Another means in which Southwest Airlines resembles McDonald's is given by the very use of the Ronald McDonald House for charity events. McDonald's has been developing charity actions through sustained donations to the charity houses for nearly four decades now (Website of the Ronald McDonald House Charities). As of 1983, when a Southwest Airlines pilot lost his daughter to leukemia, the airline operator has also been annually donating money to the charity. Additionally, the company also volunteers employees to help in the charity houses (Airline Industry Information, 2005).

These actions of Southwest can be assessed from two distinct angles -- both similar to the angles of assessing the charity decisions of McDonald's. In this order of ideas, the first angle is constituted by the fact that the companies become respectable members of the community. They show their support to community causes and they are socially responsible by giving back to the community and helping those in need. On the other hand, the second angle is constituted by the organizational gains the firms register from the charity actions. In this order of ideas, when they support the community, the firms improve their perceptions and gain more public support. Subsequently, their reputations improve and so do the demands for their products and services. Southwest Airlines for instance issues an annual advertisement in which they reveal their support for the Ronald McDonald House Charities.

"During the holiday season each year, Southwest runs a television advertising campaign highlighting its Ronald McDonald House partnership. The original commercial was filmed at the Fort Worth House and features children and families from the Ronald McDonald Houses as well as Southwest Employees, including Southwest President Colleen Barrett" (Airline Industry Information, 2005).

But Southwest Airlines also reveals some features emergent from the Japanese work organization, materialized primarily in...

As part of this effort, the economic agents break down their greater tasks in smaller size tasks, which can be completed in a quick and efficient manner. The process is however complex as it requires high levels of planning and scheduling. Southwest Airlines has nevertheless managed to master the system and has created and implemented a program of numerous, short distance and efficient trips to and from numerous global locations.
b) The integration of the staff members into a family like whole

This approach has also been implemented in the west, but here it has been adopted as a business strategy, and manager continue to treat their staff members as resources, rather than valuable people. Under the Confucianism and Zen concepts in the Japanese work organization, people are valuable beings, and harmonization among them is continually sought (Durlabhji, 1990). With these specifics in mind, Southwest Airlines has constructed a complex social system to sit at the basis of its operations in the meaning that people are valued and integrated, rather than simply capitalized upon.