...Assignment #5. Corporate Culture/Leadership Actions Corporate Culture/Leadership Actions for Strategy Implementation Veronica M. Peterson Strayer University Strategic Management - Bus 599 Dr. Donny Bagwell June 14, 2010 Southwest Airlines Discuss the corporate culture at Southwest Airlines and how it leverages its culture to achieve a competitive advantage. Southwest Airlines culture has set them apart from other airlines and companies. Their culture is living the Southwest Way, which means one must have a warrior spirit, a servant’s heart and a fun-LUVing attitude. Another important company value is getting excellent results, which includes: focusing on safety, low cost, and high customer service delivery. Also, demonstrating integrity in all actions: being honest, ethical and trustworthy. They define their culture as the development, improvement, and refinement of the originality, individuality, identity, and personality of a given people. (Southwest) They operative principle is that the “employees come firs and customers come second.” The culture that Southwest Airlines have is the basis for their labor relations, customer service and organizational flexibility. One excerpt from Southwest's "The Book on Service: What Positively Outrageous Service Looks Like at Southwest Airlines" is rather instructive: "'attitude breeds attitude...' If we want our customers to have fun, we must create a fun-loving environment. That means we have to be self-confident...
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...Running Head: Assignment 5: CORPORATE CULTURE / LEADERSHIP ACTIONS FOR STRATEGY IMPLEMENTATION Corporate Culture /Leadership Actions for Strategy Implementation By Rhonda Stanley A Paper Presented in Fulfillment of the Requirement for BUS599 Strategic Management Strayer University Professor Joel Nwagbaraocha September 9, 2010 1. Discuss the corporate culture at Southwest Airlines and how it leverages its culture to achieve a competitive advantage. Southwest Airlines was incorporated in Texas in June 18, 1971. Southwest started with only 3 Boeing 737 aircraft and they only serviced Houston, Dallas, and San Antonio. Today Southwest operates 541 Boeing 737 aircraft and they service 69 cities. Southwest became a major in the airline industry in 1989 when it exceeded the billion dollar mark in revenues. Southwest is the US most successful low fare high frequency airline. Southwest operates more than 3,510 flights a day coast to coast making it the largest US carrier based on domestic passenger carried. Southwest maintains the third largest passenger fleet of aircraft among all of the commercial airlines. According to the Department of Transportation Bureau of Transportation Statistics Southwest carries more passengers than any other US airline. Southwest profitability business model led to a common trend called the Southwest Effect. The Southwest Effect...
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...Running head: Corporate Culture/Leadership Actions for Strategy Implementation Corporate Culture/Leadership Actions for Strategy Implementation Assignment #5 Southwest Airlines Strayer University BUS599016VA016-1116-001 Strategic Management September 4, 2011 Abstract This paper examines the corporate culture at Southwest Airlines. The paper will also evaluate the company’s financial performance. Strategic decisions Southwest management should take in order to sustain their cultural strength will also be discussed. Corporate Culture/Leadership Actions for Strategy Implementation Assignment #5 Southwest Airlines Southwest Airlines is a major domestic airline. They provide short-haul, high-frequency, point-to-point, and low-fare service. Southwest has one of the best overall customer service records and they are among the lowest cost structures in the domestic airline industry. Discuss the corporate culture at Southwest Airlines and how it leverages its culture to achieve a competitive advantage. Corporate culture is defined as being created by corporate vision, values, principles, and rules (p. 92). The corporate culture at Southwest Airlines believes their employees are the company’s greatest asset. Most companies say customers come first, but at Southwest Airlines their operative principle is , “employees come first and customers come second.” They believe happy employees will keep customers happy (C-419). Southwest employees come first...
