Success of Southwest Airlines Through Planning, Organizing, and Leading

The Success of Southwest Airlines through Planning, Organizing, and Leading

Southwest airlines is a company that has a clearly defined mission statement which is key in the implementation of effective planning. The mission of Southwest Airlines is “dedication to the highest quality of customer service delivered with a sense of warmth friendliness, individual pride, and company spirit.” Their purpose is to connect people to what’s important in their lives through friendly, low cost, and reliable air travel. Southwest’s goals are to be the most loved, most flown, and most profitable airline.  These goals are met by implementing their mission statement into their purpose.

One of the main reasons that southwest has been so successful is their commitment and emphasis on their employees; their employees are treated as their number one asset. Southwest’s organizational structure is described as an upside-down pyramid in which the front-line employees play a large part in the planning and budgeting of the business. The organization is decentralized; the decisions are made by the people confronted with the problem, regardless of their hierarchy. The way this organizational culture is set up puts upper management at the bottom supporting to the front-line employees. Southwest hasn’t put much emphasis on structure and instead wants their employees to think freely without constraints and strict mandates. Because the mission and purpose of the company are displayed so strongly throughout, and the company’s employees also have a strong sense of the company (and its customers) best interest, which is what allows for this organic-type structure to work.

The values of Southwest help define what kind of leadership is attracted and built in the company, which in turn affects the employee’s performance and the attainment of goals. Southwest, first and foremost, displays authentic leadership. The authentic leadership at Southwest is shown through management’s passion about the company’s objectives and the modeling of corporate values in the workplace. Secondly, is servant leadership; leaders who lead by example and form strong relationships with its employees. This kind of leadership is seen in the aforementioned organizational structure of having top managers heavily involved with the front-line managements. There is also a sense of transformational leadership in which the management at Southwest inspires employees to look beyond their own self-interests and generates awareness and acceptance of the company’s purposes and mission.