Organizational change: concepts, drivers, and implementation strategies

¶ … Motivation at Southwest

Motivation is the ability to influence and persuade individuals or a group of individuals to achieve or accomplish organizational or institutional goals. Nevertheless, the necessary the study of leaders usually fall under the auspices of motivation theories. The leader chosen is Herb Kelleher who is the CEO and co-founder of Southwest Airlines. This company is chosen to present the major auspices of motivation and to highlight how Southwest Airlines has used formal motivational theories to achieve company goals. Kelleher is an identified public figure and has been analyzed in many business arenas.

However, it is noted that his motivational and leadership style has allowed Southwest Airlines to continually be one of the most profitably domestic airlines as measured by profit margins and is always recognized as the number one airlines for customer service satisfaction.

The airline industry is one of the most analyzed and researched areas in industrial and business economics. This focus on the industry is due to the noted opportunities that exist and define competitive advantages. Southwest Airlines is an important player in the overall market and faces many opportunities, due to the necessary industry and competitive advantages available to the firm. Although the overall industry seems to have many areas or processes that are important, it is clear that Southwest Airlines has tremendous opportunities to expand and increase profits. More specifically, there has been tremendous growth in the sector, and this presents an opportunity for Southwest

Leadership, Communication and Motivation -- Examples from Southwest Airlines, Herb Kelleher

Kelleher's leadership style is one closely related to relationship orientation or team management. The team management approach shows that Kelleher's ability is based on the team oriented style and how he motivates his followers to focus on the success of Southwest as a collective group. In essence, his approach is based on good personal relations being the focus of the Motivation style.

Motivation and communication in for a team management approach is very important. More so for Herb Kelleher since Southwest Airlines is in a very competitive and financial unstable industry, (Jaffe 1991).

Southwest has to embrace effective communication and Herb Kelleher encourages this since its corporate culture should be centered on customer satisfaction.

Some of the practices by Southwest ensure that employees will be loyal, as stated by the founder, CEO Herb Keller, who stands by his philosophy of putting employees first. "If they're happy, satisfied, dedicated and energetic, they'll take good care of the customers. When the customers are happy, they come back. And that makes the shareholders happy," (Gordon, 2004, para 2). It is clear that the CEO understands the importance of employee loyalty and the 'spillover' effects it can have on operations and profits. As such this type of trust and effective human resource management is effectively imparted via communication.

Whatever strategic and business strategies are chosen it is essential that the organizational culture is consistent with production/operational trends. In fact the following seven principles are important to the Southwest, so as to help achieve efficient communication and motivation:

Communication channels have to be compatible with the current organization culture and schedule.

There has to be a connection between achievements and rewards should be understood by the staff.

There has to a scheduled time at benchmarks to help with communication and motivating forces so as to acknowledge and communicate desired behavior and performance.

The organization culture should integrate well with the distribution channels, so that it is does not interfere with productive activities.

The communication and motivating process should be kept clean.

Optimizing communication functions implies that the CEO has a relationship with workers that involve providing feedback, evaluation of employee activities, and rewarding efforts geared towards effective communication is also essential. In today's culturally diverse workforce, supervisors and employees have to be sensitive to differences within communication methods. Effective communication implies that the CEO includes these differences within the communication plan development and the overall organizational structure (Gordon, 2004).

It is common knowledge that communication is a necessary prerequisite for effective management and motivation. Southwest Airlines has gained tremendous success, by enforcing effective communication channels between employees and supervisors. Other organizations have failed to realize their strategic objectives because of barriers to communication. Southwest Airlines' CEO uses communication to enforce and bolster his Motivation style by continually leading the company into successful ventures and augmenting sound business practices that are conducted by the organization but imparted by the CEO and his Motivation. Kelleher's team management approach has been integrated within the company's organizational structure which aids the company's success, (Reed, 2007).

The interlinkages between communication and motivation from Kelleher takes the form of engaging in effective communication to ensure that Southwest employees are productive or increase productivity to ensure the Airline's success or to achieve corporate objectives, (Reed, 2007).

The importance of strategic communication objectives is based on the fact it feeds operational excellence and ensures that strategic objectives are achieved. Herb Kelleher acts as the strategic driving force that guides the decisions and workers on all levels which has been integrated with his communication objectives by:-

Identifying credible strategic forces that embrace the team management, motivational, and leadership style associated with the Kelleher,

Prioritizing and analyzing risk associated with each Southwest's organizational culture,

Providing multiple communication channels to meet consumers' needs and help workers and managers embrace the Airline's organizational structure.

The use power bases within Kelleher's communication style have been a major part of motivating Southwest's employees. Southwest has gained tremendous success, by enforcing being able to correctly identifying rewards to performance and hence motivating the workforce to support the organizational structure via Kelleher's effective communication process.

Kelleher uses communication as a process of change. Employees use the Kelleher as a model for the organization's direction and development. This is why Kelleher has to be able to scan the external market environment and be able to predict and analyze the future changes within the industry. Employees have confidence in Kelleher's leadership and is motivation since he is viewed as an act as "visionary, a problem solver, and a communicator," (Nelson, 2002, p 1). Figure 1 below outlines these chosen competencies of Kelleher and shows how they are related to the motivating the Southwest Airlines employees.

Motivational Theories and Southwest Airlines

Motivational competencies from Kelleher is based on the fact that the Airline's has sets performance standards and promote these standards as part of the structure associated with the organizational objectives and team management, hence the employees have to be motivated to complete these tasks.

