The Dynamics of Strategic Militant Managerialism: Analysis of a "Strike"‪.‬

Conceptual Foundations One hundred and eleven hours and forty-five minutes between the midnight of September 7/8 and mid afternoon of September 13, 2009 saw an action packed drama which gripped one of India's private airlines which had assiduously built up the image of a truly world class airline with state of art aircrafts, skilled pilots, professional cabin crew and commercial staff and use of modern technology for efficient customer interface and service quality. Given the standing of the airline in the Indian civil aviation firmament and the sheer audacity of the action by the pilots of the airline and the equally aggressive reaction by the airline management, the 5 day industrial relations thriller was covered extensively and in depth by the electronic and print media making it possible for the independent observers and researchers to get a fairly accurate picture of what transpired during the live action. Another major advantage from a research angle was the incredibly candid articulation of the viewpoints on various issues by the stakeholders engaged in the action. The media coverage combined with the candid expression of views helped in reconstruction of the emotions and the thinking behind the actions which forms the basis of this analysis and interpretation of the event to gain insights into the dynamics of industrial relations in a liberalized, marketized contemporary context.