Southwest Airlines Case Study

By: Amita Sinha Ankur Kr Agarwal Ayushi Sharma Garima Rathore Neeraj Garg



Southwest Airlines that has built business and corporate culture around the tenets of total quality management and customer service.



This case deals with corporate philosophy, culture and HRM practices.



“Focus on Customer”.



Treat their employee as their customer.



Case also talks about the manager Herb Kelleher’s innovative way of dealing with the employees.



Believe in Fun at work philosophy with safety.

 From

1992 through 1996, they won DOT’s triple crown for best on-time performance, best baggage handling & fewest customer complaints.

 From

1996 to 1998, they won Airline Quality Rating for three consecutive years.

 Managed

to make profit even in industry downturns.

To show the level of satisfaction & pride felt by customers of SouthWest Airlines . . .

 Challenges

faced by the U.S. aviation industry: “Industry faced two major economic downturns since 1973(which had led to heavy losses and conflict with the labor union)”.

 SWA

resorted to low cost carriers and wide range of aircraft.  Offered affordable prices to consumers  Followed a work culture that helped them in retaining talent.  Continuously improved their service for customers.  Involving Customer in various activities  Best Employee – Management relation in the industry

 Fun

at Work Philosophy  Focus on the employee involvement and empowerment.  Acknowledging employees Births, deaths, marriages and promotions.  They hire people with attitude and then build upon that foundation.  Employees are asked to use their own judgment and to go beyond job description.  SWA’s belief in continuous improvement of strategic focus.

 Involving

Employees in decision making  Healthy relationship between employees and management as there is no labor strike.  Fun at work culture.  Highly motivating employees and feeling of belongingness in employees. They get attention from CEO.  Even passengers were given due weightage from company perspective.

 Most

enjoyable work life:

 Work

 Least

with fun

enjoyable work life:

 Servicing

peanuts as meals.

 Yes,

we think that Kelleher’s “fun at work” philosophy could work equally well in any other company:  will

help to reduce employee absenteeism  will increase employee’s satisfaction.  will lead to lower stress and higher productivity.  Will give the feeling of belongingness among the employees.

 SouthWest’s

success is due to balance between good business practices and good HR practices.  No, good business strategy can’t survive in long term without an equally good HR strategy.  Both essential for a company’s success.