Southwest Airlines Corporate Culture

People – One of the many things good about Southwest Airlines is that the kinds of people who are heroes of the organization are people who care and go out of their way to help the customers. They’re the ones who are celebrated and held up as shining examples. Additionally, high levels of satisfaction among employees can be attributed to Southwest employee policy. Happy employees can provide high quality service and bring more customers back. To reinforce the culture of hard work, high-energy, fun, local autonomy, and creativity, the company provided continuous education program to employees. If you can help someone out or brighten someone’s day, be it a co-worker or a passenger, you’re doing your job well.

Southwest Airlines corporate philosophy can be credited to one of the founders Herb Kelleher. It is an airline company with a unique culture “goofiness”, which keeps the morale of its employees high (Smith, 2004), and is a company that welcomes fun, dedication, and effort. Southwest believes that a happy employee will create a happy customer, and will create loyal customers. Mr. Kelleher effectively implemented its style, culture and emphasis on quality in the daily actives at Southwest (Smith, 2004), and he did so without the help of outside consultants.

This paper will give a historical overview of the company, discuss the ingredients to the company success, offer some financial strengths and present a final conclusion. Section I: Southwest's History Twenty-seven years ago, Rollin King, a San Antonio entrepreneur who owned a small commuter air service, and Kelleher, who was a lawyer at the time, got together and decided to start a different kind of airline. They began with one simple notion. If you get your passengers to their destinations when they want to get there, on time, at the lowest possible fares, and make certain they have a good time doing it, people will fly your airline. And you know what? They were right. Within those 27 years, Southwest Airlines became the fifth largest major airline in America. Today, they have flown over 50 million passengers a year to 54 cities all over the southwest and beyond. They do it over 2,300 times a day with over 267 of the newest jets in the nation and fly only one type aircraft; the B-737. The average age of their fleet is only 8.4 years and they own over sixty percent of them. In May 1988, they were the first airline to win the coveted U.S. Department of Transportation Triple Crown for a month - Best On-time Record, Best Baggage Handling, and Fewest Customer Complaints. Since then, they've won it

What are the key success factors for Southwest airlines? What are the key things it does to keep its costs lower than competitors?

At Southwest Airlines, the company’s business strategy has a positive effect on the training they provide to their employees. Southwest Airlines is a Texas based airline that started up in 1971 (Corporate Fact Sheet). Over the years the airline has been recognized for its outstanding customer service and its low airfare fees. Due to their excellent customer service, the company has been ranked number one in customer satisfaction in 2013 by the U.S Department of Transportation. In. 2015, Southwest airlines was recognized as one of the Best Places to Work in the Glassdoor Employees’ Choice Award. The reason that Southwest airlines is recognized for all these great things is because they obtain a good organizational control over the airline.

Some of the core competencies and competitive advantages that exist in the Southwest organization are the low-fare and high customer satisfaction ratings. The American Customer Satisfaction Index has rated Southwest first among airlines for highest customer service satisfaction for over 17 years. In 2011, the Department of Transportation rated Southwest highest among all major airlines in terms of the lowest

Southwest’s management deserves a grade of A+, it is hard to see what Southwest could have done much better. The best examples being the company’s array of employee management practices and their strong commitment to identifying and implementing ways to keep its costs low. Southwest is a company with no glaring weaknesses or critical operating problems, but there are areas of concern. Southwest has lost some of its cost advantages in recent years, rival airlines have been slashing costs to survive, particularly in the areas of pilot salaries and employee salaries. Southwest has also been moving into airports with higher landing fees and more congestion.

Founded in 1971, Southwest Airlines is a low cost carrier that last year celebrated 41 consecutive years of profitability by posting record earnings in 2014 (PRNewswire, 2014). While its main competitive advantage is being able to provide service at a lower cost than other airlines, it also is able to differentiate itself from competitors through excellent customer service and through response in the form of rapid airport turn-around times and a larger number of flight options than its competitors. There are two main constants that have been critical to its success. From a corporate culture standpoint, the company values and empowers employees at all levels, creating a favorable labor relations climate. From an operations standpoint, the company has maintained the same strategic focus in four key areas that have kept the profits rolling in despite external upheavals, such as spikes in fuel prices, mega-mergers that solidified competition, and even the financial meltdown of 2008 and the 9/11 terrorist attacks, which saw drastic cutbacks in both business and leisure discretionary travel (Mutzabaugh, 2014). This paper will provide an overview of the company’s operating philosophy and explain how those four key areas relate to its overall strategy.

Southwest Airline employees mainly belong to the Union and they are mainly full time workers. Since the Union has demand more services and benefits for their members, the company gain limited profit. To fix this the company should hire more part time workers instead of full time workers because they do not have to provide full benefits and instead focusing on gaining profit. And also, Southwest Airlines should make all flights within the states point-to-point flights, and give their employees a strict time lines to alleviate delays. This will keep an accurate time frame for customers. As far as the flight concerns, Southwest Airline has only one dependable

There are several reasons why Southwest Airlines is so successful. One of the many reasons is that they are known for having one of the lowest prices in the airline business. They try to keep everything as simple as possible: no meals, no assigned seats, and only one class service A second reason why they are successful is because Southwest only has one type of plane they fly, the Boeing 737 series. With only having one type of plane, it saves them million on maintenance cost. They would save time and money having to train their employees to work on/operate one type of plane instead of three or four. Another reason why they are successful is because they have an enjoyable workforce. Southwest has the most unionized workforce in the nation. Their employees are the highest paid in the industry because Southwest knocked away benefits and salaries.

Since its creation in 1967, Southwest Airlines has established itself as a serious contender in the airline industry. The company grew from a small Texan company to a multimillion dollar airline giant over the past 50 years. Over the years, Southwest has seen continued growth and profit, and continues to outperform other airlines. “Sustained rapid growth has seen Southwest overtake rivals such as American and United to become the USA's top carrier of domestic passengers" stated Southwest Chief Executive Officer Gary Kelly.(Mutzabaugh, 2017). The company's success, however, can be attributed to many things, especially its organizational culture.

Southwest Airlines has responded well to the control mechanisms in place at the airline. The corporate culture at the airline breeds new leaders. The people of Southwest Airlines are

Kelly instituted strategic objectives to ensure Southwest continued to hire great people, care for their customers as if they were guests in their home, keep fares and operating costs low, and remain prepared for bad times through strong financial positioning.

Southwest Airlines began operations in 1971, and has remained profitable after 44 years. The company has experienced challenges such as high fuel prices, a recession, and even the tragedy of 9/11. Their strategy is unique and one-of-a-kind. They have innovated the airline industry by keeping costs low while not sacrificing quality or punctuality.

Southwest Airlines was created in the late 1960’s by a businessperson Rolling King, and law school graduate Herb Kelleher, who sought a faster travel time between Houston, Dallas, and San Antonio, Texas (Dess, et al., 2014, p. C137). After overcoming all of the antagonism and legal problems of many major airlines, Southwest was able to take its first flight in 1971 (Dess, et al., 2014, p.C137). With a dedication and will power to grow the company, King and Kelleher sought out ways to increase growth.