DB4: Organizational Assessment Models: Good-to-Great and Baldrige Award

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Organizational Assessment Models: Good-to-Great and Baldrige Award
Reportedly, Southwest Airlines has operated in the airline industry for four decades; a factor that has enabled it to develop diverse experience. This airline has from time to time introduced new strategies to help it improve its performance and therefore attain a competitive advantage. It is notable that since 1971, the time that Southwest Airlines started operating, the focus or rather the factor which was used to foster competitive advantage was the workforce (Edward 2). The management utilized the employees to ensure that the productivity was of a good quality and therefore the airline expanded its market share significantly with time. Owing to the fact that only the personnel was the focus of the airline since 1971 to around 1995, the performance was moderate or rather ‘good’.
From 1995, the airline took another strategy with an intention to overcome the problems that it had undergone when the success culture was solely personnel (Edward 3). The airline wanted to become ‘great’ and survive the extensive competition that has set in due to the increase in the number of airlines (Collins 19). As such, the leadership introduced flexibility in charges to try and improve the performance. This was a new culture which was aimed at making the returns of Southwest Airlines to improve.
In line with the reduction of fare, frequent flights were introduced.

The airline introduced new routes to attract more passengers and even divert others from other airlines. For example, the airline operated in any part of California, Los Angeles, Dallas, Houston, Sacramento and other States. Gradually, these two aspects have been seen to yield positive results and make the airline ‘great’ (Collins 23). As evident from the returns, the profitability of the company has improved by over 10 %within the current decade. This analysis indicates that the performance of Southwest Airlines is in line with the Good-to-Great model.
Works Cited
Collins, Jim. Good To Great by Jim Collins| Quickie Book Summary Kindle Edition. 2001. Swiftbooks. PP 1-123.
Edward, Starkman. Southwest Airlines (A). The workforce is dedicated to the company. 1995: Case HR-1A. pp 1-23.