Management: The Frustrated President

When Marion Sadler moved up to the presidency of American Airlines last January, he gained a seat in the cockpit and was handed a flight plan that called for higher altitudes for American. But he was not granted a firm grip on the stick. C. R. Smith, American's strong-minded president ever since the airline was founded in 1934, remained the boss from his new post of chairman. William J. Hogan, who had been Sadler's rival for the job, continued to hold on tightly to the purse strings as executive vice president and chairman of the finance committee. For Sadler, 53, who had climbed from ramp attendant to president in 23 years, the built-in frustrations proved too much. Last week he resigned for "personal reasons."

Although he knew of Sadler's growing restiveness and had several times .before talked him out of resigning, gruff C. R. Smith, 65, seemed caught by surprise. He did not even have time to pick a successor. For the time being, in effect, Smith reassumed the presidency himself, and American returned to being the one-man show that it had been for years.