Formal Statements' Suggestions.

University Degree Business and Administrative studies

Formal Statements’ Suggestions

Southwest Airlines began commercial air service thirty-two (32) years ago on June 18, 1971 with flights to Houston, Dallas, and San Antonio. Through the years Southwest has grown to become the fourth largest U.S. airline (in terms of domestic customers carried). Upon review of the financial statements reported in Southwest’s Annual Reports, the yearend results for 2002 marked Southwest’s 30th consecutive year of profitability. Southwest became a major airline in 1989 when it exceeded the billion-dollar revenue mark.

According to the Southwest Airlines web site the mission statement states, “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” (Southwest.com/about_swa/mission.html). Southwest is committed to provide its employees a stable work environment with equal opportunity for learning and personal growth. The company encourages creativity and innovation ideas by all of its employees for improving the effectiveness of Southwest Airlines. Above all, employees will be provided the same concern, respect, and caring attitude within the organization that they are expected to share externally with every Southwest customer.

Based on Team C’s review, Southwest Airlines has been busy operating a profitable company these past thirty (30) years. And according to various statements from the organization (executives and employee) their philosophy, mission, vision, values, and advertising; promise that the next thirty (30) years will be just as fun-filled and exciting as the last. Southwest has accomplished quite a bit, and along the way “they have earned a title no other airline in the industry can claim: The only shorthaul, low-fare, high-frequency, and point-to-point carrier in America” (itfyswa.com/about_swa/financials/investor_relations_index.html).

Physical Work Space or Work Environment

While Southwest Airlines always endeavors to operate its flights as scheduled, the first priority of Southwest and its employees and the first responsibility to the customers, is and has always been optimum safety. Since inception in 1971, Southwest has predicated its operational and scheduling decisions on safety, security, and wellbeing of its customers, employees and equipment. Southwest does not believe that this is an area where compromising can be taken for any reasons. Occasionally, it may be necessary to delay, divert, or cancel a flight due to weather, field conditions, Air Traffic Control problems, repairs and maintenance, or other security or safety related conditions and/or issues. When these situations arise, Southwest will always do its best to minimize the inconvenience of the customers. Every organization has some type of culture. Throughout the thirty (30) years of operations, “Southwest uses unwritten rules that have been adopted and has helped shape how people think and behave at Southwest” (Southwest.com/investor_relations/annual_reports.html). As presented in the Annual Reports of the company for thirty (30) years, this culture has a profound effect on business. Southwest has been profitable.

Slogans, Language, or Sayings

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Slogans, Language, or Sayings

Today, more and more organizations consider culture a bottom line issue. After all, whether it is positive or negative, purposeful or accidental, culture impacts the traditional bottom line measures -- service, productivity, costs, and safety. Southwest’s slogans show how an organization becomes committed, involved, and purposeful in creating a culture that employees, customers and suppliers are proud to be a part of. At Southwest; slogans such as “You are now free to move about the country,” language such as "We are a company of Americans. Thirty-two thousand men and women who have never felt more pride or love for our fellow man and country." and/or sayings such as “We vow to continue. We will keep America flying. We will rise.” are more than mere words written on the wall. They are thoughts, beliefs, and feelings that are felt in the hearts and minds of associates from executive to employees in the “trenches.” These thoughts lead to action.

Workflow and Organizational Structure

The organizational structure of Southwest Airlines is best described as a flat, union teaming, fun loving, and loyal worker organization. The Foundation for Enterprise Development describes the organization as one that puts little emphasis on its formal organizational structure. Both managers and union representatives cite the lack of formality within the entire company as a positive characteristic of Southwest Airlines. It is characterized by a number of joint worker/management committees that serve a major decision-making function within the company (). Though the company consists of 85-90 percent of its employees from various unions, including: International Brotherhood of Teamsters (IBT), International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAM), Transportation Workers Union (TWU), Southwest Airline Pilots Association (SWALPA),and Ramp Operations and Provisioning Association (ROPA); Southwest Airlines is noted for its cooperative labor-management relations (). Individualism is encouraged and both managers and workers are recognized for their sense of humor. The organization avoids hiring of temporary employees in its airport operations and is known for its ability to state that it has never experienced an employee layoff.Southwest Airlines is known for its procedures of maintaining higher levels of supervisory staffing that its competitors. These supervisors are known and expected to work side by side with frontline employees, gaining their respect and becoming sufficently familiar with the skills to perform the responsibilities of the specific position. (Gittell 83)

