Certainly in the large airline that most of my career was in, the employees and the unions ran it ( well) through a complex web of personal and professional relationships which just bypassed the managers. From that we achieved a good product despite some real rubbish instructions from on high. When all the services were outsourced the managers actually had to manage and they weren't and aren't up to it.
This is an extremely important insight. There are two components, the first, employees's have succeeded
in spite of management. The second is the outsourcing loses this inherent "goodwill".
Perhaps that is why management is so befuddled, despite their best efforts, management have found it difficult to kill off mainline QF because of the employee effort. Look at how much technical work goes on by the pilots union, for the benefit of Qantas. Show me any other workplace where the employee pays (union fee) to improve the safety & efficiency of their employer. This is but one example.
Excellent insight Wunwing.