Southwest Airlines: Using Human Resources for Competitive Advantage

1. What are the key elements of Southwest Airline’s history? Why are these elements important to understanding Southwest?

First of all, from its inception, Southwest has encouraged its employees to identify with others at the company, deliver great customer service, and have fun.
Secondly, Southwest’s strategy was to pursue a low fare. So the company concentrated on flying to airports that are underutilized and close to a metropolitan area and also emphasized point-to-point routes, with no central hub and an average flight time of 65 minutes. This paid off in shorter turnaround times and higher equipment use.
Thirdly, consistent with its strategy of low costs, low fares, and frequent flights, Southwest also kept its fares simple. The company typically offered only two fares on a route, a regular coach and an off-peak fare.
Through looking at these key elements of Southwest Airline’s history, we got an idea of how Southwest Airlines ran its business and why this company has been profitable in every one of the last 21 years, a record achieved by no other major U.S. airline. The best way to understand the current situation of a company is to look back at important things that happened in this company in the past.

2. What is Southwest’s business/operational strategy?

Southwest’s operational strategy is to fly just one aircraft type to cut down on training and maintenance costs, use smaller, less congested airports to avoid schedule disruptions caused by multiple aircraft demands, and eliminate meal service and seating assignments to allow the aircraft to be turned around more rapidly.

3. How would you describe Southwest’s organizational culture? How does Southwest maintain this culture? – Be specific and provide examples. We can describe Southwest’s organizational culture as