HR Design Decision Chart

Southwest Airlines is a well-known company featured in our textbook. Over the next 4 weeks, you will take on the fictional role of intern at Southwest Airlines Human Resources. You will utilize the textbook and other professional resources to complete your assessments.

Your first week on the job is filled with learning the ins and outs of Human Resources and the industry. Your manager told you that one of your projects is to assist with a new HR strategy for the company. This strategy is broken down into 3 parts that you’ll work on throughout the course. They are:

1. Examining current practices
2. Talent recruitment and selection
3. Strategy recommendation

Your first task is to examine Southwest's current HR practices, as reported in public sources. Complete the HR Design Decisions chart with your review and rationale of the elements listed below to decide where Southwest Airlines' HR practices fall. Support the analysis with evidence from sources on the web.

• Employees as expenses vs. employees as assets
• Compensation below market, above market, or competitive
• Spontaneous training and development or planned training and development
• Specific job descriptions or general job descriptions
• External or internal recruitment, or both
• Limited socialization of new employees or extensive socialization
• Collective bargaining or individual bargaining

Possible sources for information include but are not limited to:

• Organization website and associated websites
• Vault Campus includes detailed reviews and survey information about what it’s like to work at Southwest. To access Vault Campus, visit eCampus and click PhoenixLink.
• Websites that specialize in company reviews and job postings
• Magazine and journal articles from the Internet or University Library