Most people would describe Katherine Berger as a responsible girl with a big heart, a loyal friend who takes care of those close to her, and the possessor of a wicked sense of humor. There was something about her that most people didn't know. "My name is Kat Berger, and I love porn." When twenty-five-year-old Kat is dragged to a porn convention by her best friend, she's both embarrassed and nervous. The last thing she ever expected was to meet someone who makes her laugh like no other. This is a story about acceptance and friendship, and a love born out of the most unexpected of places.
"And you thought the passengers were mad. Airline employees are fed up, too-with pay cuts, increased workloads and management's miserly ways, which leave workers to explain to often-enraged passengers why flying has become such a miserable experience."—New York Times, December 22, 2007When both an industry's workers and its customers report high and rising frustration with the way they are being treated, something is fundamentally wrong. In response to these conditions, many of the world's airlines have made ever-deeper cuts in services and their workforces. Is it too much to expect airlines, or any other enterprise, to provide a fair return to investors, high-quality reliable service to their customers, and good jobs for their employees?Measured against these three expectations, the airline industry is failing. In the first five years of the twenty-first century alone, U.S. airlines lost a total of $30 billion while shedding 100,000 jobs, forcing the remaining workers to give up over $15 billion in wages and benefits. Combined with plummeting employee morale, shortages of air traffic controllers, and increased congestion and flight delays, a total collapse of the industry may be coming. Is this state of affairs inevitable? Or is it possible to design a more sustainable, less volatile industry that better balances the objectives of customers, investors, employees, and the wider society? Does deregulation imply total abrogation of government's responsibility to oversee an industry showing the clear signs of deterioration and increasing risk of a pending crisis?Greg J. Bamber, Jody Hoffer Gittell, Thomas A. Kochan, and Andrew von Nordenflycht explore such questions in a well-informed and engaging way, using a mix of quantitative evidence and qualitative studies of airlines from North America, Asia, Australia, and Europe. Up in the Air provides clear and realistic strategies for achieving a better, more equitable balance among the interests of customers, employees, and shareholders. Specifically, the authors recommend that firms learn from the innovations of companies like Southwest and Continental Airlines in order to build a positive workplace culture that fosters coordination and commitment to high-quality service, labor relations policies that avoid long drawn-out conflicts in negotiating new agreements, and business strategies that can sustain investor, employee, and customer support through the ups and downs of business cycles.
This book is a fully up-to-date, comprehensive guide to the law, economics and practice of UK merger control law. This guide presents an integrated legal and economic assessment of the substantive appraisal of mergers and examines in detail the following topics: the history of the Enterprise Act and its development from the Fair Trading Act; the various regulatory bodies that form the institutional structure of the UK merger control regime; enterprises subject to merger control regulation and the jurisdictional thresholds of the Enterprise Act; the relationship of the Enterprise Act with the European Merger Regulation; public interest mergers and the role of the Secretary of State; and merger remedies. All recent legislative developments including the merger of the OFT and the Competition Commission and the Enterprise and Regulatory Reform Act 2013, as well as all relevant case since the first edition of the magisterial text are explored.
This revised and updated second edition of Marketing Briefs: a revision study guide gives every marketing student the most comprehensive collection of definitive overviews of every key concept in the subject. The text itself is organized into short structured chapters, the Briefs, each including: * Core definitions * A bulleted key point overview * Thorough yet concise explanation of the concept and primary issues * Illustrative examples * A selection of examination style case, essay and applied questions Together these offer a rounded, concise and topical appreciation of each theme within a clear and accessible framework, designed to aid revision. Also included are revision tips and 'golden rules' for tackling examinations, specimen examination papers with answer schemes, and a full glossary of key marketing terms.
Ipso Factos: EU Law covers the core principles of EU law from an Irish law perspective in a simple, clear and succinct manner. As EU law is a complex area this text presents the law in straightforward and concise language. Ipso Factos: EU Law covers the essential points of the law and is ideal as an introductory text and a revision aid for students for exam purposes. The text reflects the subject requirements of the EU law undergraduate courses students need to be familiar with and include additional chapters benefiting students sitting professional exams in Blackhall Place (Law Society of Ireland). The book includes commentary on Irish case law relevant to students studying EU Law at Irish universities and colleges or for Irish professional exams such as Blackhall Place and King's Inns entrance exams. This unique commentary contains specific chapters on supremacy and competition law, important exam areas in the Irish exam syllabus.
In the late 1990s, the European Commission embarked on a long process of introducing a 'more economic approach' to EU Antitrust law. One by one, it reviewed its approach to all three pillars of EU Antitrust Law, starting with Article 101 TFEU, moving on to EU merger control and concluding the process with Article 102 TFEU. Its aim was to make EU antitrust law more compatible with contemporary economic thinking. On the basis of an extensive empirical analysis of the Commission's main enforcement tools, this book establishes the changes that the more economic approach has made to the Commission's enforcement practice over the past fifteen years. It demonstrates that the more economic approach not only introduced modern economic assessment tools to the Commission's analyses, but fundamentally changed the Commission's interpretation of the law. Emulating one of the key credos of the US Antitrust Revolution thirty years earlier, the Commission reinterpreted the EU antitrust rules as aiming at the enhancement of economic consumer welfare only, and amended its understanding of key legal concepts accordingly. This book argues that the Commission's new understanding of the law has many benefits. Its key principles are logical, translate well into workable legal concepts and promise a great degree of accuracy. However, it also has a number of serious drawbacks as it stands. Most worryingly, its revised interpretation of the law is to large extents incompatible with the case law of the European Court of Justice, which has not been swayed by the exclusive consumer welfare aim. This situation is undesirable from the point of view of legal certainty and the rule of law.
With the pace of ongoing technological and teamwork evolution across air transport, there has never been a greater need to master the application and effective implementation of leading edge human factors knowledge. Human Factors in Multi-Crew Flight Operations does just that. Written from the perspective of the well-informed pilot it provides a vivid, practical context for the appreciation of Human Factors, pitched at a level for those studying or engaged in current air transport operations. Features Include: - A unique seamless text, intensively reviewed by subject specialists. - Contemporary regulatory requirements from ICAO and references to FAA and JAA. - Comprehensive detail on the evolutionary development of air transport Human Factors. - Key statistics and analysis on the size and scope of the industry. - In-depth demonstration of the essential contribution of human factors in solving current aviation problems, air transport safety and certification. - Future developments in human factors as a 'core technology'. - Extensive appendices, glossary and indexes for ease of reference. The only book available to map the evolution, growth and future expansion of human factors in aviation, it will be the text for pilots and flight attendants and an essential resource for engineers, scientists, managers, air traffic controllers, regulators, educators, researchers and serious students.
