Southwest Airlines - Essay Example

Southwest Airlines The top executives of Southwest Airlines are planning an offshore meeting with an agenda of evaluating their competitiveness. Nonetheless the threat from Continental and the United Airlines who are the major competitors of Southwest Airlines does not seem to be an acute thereat. The competitiveness of the Southwest Airlines is attributed to two major strengths. These are the low cost of flying and its human resource. Since the competition has reduced the costs of their flight, it is arguable that there is a possible competitiveness and business threat for the Southwest Airlines. It is in this regard that the meeting of the top executives is justified. The case of the Southwest Airlines reveals that its leadership style, management strategy, employee motivation, communication, training, organization culture, focus on the needs of the customer, organization values, employee engagement and appropriate management of change are the major strengths of the company which define its competitiveness in the air travel business. This essay is a critical reflection; analysis and discussion of the Southwest Airline case with a view of demonstrating how the human resource, leadership, concepts of company management and organizational culture has enabled it to be highly performing and competitive in the market. Leaders within an organization should be adequately skilled and trained to help them effectively lead companies and organizations into achievement of their goals (Case: HR-1A 3). This is demonstrated by Ann Rhoades, Southwest Airline’s vice president of the people. Rhoades is trained in banking and has previous management executive experience in marketing. It is therefore evident that the training which managers and leaders of an organization have does not have to be relevant to the field of their management for them to be effective. What matters is the leadership skill and abilities which lie within a leader regardless of the area of training. The leadership ability of Rhoades is demonstrated by her belief that the ability of a company to be highly competitive lies on its employees and the approach with which they are managed. The human resource of a company plays a central role in driving it into the achievement of its goals. This fact mandates the leadership or organization to focus on proper human resource management so that the employees are motivated to provide high quality services to the customers (De Wang and Han 13). This is exemplified by the fact that Rhoades recognizes proper human resource management as the force behind the competitiveness of Southwest Airlines. The successful and effective human resource practices within Southwest Airlines are also attributed to its competitiveness in the air travel business. Effective practices emanate from the leadership of an organization. Leaders must be able to motivate their staff through effective approaches. Herb Kelleher, Southwest Airline CEO reflects that “anger can be a great motivator”. Nonetheless he later argues that he thinks that he would revise this view (Case: HR-1A 4). The stand of the CEO shows that the motivation that employees achieve for increased performance must be effective rather than ager and aggression which would ruin relationships and break trust. It is in this regard that Southwest Airlines motivates its employees through effective management style and creation of an atmosphere of effective communication and interaction between the leaders and employees. The importance the Southwest Airlines has for training and employee or personal development is demonstrated through the creation of the People Training Department. The effectiveness of this department is revealed by the report that it presented to the executive management illustrating that the people within the company “got together and did something that was impossible” (Case: HR-1A 5). This means that the company endeavors to develop the skills and abilities of its employees through training and make them effectively armed to provide high quality services to the customers of the company. It is through personal development that an organization achieves its goals for performance (Adler, Laura and Joyce 12). This is because trained employees are able to increase their productivity by applying the acquired abilities and skills in the execution of work related roles. In addition, training makes employees to be motivated during their work activities. Inability to meet the demands of work activities has been found to be the major cause of lack of motivation among employees (Ireland and Michael 43). The case of Southwest Airlines demonstrates that the company has “encouraged its employees to identify with others at the company, deliver great customer service, and have fun” (Case: HR-1A 6). This is a sign of engagement among employees where they actively form relationships among themselves and to the customers. The fact that the company encourages its employees to have fun shows that the employees are motivated during their work encounters. The engagement that employees have among themselves creates good working relationships. In addition, by engaging to the customers, the employees are able to identify and meet the needs and concerns of the customers. More importantly, employee customer engagement leads to provision of high quality services. It is in this regard that the competitiveness of Southwest Airlines can be attributed to the engagement that employees have with the customers and the related effectiveness, efficiency and quality of services. The competitiveness of Southwest Airlines in the air travel business is also