Turbulence : Boeing and the State of American Workers and Managers (Review)

The good, the bad and the ugly is portrayed in Turbulence: Boeing and the State of American Workers and Managers, a longitudinal case study of Boeing Commercial Airlines and its employees during a decade of chaos and turmoil. Why Boeing? As the United States' largest exporter and as half of a duopoly with European rival Airbus, Boeing wields enormous economic clout and political advantage. While Boeing has survived broad structural and transformative forces in manufacturing, the picture that emerges in Turbulence is one of caution and concern. “The very innovations and changes Boeing introduced to remain a leading producer of airplanes…produced stress and turbulence in the lives of workers and managers alike…brought unnecessary pain…and raised serious questions about Boeing's continued success in the marketplace” (p. 1-2). Turbulence summarizes four waves of employee surveys, interviews and focus groups conducted between 1996 and 2006. The period spans Boeing's implementation of total quality, the acquisition of McDonnell Douglas, several strikes, global competitive threats, and a transition from an engineering focus to that of short-term, share-holder value. The voices of the employees — production workers, engineers, middle- and senior-level managers alike are the heart of this research