On July 7th, 2013, an airplane coming from Seoul, South Korea to San Francisco, CA. crashed when landing. Two passengers killed and were identified as two 16-year-old Chinese girls who may have been part of a group coming to the United States for summer camp. (Los Angeles Times, 2013) The primary assumption for the crash is the immature skilled pilot which this news brought the media’s attention in China to the air crash that happened in 1997. The airplane operated by China Southern Airline flying from Chongqing to Shenzhen crashed when landing. The pilots tried to land the airplane under bad weather conditions and for the first time on the tract at the southern tip of grounding, grounding of aircraft jump three jump, then. Fly and then turn left up to 1200 meters. The investigation and the 12-minute black box record showed the evidence that the crash happened because of the mistakes that the pilot made. The captain, Lin Yougui, only flew solo for 22 hours; the co-pilot, Kong Dexin, flew solo for 88 hours prior to the air crash. (China Wikipedia)
Further investigation shows that the leader of China Southern Airline had an extremely abnormal relationship with both the captain and the co-pilot, which could be explain by the LMX theory, the in-group relationship. Due to the relationship between the two parties, Lin and Kong were named to be captain and co-pilot when their practical operation level did not meet the standards. And the reason they were on the positions was because the leaders ignored the fact that the pilots had not passed the flight exam. In this situation, the LMX not only ran counter to the basic human value of fairness, but also caused consequences that took 33 people’s lives away.
Leader-member exchange (LMX) theory takes an approach and conceptualizes leadership as a process that is centered on the interactions between leaders and followers. To be specific, within an organizational work unit, subordinates become a part of the in-group or the out-group based on how well they work with the leader and how well the leader works with them. Moreover, subordinates in the in-group receive more information, influence, confidence, and concern from their leaders than do out-group subordinates. (Northouse, 2013) There are both strengths and criticisms associated with LMX theory. Although I personally had great experience during my internship according to LMX theory as one of the in-groups, I am focusing on the criticism of LMX theory in the blog because of this recent happened air crash.
LMX does lead to the unfairness between the in-group and out-group. According to research, in-group relationship lead to increasing productivity and friendly working environment. However, we have to keep the in-group relationship healthy to prevent tragedies.
S.F. plane crash: Victims identified as 16-year-old Chinese girls (2013, June 7). In Los Angeles Times. Retrieved July 9, 2013, from http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-airplane-crash-students-20130707,0,66810.story
97 5.8 China Southern Airlines plane crash (n.d.). In China Wikipedia. Retrieved July 9, 2013, from http://www.86wiki.com/view/3500948.htm
Northouse, Peter. Leadership: Theory and Practice. 6th ed. Los Angeles: SAGE, 2013. Print.