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...What do managers do? How do their actions influence the corporate culture and current employees of the organization? Most managers would probably claim to be able to exercise leadership in some form or another. A manager can be regarded as someone who, by definition, is assigned a position of leadership in the enterprise. What do managers do will influence the corporate culture and current employees of the organizations? The basic thing that manager should do is planning. Planning involves selecting objectives, and the strategies, policies, programs and procedures for achieving the objectives either for the organization as a whole or for a part of it. For example, manager should planning before, while and after to make a contract with other organization. Effective planning will affect the profit and loss of the organization with successful profit will prevent conflict in corporate culture and motivate current employees. It is also important a manager to organize the organization. Organizing involves the establishment of a structure of tasks which need to be performed to achieve the goals of the organization, grouping these tasks into jobs for an individual, creating groups of jobs within sections and departments, delegating authority to carry out the jobs, and providing systems of information and communication, and for the co-ordination of activities within the organization. Other thing that important for manager to do is commanding...
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...For scenario 2, it’s supposed that the majority of the German people approved of Hitler’s killings of millions of Jews during WWII. In this scenario it’s supposed that the majority of the German people thought that what Hitler had done was morally right in their belief; they approved. Though that was the German’s belief, I would say that it doesn’t morally justify that what Hitler had morally right. Their approval is only coming out of one culture but doesn’t take in account that other cultures would disapprove of his actions. Again, we back to the fact that the German people see that what Hitler did should be approved as the majority of their culture believes that to be true. As they believe that his action are right then they are right....
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...BUSA414 - Understanding Organizations Through People Assignment 3: Personal-Learning Implementation Plan Values, Culture & Work-Life-Balance – Bringing Learnings to Life By Jonathan D Jensen March 22, 2015 This paper explores concepts and understandings of three topics from BUSA514 course material, and an implementation plan detailing initiatives to apply learnings on three topics both personally and organizationally. The three topics addressed in this paper are, Values, Organizational Culture, and Stress/Work-life balance. Each topic including, actions for implementation, will be discussed in turn. Values Values are standards or principles of behavior that an individual or corporation professes to be important and to live by. They set a standard of conduct. Corporate values, as defined by Van Lee, Fabish, & McGaw, (2005), are “a corporations institutional standards of behavior.” (P3.). A clear set of values can act as a moral compass. Society believes that individuals, corporations should adhere to a certain standard of behavior, but how does a corporation’s adherence to its values influence business performance? According to Val Lee et al., “the majority of companies have difficulty connecting values to operational results” (p10). Values can be somewhat intangible, making it difficult to measure a return from them – “Return on Values” (ROV). Despite apparent challenges in measuring ROV, most companies today strongly believe in “The Value of Corporate Values”...
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...of the government officials was not much, but the action itself would have some consequences. However, it is unquestionably right to look at these consequences in two ways, the rule of law and local culture. First, According to the Chinese law, giving gifts of any kind to the government officials with intent of taking advantage of their position and power to conduct illegal action is bribery. This action of giving money to government officials may therefore be regarded as bribery; as a result involved parties may be penalized or even end up in jail. The Stakeholders may also decide to withdraw investing in such a corrupt environment. Secondly, it is undeniably true that local culture plays a tremendous role in a local business environment, therefore we must also argue with regards to culture. As far as Chinese culture is concerned, the need of maintaining networks or relationships (locally known as “關係Guan Xi”) in business environment is tremendously important and it is deeply rooted in the Chinese people’s DNA and other Asian countries that are also influenced by the Teachings of Confucius. According to the teachings of Confucius, relationships or networks(關係), and Face (mian zi), were among other things that were highly emphasized and helped to build up the Chinese culture which can be evidenced by the findings of Geert Hofstede in his theory of culture dimension that most Asian culture with no exception of the Chinese culture scored high in the dimension of collectivism. According...
