United Airlines - good people; bad management

It took me a week to recover my baggage from United Airlines.  The process provided ample opportunity for anthropological field research into one of the least appealing assignments among the many customer-service jobs that must filled to keep a modern airline functioning.

From the time I filled out my first lost baggage form to the time, seven days later, when, after having made an extra round-trip to Dulles airport, I managed to recover my baggage, the process was time consuming, ill managed and frustrating.  United’s computerized tracking system rarely provided accurate information.  Its voice activated IT system did its best to ensure that only the most aggressive and it-savvy lost-baggage passengers were able to reach human customer service agents, who, with additional research were sometimes able to provide information that was accurate.. 

Yet the result of the week-long process, comprising nearly 10 hours of interactions and several more of distracting concern, led me to grudging respect for the United Airlines employees who were among the principal victims of a dysfunctional system in which routinely lost baggage was just one of many dysfunctions.  Most of them were doing their best to maintain their good humor and respond to passenger   concerns.  When, after computer research followed by a physical search of more than 45 minutes, an agent managed to locate my bags and present them to me, her expression of delight was genuine.  We joked together about the consequences of not having what was packed for a week after a long trip (for example underwear) before I took my leave and she returned to her desk to face the next passenger.

As I said in an earlier posting, United Airlines staff members, especially baggage service agents deserve our respect, consideration and, like all human beings, our altruistic compassion.  They are doing their best in a dysfunctional management environment that is neither efficient, empowering, nor humane.

When should “the rules" be followed? When should they be broken?

The skeleton of complex organizations and societies comprises laws, rules and regulations. There are rules for the creation of rules - in political life we call them constitutions. American University’s new President, Neil Kerwin’s scholarly career has focused, in part, on the study of rule-making. Rules are human artifacts, but they often assume a life of their own, somehow independent of human creation.

In post World War II Japan, General Douglas MacArthur and his staff faced the daunting challenge of creating an entirely new system of rule making and rules to replace a discredited one. Political leaders in the nations of Post Cold-War Europe faced similar challenges. So did leaders of post colonial “new nations.”

University students, too, face the challenge of choosing when to follow rules and when to break them. Grappling with this challenge, they learn, is one of life’s dilemmas. The functioning of institutions, including universities themselves, requires that most human beings follow most of the rules, most of the time. But rule breakers are sources of energy, creativity and change. Founding fathers of the United States of America, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, James Madison, Alexander Hamilton, George Washington and their colleagues were rule breakers. The U.S. Declaration of Independence offers a compelling discussion of when it is appropriate to follow the rules and when to break them.

These reflections have been motivated by readings and reflection during my morning quiet time, over the last two or three days. My reading has been the middle chapters of the Book of Matthew in my Life Study Bible, a gift from my daughter in law. The chapters describe, in part, debates between Jesus and Jewish religious leaders about how religious laws should be applied to daily life.

The religious leaders seem to be giving priority to a literal interpretation of the laws. Jesus, too, views religious laws as important. But he seems to be saying that it is also important to keep in mind the purposes of those religious laws, manifesting God’s intentions in human’s lives, societies, institutions and nations. Thus Jesus, like America’s founding fathers, is saying that choosing when rules are to be followed and when they are to be broken is part of what it means to be human.