Southwest Airlines is well known for its best customer services starting from flight to cargo services. The major factor that contributed to this success is its employees. Southwest Airlines’ employees express their loyalty to the company by working hard to provide the best customers services to the customers. The reason behind their willingness to work hard is reflected in how the company treats them. According to Southwest Airlines:
“we are committed to provide our Employees a stable work environment with equal opportunity for learning and personal growth. Creativity and innovation are encouraged for improving the effectiveness of Southwest Airlines. Above all, Employees will be provided the same concern, respect, and caring attitude within
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By adhering to Machiavelli’s idea, Southwest Airlines has won its employees’ loyalty.
Future Vision
Predicting the future is hard; things can be changed inconsistently. However, for a competent leader, he needs to be able to think further about the future to prepare for any changes might occur unexpectedly. This strategy will give him an ability to respond well to an immediate change and come up with the right solution to fix the issue. In The Prince, Machiavelli recommended that having future vision will make a leader alerts to the issue during the bad time or benefit during a time of good fortune. to Respond well to Changes is by Thinking Ahead of Time
The ability to prepare for future changes during the time of peace will help a prince respond well to unfortunate events. As Machiavelli described, “A wise prince… must never take things easy in times of peace, but rather use the latter assiduously, in order to be able to reap the profit in times of adversity. Then, when his fortunate change, he will be found ready to resist adversity” (The Prince, 49). The main part of this strategy is to never assume that everything is stable. He needs to take a step further in thinking ahead to prepare for things that will happen without his acknowledgment, so that he can secure his good fortune or to respond to immediate hardship that will be affected his people and territory. Southwest Airlines was seen to use this concept as one of its business strategy to secure its company’s operation. This strategy yielded the company an incredible
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 book is important to business students because it shows that even the most seasoned executive runs into unexpected challenges and can find themselves in uncharted territory. Jim Barton’s experiences and lessons can be lessons for anyone. Any employee, whether they are support staff or a top executive, should always maintain an open mind and be ready to learn from a situation or the people around them at any time.
Southwest Airlines is one of the biggest United States airlines which prides itself in its low-cost strategy to attract and keep up more clients. On a given day, Southwest Airlines operates over 3,400 flights. It has a more than of 46,000 employees. To reduce maintenance and training costs, Southwest Airlines use only Boeing 737s. As of today the company operates 647 Boeing 737s, which fly to 93 destinations across the US. Southwest Airlines have been able to survive even when faced with stiff competition because of its low cost approach. However, this success has also been attributed to the high level of care and appreciation on its clients and employees.
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
If the short haul passenger was the backbone of Southwest Airlines success, then their 737s were the lifelines that supported it. By choosing the 737 as the airplane for all of Southwest's flights, the company saved time and resources in training its employees. The crew could be easily substituted for one another due to the extensive training on the 737. Low costs and, therefore, low fares are an enormous competitive advantage, when combined with their high-quality and loyal workforce. A very unique culture was found at Southwest Airlines among all of its employees.
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.
Since 1987, when the Department of Transportation began tracking Customer Satisfaction statistics, Southwest has consistently led the entire airline industry with the lowest ratio of complaints per passengers boarded. Many airlines have tried to copy Southwest’s business model, and the Culture of Southwest is admired and emulated by corporations and organizations in all walks of life. Always the innovator, Southwest pioneered Senior Fares, a same-day air freight delivery service, and Ticketless Travel. Southwest led the way with the first airline web page—southwest.com, DING, the first-ever direct link to Customer’s computer desktops that delivers live updates on the hottest deals, and the first airline corporate blog, Nuts About Southwest. Our Share the Spirit community programs make Southwest the hometown airline of every city we serve.
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.
Southwest's philosophy of "Service for Smiles and Profits" encourages employees to treat customer service as the most important aspect of their job. It appears that when employees strive for this high level of service, the rest takes care of itself and success is inevitable (Amanor-Boadu, 2007). Southwest Airline's management structure is designed to carefully direct the activities of employees while still maintaining the spirit of "fun" that is the cornerstone of the airlines' customer service success (Lancaster, 1999). The fundamental concept of management at Southwest is the notion of a "loose-tight" design. Within the context of tight rules of conduct, employees are encouraged to take a wide degree of leeway. For example, the company encourages employees to make their own customer service decisions. Employees are encouraged to try new things, knowing that they will not be punished for innovation as long as they do not violate safety standards, endanger crew or passengers, or keep a plane from taking off or landing on time; this allowed not only to increase the speed of service but it allowed to increase the quality of it too.
Southwest has done what others in its industry seem to struggle to do, which is to make flying fun. This has been the cornerstone for how the Southwest operates, thinks, and plans. Many of the policies, procedures, and practices Southwest has used are aimed directly at providing patrons with a unique, fun, and enjoyable experience. This value and the effort Southwest has made to place customers at the forefront of its plans and strategy, has paid off as the company is one of the most popular and well-respected in the transportation industry.
Southwest Airlines provides a Career Development Group that helps employees focus on personal and career growth. This is accomplished by working on a component that aligns the employee’s personal development needs and strengths so they can grow more. It also encompasses a skills assessment that’s structured toward helping employees align their degree to a specific job within the company. As stated before, Southwest’s purpose is to encourage employee fulfillment and by their Career Development services help them become more fulfilled in their jobs. According to their philosophy, Southwest Airlines hires for attitude and trains for skills.
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
Although many companies are in business to make a profit, Southwest claims that their primary goal is not profit maximization. However, they have been consistently profitable by making air travel affordable to those who previously could not afford it (Freiberg, 1996).Southwest says the customer comes second, showing their devotion to employees. By taking care of their employees, the company encourages employees to take care of the customers. Employees are...
This report discusses how management prepares them to anticipate change in the business environment in the long run and short run too. Change is very important for each and every organization in today’s world because world today has become a daily changing place and in order to keep pace with the changing world we need to bring about a constant change in our organizations, too. There are certain methods by which the senior management can prepare them for anticipating the need for change. The first method is by doing a detailed research and studying for the change. The second method involves having the awareness about the ever changing needs of people and the change process. The third method discusses about having a complete understanding about the compulsion and urgency for change. Lastly, being mentally tough for the change process is the fourth method to prepare the management for anticipating change in the short and long run.