Relationships, Layoffs, and Organizational Resilience: Airline Industry Responses to September 11
Abstract
The terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, affected the U.S. airline industry more than almost any other industry. Certain airlines emerged successful and demonstrated remarkable resilience while others languished. This investigation identifies reasons why some airline companies recovered successfully after the attacks while others struggled. Evidence is provided that layoffs after the crisis, although intended to foster recovery, instead inhibited recovery throughout the 4 years after the crisis. But, layoffs after the crisis were strongly correlated with lack of financial reserves and lack of a viable business model prior to the crisis. Digging deeper, the authors find that having a viable business model itself depended on the development and preservation of relational reserves over time. Our model shows that the maintenance of adequate financial reserves enables the preservation of relational reserves and vice versa, contributing to organizational resilience in times of crisis.
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Social capital helps to achieve coordinated and successful action in times of crisis.
“Social capital helps to achieve coordinated and successful action in times of crisis (Leana and van Buren 1999;Faraj and Sproull 2000;Gittell et al. 2006;McGuinness and Johnson 2014).”
From Organizational resilience: a capability-based conceptualization (2020) · cites this paper as Gittell et al. 2006
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Developing a capacity for organizational resilience through strategic human resource management
Lengnick-Hall, C. A., Beck, T. E., & Lengnick-Hall, M. L. (2011) · Human Resource Management Review · doi:10.1016/j.hrmr.2010.07.001 · Cited by 2,046 · see citing works
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Self-citation
- Authors
- Gittell, J. H., Cameron, K., Lim, S., & Rivas, V.
- Affiliations
- Brandeis University (US)
- University of Michigan (US)
- Singapore Management University (SG)
- Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection (US)
- Venue
- The Journal of Applied Behavioral Science
- Publisher
- SAGE Publications
- Published
- 2006-09
- Volume
- 42
- Issue
- 3
- Pages
- 300-329
- ISSN
- 0021-8863 (ISSN-L)
- 1552-6879
- OpenAlex
- W2147403921
- Cited by
- 690
- References
- 3
- Citations by year
- 2026: 49 · 2025: 62 · 2024: 57 · 2023: 85 · 2022: 85 · 2021: 58 · 2020: 40 · 2019: 28 · 2018: 35 · 2017: 15 · 2016: 34 · 2015: 32 · 2014: 25 · 2013: 19 · 2012: 15
- FWCI
- 14.01
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- The Journal of Applied Behavioral Science (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Business, Management and Accounting › Organizational Behavior and Human Resource Management › Organizational Downsizing and Restructuring
- Social Sciences › Communication › Public Relations and Crisis Communication
- Social Sciences › Business, Management and Accounting › Strategy and Management › Supply Chain Resilience and Risk Management
- Keywords
- organizational resilience, airline industry, September 11 attacks, layoffs, financial reserves, business model viability, crisis recovery, interorganizational relationships
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