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Culture analysis of southwest airlines
Southwest airlines organizational culture
Southwest airlines organizational culture
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Southwest Airlines Company’s Culture Analysis In this segment of the paper, I will analyze the organizational culture of the Southwest Airlines. The airline, which is categorized as a regional airline is known for its profitability and excellent customer service within the transportation industry (SWA, 2015).
What Are The Espoused Values and Beliefs of The Company? Values and beliefs of a company can attract investors to a company or deter investors from a company. Fortunately, the SWA has attractive values and beliefs. According to SWA’s homepage (2015), the Southwest Airlines mission is “dedication to the highest quality of customer service delivered with a sense of warmth, friendliness, individual pride, and Company Spirit”.
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The SWA mission statement for their employees enumerates and reinforces the belief that providing their employees with a stable work environment, equal opportunity for learning and personal growth, creativity and innovation will improve the effectiveness of Southwest Airlines, and consequently increased customer satisfaction (SWA, 2015). Furthermore, it is commendable that, the three core values of the company which reiterates the value of work and people, but allows the employees to have fun, are reinforced by the company frequently. From all indications, these unique core values have partially helped to catapult the airline to the financial statute they are enjoying today (“Corporate Value,”2011). Undoubtedly, the SWA beliefs and values are unique and have been well propagated within the company, and the result is a very profitable company. Examining the organizational culture of SWA will entail the examination of the following characteristics, physical characteristics, public documents, behavior, and folklore. Physical …show more content…
However, as stated above, the company has phenomenal mission statements and values which enumerate their commitment to their employees, the communities across the United States and their customers. This is evident in the way SWA proudly display on their web page the photos of employees at work or at employees’ events; photos of the communities they do business in, and photos and stories of their customers (SWA, 2015). Impressively, accessing the annual report for SWA is very easy. The SWA annual report is very detailed and easy to comprehend and it includes the company’s financial statement, future financial forecast, operational details, and new innovative ideas to mention a few. In addition, there is news and event archive on the company’s webpage and the company has its own official in-flight magazine that reaches approximately 3.5 million travelers every issue (SWA, 2015).
Overall, the availability of information about SWA’s operations, corporate responsibility, financial statutes to name a few is impressive, having such information readily available allows investors to make informed decisions. Behavior of SWA
Southwest Airlines is one of the most successful airlines in the United States. There has never been layoffs or strikes in the history of the company, although there were several times when layoffs could have been justified, including the months following the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. However, Southwest's Mission statement says “Above all, Employees will be provided the same concern, respect, and caring attitude within the organization that they are expected to share externally with every Southwest Customer.” (Southwest, 1988). The Airline has always believed that their corporate culture is one of the keys to their success. The culture recognizes that employees have emotional intelligence and that their attitudes and morale are key to the teamwork and creative environment.
This Company made their mission statement in 2012 and according to me this mission and vision statement is good but these need loads of changes as I have read in this course mission statement should be:-
Southwest airlines is one of the most widely respected companies among those profiled by Firms of Endearment. They are recognized for having one of the best corporate cultures, which is emphatically encouraged from the top down. Southwest’s model clearly exemplifies the concept of servant leadership, and we will elaborate on how this creates a firm of endearment.
The U & T Labor Relations Consulting Firm works together with clients to provide expert, professional advice to solve labor relation and human resource problems within an organization. U & T strives to cater to meet the specific needs of the targeted company. Our consultants work one on one with the clients to identify the key needs of the organization, prescribe labor relations interventions, and explain to our clients how to implement them. Labor costs can charge a company over half of what their operating expenses are for the financial year. We help our clients retain a competitive advantage by helping to reduce labor costs while increasing productivity within a company. Any company can become successful when labor costs are managed. U & T provides services that include analyzing labor costs, administer labor relations training, advisement and administering of collective bargaining agreements, and mediation.
The company’s cultural change, which is still ongoing, may lead to a decrease in employees’ morale. As AirTran’s employees continue to embrace Southwest Airline culture, the issues emerges from this organizational change remain priority.
