Southwest Airlines has achieved success through organizational development strategies focused on employees, culture, and relationships. The company emphasizes empowering frontline employees, avoiding hierarchy, and fostering trust and teamwork across the organization. Key approaches include hiring for attitude, resolving conflicts collaboratively, and treating external partners like internal stakeholders. By prioritizing employees and relationships over structure, Southwest has sustained performance through various challenges.

1. Southwest airlines: Organizational Development 13
Southwest Airlines: Organizational Development
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Running head: Southwest Airlines: Organizational Development
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Southwest Airlines
Organization development is ways in which company strategies
aiming at overall organization’s efficacy. The cut-throat
competition of the current times in the service industry has
made it important for all the service organizations to launch
innovative strategies, taking into consideration the processes,
people and the physical evidence that can differentiate their
services from their main competitors (Rothwell & Sullivan,
2005).
This study will present different approaches that are responsible
for the development of the Southwest Airlines Company. For
any organization to achieve its objectives there must be
essential strategies that are put in place to ensure its
development. Various approaches aimed at organizational
development should be formulated by the management and then

2. implemented towards the process of staff management.
The main objective of this paper is to highlight the relevant
strategies of Southwest Airlines that has helped it to produce a
successful business model in the airline industry that became a
benchmark for others to follow. The aim of this paper is to
establish that if a firm gives significance to its employees, it is
better able to serve its customers as the employees will perform
better and provide up to the mark services.
Southwest airlines are considered a major airline in the United
States of America and are the world’s low-cost airline with it’s
headquarter located in Dallas. In July 2016 the company’s
media website that the airline is operating with more than
50,000 employees and around 3,900 departures in one day when
the traveling season is at its peak (Swamedia, 2016).
The same data suggest that the airline has services to more than
98 destinations in the country and more than seven in foreign
countries with the service provisions to three main airports in
Cuba are expected to begin its business operations this year in
2016 (Swamedia, 2016). The airline is considered to be the
largest operator of the Boeing 737 aircraft across the world and
more than 700 are still operational. This makes an average of
six Boeing 737 flights per day.
Factors that have contributed to the development of the
southwest airlines
The Southwest Airline is an outstanding example of a service
organization that has clearly defined its main purpose of the
business; is persistent upon its business values and the attitudes
derive from the business purposes and design the correct
business model that is able to support the purpose of the
business. The Southwest Airlines promises its customer its
dedication to providing the highest quality to its customers and
equally good customer service which is delivered with
individual pride, perfect spirit, hospitable behavior and warmth
in order to deliver their promised service to the customers
(Keller, 2014).
The most important aspect is that every employee of the

3. company is aligned to deliver this brand promise. Even though
the economic turmoil and recessionary periods have occurred
which negatively impacted the airline industry, the Southwest’s
airline performance has been great throughout and it has
remained the industry leader. This has been because the staff is
motivation and their morale is high, which eventually leads to
better customer services (Cummings and Worley, 2014).
In 1995, it became the first airline to launch its own website.
This website was launched under the name of Southwest
Airlines Home Gate where the passengers could view the route
map, flight schedules, company history and other related
details. The company is now the top most online revenue
generating service organizations which generate a huge amount
of unique customers. In the year 2006, more than 70 percent of
the bookings and 73 percent of the revenue was generated
through the website bookings of Southwest Airlines (El-Erain,
2014).
The company has gained the reputation of the one that thinks
out of the box and has a proactive approach to risk management.
It is the first airline to launch the idea of fuel hedging so that it
is insulated from the possible fuel price fluctuations and
maintain its brand name as low-cost carrier. Some have claimed,
that the company is not hedging its business risk, but rather
involved in speculating the prices of energy and fuel sector
without a proper understanding or reasoning to do so.
Despite, the voices raised, the airline company has enjoyed
positive media talks and a financial increase due to their trading
skills in the energy and fuel sector. Even then, many believe
that to hedge against volatile market situation is beneficial, but,
to speculative hedge is harmful to the long-term profit taking
strategy as well as for the market (El-Erain, 2014).
Role of the management in the company development
The organization is based on an upside-down pyramid structure.
The organizational structure is in line with the way the business
operations are done. The upper management has simple policies
and is at the bottom, whereas the front line employees are kept

4. in front and encouraged to play their role. These front line
employees are an expert in their fields. The management has
given ample support and liberty to the employees because the
front line employees play an important role in designing annual
business plan and the overall operational budget, which is
preferred bottom up rather than the top down approach to
management not of which is placed vice versa (Moore &
Ingram, 2013).
The employees that are in the front line play a significant role
in the business planning and annual budget-making process.
This process involves a great deal of work with the bottom-up
approach rather than the top-down approach. This is the result
of the unconventional style of leadership of the co-founder, as
he encouraged and empowered every employee to make
decisions within the company and not just the top level
managers. The company does not give much importance to the
structure or hierarchy, instead, all the employees are
encouraged to think out of the box and creative ideas are
encouraged and implemented (Advance Business Consulting,
2009).
Despite the fact, that the airline company has reaped unlimited
amount of success, has expanded drastically with skyrocketing
revenues, even then the employees give an impression that what
they are doing within the company is just a small effort and
nothing much. This thought is limited only within some
companies, cultural values and norms now as most think they
have done enough to make the customer happy and satisfied.
The company has launched many different promotional
campaigns such as complimentary peanuts to bags fly free idea;
it has created barriers towards all steps that other airlines have
taken to drive customers towards them. The employees remind
the customers in a direct manner regarding the benefits
customer receive through the bargain campaigns, for example,
in one flight, the pilot concluded his pre-flight briefing by
informing the passengers that since the company is not charging
them for checked bags, the customers have been able to save at

