...The Effect of Consumer Behavior on Southwest Airline’s Market Strategies Southwest Airlines provides flight transportation to leisure travel and business travel clients. While they specifically cater to each of these areas of segmentation, Southwest Airlines organizationally competes on a low cost strategy. The company’s approach to the market is to provide a low cost option to both consumer segments, while providing top-notch service and convenience. Southwest’s strategy targets business class travelers, making corporate partnership agreements a large part of their marketing and finance strategy. In catering to the business class bargain hunter, Southwest has established a value concept of customer loyalty and convenient services. Southwest has been able to capitalize this market segment to become the largest domestic airline while also able to maintain the highest customer satisfaction level in the industry. The company is able to maintain partnerships and brand themselves as an affordable business travel option by providing discount partnerships with affiliate businesses. This allows the airline to maintain market share by providing financial motivations for its business partners to incentivize them to continue to patronize Southwest Airlines. They actively promote their schedule of frequent non-stop flights to major city hubs as well as surrounding cities, proving to be a practical option for business class travelers. Southwest’s business traveler value concept extends...
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...Southwest Airlines: Culture of Communication Kevin Miner COM 530 December 9, 2013 Patrick Thornton Abstract This paper will discuss the culture of communication at Southwest Airlines. Founded in 1971 the company’s culture is based on mutual respect where forward thinking is encouraged and rewarded. All levels of employees have the authority to act for the customer’s best interest without continuously getting approval from above. Employees’ perception of an open minded and supportive workplace is validated by the success the company has enjoyed over the years. Conflicts within Southwest Airlines are resolved through concepts like self-policing, teamwork and mutual respect between managers and employees. Southwest Airlines: Culture of Communication Southwest Airlines emerged in 1971 as a low cost alternative to legacy airlines such as United, Delta, and American. When he started Southwest, Herb Kelleher established a culture for employees that encourages and rewards forward thinking. Southwest has excelled from the beginning earning profits in all but its first year (Smith, 2004). Any company, especially one operating throughout many different regions of the country needs to have efficient communication. Southwest Airlines has successfully created and fostered a communication model with clear goals, values and expectations of respect between its various employee groups ("Southwest airlines one," 2013). In his article, An Evaluation on the corporate culture of...
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...Southwest Airlines Evaluation of Current Research Techniques Used Southwest Airlines uses many different types of research over the last 20 years. As a customer of Southwest Airlines, I have personally experienced the following techniques, phone, paper, and email surveys. Representatives from Southwest request customers to stay on the line after booking travel to complete surveys on their experience with the reservation line. These surveys last 5-7 minutes on average and included the customer’s perception of the booking process. Southwest Airlines has placed surveys in the company ‘Spirit’ magazine. These magazines are available to customers both online and in the seat pocket on each flight ("Spirit", 2012). This allows customers to fill out the survey and return to the flight attendants, gate agents or mail into the company. The survey requests information on the flight and booking process. Southwest Airlines has recently starting sending email surveys to their Rapid Reward customers. After the customer travels using their reward number, a survey will be sent to retrieve the perception of the event from the traveler. This includes information on all events of the trip from booking to baggage claim. When working as a travel agent, Southwest Airlines had customer representatives that contacted the agency by phone to conduct surveys. These surveys included questions about reservations, flight status, gate staff, and baggage of the customers. If a customer complain was received...
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...largest airlines and an aviation group with a network of more than 400 subsidiaries around the globe, operating in six business areas: passenger business, logistics, maintenance, repair and overhaul, catering, leisure travel and international technology services. Southwest Airlines Company (SA) is an America low-cost airline based in Dallas Texas. Southwest Airline is the largest airline in the United States based upon domestic passengers carried with over 550 of these aircraft in service, each operating an average of six flights per day. Southwest and Air Tran merged with 37,000 employees as of December 2011 and operates more than 3,300 flights a day, and operates scheduled service to 97 destinations in 42 states. Today the concept of quality management has come out as an important business practice that companies want to take on. Companies strive for effective and customer oriented by implementing quality management, enterprises has become able to ensure quality in their products and services. Organizational goals are to generate a high quality, high-executing product or service that conforms to and passes the customers' expectations. This paper will discuss similar processes, the procedure that produces a competitive product or service, and how quality management affects the position of the companies. Southwest Airlines is the domestic company and Lufthansa Airlines operates as a global organization. The similarities of these companies are as follows: Southwest Airlines and...