attributed to its simplicity. For example the company keeps its fares as simple as possible. This means that the reduction of fares by the Continental and the United Airlines is not a major threat to the competitiveness of the company and its competitiveness. Nevertheless it is recommended for the company to make its fares even simpler and cheaper for its customers. This will attract more customers regardless of the competitive strategies that are being pulled by the competitor airlines. The simplicity that is characteristic of Southwest Airlines is shown by the minimization of reservations that are done by travel agents as compared to the competitor airlines. It is through this that the eventual cost of travel for the customer is significantly reduced. This is one of the major pillars underlying the competitiveness of Southwest Airlines. The objectives of Southwest Airlines include improving its competitiveness through low cost, high quality of service and achieving a larger share of the air travel market. Because meal services increase the cost of travel for the customers, the company has endeavored to reduce this by serving less costly meals such as beverages and peanuts and light snacks for longer flights. More over the company has an objective of meeting the needs and preferences of the customers. To achieve this objective, there is no assigned seating in the company’s flights (Case: HR-1A 7). This helps the company to meet the objective of satisfying the needs of the customers by allowing them to have a choice in selecting their travel preferences. Moreover when there are standby passengers, the order of sign up is used to board them to the available seats. It is through this that the company’s objective for fair treatment of its customers is met. The loyalty and motivation of southwest Airline employees is reflected by the pilots who spend more time in air as compared to the competitor’s pilots. This is the case even if these pilots are paid relatively less than those of the competing airlines. In additionally, employee loyalty within the company is demonstrated by the fact that pilots assist in checking passengers at the gate and even helping in the cleaning of the planes. It is shown within the case that “if it means the pilots need to load bags, they’ll do it” (Case: HR-1A 9). Furthermore, the loyalty of the employees to the company is seen by routine help that they extend to the needs of the customers which surpass their obligations. Through the loyalty of the employees, their productivity is enhanced. This leads to an overall improvement of the performance of the company and hence increased competitiveness. It can be argued that the loyalty of the employees result from the positive attitude that they have for their work, effective leadership, good working environment and the motivating work conditions and organizational culture. The emphasis in customer service that is seen within Southwest Airlines is a reflection of its endeavor to meet its objectives in an effective manner. Among the objectives of the company is to ensure that the employees are comfortable and as a result offer quality services to the customers. Colleen Barrett, an executive and vice president for customer services, reaffirms that “if you’re comfortable, you’re smiling more and you give better service” (Case: HR-1A 14). It is therefore the motivating work environment which makes the company’s employees happy leading to provision of quality services to the customers. The achievement of employee needs as one of the company’s objectives leads to the attainment of the objective of providing high quality services to the customers. Through the attainment of these objectives the company is able to compete favorably and effectively reach the major objective of high returns on revenue. The leadership equation of an organization is the definition of organizational leadership as a sum of relations and influence (Kydd and Lynn 145). Within Southwest Airlines, the leadership equation is reflected by the leadership approach that is employed by Herb Kelleher, the company’s CEO. The effectiveness of the CEO as the leader of Southwest Airlines is revealed by the title he was given by the Fortune as America’s Best CEO. The success of the company is therefore attributed to the relations and influence that emanate from the CEO’s leadership approach. Firstly, Herb is described as “brilliant, charming, cunning, and tough” (Case: HR-1A 17). The brilliance of the CEO shows that he has imparted influence among employees of the company for better performance and achievement of the company’s objectives. Moreover, the fact that Herb is charming means that he has excellent skills and abilities in human relations. These illustrations play to reveal that Herb is an effective leader and as such he is the cause of the competitiveness, high performance and success of the airline as compared to its competitors. When described as tough and cunning, the CEO of Southwest Airlines is presented as an individual with influence and ability to enhance good relationships within the company. Therefore the leader can be said to have filled the leadership equation and shown effective leadership abilities which are vital for the success of any company. It can be argued that the influence of the company’s CEO over his subordinates is the reason for the high degree of loyalty and motivation which is seen among employees. Moreover, the CEO is presented as a focused, goal oriented and determined leader. Te CEO is actually described that “he is the sort of manager who will stay out with a mechanic in some bar until four o’clock in the morning to find out what