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...A Defense of Ethical Relativism-Ruth Benedict Summary Paper Ethical relativism is the theory that holds that morality is relative to the norms of one's culture. That is, whether an action is right or wrong depends on the moral norms of the society in which it is practiced. The same action may be morally right in one society but be morally wrong in another. Benedict mentions emotions such as joy, anger, and grief, or human drives such as the sex drive, and argues that these emotions can be expressed differently in other cultures than they are expressed in our own culture. Throughout the essay Benedict discusses about various examples starting from homosexuality to the Northwest coast Indians. In Ethical relativism moral progress does not exist she proves this with the help of homosexuality, today also it is not widely accepted in many cultures but then still it depends from cultures to cultures. In her study regarding the northwest island of Melanesia she shows that different cultures have different sets of values, customs, ethics & morals. For example among the Kwakiutl tribe if a member of a community dies instead of moaning for that persons death they avenge the death by going out and killing some other individual. For me as an Indian or any other American this behavior as abnormal, unsound and extreme. However these people view their very normal and they would be even honored for doing this. Therefore we recognize that morality differs in every society, and is a...
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...Ethical Theories Virtues, ethics, and morals are what define people as good or bad, their actions as right or wrong. American society holds one’s virtues in high regard and often evaluates one based on virtue and moral conduct. Virtue by definition is, “the quality or practice of moral excellence or righteousness” (Collins English Dictionary, 2010). Thomas Mallory offered the most ethical character in fiction, Lancelot. It is his virtue that “Is an essential aspect of his success in arms” (McCarthy, 1988, p. 22). Virtue ethics and ethical relativism, studied by learned philosophers, help define the basis of right and wrong. Major Elements According to Aristotle, morality is a specific attribute of a person with regard to his or her own inner harmony. Aristotle explained moral attributes in the terms of one’s lucid ability of the inner self to manage its appetite for portion. He asserted that moral attributes are erudite and should be practiced to become habit (Athanassoulis, 2010, para 2). According to the textbook, “virtue is a state of character, that of being a good person” (Freeman, 2000, p. 88). Moral theories concern right and wrong behaviors; but virtue ethics change the kind of questions asked about ethics. Major elements in the theory of virtue ethics are the subjective behavior, qualities and habits that can lead the individual to make choices. This theory helps the individual to ask about right and wrong and how genuine fulfillment may be reached (Freeman...
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...5 steps to a strong company culture http://www.microsoftbusinesshub.com/News_and_Updates/5_steps_to_a_strong_company_culture Great leaders inspire. They pull in talented and high-performing staffers. But behind each leader you'll find something equally powerful: a company culture that motivates people to work hard and stay with the business. As long as you have a business, you have a company culture. Instead of leaving it to grow on its own, you can nurture it and make it into something that will breed loyalty and motivation. Creating a strong culture — one of fun, sharing, collaboration, and connection — can be done in five simple steps, according to Carol Skube, a Minneapolis-based human resources consultant. Step 1: Understand A strong culture is founded on more than just paid lunches or personalized parking spaces. Great leaders understand what is important to their employees. As a business leader, developing a strong company culture starts when you take steps to find out what motivates the people who work for you. The process of understanding starts with communication. Talk to your employees to find out what you both expect from the job, Skube says. This will help you clarify your expectations of your staff and, in turn, help you learn what motivates them. It will also send a message to your staff that collaboration and communication are important to your company. As you talk to your employees, you also will learn what's important to them. This understanding will...
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...Chapter 3 – Action, Personnel, and Cultural Controls ACTION CONTROLS Action controls are the most direct form of management control because they involve taking steps to ensure that employees act in the organization’s best interest by making their actions themselves the focus of control. Can be in 4 forms: behavioural constraints, preaction reviews, action accountability, and redundancy. Behavioural Constraints * Are a “negative” form of action control. They make it difficult for employees to do things that should not be done – these constraints can be applied physically of administratively * Physical constraints – locks, computer passwords, limits on access to areas where valuable inventories and sensitive information are kept * Effective physical constraints are crucial especially due to increased data protection and privacy concerns faced by virtually all organizations that electronically store info about their clients, customers, patients, or citizens * Administrative constraints can also be used to place limits on an employee’s ability to perform all or a portion of specific tasks or actions – involves the restriction of decision making authority, separation of duties (internal control) * Physical and administrative constraints can be combined into what is known as proka-yokes designed to make the system foolproof – poka-yoke is a step built into a process to prevent deviation from the correct order of steps; that is, where a certain action must be...
