Southwest Airlines Case Study

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Southwest Airlines is an extraordinary business in the history of American airlines. It has been a competitive leader in the airline industry with the legendary. To better analyze the management of change in Southwest Airlines, it is important to understand what is management of change and how it works. Management of Change, or MOC, is a best practice used to ensure that safety, health and environmental risks are controlled when a company makes changes in their facilities, documentation, personnel, or operations (Gabele Eduard, 1981).
Figure 4：management of change
In 1970s, the airline industry in American is relatively mature. Basically, other airline company has carved up more profitable long-haul routes. Southwest Airlines as a new entrant could not find many footholds on the airline industry. Because of the high unit cost and tight profits of short-haul routes, nobody else would go after it. In that case, Southwest Airlines at its inception did not put their competitors set to other airlines, but to take business from ground road transport business. The route from San Francisco to Las Vegas, Southwest Airlines had reported a low price as $ 19, as we known, this price is rarely buy a bucket of gasoline in the United States. Low prices mean lower operating costs and greater efficiency in the use of assets.
First, reduce cost and improve the service quality. Southwest Airlines makes all flights are taking off and landing at secondary airports. By using this strategy, Airline Company not only can reduce cost but also can reduce the flight delays caused by the air traffic. Second, Southwest Airlines do not apply the flight transfer, meals on the flight and they do not assign passengers a seat number. Obviously, flight transfer an...

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...lieved to be efficient and timely in the same time. So, managers and employees must work together to reach the common goal-quality customer service.

Gittell, J. (2006). The Southwest Airlines way: using the power of relationships to achieve high performance. The McGraw Hills Companies. Retrieved September 23, 2008 from http://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=BapojOGVz5cC&oi=fnd&pg=PR9&dq=The+Southwest+Airlines+Way:+Using+the+Power+of+Relationships+to+Achieve+High+Performance.&ots=WtJpzRQvlI&sig=JPMBuXwzyEEfYfvv18NwdLxz0TY#PPR3,M1

Cleveland, Herb. "About Southwest." - Southwest Airlines. Southwest AirTran, 14 May 2014. Web. 25 May 2014.

Gabele, Eduard. "The Management of Change." International Studies of Management & Organization 11.1, Business Administration and Organization Studies in the Federal Republic of Germany (1981): 56-74. Web.

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