The Role Of Communication And Culture At Southwest

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 (SWA) has been considered as the most successful airline company in the United States. SWA had the lowest fare for about 45% lower than other airlines, however, still being profitable for many years. Their successful company also has been recognized in many reputable business magazines and newspapers, such as Fortune and The Wall Street Journal as they consistently achieved appreciations for their well-managed organizational communication practices. They unconventional ways of managing their employees and running their business showed significant improvements in their performance. Therefore, it is essential to review and understand their actions and applications accordingly to organizational communication strategies, which they used in Southwest and the book “NUTS! Southwest Airlines’ Crazy Recipe for Business and Personal Success” by Kevin L. Freiberg and Jacquelyn A. Freiberg provides an insight of the strategies.

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.

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.

Southwest Airlines has a very clear competitive advantage of keeping their customers happy. The organization has a clear focus on the employees they employ and the customers they service. The organization has very clear corporate values, that help engage the staff to get excited about their positions and serving customers. Instead of using words like trust, integrity, and customer service; Southwest encourages their employees to have “A Warrior Spirit,” “A servant’s heart,” and “A Fun Loving Attitude.” (Makovsky) Southwest has put a significant amount of time and energy into promoting employees from within, based on these attributes.

The management style of Southwest airline is characterized by how greatly it takes care of its employees’ well-being. The management considers it as a mean to achieve higher customer satisfaction: “Keep employees happy, then they will keep customers happy”.

Southwest Airlines' strong organizational culture is reflected in its mission statement "dedication to the highest quality of Customer Service delivered with a sense of warmth, friendliness, individual pride, and Company Spirit" (Southwest, 2012). Southwest serves not only as a prime example of a company that excels in customer service and profitability, but as one that has utilized employee development as a means to meet these ends. Southwest makes a strong commitment to foster ongoing relationships with human resources. They demand that their employees are responsible members, however

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

History and mission of the organization Southwest Airlines Corporation, which was essentially established in 1971, has become one of the most well-known airlines to date. The cofounder, Herb Kelleher, had a simple motto to follow when he began the company: “If you get your passengers to their destinations when they want to get there, on time, at the lowest possible fares, and make darn sure they have a good time doing it, people will fly your airline” (About Southwest, n.d., p. 1). This is a pretty simple concept, in that as a corporation you take care of your customers and employees and in turn you will have a higher morale within the organization. In addition, a higher customer gratification will be a result of Mr. Kelleher’s astute aphorism.

Southwest Airlines was inaugurated on an elementary ideology that congenial employees providing economical flights would prevail. In a highly volatile industry Southwest Airlines has been lucrative since the year the company was established in 1967. Fortune Magazine recognizes Southwest airlines as “America 's most admired airlines as well as one of the most admired companies in the united states”.

Southwest airline views their meaning as connecting people with what’s really important to them. They don’t just look at themselves as carriers or transporters of people, but as ones who help people get to people or places they care about in distant places. However, this may be perceived as a small distinction, still it may make a huge difference in how important an employee realizes and understands his/her job. Furthermore, the company has a strong, understandable intention linked emotionally with employees, it engages with.

When Herb Kelleher and Rollin King founded Southwest Airlines in 1971, their mission stated the “dedication of the highest quality of customer service delivered with a sense of warmth, friendliness, individual pride, and company spirit” (Smith, 2012). With that mission in mind, Herb Keller and Rollin King managed to make Southwest the only profitable airline in the United States (Smith, 2012). Southwest’s mission is not the only reason why the airline continues to grow. Without the way, Herb Kelleher former CEO of Southwest, had developed a particular leadership style, power base, and a set way the organization motivates its’ work force, the company would not be as successful as it is

Southwest is famous for allowing its people to inject their own personalities into their roles. However, rather than being funky or trendy, this is actually a deliberate effort to increase the quality of the work that gets done. Southwest employees are encouraged to form good friendships with the people they work with blurring the boundaries between work and life. That way, Southwest employees identify strongly with the company and think of it as an extension of their own

The Southwestern Cultures lived in present-day Arizona, New Mexico, and “Southern portions of Utah and Colorado developed cultures characterized by agricultural settlements and multiunit dwellings called pueblos. Mostly all of the Southwestern cultures were effected by the dry climates and the inconstant rainfall, which made the supply of food inconsistent as well. The Southwestern cultures began to grow corn as their main crop. Many tribes would not migrate so they could keep growing their crops. Eventually Many Southwestern people became experts at irrigation. One of the small farming settlements known as the Mogollon Culture lived in pit houses that were fifteen feet in diameter. Some villages would have a larger pit house that would be

Southwest Airlines provides short haul, high frequency, point-to-point, low-fare services to and from 58 cities across the United States. The company is known for its low-cost fares and superior customer service in the airline industry. The company was started in 1971 with a motto still lived by today, "If you get your passengers to their destinations when they want to get there, on time, at the lowest possible fares, and make darn sure they have a good time doing it, people will fly your airline." This motto has been effective for the company because they recently reported their 58th straight quarterly profit.