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...culture that is needed to accelerate the goals and objectives and to guarantee that implemented changes are successful. The intention of this paper is to analyze the effects of organizational culture on organizational development and change. To allow one to grasp the concept of organizational culture Team A will give the description of Southwest Airlines, including the organization’s philosophy, mission, vision, values, and structure, an analysis of the relationship between the design and Southwest Airlines and its organizational culture, and the effects of organizational culture on Southwest Airlines workforce will be reviewed. An evaluation of the effects of change within Southwest Airlines will also be discussed. Description of Southwest Airlines Southwest Airlines is an airline that provides many services in different destinations around the United States. Southwest Airlines believes in being devoted to each of the communities that they serve by having their employees, customers, neighbors being a part of a loving family. Southwest philosophy is that happy employee’s equal happy customers and happy customers keep Southwest flying. They believe in providing a one of kind culture within their organization that means...
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...Introduction Both Southwest Airlines and Semco are successful organizations in their own market segments despite the economic struggles in 1980’s and 1990’s. Southwest Airlines began operating in 1971, its primary operating philosophy is low fares and lots of flights. Much of organization’s success is due to the willingness of its leadership to be innovative. Semco founded by Antonio Semler in 1912, was traditionally managed industrial equipment company. SEMCO is located in Sao Paulo, Brazil. Richard Semler, instituted an employee-friendly and employee empowered management system. Semco’s success is basically attributed to three interdependent core values: employee participation, free sharing of information and profit sharing. Case Study It is widely discussed that both companies share success factors that make them market leaders. Non-conventional organizational structure Non-conventional organizational structure is adopted in both organizations. SMA and Semco both break the rules of hierarchy structure and bureaucracy. SMA adopts decentralized organizational structure. ‘ the company cuts across hierarchical and job distinctions’ (Child). Team work, group decision making, training and stress on positive attitude are greatly embraced at the organization. Job specialization doesn’t go as far with other airlines like it does with Southwest. An example of this is in order to reduce the turnaround time, pilots help to clean the aircraft which rarely ever happens. Also...
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...Southwest Airlines Co.: Organizational Behavior and Communication Paper Com/530 Communications for Accountants 01/13/14 Robert Beaudry Organizational Behavior and Communication: Southwest Airline Co. Southwest Airlines Co. was founded in 1971 by Herb Kelleher and Rollin King, and its corporate philosophy can be credited to one of the airlines founders Mr. Kelleher. Herb did not take on outside consultants to develop a quality program, but its style, culture, and emphasis on quality were implemented in Southwest’s daily actives by Mr. Kelleher ( Smith, 2004) Southwest Airlines has a unique culture “goofiness”, which keeps the morale of its employees high (Smith, 2004). In the 1980’s nine years after Southwest was established they adopted the mission statement: 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 (http://www.southwestonereport.com). To their employees: committed to provide our Employees a stable work environment with equal opportunity for learning and personal growth. Creativity and innovation are encouraged 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 (http://www.southwestonereport.com). Southwest’s organization’s espoused values...
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...organization is executing a new project, these strategies will then be implemented. When organizations like Southwest Airlines implements the organizing function of management, the organization will include many resources to assist in their organization. These resources are monetary assets, physical assets, technology and human resources. This paper will discuss the evaluation of the organizing functions of management that are related to the resources discussed above. These organizational resources will be evaluated in reference to Southwest Airlines and whether or not Southwest Airlines has maximized these organizational resources for efficiency within the company. Southwest Airlines has an amazing staff. This is a great example of one of the physical assets that attract and maintain customers. The staff follows the “Live the Southwest Way” by applying the warrior spirit, servant’s heart, and the fun-loving attitude (Southwest Airlines, 2010). The warrior spirit is demonstrated by the employees by working hard and showing the desire to be the best worker possible. The servant’s heart is displayed when the employee follows the Golden Rule The Golden Rule is defined by treating others the way you would like to be treated, treat other co-workers and customers with respect, putting other first, and being dedicated in demonstrating quality customer service. Southwest Airlines prides themselves with having a staff with a fun-loving attitude....