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...Ethical Relativism 1. Ethical Relativism: In this lecture, we will discuss a moral theory called ethical relativism (sometimes called “cultural relativism”). Ethical Relativism: The view that what is morally right or wrong is dependent upon what one’s culture believes is right or wrong. In short, if your society or culture BELIEVES that some action is morally wrong, then it IS morally wrong for everyone within that society. Businesspeople often claim something similar. They say, for instance, that businesses operate under their own system of morality. What is deemed to be right by some business IS right for that business. This makes morality relative. For instance, if one society says cannibalism is morally wrong, while another says it is morally permissible, then the fact of whether or not cannibalism is morally wrong will just be a relative one—namely, whether or not it is wrong for someone will just depend upon which society they are in. We will now ask the question: Does some action become right or wrong just because one’s society, or employer, SAYS it is right or wrong? Or rather, is it the case that there are some moral standards that apply to ALL businesses and societies, regardless of whether or not those societies believe in those standards? 2. The Argument From Disagreement: Why believe that morality is relative? Relativists often say that widespread moral disagreement proves that their view is true. They say: 1. Different people have different beliefs...
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...focus of the paper is going to be that infanticide is universally morally wrong. Infanticide is the practice of killing a newborn baby that is practiced in many other cultures, but is deemed illegal in the United States. The question is, is this practice universally morally wrong, or is it morally right within certain contexts. Cultures exist that make having multiple children an extreme financial burden, or due to population control, illegal to have more than one child. Even within these contexts, does it make it morally right to practice infanticide? No, it does not! The practice of infanticide is universally morally wrong. Infanticide is practiced in several cultures, one of which is Pakistan. According to cultural relativism, this practice is deemed morally right. Cultural relativism deals with actions that are specific to a culture and the individuals within a specific culture. The beliefs and customs of a particular culture are relative to the individuals within that culture. What may be morally right in one culture may not be right in another (gotquestions.org, 2011). Relativism deals with the fact that individual societies may deem, for themselves, what is right or wrong. Since truth is non-discriminatory, there really cannot be a set of standards that apply to all cultures. Relativism says that it is wrong for one society to pass judgment on another society for this reason. Pakistani's believe that infanticide is right based on reasons such as...
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...During their lives, each person has contact with violence, whether they are the victim, the perpetrator, an observer, or a combination of these roles. The culture of a certain group of people emphasizes and explains these violent actions in different ways. It can be described from an anthropological perspective as well, but that description can vary from the explanations given within a specific culture. Through a series of interviews with university students, I found that their explanations of violence were actually quite similar to the anthropological perspective. Specifically, both the interviews and the anthropological studies emphasized the relationship between violence and culture, the ways that social structures determine the practices...
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...Organizational culture is about the values, principles, behavior and attitudes that the leaders act and advice is trying to affect the employees at the same way. As long as the policies permeate into the workplace and the employees get used to it, it means that what everyone is doing is the same, sharing the same belief and having the same aim as well in order to build up the organization’s essential being and assumption. Organizational culture can be formed by three parts which is behavior, values and beliefs and assumptions. Yet, heroes, stories and slogans have also played the important roles in this three parts. To begin with, behavior is about what kind of actions that people are taking. Before using policies to limit employees’ action, the must be two important parts which is heroes and stories to influence workers’ behavior first. For example, the founder of Facebook- Mark Zuckerberg, the first aim of creating the Facebook was just wanted to provide a friends-making-platform for the students. So, we can see that Facebook becomes the most popular friends-making website is an accident. As the founder and mainly users of Facebook are teenagers, the employees must be creative and open minded in order to keep updating, changing and giving surprises so as what the founder did. On the other hand, policies can affect the employees’ action directly. For instance, every chain companies have their own dress code for the employees to follow, there are rules that workers must...
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