CASE ANALYSIS ON SOUTHWEST AIRLINES

Submitted To: Dr. Swarup Mohanty Submitted By: Shiva Krishna Padhi

Date: 20th July 2012

DECLARATION

I hereby declare that the Case Write up on Southwest Airlines , submitted to Dr. Swarup Mohanty, is a record of an original work done by me based on its case reading.

Shiva Krishna Padhi

Index

1. Case Summary/Introduction

2. Questions and answers

3. Conclusion

4. References

1.Introduction :

Southwest Airlines Co., operating as Southwest Airlines, is the largest low-cost carrier in the United States, and is headquartered in Dallas, Texas. The airline was established in 1967, adopting its current name in 1971. It is the largest airline in the United States based upon domestic passengers carried as of June 5, 2011.Southwest has 37,000 employees as of December 2011 and operates more than 3,300 flights per day. As of January 2012, Southwest Airlines, along with its subsidiary AirTran, operate scheduled service to 97 destinations in 42 states.

The company has employed humor in its advertising. Slogans include "Just Plane Smart", "The Somebody Else Up There Who Loves You" and "THE Low Fare Airline". The airline's current slogan is "Grab your bag, It's On!".

Basically this case focuses on how employee’s behavior and attitude in an organization is responsible for its success. Southwest airlines is very much keen on hiring its employees based on attitude rather skills and rigorous interviewing.

2.Questions and Answers:

2.1. Using the five attributes of attitude-behavior correspondence discussed in the chapter, explain the linkage between employee attitudes and customer service at Southwest Airlines .

ans. The five attributes of attitude-behavior correspondence and their corresponding behavioral effects are:

• Attitude specificity: specific attitudes have a stronger behavioral effect than general attitudes.

• Attitude relevance: attitudes pertaining to issues that are personally relevant have a stronger behavioral effect than attitudes about issues that are irrelevant to one’s self-interests.

• Timing of measurement: the shorter the time between attitude measurement and the observed behavior, the stronger the linkage to behavior.

• Personality factors: certain personality factors, such as self-monitoring, encourage correspondence between attitudes and behavior.

• Social constraints: the social context provides information about acceptable attitudes and behaviors.

2.2. What type of organizational commitment is evident at Southwest Airlines?

Ans. There are three types of organizational commitment—affective, continuance, and normative.

In this case Affective commitment which refers to the emotional or feeling segment of an attitude i.e a strong desire to remain in the company.This we can see in the statements in the case like, “Working here is truly an unbelievable experience…I love going to work!” Another employee said, “This is the best place to work in the world, and we have the best people in the world.”

2.3. What values—organizational as well as individual––does Southwest emphasize through its human resources policies and practices and with its culture?

Ans. On an organizational level, Southwest Airlines provides outstanding customer service, training & variety of job profiles to the employees, interactive work environment outside and inside within co workers, and giving a risk free/independent work environment to the employees.

On an individual level it provides promotional opportunities , right nature of work to employees, compensation and benefits and to have an attitude of self critism which brings a positive work environment.

2.4. What impact might the employees’ values have on their propensity to behave ethically or unethically?

Ans. Some ethical values like job performance, OCB, customer satisfaction, no absentism, good turnover and unethical values like exit, voice, lolyalty, neglect are mainly outcomes of company values which are providing excellent customer service, making work fun, and being compassionate and caring.

3.Conclusion:

Lastly we can conclude that Southwest airlines follows a model for its success which is:

Have fun together

Treat employees as family

Hire people who form the fit

Involve the employees

Customer service

4. References

4.1. http://www.slideshare.net/sarangbhutada/southwest-airlines-case-study.

4.2. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Southwest_Airlines.