Death of an airline : the well-being of retrenched Ansett staff - three years on

Jim Mitchell, Alexandra Kristovics

    Research output: Contribution to journalArticle

    Abstract

    The collapse of Ansett between September 2001 and March 2002 resulted in 16,000 employees being made redundant. Of these, 235 were Customer Service Officers (CSOs) based at the domestic terminal in Sydney. An initial survey in 2002 examined the resultant personal consequences and this was followed in 2004 by a second survey of CSOs that examined their well-being at a point three years after the collapse. Ryff’s (1989) scale of psychological well-being was utilised to evaluate their well-being and this was supplemented by a qualitative analysis of the written comments on surveys one and two. Analysis of the scales was carried out using SPSS and the qualitative data analysed through Nvivo utilising grounded theory as the basis for identifying and establishing nodes and themes within the data. The quantitative analysis revealed that the main variable that was related to the lack of well-being was dissatisfaction with new employment, where there was a significant reduction in the well-being scales of Environmental Mastery, Purpose and Self-Acceptance. The qualitative analysis found that, while some participants were still experiencing emotional and other difficulties, many had moved on and were re-establishing their career in both aviation and different fields. Others found that the labour market had changed since the 1990s and employment opportunities had become more precarious, limiting opportunities to temporary, casual and part-time work. This impacted on their levels of trust and loyalty towards organisations and management. Loss of trust and loyalty has significant implications for both themselves and their employers.
    Original languageEnglish
    Number of pages30
    JournalInternational Journal of Employment Studies
    Publication statusPublished - 2005

    Keywords

    • Ansett Airlines
    • Ansett Australia
    • Australia
    • Business failures
    • Employees
    • attitudes

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