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THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK 99

Example 5.13 DELTA AIRLINES
With airline deregulation, there were price wars among the various airlines that
cut costs in different ways. According to reports, Delta Airlines faced charges of
air-safety violations when there were several near collisions in midair, and one
accident that resulted in 137 deaths in 1987. Four important factors that seem to
have influenced these are poor communication among the cockpit crew mem-
bers themselves, poor coordination between ground staff and cockpit crew, min-
imal training given to the cockpit crew, and management philosophy that
encouraged a decentralized structure. It would be nice to know if these factors
did indeed contribute to the safety violations, and if so, to what extent.

Theoretical Framework for Example 5.13
The dependent variable is safety violation, which is the variable of primary inter-
est, in which the variance is attempted to be explained by the four independent
variables of (1) communication among crew members, (2) communication
between ground control and the cockpit crew, (3) training received by the cock-
pit crew, and (4) decentralization.
The less the communication among the crew members themselves, the
greater is the probability of air-safety violations since very little information is
shared among them. For example, whenever safety is threatened, timely com-
munication between the navigator and pilot is most unlikely. Each member will
be preoccupied with his or her work and lose sight of the larger picture. When
ground crew fail to give the right information at the right time, mishaps are
bound to occur with aborted flights and collisions. Coordination between
ground and cockpit crew is at the very heart of air safety. Thus, the less the
coordination between ground control and cockpit crew, the greater the possi-
bility of air-safety violations taking place. Both of the above factors are exacer-
bated by the management philosophy of Delta Airlines, which emphasizes
decentralization. This philosophy might have worked before the deregulation of
the airlines when the number of flights was manageable. But with deregulation
and increased flights overall in midair, and with all airlines operating many more
flights, centralized coordination and control assume great importance. Thus, the
greater the degree of decentralization, the greater is the scope for lower levels
of communication both among in-flight staff and between ground staff and
cockpit crew, and the greater the scope for air-safety violations. Also, when
cockpit crew members are not adequately trained, they may not have the req-
uisite knowledge of safety standards or may suffer from an inability to handle
emergency situations and avoid collisions. Thus, poor training also adds to the
probability of increased safety violations. These relationships are diagrammed in
Figure 5.8.
Note how the five basic features of the theoretical framework have been incor-
porated in the example.

1. Identification and labeling of the dependent and independent variables have
been done in the theoretical framework.