Studyspark Study Document

Southwest Airlines Research Paper

Pages:3 (1071 words)

Sources:5

Subject:Business

Topic:Southwest Airlines

Document Type:Research Paper

Document:#72998436


Southwest Airlines: The corporate culture of the LUV airline

Southwest Airlines is known for a unique corporate culture that is particularly distinctive, in contrast to its competitors. Southwest Airlines has "a raucous corporate culture that is the exception in the grim airline industry" (Bailey 2008). From the Airline's inception, its founder and chairman, Herbert D. Kelleher ensured that there was "a startling amount of office hugging and kissing in lieu of handshakes; elaborate practical jokes; and on-the-premises beer drinking at headquarters, as long as it is after 5 p.m." (Bailey 2008). The Airlines' quirky sense of humor is communicated through everything from its abbreviation on the stock exchange (LUV) to its behavior of flight attendance on board, which often involves cheering, singing and dancing. "The service, while no-frills, is generally cheerful. And on many days that is enough to distinguish it from other airlines, where the workers have a hard time masking bitterness over pay cuts, increased workloads and often contentious relations with management" (Bailey 2008).

This is deliberately orchestrated by Southwest, which takes pride in hiring personalities not simply focusing on the candidate's resume. "We at Southwest put a lot of effort into our selection process. We received over 100,000 applications every year and hired a very small percentage of those people, maybe 2,000 or 3,000. We used to say that we hired for attitude and trained for skill" (Holstein 2008). Character and personality cannot be trained, unlike skills. Training of all employees is extensive, and regardless of the position filled by the employee, the stress is upon understanding Southwest as a holistic corporate culture. Southwest tries to enable all employees to understand how they 'fit in' to the processes of the company, which is designed to eliminate the interdepartmental and interpersonal rivalry which has plagued many airlines. Every "new employee would come in for orientation. It would be all sorts of employees, everybody from pilots and ramp agents to reservation agents to mechanics to executives" (Holstein 2008). There are no executive dining halls or separate areas where employees are segregated by rank and function. This creates a 'we're all in this together' collective mentality.

Southwest also views it as incumbent upon itself to create a positive corporate culture that supports its people. "You can hire great people and put them into a lousy environment and make them bad employees. The next thing is to create the culture where people feel like they are using their brains, they're using their creativity, they're allowed to be themselves and have a sense of humor, and they understand what the mission of the company is" (Holstein 2008). Southwest sees no contradiction between encouraging employees to be creative while still upholding the organizational culture. We "Live the Southwest Way,' and our Employees exemplify this with their Warrior Spirits, Servant's Hearts, and Fun-LUVing Attitudes, but each Employee is also encouraged to 'color outside of the lines' when appropriate in doing what is right by our Customers and our Company" writes Amy Marhoffer, Culture Communications and Planning Specialist on the Southwest blog (Marhoffer 2011). Top managers periodically go out into the field to visit places where workers are 'really working,' to understand how the business operates and to learn from…


Sample Source(s) Used

References

Bailey, Jeff. (2008). Southwest. Way Southwest. The New York Times. Retrieved:

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/13/business/13southwest.html?pagewanted=all

Holstein, William. (2008). At Southwest, the culture drives success. Businessweek. Retrieved:

http://www.businessweek.com/stories/2008-02-21/at-southwest-the-culture-drives-successbusinessweek-business-news-stock-market-and-financial-advice

Cite this Document

Join thousands of other students and "spark your studies."

Sign Up for FREE
Related Documents

Studyspark Study Document

Southwest Airlines

Pages: 4 (1223 words) Sources: 5 Subject: Transportation Document: #99964912

Southwest Airlines Effectiveness of Southwest Leadership Southwest management has defined a clear and simple business purpose. The management has also chosen the right business model that supports the business purpose. The management consistently demonstrates the core values and behaviors derived from the key business purpose (Emerald, 2005). The quality of the airline customer service is synonymous with warmth, friendliness, individual pride, and company spirit. This has kept the staff morale high. The

Studyspark Study Document

Southwest Airlines

Pages: 3 (1009 words) Sources: 3 Subject: Transportation Document: #67596028

Southwest Airlines originally began operation in 1967, but as Air Southwest Co. In 1971 its name was changed to Southwest Air Co. The purpose behind its foundation was to provide passengers with a cheap means of air travel within Texas. Today they have a fleet of 550 Boeing 737s and 37000 employees. Although it's a relatively small, domestic airline, taking passengers to 73 American cities, but it provides remarkable customer

Studyspark Study Document

Southwest Airlines

Pages: 3 (1053 words) Sources: 1+ Subject: Transportation Document: #94579745

Southwest Airlines The deregulation of the United States domestic civil aviation industry in 1978 saw airlines begin to compete freely. However, the capital-intensive nature of the business, along with undifferentiated products and services, has led to 120 airline bankruptcies since then. In the light of this context, Southwest's ability to compete is particularly interesting as it has not only continued to expand, but has been the only one to earn a

Studyspark Study Document

Southwest Airlines

Pages: 8 (2322 words) Sources: 1 Subject: Business Document: #1434238

Southwest Airlines Case Analysis Southwest Airlines is a company that has grown from a small regional carrier in Texas and surrounding states to the largest U.S.-based airline. The primary strategy of the company is to be the low-cost, no frills option for people wanting to travel within the United States. Recently, Southwest acquired another carrier so they will soon begin international flights to the Caribbean and Mexico. This paper discusses the

Studyspark Study Document

Southwest Airlines

Pages: 3 (1140 words) Sources: 1 Subject: Transportation Document: #90556961

Southwest Airlines Value chain and resource-based view of the firm Southwest Airlines has a famously unique business model for an airline, one which has enabled it to sustain a profit even during times when the rest of the airline industry's fortunes were flagging. Southwest is a budget airline that offers relatively limited flights to a fixed number of destinations, in comparison to its competitors. However, it strives to offer superior service, thanks

Studyspark Study Document

Southwest Airlines

Pages: 19 (5173 words) Sources: 1+ Subject: Transportation Document: #73527022

Southwest Airlines Before 1978, the federal government regulated the U.S. airline industry. Airlines were given profitable routes but were also obligated to serve unprofitable routes in the public's interest. Increases in airline costs were routinely passed along to customers due to the lack of price competition. In 1978, the airline deregulation act enabled airlines to set their own fares and enter or exit routes without government approval (Lam, 2003). The major airlines

Join thousands of other students and

"spark your studies".