Attribution Theory

Southwest Airlines has used incentives to motivate the workforce. The current practices are similar to the major components of the attribution theory, where strong influences of several factors affect the behavior of the staff at Southwest. These factors like the attribution theory attributed the causes to their behavior into two types -- external and internal factors. The external attribution assigned behavior to an outside factor, they included laws which define the competence of the police, security conditions, security needs, security policy, security aim, and society and its characteristics. The internal factors were the employee assistance programs, the recruitment process that integrated the ideas of current employees in the Human Resource equation, tasks, methods, and development of employers.

Attribution theory within this context of motivation at Southwest Airlines is based on the argument that when employees assign internal factors to their actions or processes, they are more motivated to complete these processes. For example Southwest Airlines, to motivate the employees it made it mandatory that internal factors were more conducive to the work environment, so the methods and means should be more efficient, and then there was the expectation that the workforce would be motivated to complete their jobs. Similarly, there was less emphasis on external factors such as the society, security policy, and security needs; since these will not necessarily lead to a motivated workforce. The underlying hypothesis is that in order for the workers to be motivated, and then it is necessary to assign internal factors to the processes and procedures. Although external factors cannot be ignored, there can still be an earned reward or punishment for intrinsic reasons.

Hertzberg and ERG Theory

Closely related to the attribution theory above are Hertzberg two factor theories. In the current context of the research, this presents an excellent model of motivation for Southwest Airlines. Ideally, the study focused on distinguishing between external and internal factors that affect the workforce. Hertzberg two factor theories will support the hypothesis that a subset of these factors acts as motivators, while the other factors are more so related to satisfaction and dissatisfaction. If the emphasis is to be placed on motivation, then the motivating factors are more of importance. However, for Southwest employees to be motivated, they have to be satisfied. This model is ideal for understanding motivation at the Airline, because it is very hard to isolate the external and internal factors within the organization (which is more along the lines of what the attribution theory does); instead it is imperative that these models are understood together to get optimal results). Figure 1 below highlights briefly Hertzberg's two factor theory applications to the Southwest Airlines.

Figure 1: Hertzberg Two Factor Theory

To complete the analysis, the hygiene factors related to dissatisfaction should are considered to be:-

Working Conditions

Quality of Supervision

Salary

Status

Security

Interpersonal relations

These factors are necessary for the satisfaction of the employees, but will not lead to a motivated police force. Without these factors being present in an appropriate manner, these factors will lead to dissatisfaction, which may negate efforts to motivate the workforce.

The motivation factors include:

Achievement

Responsibility for task

Interest in the job

Advancement to higher level tasks

Growth

Clearly, these factors are more connected with internal forces, and affect Southwest employees in a different way. These factors are the driving force behind motivation, and have been the mandate at Southwest Airlines, which explains the success of the company.

Another related motivational model that seems to be close fit to the operations at Southwest is the Existence Relatedness, Growth (ERG) model of human motivation, which identifies the existence needs, such as water air, shelter, and so on. Relatedness needs, where individuals need to be recognized as part of a group, family or culture. The growth needs are based on progress towards a greater ideal and are at the top of the motivational hierarchy. This model fits the model Southwest's organizational and leadership structure examined in the previous section of the papers, especially because of the relatedness need identified as a motivational factor. Employees at Southwest are connected as a family, and as such it is imperative that any motivational theory trying to understand the operations at the airline capture this ideal.

Southwest's Organizational Culture and Motivation

According to Nelson, organizational culture is usually considered the "combination of inherent values and learned mission," (Nelson, 2002, p 3). The importance of an organization's culture is due to the fact that it feeds operational excellence and ensures that strategic objectives are achieved. It is therefore imperative that the motivation be embedded in this critical process, why?

Organizations are living social organisms, and need a link between them to survive; the culture provides that link,

Organizational culture is the fundamental support of an institution and will fail without a strong one,

Organizational culture is critical business strategies, goals, missions, and outcomes, (Reed, 2007)

Motivational practices whether consciously or unconsciously helps to create, hone, and development an organizational culture from their own personal history, nature, socialization experiences, and perception of what it takes to succeed in the market place, (Reed, 2007). Table 2 below presents the four core cultures that an organization can adapt.

Table 2: The CEO and the Four Core Organizational Cultures

Type of Culture

Brief Description

Control

The culture is all about certainty. The CEO exists to ensure predictability, safety, accuracy, and dependability. Motivation is centered on a culture that is centered on organizational goal achievement.

Collaboration

This culture is about synergy. Motivation has to ensure unity and a close connection with the customer and is centered on dedication with the customer.

Competence

This culture is about distinction. Motivational practices exist to ensure that the development and business strategies are unmatched.

Cultivation

This culture is about enrichment. Motivational practices exist to make sure the fundamental goals of the organization are embedded in the corporate structure and business strategy.

Motivational practices have to integrate the organizational structure so that incorporates the following strategies:-

Strategy #1: Identify environmental factors that will utilize the skills and talent of the employees -- this will motivate the workers. It is clear that a motivated employee wants to contribute to work areas outside of their specific jobs and to help enhance the work environment by embracing the organizational structure.

Strategy #2: Correct rewards have to be based on performance designed to boost employee morale -- the organizational structure has to support these programs thinking that paying the employee is enough is obviously an erroneous assumption. Research shows that workers are demoralized when they don't receive the recognition they want or feedback on how they are doing.