported by him

and my colleagues. The processes put in place in this situation were followed and had a

successful outcome.

3) Recommend how you would use the human resources for an alternative course of
action regarding your case.

Because our jobs were so decentralized, there is no way to have human resources

available at each location. And due to the time of day, they wouldn't have been still

working at that time. However, one thing that could be implemented and which would

have been helpful was to have a 24/7 human resources phone number. This number

could be used to report the incidents and make sure that the employee was safe and that

appropriate action was taken during the situation and afterward. In addition, they could

have documented the incident in real-time to make sure they had all of the details and

could look the passenger up in the computer system, so they were aware of who he was,

etc. This would have supported me and made sure that I was okay, that the facts were

documented immediately, and that the whole flight crew was okay to continue traveling

to our final destination.

Another opportunity for the organization after this situation and numerous others

had occurred would have been for them to create more in-depth training programs or

modules incorporated into the initial flight school training. That would better help the

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flight crews deal with and deescalate dangerous situations before they happen and once a

crisis has occurred. Bolman and Deal state that "undertrained workers harm

organizations in many ways: shoddy quality, poor service, higher costs, and costly

mistakes" (Bolman & Deal, 2017). In this situation, we did everything right, and we still

had an unfavorable outcome with the passenger. Still, our procedures in handling the

reporting and action of the incident were by the book. Additional training for all areas of

customer service in an organization is invaluable. Because I had another role in the

organization prior to flying, I had a little bit of training by the organization in handling

many situations at the ticket counter. You need to know what your employees are doing

and saying to your customers.

4) Reflect on what you would do or not do differently, given what you have learned
about this frame. (Insert 2 Long Paragraph Reflection Here to Earn Excellent)

There are two things I would do differently. First, I would make sure to invest in

and train the right people. According to Bolman and Deal, "Southwest airlines became

the most successful carrier in the U.S. airline industry by hiring people with positive

attitudes and well-honed interpersonal skills" (Bolman & Deal, 2017). Hiring those with

sound judgment and then training, especially with entry-level staff, is crucial. Many have

not worked in the professional business environment before. They need to understand the

organization's expectations of how to speak to people, what to say, and how to say it. For

example, in-flight attendant training taught and tested us on all of the safety equipment

on every aircraft, taught us how to cook meals, work the first-class cabin, and do what to

do in emergencies both on land and water. So, I would also take the time to invest in

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training on these potentially serious situations, so they can defuse and deescalate a

problem and when and how to do it.

Additionally, I would provide them with information, tools, and materials for

success. For example, when flying, we had a small in-flight book we were required to

carry at all times. Those books should have included dialogue pages and system

operating procedures for these types of situations. We reviewed these books often and

updated them regularly. It would have been easy enough to include those pages. By

offering scripts and tools and practicing role-playing different challenging situations, the

flight attendants would have a chance to practice their responses and better understand

the challenges of handling unruly passengers before they had an issue in flight.

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References

Bolman, L. G., & Deal, T. E. (2017). Reframing  organizations: Artistry, choice, and leadership
(6th  ed.). San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass