Introduction
Southwest Airlines is an American low-cost carrier, which mission is to connect people to what matters to them through low-cost, friendly flights (Purpose, Vision, and The Southwest Way, n.d.). The vision is to become the most efficient, profitable business while maintaining all of the original values (Purpose, Vision, and The Southwest Way, n.d.). The secret of successful company management lies in encouraging an innovative approach among the personnel, the transparent management of resources, and the clarity of the designated goals.
Company’s Profile
The company uses the servant leadership approach within the organization, which implies an attentive and sensitive attitude towards its employees. Employees feel essential, involved in essential processes in the company, and management, taking care of them, gains authority and confirms its values. Thus, the vision and values are demonstrated internally through actions. In this unconventional approach, the success of the management decision is manifested: the company is the leader in air transportation in half the states (Purpose, Vision, and The Southwest Way, n.d.). Employee happiness and satisfaction are prioritized over customer satisfaction, but both are extremely important.
Naturally, in such an environment of caring for employees, the company considers equality and inclusiveness a critical value. The organizational culture created by management based on the servant leadership approach is one of the best in the entire country, as it is recognized that Southwest has the highest standards of ethics (Cote, 2018). Decision-making is also based on the company’s core values: for example, to protect investors, an additional audit of control systems is undertaken or a particular group of employees whose activities are aimed exclusively at creating innovative solutions (Cote, 2018). The principles of ethics in the company’s functions can be traced when decisions are aimed at maintaining prices in the face of inflation and rising fuel prices or in the costs of automating processes to improve working conditions for employees. Efficient human resources allow the company to make more than 4,000 flights every weekday, while management also creates economic efficiency (Cote, 2018). The company has developed a reserve fund to support the growth of the network.
Conclusion
Optimal performance is achieved through high levels of employee satisfaction and performance. A careful approach to improving working conditions helps retain valuable staff. The whole company is an interconnected system: top management positions itself as the central management body; however, with servant leadership, absolutely every employee feels involved in any company activity.
References
Cote, R. (2018). Leadership Analysis: Southwest Airlines-Herb Kelleher, CEO. Journal of Leadership, Accountability & Ethics, 15(1). Web.
Purpose, Vision, and The Southwest Way. (n.d.) Investor Relations. Web.