Southwest Airlines' organizational culture and core values framework

¶ … Organization's Philosophy

Assessing the Culture of Southwest Airlines

airline to never declare bankruptcy and stabilize its customer base during recessionary periods over the last ten years, Southwest Airlines has consistently been able to translate their unique vision, mission, and values into consistently profitable performance (Rhoades, 2006). The mission statement of Southwest Airlines is dedication to the highest quality of Customer Service delivered with a sense of warmth, friendliness, individual pride, and Company Spirit (Strategic Direction, 2005).

Company Culture

The culture of Southwest Airlines is highly egalitarian in nature, designed to enable a high degree of information and knowledge exchange due to the flat layers and small span of control (Hardage, 2006). The founders of Southwest deliberately constructed an organizational structure contributes to rapid collaboration and openness of communication (Rhoades, 2006). The culture is also anchored in the highly non-conformist nature of the founder and CEO Herb Kelleher who infuses an underdog mentality throughout the entire company while at the same time underscoring the need for exceptional customer service (Lee, 1995). Mr. Kelleher and his co-founders deliberately set out to create an organization that would celebrate the uniqueness and value of each employee, while putting service to customers and the delivery of exceptional experiences as the highest priority of all corporate values (Lubans, 2009). The result is a company that has defied a contracting, highly regulated industry and continued to grow despite economic turbulence over the last several years. Southwest deliberately planned an organizational structure that would allow for stable, profitable growth based on strong foundation of values (Hardage, 2006).

Southwest Airlines Values Form the Foundation of the Company

Another essential aspect of how Herb Kelleher and the team of managers at Southwest chose to design the company was to create a set of thirteen core values their entire business would be based on (Freiberg, Freiberg, 1996). The full set of the thirteen values can be found on the Southwest website and in the references (Freiberg, Freiberg, 1996). These values galvanized the company to attain exceptional levels of trust across divisions and as a result, lead to a workforce passionate about delivering exceptional customer experiences. The idea of doing whatever it takes to delight a customer resonates throughout the Southwest culture that people don't share resumes when transferring departments, they share stories of exceptional customer service delivered (Sadri, Lees, 2001). That is how engrained these core values are inside the organization. It literally defines itself by the level of service it delivers, which makes Southwest such an exceptional organization globally today.