A critique of Southwest Airlines on its business strategy and its approach to HRM

Southwest Airlines is an American company based on the low-cost model and founded by Herb Kelleher, John Parker and Rollin King. The founders came up with this development after experiencing inconveniences and other expenses on traveling from the cities of Houston, Dallas, and San Antonio. The company has incorporated many frameworks in its strategic management program so as to boost its overall performance in the highly competitive market. Its HRM department has always made various changes in the leadership positions and other employee positions so as to enable it to achieve its overall goal of profit maximization.

In the recent past, the company developed a strategy to minimize its competition with large-scale airlines in flying international routes through focusing on domestic trips. Thus, this has enabled it to acquire a larger market share as it concentrates on its niche and targeted customers. Therefore, this paper shall critique Southwest Airlines’ business strategy and the approach it holds in the Human resource management department.

Cost Conscious Strategy

The company has employed a cost consciousness strategy to lower its costs and increase productivity and the overall quality. It aims at providing quality customer service and a stable environment through low fares to the clients. Therefore, this has made it search for suppliers who depict similar effort and look internally to advance their practices and amenity, and who are willing to employ cost savings techniques to their partners (Johnson & Hall, 2009).

The management is devoted to crafting a milieu of conviction and deference for its clients, workforces, and dealers. On the same note, the employees are projected to uphold virtuous morals and carry out their duty with veracity in a way that excludes the contemplation of peculiar gain. Therefore, this portrays that the company recognizes miscellany and pursues to construct a reassuring atmosphere in the workstation and their base of suppliers. Hence, the company tries to save resources by streamlining its operative process since the stratagem of low fares has become its trade plug. Some of these strategies include devising one type of airliner and cash catalog receipts as tickets. On the same note, its strategic management team believes that airliners only spawn returns when they are on air. Therefore, this has made them adopt the concept of “high average velocity” as a substitute for the conventional “hub-and-spoke” system.

The exclusion of the repast amenity from its voyages has made the company to serve drinks and other light appetizers to the travelers so as to provide pocket-friendly fares. On the same note, the workforce has contributed to the success of the strategy through complying with the company requirement of the shortest turnaround time and its pilots flying for longer hours as compared to those in other airlines. Therefore, this has made the time factor to be utilized in an efficient manner. Similarly, the carrier sends its tickets, newsletters, and other documents through the internet rather than post or facsimile, making it act as a cost saving technique. The CEO of the Airlines claim that the Website is performing a critical role in regulating the upsurge in unit charges that are brought about by the rise in gas rates and other cost factors in the diligence. He says that it’s economical to convey to clienteles via the virtual service other than applying for a traveling agent. Hence, the use of the internet by passengers has made the company to keep the fares at a low discount level and satisfy the customers in their day to day activities.

Internal Marketing Approach

The company has instigated this policy through the conception of a “Southwest Spirit” that has gone deep into the hearts of many people. They handle one another like kinfolk associates through depicting good relational affiliation and communication capability within the workplace. The management puts prominence on not only to handle clients in a superlative way but also view workers as interior patrons to the company (Kotter, 2000). Consequently, this has made the company’s working environment to be comfortable and a fun place to stay. Therefore, this has made them be able to provide better services as the employees are kept happy, and the fun acts as a stimulant in reducing seriousness and boredom in the workplace.

The strategy goes hand in hand with the company’s motto that states, “Employees are hired for attitude and trained for skill.” Hence, this shows that the company believes in satisfying its employees first and then it will enroll in ways to satisfy its clients (Kevin, 2009). One of its principal strategies to success is that it does not sacrifice the happiness of its employees so as to satisfy its customers. Thus, this implies that it makes an application of Market-focused Management Model that holds that a corporation ought to belief and stance on the side of its employees since clients might be erroneous in some circumstances.

The company hires inexperienced workers as interns so as they can be able to earn an employee experience through their relations with experienced employees over time. The method is applied so as to enable the newbies to observe the essence of the Southwest culture from the demonstrations depicted by those who have experience in the company. On the same note, the company trains employees so that they can be able to take over different positions in various departments that are left vacant when their seniors retire. Hence, this gives them a chance to experience the various roles in the different departments of the company making them get to know the difficulties employees in those departments face (Lacorte, 2002). In the long run, this has made them enthusiastic and expected to help in times of a crisis. Similarly, the company tries to make workforces view Southwest Airlines, not as a syndicate but a big household through their income allotment design and the yearly celebrations. They engage the entire body of the organization in celebrating the opening of a new airport, and they take good care of each other. Therefore, this makes even their president aware when one of his members feels unwell or needs encouragement in his day to day life.

The organization has made its employees to share responsibilities of vacuuming up the airliner and facilitating their aircrafts to take off for a short time on the ground obligation. Hence, this has made the employees in the company be very creative and depicted their personality as they carry out their roles to satisfy their clients. Their dress code, humorous conversations, and exciting broadcasting have led to a relaxed and delighted atmosphere in the company. The acts release trauma and pressure among the travelers that choose Southwest Airlines and create superfluous entertainment for those aboard without spending extra cash. Therefore, the Southwest Airlines Spirit has made the employees to treat every client with a clean heart and create cohesion in the company (Lannane, n.d.). On the same note, the company has come up with devices, sports and other inventive orifices that are freely accessible on the aircrafts and in the group bureaus to empower workers to engross themselves in breaks. Hence, this has made every employee emotionally connected to the firm and willing to carry out anything that is beneficial to the progression of Southwest. The infection of a thrilling sagacity of delight and gratification among the employees makes the patrons to be prejudiced by the delight of the employees making them develop a feeling of happiness (Sung & Ashton, 2002). In the long run, this has made the airline to be the most effective and efficient as compared to its competitors in the industry.

