Southwest Airlines

Question 1

Southwest Airlines had differentiated its services by means of developing a unique organizational culture that emphasized delivering outrageous customer service through employee development . One of the most important strategies that the company followed was to empower its employees in the matter of making decisions during crisis situations . As a result , strategy formulation at Southwest Airlines followed a bottom-up approach and that facilitated the delivery of high quality service at lowest possible costs in the industry . The strategy followed by Jet Blue was different in this respect as the strategic

focus of this airline was to compete with the rest of the airlines without rigorously segmenting the marketing . Southwest Airlines on the other hand was following a competitive strategy which not only emphasized cost minimization but also emphasized developing a niche position in the market in which they were operating . As a result , even though there were substantial growth prospects in the industry , the management of the company followed a limited growth rate approach because of its highly segmented approach to marketing

The 9 /11 crisis changed the industry significantly . Yet Southwest Airlines continued to generate profits even through the lean times because of its commitment to employees and the recognition of organizational core competencies . As a result , they were able to adapt to changing circumstances . Whereas companies like Jet Blue continued to lose market share because of their inability to modify the structural characteristics of service delivery , Southwest Airlines weathered the storm unharmed because of its skills in customer retention and employee relations

Question 2

The organizational culture at Southwest Airlines was able to sustain a high level of motivation among its employees by maintaining good relations with the labor unions . Southwest Airlines was the most unionized airline in the industry . Yet it had lowest incidences of strikes in the industry . The management of the company was able to forge good relations with the employees through its commitment to maintaining the workforce regardless of what the market situation might be . As a result , the core competency of the company was employee morale . The level of motivation satisfied requirements of Maslow 's hierarchy of needs in that the company was able to create the kind of working environment where employees could have fun and were also empowered . Thus the company went beyond financial needs to satisfy needs for belongingness , esteem and self-actualization as well . The working environment at Southwest Airlines also satisfies the equity theory of motivation because employees at the company consider the working environment to be a friendly working environment in which they enjoy working . Inasmuch as growth at Southwest Airlines was achieved through job enrichment for the existing employees , the company also utilized motivators as Herzberg defined them . Lastly , evidence of Vroom 's expectancy theory can also be found at Southwest in the form of the Culture Committee which was devoted to maintaining equity between efforts and performance

Question 3

Customer retention was important at SWA because of the competitive nature of the industry . The company...