OL 215 : Management Southwest Airlines Final Project One Submission: Application of the Fundamental Principles of Management for a Successful Company

Final Project One – Milestone Part 2 of 3

Final Project One – Milestone Two: Profile of a Successful Company

Chosen Company: Southwest Airlines

Jennifer Moore

OL-215 Principles of Management

Professor: Bekim Belica

Southern New Hampshire University

March 21, 2021

I. Mission and Vision

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 (Evans, 2019). The vision of Southwest is to be the world’s most loved, most efficient, and most profitable airline (Southwest, 2020). Southwest has conveyed their mission and vision by showing high confidence across many levels and putting their employees first. The employee’s happiness is shown through the customer service they provide. A validation of how the importance of their employees, a former CEO included his salary in the pay freeze which lasted over 5 years. It was intended for the pilot’s union, and it was roughly $100M is losses for the CEO.

II. Strategic Management Plan

To ensure that a repeated goal is met, Southwest’s levels of management focus on a specific part of the structure. The top-level management make sure the long-term planning and decision making go as planned. The middle-level management focus on organization and resource budgeting. Then the lower-management lead and control, issuing the vision and creating policies. As proof, the management plan shows the success of the company by the turnover rate. With the roles of the company clearly stated and executed, all three levels, from top level to lower level, can focus on the company’s vision more confidently.

III. Organizational Culture

Southwest’s organizational culture supports the employee involvement, satisfaction, morale, and motivation to aim for high performance that relates to the mission and vision (Brown, 2019). Three main characteristics of Southwest Airlines culture are as follows:

1. Employee-centered appreciation, recognition, celebration

2. For employees: Living the Southwest Way

3. For customers and other business stakeholders: Working the Southwest Way

Employees are at the center of the organizational culture of Southwest Airlines (Brown, 2019).

IV. Decision Making

All level of employees at Southwest are included and considered in the decision-making process. The employees are inspired to voice opinions and the majority are appealed for doing so. To give you an idea, the airlines included the ideas and suggestions that were made by the new group of flight attendants, to help create uniforms.

V. Principles of Ethics

Southwest place a high value on honesty, integrity, and personal responsibility (Southwest, 2020). They are committed to maintaining the highest standards of ethical business practices. Transfarency and fairness are at the core of ethical principles that Southwest ensures. Defined by Southwest.com, Transfarency is a philosophy in which customers are treated honestly and fairly, and low fares stay low (Southwest, 2020).

VI. Human Resources

Southwest Airlines receives a job application every few seconds. They choose wisely on their prospected new hires and look for three attributes: a warrior spirit, a servant’s heart, and a fun-loving attitude. By their way of choosing employees has proven why it is important they follow these attributes. So, hiring for values seems to be working from our employee’s perspective as well as Southwest’s (Weber, 2015).

VII. Conclusion

The mission and vision have seemed to stay constant with Southwest Airlines, even with many different changes throughout the years. 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 (Evans, 2019). To establish and maintain excellent customer service, Southwest Airlines, firmly believes in taking care of their employees first, which in return drives them to excellent customer services skills.

References

Company Overview. (n.d.). Retrieved March 10, 2021, from http://investors.southwest.com/

our-company/company-overview

Evans, L. (2019, May 30). Southwest Airlines Co.'s Mission Statement & Vision Statement (An

Analysis). Retrieved September 14, 2020, from http://panmore.com/southwest-airlines-

vision-statement-mission-statement-analysis

Evans, L. (2019, May 30). Southwest Airlines Co.'s Mission Statement & Vision Statement (An

Analysis). Retrieved September 14, 2020, from http://panmore.com/southwest-airlines-

vision-statement-mission-statement-analysis

Evans, L. (2019, May 30). Southwest Airlines Co.'s Mission Statement & Vision Statement (An

Analysis). Retrieved March 10, 2021, from http://panmore.com/southwest-airlines-

vision-statement-mission-statement-analysis

Martin, Emmie. (2015, July 29). A Major airline says there’s something it values more than its customers, and there’s a good reason why. Retrieved March 11, 2021, from https://www.businessinsider.com/southwest-airlines-puts-employees-first-2015-7

Weber, Julie. (2015, December 02). How Southwest Airlines Hires Such Dedicated People. Retrieved March 12, 2021, from https://hbr.org/2015/12/how-southwest-airlines-hires such-dedicated-people#