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...“Southwest Airlines” Southwest Airlines exceeds the market of all other US based airlines. The only year that they did not earn a profit was their first year of operations. Since then a profit has been made every year. That type of track record alone has made Southwest Airlines stand out from all of its competitors. Considering how the economy is, that is a great achievement. While viewing Business Management’s video on Southwest CEO Gary Kelly, I saw an example of how corporate culture is displayed. Southwest is also committed to provide their employees with equal opportunities for learning, stable work environment and personal growth. Employees are provided with respect and caring attitudes within the organization and in return are expected to share externally with every Southwest customer (Smith, 2004). Kelly is a great leader which seems to come natural and easy to him. He is a people person that doesn’t make people feel less inferior to him because he is the CEO. He is a casual dresser and that always makes people feel more comfortable than if he were to wear a suit and tie. In his home base airport in Dallas Texas he walks through the airport greeting all of his employees by name. He even gives hugs and shakes hands with most of the staff, that skill and trait is what makes Kelly an effective leader. While flying on the plane he sits in the noises part of the plane and in the most cramping seat for a man that is over 6 feet tall. Kelly does this in order to...
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...Southwest Airlines is one of the most successful companies today. It has a strong and positive workplace culture that promotes open communication, teamwork, and excellent customer service. Its mission statement states that the company is “committed to provide our Employees a stable work environment with equal opportunity for learning and personal growth. Creativity and innovation are encouraged 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” (Southwest Airlines, 1988). In his greeting on the company’s website, Gary Kelly, Chairman, President, and CEO of the organization writes that this is what differentiates Southwest from other airlines, and is the major reason for his company’s success. He states that Southwest is defined by its culture, not by its business plan; therefore the attention to the culture must always be maintained (Kelly, 2011). He then continues (2011), “Strong culture is the responsibility of every employee, no matter his or her work title. Culture needs support from Leadership and the Frontline Employees. Without both, it will surely wither” (para. 2). The culture at Southwest Airlines is maintained by “system wide Culture Committee, which comprises representatives from each major work location. They meet quarterly to share ideas on how to keep [the] Culture vibrant...
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...Diversification Strategies “The Secret of Southwest Airlines’ Success” BUS 508, Contemporary Business Determine how Southwest Airlines’ corporate culture differs from other airlines: From the time Herb Kelleher co-founded Southwest Airlines in 1971 his goal was to establish a company that cared about its employees, who would in turn care about and service the needs of their customers with pride. Southwest has created a fun-loving work environment that rewards and appreciates unique personalities and how they can enhance the customer service experience of their patrons. This is refreshing in today’s market and the main difference between Southwest and other airlines. The mission of Southwest Airlines is to ensure satisfaction of their internal as well as their external customers. The external, of course, being the traveler and the employee is viewed as an internal customer. Externally, Southwest focuses on customer service, delivered with “a sense of warmth, friendliness, individual pride, and company spirit.” Customer service is number one (#1) for this airline. It is displayed in their every movement. The airline’s president, Collen Barrett is quoted as saying, “Southwest likes to think of itself as a customer service organization that happens to fly airplanes.”(Smith, 2004) The airline is dedicated to their customers. When other airlines felt the economy crunch and decided to start charging customers to check bags, Southwest refused to add a charge to their customers...
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...image to the public that customers will receive quality customer service, and is also unfortunately used by customers to abuse and exploit employees. Southwest Airlines has adopted a different strategy, one that is unique and sought after by many organizations developed by their founder Herb Keller who started the company in 1971 (Smith, 2004). The Mission Statement of the company is twofold and first addresses the customer. Second the statement addresses its employees. The customer’s message “Mission of Southwest Airlines” 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.” The second portion of the mission statement titled “To Our Employees” states, “We are committed to provide our Employees a stable work environment with equal opportunity for learning and personal growth. Creativity and innovation are encouraged 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.” “The company’s attitude is that its employees are the “first customer” and passengers are the second (Smith, 2004).” The history of Southwest airlines meeting the needs of its first customers, the employees is evident through the actions of the company in its early introduction stage. The company not...
