Getting organizational improvement off the ground: Using the Cube One framework to learn from the turnaround at Continental Airlines

Abstract

AbstractMuch has been written about the remarkable turnaround at Continental Airlines under Gordon Bethune and Greg Brenneman during the 1990s. But much can still be learned from the experience. This article reviews the general components of the turnaround plan at Continental Airlines; briefly describes the Cube One framework, which makes it possible to interpret and assess an organization's functioning by examining its productivity‐, customer‐, and employee‐directed practices; describes management practices implemented at Continental; and examines evidence pertinent to their effectiveness, comparing results during the five‐year period before Bethune and his team arrived (1990–1994) with the five‐year period afterward (1995–1999). It concludes with a look at Continental's practices in the early twenty‐first century. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.