The Flat Organizational Strategy

The company has a sinewy organizational edifice and relaxed cipher of demeanor that leads to a cross-functional communication. The strategy has enabled employees to connect with managers and their president at any time they wish to deliver opinions or suggestions. Therefore, this implies that the Southwest leaders are not positioned in a way that makes them unreachable. The employees are free to enter their offices and discuss anything with them anything they feel to be undermining their performances. Similarly, it is made up of a simple hierarchy that makes departmental supervisors manage employees in a right way and maintain good and direct communication between the two parties (Marchington & WilkinsonAll, 2005). On the same note, the leaders carry out groundwork such as baggage handling as compared to other managers who are only involved in decision-making process alone. Hence, this kind of structure makes the employees feel free to carry out their assignments and make improvements in instances that need upgrades without pressure or restrictions.

The company holds an assumption that the stock one does not measure real ownership of the company owns but the desire that one has to make a difference to the company. The employees are empowered to decipher service hitches in a judicious way without pursuing authorization from the supervisors. In the long run, the employees are reinvigorated to offer fantastic services as their judgments are trusted without taking into deliberation their region of specialty and the positions they hold in the company.

The management team believes that the more an employee is exposed to the customs of the company they more they will care and provide quality services to their clients. Therefore, the recently updated company information is always made accessible to every employee of the corporation (Murakami, 2013). The exposure enlightens the employees to be aware that the profit of the company should not only be the concern of their president but the entire community encompassed by the organization. If every member comprehends on how the company earns its income and the influence of a single customer on their profitability, they will be aware that their service to each client is very meaningful. On the same note, they shall be motivated to come up with solutions on cost reduction and make the customer service providers enhance their service provision to their clients.

The Harvard HRM Model

Different models of HRM have been developed, but Harvard and Michigan are the most applied in various organizations. The two are distinct as one depicts flexible terms while the other is a hard approach to dealing with employees. Michigan is a hard and less humanistic HRM model that focuses on employee cost and numbers while Harvard is a soft design as it touches on psychosomatic aspects like obligation, liberation and employee abilities. Southwest Airlines has implemented the Harvard model as it considers employees as a crucial asset of the company (Ortiz & Ford, 2009).

The company is portrayed as providing employees with a significant amount of information so as to enable them to comprehend the organizational structure, mission, vision, clients, and the major and minor competitors in the industry. The Harvard model puts emphasis on the soft side of HRM through seeing the significance of motivating workers and developing an organizational culture based on trust and teamwork. According to the approach, the resources and time spent in training and development is a venture in a firm’s human assets. Human capital can range from the body of knowledge, skills, and experience that is possessed by employees in the organization (Smedley, 2016). Therefore, Southwest Airlines enjoys the long-term benefits of Harvard model through the investment it enrolls in its employees.

Conclusion

Southwest Airlines acts as the best illustration of an efficacious firm that has executed a sound business strategy and HRM approach. The above critique depicts different issues that the firm has put in place so as to gratify its staffs and patrons as they purpose to fulfill their major goal of profit maximization. On the same note, their Harvard approach in the HRM sector has made the company to gain from the contribution of employees in the process of decision making and other cost management ideas. On the same note, the approach has enabled the company to solve disputes among employees and their supervisors or the management team in an amicable way. Therefore, I would recommend other companies across the globe to encompass the approaches of Southwest and their approach to HRM.

References

Johnson, E. & Hall, J. (2009). Enhancing Service at Southwest Airlines.
Kevin, G. (2009). Reach for the skies (HR strategy at Southwest Airlines). Human Resource Management International Digests, 17(2). http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/hrmid.2009.04417bad.005
Kotter, J. (2000). Leading Change: Why Transformation Efforts Fail. Harvard Business School Publishing Corporation.
Lacorte, J. (2002). Startegic Human Resource Management: An Investment Perspective of Human Resource Management. South-Western.
Lannane, M. Strategic Human Resource Planning: Human Resource Management.
Marchington, M. & WilkinsonAll, A. (2005). Human Resource Management at Work: High Commitment HRM and Performance (pp. 71-98). CIPD.
Murakami, H. (2013). Dynamic Effects of Low-Cost Entry on Conduct Parameter: An Early-Stage Analysis of Southwest Airline and American West Airline. ME, 04(04), 281-292. http://dx.doi.org/10.4236/me.2013.44032
Ortiz, L. & Ford, J. (2009). The roles of front‐line management in anti‐unionizations employee communication. Journal Of Communication Management, 13(2), 136-156. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/13632540910951759
Smedley, T. (2016). Nampak Plastics: A lot of bottle.
Sung, J. & Ashton, D. (2002). High Performance Work Practices: linking strategy and skills to performance outcomes.