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...Southwest Airlines, Inc. Introduction Southwest Airlines was established in 1967 by entrepreneur Herb Kelleher. Headquartered in Dallas, Texas the name Southwest Airlines was adopted in 1971. Southwest Airlines today has set the bench mark for many other Airlines trying to catch up to the innovation that has taken place over the last 35 years. Several of the key elements of Southwest’s success is their Mission Statement “Low Fares and Spartan Service” and their dominating Philosophy of “Peanut Fares, Peanut Meals, and Peanut Jokes.” So what does Southwest Airlines value? Like most companies the answer to this question would be our customers of course, but not Southwest Airlines they value their employees, they see their employees as their number one customer. Which brings us to the interesting topic of Southwest’s culture. Southwest Airlines Culture is unlike many of numerous companies in the USA where they have implemented and formalized “quality management programs” and they failed because they were “programs of the month.” At Southwest Airlines implementing “quality” throughout the company is not the result of a formalized program but required cultural change in the way they conduct their daily activities. The main requirement of “doing it right the first time” is integrated into the daily activities or culture of the company. The chairman of the board and president of a company has established the tone for quality in not only what they communicate but also in...
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...description of the organization you chose to research. Southwest Airlines was founded in 1971 by Herb Kelleher and Rollin King to provide frequent, low cost airline service in busy markets less than 500 miles apart. “Southwest Airlines is now America’s largest low-fare carrier, serving more Customers domestically than any other airline with a unique combination of low fares, no annoying fees, friendly Customer Service delivered by outstanding People, safe and reliable operation, and an extraordinary corporate Culture that extends to the communities it serves” (Southwest Corporate Fact Sheet, 2013, pg.1). The company has been in operation for 42 years and has returned a profit every year except for the first year (Southwest Corporate Fact Sheet, 2013). Even after September 11th, 2001, the company made a profit without layoffs or furloughs (Reingold, 2013). Examine the culture of the selected organization. As stated in Southwest Airline 2009 Corporate Report, “Our unique airline Culture enables our Family of Employees to provide the highest quality Customer Service. Our valued Customers return to Southwest Airlines because of our People. Our People listen to the Customer’ suggestions create innovative programs that make their lives easier, and continually seek ways to trim operating costs to keep airfare affordable. Our Customer Service extends to sharing the SPIRIT of giving with those who need it most. At Southwest Airlines, our Employees care about maintaining LUVing relationship...
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...Introduction Southwest Airlines was founded in 1967 by Rollin King and Herb Kelleher in vision of creating an affordable airfare to public. They had the idea that if they could offer the speed and convenience of air service at a price competitively near that of driving or bus service then they could win over customers. According to frequently-cited story, King described his vision concept to Kelleher over dinner by drawing on a paper napkin a triangle symbolizing the routes, Dallas, Houston, and San Antonio, later became known as “The Golden Triangle”. This image is still found today on their website. In November 27, 1967, with $500,000 in the bank account, Kelleher filed the application with the Texas Aeronautics Commission (TAC) with only three Boeing 737 aircraft. The original name of the company was Air Southwest co. (Southwest Airlines, 2012) In March 1971, Lamar Muse joins Air Southwest as president and sold promissory notes raising an excess of $1.25 million to cover aircraft and startup cost and changes its name to Southwest Airlines Co. (Southwest). In September 29, 1971, Southwest receives it fourth aircraft. The primary aspect of the firm’s business model is to eliminate the unnecessary frills offered by competitors, thus reducing the cost to customers. Southwest also reduced cost by focusing on a smaller number of routes and only flying one type of aircraft, the Boeing 737. Choosing only to fly one type of aircraft was a very strong and successful strategic...
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