“Our people are our single greatest strength and most enduring long-term competitive advantage,” reports CEO Gary Kelly on the Southwest Airline website (https://www.southwest.com/html/about-southwest). The company works hard to hire great individuals and then rewards and supports them to make satisfied, productive employees (Ross & Beath, 2007). In fact, Southwest Airlines has received repeated recognition as a great place to work (“Southwest Corporate Fact Sheet,” n.d.). As a result, Southwest Airlines is able to provide a low-cost, fun-cultured experience with excellent customer service (Ross & Beath, 2007). This has allowed the company to build its final strength in this evaluation: a strong brand
Southwest Airlines strategy of focusing on short haul passenger and providing rates as low as one third of their competitors, they have seen tremendous growth in the last decade. Market share for top city pairs on Southwest's schedule has reached 80% to 85%. Maintaining the largest fleet of 737's in the world and utilizing point-to-point versus the hub-and-spoke method of connection philosophy allowed Southwest to provide their service to more people at a lower cost. By putting the employee first, Southwest has found the key to success in the airline business. A happy worker is a more productive one as well as a better service provider. Southwest will continue to reserve their growth in the future by entering select markets only after careful market research.
Southwest Airlines is also well-known for having a very productive and loyal workforce. Such loyalty and productivity among the employees were brought by the way Southwest’s management treats them. As they say, the employees are willing to work hard for the company because they feel appreciated by the top management. Southwest maintains good employee relations because what they believe in is that if employees are happy, satisfied, dedicated, and energetic, they'll take real good care of the customers.
The marketing approach of Southwest Airlines is built upon their strong business model. They have successfully managed to target two specific market segments of the airline industry while remaining profitable. Their strategy is simple, to offer frequent non-stop flights with the lowest costs which appeal to both the business and budget travelers. By segmenting their target audience to specific demographics and ticket pricing, passengers know exactly what they are getting for the price they pay.
Advertising: As one of the largest domestic airlines, Southwest Airlines has an enormous advertising budget to sustain its presence and increase its market share through focusing on the benefits of flying Southwest over its competitors. Southwest recognizes that flying is no longer a pleasurable experience for many customers, even on Southwest, historically a budget airline. Even though Southwest is often regarded as a no-frills airline, it still attempts to build goodwill from its customers based on its advertising. Of the $249 million it spent on advertising in 2011, Southwest Airlines is unique in that it does not sell additional ad space on the exterior of its aircraft. Many domestic airlines have begun selling aircraft exterior space as a way to increase revenue, but Southwest Airlines insists that it wants to keep its product and advertisi...
This is why they have become a company with high retention rates. Southwest Airlines is voted “the best place to work” for a simple reason. The company invests in their employees and is committed to their values and vision through training and development.
There are few things that are impressive about Southwest Airlines first one is how they treat the employees. For Southwest Airlines employees are first and customers are second. If the employees are treated well that will bring in happy customers. Next is that Southwest is not only with their low prices but is able to create a competitive advantage by offering a fun and humorous experience when flying. Finally another impressive fact is when Herb Kelleher’s retire from CEO position yet remained a Southwest employee till July 2014. Even after the retirement he was still active with the Southwest Airlines that reflected his enthusiasm and dedication for the
This essay gives a basic idea of what organizational culture is, and emphasis on the controversial issues of managing organizational cultures. As there are various definitions for organizational culture, and none of them are universally agreed. Therefore, for an easier understanding by readers, the definition of organizational culture given in this essay focusing on levels of culture, and will be discussed t together with Schein's(1983) framework. Before talking about managing organizational cultures, the types will be introduced first. Because, there are some descriptions about managing different types of organizational cultures, in the following content.
The mission of Southwest Airlines is a dedication to the highest quality of service delivered with warmth, friendliness, individual pride, and company spirit (Mission…, 2007). The company also provides opportunities for learning and personal growth to each employee. Creativity and innovation is very important and highly encouraged, for the purposes of improving effectiveness. Employees are to be provided the same concern, respect, and caring attitude within the organization that the employees are expected to share with the customer. Southwest Airlines was initially created to be a low-cost alternative to high price of intra-Texas air carriers (Freiberg, 1996). Southwest’s fares were originally supposed to compete with car and bus transportation. It was a little airline, and it would withstand the test of time. As a discount, no-frills airline, it would provide stiff competition for larger airlines. Their strategy was to operate at low cost, offering no food, no movies, no first class, and no reserved seats. They created their own market and provided increased turnaround times at the gate, by avoiding hub-and-spoke airports and opting for short-haul, direct flights. Through this market approach, Southwest has a majority of market share in the markets they serve.
This paper reveals the strategies that have been used by SIA, with backgrounds on their sustainability and sources of advantage, the way these strategies changed over the years and how to continue.