Southwest Airlines focuses on customer satisfaction from all points at which their customer interacts with both Southwest employees and the employees of their immediate suppliers. Senior leadership team members, including vice-presidents and directors, visit each Southwest location at least once a year specifically to gather employee feedback. Southwest employees are involved in decision making through numerous committees across the company, which make decisions on a variety of issues ranging from redesign of benefit plans to new uniform selection ( ).

Team C realizes that history speaks for itself and that the organizational structure of Southwest Airlines has withstood the test of time, over the past thirty-two (32) years, and has often been recognized as the model to be implemented by other corporations, yet few have been able to successfully simulate the same.

Organizational Systems and Procedures Evaluation

Southwest has many organizational systems and procedures in place; ranging from pay for performance, profit sharing, strict safety programs, and a focus on effective communication. The pay for performance program is focused on the airline's strategic performance measurements for quick turnarounds and coordination of the flight departure process by frontline employees (Gittell 126). Southwest Airlines has an employee profit sharing plan which was the first in the airline industry. Annual profit sharing bonuses have typically ranged from 4 to 8 percent of base pay for each employee ().

Implementation of a reward systems like Southwest's foster employee loyalty and satisfaction. The company does pay particular attention to safety issues. Workers Comp, Safety, and Loss Control Representatives visit each location to promote safety. Each Southwest location is also encouraged to have its own safety coordinator and committee.

The procedures that drive four primary factors -- leadership, culture, strategy, and coordination offer important insights into Southwest's success (Gittell 13).

Selection of Replacement Employees

Celebration builds self-confidence and removes fear. Celebrations nourish the spirit of an organization. They cause an organization to blossom and inspire the organization's members to become bigger people. The people of Southwest Airlines are very proud of what they have created, and this is one of the reasons the company screens potential employees to ensure they hire people who lack an attitude of superiority, formality, and who will treat co-workers with respect. (Freiberg 87)

Organizations like Southwest Airlines believe that individuals must be aware that in living among others, we depend on others, and we seek comfort and life-meaning in others. Our very individual identities, sanity, and health are shaped by others’ presence in our lives and the quality of our lives depends, to a large extent, on the quality of our relationships. This recognition leads to the realization that life is relational or affected by and dependent upon others. Upon realizing the importance of this relational life and then agreeing that by bettering our relationships, we better the quality of our lives; it makes sense that Southwest Airlines continues to place excessive attention on hiring employees with high relational competence emphasis(Gittell 91).

Southwest desires employees that will work outside the traditional boundaries of their job specification. It is very common for a pilot to also aid others in the clean-up of the aircraft between flights. It is also common for the steward or stewardis to also become the gate clerk, or for the front-line supervisor to assume the role of their employee. Adoption of a "whatever else is needed" clause to each job description is a primary criteria that is used in the selection of new or replacement employees (Freiberg 152).

Southwest often uses the saying that "Professionals need not apply". These individuals have often come to believe that humor is unprofessional and silliness is for children. Southwest Airlines believes that failure to nourish and encourage lightness in the workplace only undermines productivity, creativity, and adaptability. (Freiberg 65)

References

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and His Airline." Texas Monthly, April 1989: pp. 98- 103.

Foundation for Enterprise Development. . Retrieved December 13, 2003

Freiberg, K(1998). Nuts! Southwest Airlines' Crazy Recipe for Business and Personal Success. Broadway Books

Gittell, J. H.(2002) The Southwest Airlines Way : Using the Power of Relationships to Achieve High Performance. McGraw-Hill Trade

Southwest.com/about_swa/mission.html. Retrieved December 13, 2003

Southwest.com/investor_relations/annual_reports.html. Retrieved December 13, 2003

University of Phoenix. (Ed.) (2002). Organization Behavior and Human Relations

[University of Phoenix Custom Edition e-text]. New York: The McGraw-Hill

Companies. Retrieved December 4, 2003, from University of Phoenix, Resource,