is going on. And then he will fix whatever is wrong” (Case: HR-1A 19). It is argued that effective, efficient and influential leaders are born (Adler, Laura and Joyce 18). This can be substantiated from the company’s CEO who is not a pilot but a graduate of law school and yet he is a very effective leader of an airline. On the other hand it can be said that leaders can be created. It is possible that the training that the CEEO received from the law school and his experience of law practice prepared him for the leadership role at the airline. The leadership abilities of the CEO can be attributed to the empowerment of the employees and their dedicated engagement in the execution of their roles. Moreover, the influence of the CEO is the explanation for the trust that the employees have on him and the consequent loyalty that they have developed for the company. The credibility of a leader is revealed by his skills, communication abilities, interpersonal relationship, knowledge and command (Kydd and Lynn 145). These qualities are evident in Herb Kelleher. The relationship between the CEO and his subordinates is very desirable. For example “while recovering from minor surgery, he received over 3,000 cards and gifts from employees, including an intravenous” (Case: HR-1A 13). The CEO has a high command and influence on his employees. The company is characterized by healthy relationships and interactivity. Too much seriousness for example is discouraged within the company. The employees within the company are more free, communicative and interactive because of the transformational leadership approach that is used implemented by the company leadership. The transformational leadership approach or trait is said to be supportive of communication, interaction, healthy relationships and consensus decision making (Adler, Laura and Joyce 15). This leadership trait is described as the most appropriate approach to the leadership of an organization. The CEO of the airline has a transformational leadership approach which has encouraged employees to develop good relationships. This is shown by pictures of ‘Southwest employees at parties, awards, trips, celebrations, and banners” (Case: HR-1A 12). The relaxed management style that is employed at the company is also a reflection of the effectiveness of the company’s leadership. The reflections on leadership are measures of the level at which employees are motivated and hence the assessment of their performance and the overall competitiveness of the company in the market. The recruitment of the company’s employees at the People Department aims at ensuring that the objectives of making customers happy are achieved by new employees. Furthermore the members of the people department sign the mission statement of the department to ensure that they work towards the achievement of the objectives which lead to meeting the goals and mission of the company. The objective of the department in recruitment is ensuring that employees who are hired align to the company’s competitive advantage which is achieved through the human resource. The total quality management of the human resources is flexible. Employees are encouraged to take risks is they have to. This demonstrates that they are allowed to break rules is it is justifiable by an improved way of doing things. It is therefore evident that the company motivates its employees to be more creative and innovative in the manner that they perform their tasks. Creativity and innovativeness of employees is argued to be the core factor which defines the competitive advantage and success of a company within its market (Adler, Laura and Joyce 19). Total quality management in Southwest Airlines involves the company leadership, managers, employees and even customers. This is revealed by the involvement of all these parties in the recruitment process of new employees. This ensures that the needs of customers would be met by the new employees in an effective manner. The durability of service quality is also achieved through total quality management processes of the company. For example the company does not look at the skills of the job applicants during recruitment. The recruitment process rather looks at the attitude of the employees. This is because skills can be developed through training unlike attitudes. In this regard, the management of the quality of service delivery is considerate of the roles that are played by the employees. The company therefore demonstrates value for training as an important factor in developing the skills of employees. More importantly, the attitudes of the employees determine success because employees with negative attitudes would not demonstrate the expected performance regardless of the training they receive. Works Cited Adler, Nancy., Laura, Brody., and Joyce, Osland. "Going Beyond Twentieth Century Leadership: A CEO Develops His Company’s Global Competitiveness." Cross Cultural Management 8.3 (2001): 11-34. Print Case: HR-1A. Southwest Airlines (A). Stanford Graduate School of Business. 2006, 2-21. Print De Wang, Yau, and Han Jen Niu. "Multiple Roles of Human Resource Department in Building Organizational Competitiveness- Perspective of Role Theory." International Management Review 6.2 (2010): 13-19. Print Ireland, Randy., and Michael, Hitt. "Achieving and Maintaining Strategic Competitiveness in the 21st Century: The Role of Strategic Leadership." The Academy of Management Perspectives 13.1 (2009): 43-57. Print Kydd, Christine., and Lynn Oppenheim. "Using Human Resource Management to Enhance Competitiveness: Lessons from Four Excellent Companies." Human Resource Management, 29.2 (2001): 145. Print Read More