Learnings from the recent Air India incident and value systems in Organisations

The recent incident of an inebriated passenger urinating on an elderly lady passenger has been a recent topic of discussion. As a student of Human and Organizational behavior, it raised a few questions in my mind. How do organizations and leaders deal with similar situations? What rules, regulations, and value systems do they hold sacred and uphold? Are these waived for the high and mighty based on convenience?

There are several stakeholders in the recent Air India incident, whose roles and actions are important to study, and understand the prevalent value systems and to improve our learnings viz: Air India Pilots and crew, Air India Management, Accused passenger- Mr. Shankar Mishra, Employer of the accused passenger- Wells Fargo USA, the elderly lady victim, International and national airline regulatory authorities such as IATA, DGCA, etc. ?Let us look at each of them individually:

A.?????Air India’s Pilots and crew: What might have influenced their decisions?

1.???????Were they trained to handle such situations? Should they have taken a tough stand and landed the flight at the nearest airport and handed over the accused passenger to the police and reported the matter to authorities?

2.??????Did they decide because they felt the accused could be a better potential customer than the old lady?

3.??????They wanted to protect the accused because he made this mistake as he was in a highly inebriated condition and any reporting of the issue could lead to severe damage to his professional career and family reputation.

4.??????Should they have shown concern for the victim and moved the person to a different seat and immediately offered her whatever help possible?

If some similar situation had happened in your organization, say a Senior Manager of the company hits a junior employee in the canteen or a Senior Manager misbehaves with a lady employee and sexually harasses her, how would the staff witnessing such behavior behave? How would Management react? Would the decision have varied based on the rank and seniority of the offender?

Do employees need “Values clarification exercises”(*Pl see postscript below) to help them make the right decisions?

B.?????Air India Management: Their corporate image is badly tainted due to the handling of this issue.

1.??????Should they defend the actions of their Pilots and Crew?

2.??????What values are they espousing and what rules, regulations and values are non-negotiable?

3.??????Have they trained their crew and staff to handle such situations? Any guidance provided to handle such moral dilemmas?

?How does your organization prepare itself for such minefields? What values are classified as non-negotiable? How do you remain humane and yet tough?

C.?????Employer of the accused – Wells Fargo. Their image also suffered badly. To protect their image, they promptly terminated the accused and issued a statement saying they would cooperate with the investigation authorities.

1.??????Could they do anything else in this situation?

2.??????How do they ensure that such potential situations do not arise in the future? Could “In basket exercises “(** Pl see postscript below)be conducted, while selecting senior leadership team members?

3.??????Should they periodically reinforce their Values and behaviors expected thru “Value clarifications exercises”?

?D.?????Accused – Mr. Shankar Mishra. It is reported that he admits to having made a mistake while being highly inebriated and later apologized to the victim and also tried to pay her some money to buy her silence.

1.??????Being a Senior Manager and responsible individual, should he have controlled his urge to get drunk irresponsibly to this extent?

2.??????Was he drinking because it was freely provided by the airline?

3.??????Should he get influenced even if someone was trying to or encouraging him to get drunk? This is highly unlikely but for the sake of argument.

4.??????Did he ever remind himself of the potential impact of his actions on this employment, his family, and his future career?

In organizations, similar situations can arise, for example, sexual misbehavior by a leader on spur of the moment, Assault by a leader during a discussion, Theft of company property, etc. Are employees reminded of the consequences of such actions? Have employees gotten away in such situations?

If employees have gotten away with minor consequences for such serious offenses, it emboldens others to such irresponsible acts and omissions.

?E.??????Victim – Elderly Lady.

1.??????Did she accept the token compensation from the accused and forgive his grave mistake?

2.??????Is her grouse against the airline to seek better compensation for gross neglect and mishandling of the situation by the Pilots and Crew of Air India?

3.??????Whom does she hold responsible for this incident and why?

?If one were to look at the issue from the lens of each of the above actors, several perspectives may emerge and may provide some indications of how your organization might have handled similar situations. Are we encouraging our employees and stakeholders to feel they can get away with any gross misbehavior by bribing or threatening those entrusted to take decisions and implement the rules, regulations, and values? ?We do have some people saying “Jan tha hai mye kaun hu?” ?i.e. do you know who I am? To push their way around.

I believe, Organizations need to clarify their values, ethics, and culture thru proper induction training, value clarification exercises, build culture thru storytelling.

I would be happy to hear, how your organizations have handled such situations in the past.?

Postscript:

*Values clarification exercise is?an ongoing process of the development of defining what one values (what one believes to be most important and what one cares for most), and how one acts on those values in daily life. Values clarification is the process of defining one's values. A values clarification exercise is?a useful and versatile way of working together to explore your values and beliefs?(Warfield and Manley, 1990)

**In-basket exercise

The in-basket technique, also known as an in-basket exercise, is?a term used by businesses and governments to hire or promote employees. The in-basket strategy involves placing a range of concerns or issues in an “in-basket” to familiarise employees with their jobs. An in-basket exercise simulates a work situation?where you, as a manager, are required to make real-time decisions regarding prioritizing and managing schedules and tasks, workload challenges under pressure, and proving good judgment skills.

*** Top Management of Air India now admits that a swifter action should have been undertaken in this case. Better late than never!!

?The timeline of events and acts and the omission of various players would make it a good case study for Management students.?