OL 215 : Management Southwest Airlines Final Project One Submission: Application of the Fundamental Principles of Management for a Successful Company

A Successful Company: Southwest Airlines 2

Final Project One: Profile of a Successful Company
Jennifer Moore
Southern New Hampshire University
OL-215: Principles of Management
March 10th ,2021

Introduction

A major American airline called, Southwest Airlines, is based in Dallas, Texas. After 50 years of service, Southwest Airlines, continues to succeed in their industry with exemplary customer service. Servicing over 1 million passengers and employing over mor than 50,000, this company has become one of the largest domestic air carriers in 2003 and maintains that ranking based on the U.S. Department of Transportation’s most recent reporting of domestic originating passengers boarded (Southwest, 2020)
The mission of Southwest Airlines is dedication to the highest quality of Customer Service delivered with a sense of warmth, friendliness, individual pride, and Company Spirit (Evans, 2019). The vision of Southwest is to be the world’s most loved, most efficient, and most profitable airline (Southwest, 2020). Southwest has executed some programs that reclaim a broader customer base, to make sure the company keeps up with their mission and vision statements. Both the EarlyBird check-in and Business Select were executed to intrigue more business travelers. The Business Select option allows earlier boarding, security, and priority check in. The EarlyBird option allows its passengers to check in automatically check them in for a better boarding position. According to Southwest, they do 6% or 5% of boarding by Business Select and double with EarlyBird. These combined revenues in 2013 were nearly $295 million.
At Southwest Airlines, employees come first. This airline puts employee happiness above customer satisfaction. It might seem unfamiliar, but to them it makes perfect sense. This approach seems to be working all right for the Dallas-based airline. In order of importance, Southwest ranks employees first, customer second, and shareholders third. “We believe that if we treat our employees right, they will treat our customers right, and in turn that results in increased business and profits that make everyone happy” (Martin 2015). Over 85% of employees say they are proud to work for American Airlines, and they are ranked #1 for least amount of customer complaints.

Mission and Vision

The mission of Southwest Airlines is dedication to the highest quality of Customer Service delivered with a sense of warmth, friendliness, individual pride, and Company Spirit (Evans, 2019). The vision of Southwest is to be the world’s most loved, most efficient, and most profitable airline (Southwest, 2020). Southwest has conveyed their mission and vision by showing high confidence across many levels and putting their employees first. The employee’s happiness is shown through the customer service they provide. A validation of how the importance of their employees, a former CEO included his salary in the pay freeze which lasted over 5 years. It was intended for the pilot’s union, and it was roughly $100M is losses for the CEO.

Strategic Management Plan

To ensure that a repeated goal is met, Southwest’s levels of management focus on a specific part of the structure. The top-level management make sure the long-term planning and decision making go as planned. The middle-level management focus on organization and resource budgeting. Then the lower-management lead and control, issuing the vision and creating policies. As proof, the management plan shows the success of the company by the turnover rate. With the roles of the company clearly stated and executed, all three levels, from top level to lower level, can focus on the company’s vision more confidently.

Organizational Culture

Southwest’s organizational culture supports the employee involvement, satisfaction, morale, and motivation to aim for high performance that relates to the mission and vision (Brown, 2019). Three main characteristics of Southwest Airlines culture are as follows:
1. Employee-centered appreciation, recognition, celebration
2. For employees: Living the Southwest Way
3. For customers and other business stakeholders: Working the Southwest Way
Employees are at the center of the organizational culture of Southwest Airlines (Brown, 2019).

Decision Making

All level of employees at Southwest are included and considered in the decision-making process. The employees are inspired to voice opinions and the majority are appealed for doing so. To give you an idea, the airlines included the ideas and suggestions that were made by the new group of flight attendants, to help create uniforms.

Principles of Ethics

Southwest place a high value on honesty, integrity, and personal responsibility (Southwest, 2020). They are committed to maintaining the highest standards of ethical business practices. Transfarency and fairness are at the core of ethical principles that Southwest ensures. Defined by Southwest.com, Transfarency is a philosophy in which customers are treated honestly and fairly, and low fares stay low (Southwest, 2020).

Human Resources

Southwest Airlines receives a job application every few seconds. They choose wisely on their prospected new hires and look for three attributes: a warrior spirit, a servant’s heart, and a fun-loving attitude. By their way of choosing employees has proven why it is important they follow these attributes. So, hiring for values seems to be working from our employee’s perspective as well as Southwest’s (Weber, 2015).

Conclusion

The mission and vision have seemed to stay constant with Southwest Airlines, even with many different changes throughout the years. The mission of Southwest Airlines is dedication to the highest quality of Customer Service delivered with a sense of warmth, friendliness, individual pride, and Company Spirit (Evans, 2019). To establish and maintain excellent customer service, Southwest Airlines, firmly believes in taking care of their employees first, which in return drives them to excellent customer services skills.

References
Company Overview. (n.d.). Retrieved September 13, 2020, from http://investors.southwest.com/
our-company/company-overview
Company Overview. (n.d.). Retrieved September 13, 2020, from http://investors.southwest.com/
our-company/company-overview
Company Overview. (n.d.). Retrieved March 10, 2021, from http://investors.southwest.com/
our-company/company-overview
Evans, L. (2019, May 30). Southwest Airlines Co.’s Mission Statement & Vision Statement (An
Analysis). Retrieved September 14, 2020, from http://panmore.com/southwest-airlines-
vision-statement-mission-statement-analysis
Evans, L. (2019, May 30). Southwest Airlines Co.’s Mission Statement & Vision Statement (An
Analysis). Retrieved September 14, 2020, from http://panmore.com/southwest-airlines-
vision-statement-mission-statement-analysis
Evans, L. (2019, May 30). Southwest Airlines Co.’s Mission Statement & Vision Statement (An
Analysis). Retrieved March 10, 2021, from http://panmore.com/southwest-airlines-
vision-statement-mission-statement-analysis
Martin, Emmie. (2015, July 29). A Major airline says there’s something it values more than its customers, and there’s a good reason why. Retrieved March 11, 2021, from https://www.businessinsider.com/southwest-airlines-puts-employees-first-2015-7

Weber, Julie. (2015, December 02). How Southwest Airlines Hires Such Dedicated People. Retrieved March 12, 2021, from https://hbr.org/2015/12/how-southwest-airlines-hires such-dedicated-people#