JetBlue Airways: Starting From Scratch
Kevin Hoai Nguyen
Cal. State University Dominguez Hills
MGT-500
Oct. 5 2014

Since inception, JetBlue’s strategies were to use technology, innovation, and human services to create a competitive advantage against their competitors. They wanted to be able to provide high quality airline services while keeping fares at an affordable rate. With over 30 years experience of service-based businesses, Ann Rhoades (Rhoades) fits the culture and vision of JetBlue. She plays a critical role in developing a value-based team that truly cares for their crew members. Prior to joining JetBlue, one of Rhoades’ conditions for joining the team was defining what the company stands for. She wanted to create a company that focus on their people. After a two-day meeting, the executive team came up with five core values that the company characterized on. These values that JetBlue characterized on are safety, caring, integrity, fun, and passion.
Rhoades must create a team based on these five core values. This was no easy task considering the fact that JetBlue hired 1000 employees within their first year and projected to hire 5000 people within the next 4 years. Rhoades was given a task to hire people at a rapid rate without jeopardizing the core values of the company. This means selecting the best people in an incredible pace. Studies show that happy employees are more productive and organizations with more satisfied workers are more effective than organizations with fewer (Robbins & Judge, 2013). JetBlue operates under this same principal that highly value and care for their employees. They believe that happy and satisfied employees will significantly contribute to the longevity and well being of the company. Does this mean that JetBlue did everything they could to satisfy their employees? Well, not exactly. Rhoades focused on hiring the right people that fit the company’s culture and core values. She wanted to hire people with the right job attitudes. The three job attitudes that Rhoades focused on was being productive, being safe, and provide excellent customer service.
Using the core values as a guide, Rhoades did many things to satisfy crew members. She came up with customized employment packages that crew members can choose from, she offered competitive pay and benefit packages that start immediately without the probation period, and promoted a fun and creative working environment that gives people lots of autonomy. With the right mindset and the generous employment benefits that the company offered, crew members were more likely to be happy and satisfy with their job.
The leadership style that fits Rhoades most would be employee-oriented leader or consideration. The reason I mentioned these two styles is because they are closely related. Employee-oriented or consideration styles are characterized by mutual respect between the manager and employee, by caring for the employee’s feelings and ideas, and by accepting individual differences among members (Robbins & Judge, 2013). One of the core values that Rhoades built her team on was caring. She believed that caring was the most important element in building her team and wanted her crew members to know that the company truly cares about them. She also manages on the idea that mangers are served as coaches, not bosses, and that they are there to guide crew members towards the core values of the company. She also promoted a working environment that values trust and gave crew members a high level of autonomy.
In conclusion, Ann Rhoades played a major factor in building a people-valued team that contributed to the success of JetBlue. She successfully created a positive union-free working environment where people are satisfied and productive. When employees are happy and satisfied, customer satisfaction and loyalty increases (Robbins & Judge, 2013). According to Yahoo’s finance, JetBlue‘s stock is currently at 3.25 billion dollars. Reference
Robbins, S. P., & Judge, T. A. (2013). Organizational Behavior (15th ed., p. 74-81) Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education, Inc.