5. least US$ 3,500 (Cummings and Worley, 2014).
The Southwest airline is best known for its efficient approach to
business operations. The main aircraft it has it its fleet is a
Boeing 737 and the employees have been able to manage the
turnaround time of planes in an extremely efficient manner
between the flights which considerably reduces their downtime.
The airline is able to even board their fully booked flight faster
than their competitors, even though the seats are not pre-
assigned. This not only keeps the competitors wondering, but
also the customers are astonished by the quick services they
provide.
Approaches to organizational development
The main approach to organizational development is about
improving the overall performance at an organizational, team
and individual level. It is about improvising the overall ability
of an organization to respond in an efficient and effective
manner to the external environment (Wirtenberg et al, 2007).
The approach towards organizational development not only
discusses the external environment but overall improving the
internal environment of the company by ensuring that human
resources are managed, the job design is effective, the
organization structure is well structured, employees are
motivated and the strategy is on the right path (Wirtenberg et al,
2007).
In order to follow the approach towards organizational
development, the Southwest airlines have developed and
designed ten different organizational practices so that it is able
to achieve well-coordinated function among its main areas such
as the ticketing agent, flight attendants, pilots, gate agents,
cargo agents etc. The main motive behind is to develop a
strategy of shared goals, teamwork, same objective and result
achievement with mutual understanding and respect among
group members. The ten main practices to develop relationships
and encourage high performance are: (Gitell, 2005).
· To lead with care and credibility: The top management has

6. developed trust and credibility over time and they have been
consistent in their message to empower their employees over
time. The top management is readily available to the front line
employees, developing a level of trust and care among the
employees.
· The importance of fron line leadership: The company has been
able to invest in the frontline leadership skills and abilities as
compared to their competitors. The front line employees are like
the player coaches within the company, as they have the
managerial authority, but also perform the duties of front line
employees. The supervisors are encouraged and they do spend
most of their time with the employees to solve their problems
and give them advice as compared to competitor counterparts in
other organizations (Gitell, 2005).
· Hire people with the right attitude: Utmost significance is
given to the fact that the right people are hired at the right time.
The training is given to people to walk a mile concept so that
the employees become familiar with the work related activities
and processes.
· Reduce the family and work division: The employees are
encouraged to be natural and present themselves at work and to
recognize the important events in each other lives related to
their family. This gives them a sense of association and the
support is provided at each level (Gitell, 2005).
· The conflict must be used to develop relationships: The cross-
functional conflicts are solved and the managers are encouraged
to take active steps in this regard. A conflict-resolution process
is launched known as informational gatherings, which is
initiated when the parties are unable to resolve their own
conflicts (Gitell, 2005).
· Blame game must be avoided: The airline encourages cross-
functional rather than functional ways to measure performance.
This way the employees are encouraged to focus on their
learning rather than blaming each other if anything goes wrong
in the daily chores or business processes (Gitell, 2005).
· The jobs are flexible at all levels.

7. · Boundary spanners are encouraged: The operations agents are
hired that are the boundary spanners. These moves in the
opposite direction in comparison to the rest of the industry. The
company has never increased the staff not dependent upon the
system interface to collect information required to send out a
flight operation.
· The relationship is developed with the suppliers: The external
partners are subject to the same treatment and relationship
building as the internal partners and employees within the
company. The Southwest airline stands apart from the rest of
the airlines as they keep their partnership with different airports
they serve, the manufacturer of aircrafts as well as the air
traffic controlling authority. Hence, the entire value chain gives
utmost importance rather than only employees and customers
(Gitell, 2005).
· The unions should become partners: Like many other airlines,
the Southwest has a very strong union, but the union is stronger
than the other airlines. Unlike others, the company gives utmost
importance to the management / labor relationship. The
respectful relationship is developed between the front line
employees and the union so that a respectful tone is maintained
throughout the operations (Gitell, 2005).
These business processes and strategies are the core to
Southwest business operations and it can be clearly seen that
not one business process leads to the success but all the
processes are connected to each other. The business operations
are consistent with each other and the business operations are
conducted with consistency while maintaining trust, credibility,
support and shared relationship with the entire value chain (El-
Erain, 2014).
This is what leads to the success of the Southwest airlines. The
most remarkable characteristics of the airline company are its
level of sustainability and the level of persistent success stories
year after year (El-Erain, 2014). When the 9/11 crisis occurred,
all the major airlines reduced their flight operations by 20
percent and laid off more than 15 percent of their employees,

8. but even then the Southwest airlines responded in a different
manner. Their approach was avoiding the layoffs completely
and by continuing the idea of taking care of the people rather
than leaving them in such crisis situation. The company has
witnessed difficult times, but it has used these difficult
situations to make themselves more visible to the system and
overall expand its availability when others reduce their flight
operations. The clear reason why this could be achieved even in
the crisis situation because the company always focused on high
cash on hand and low debt levels (El-Erain, 2014).
Organizational ethics and Southwest Airlines
The organizational ethics can be described as following the
professional standards. Since organizational development is an
ongoing, expanding the field, it is imperative that the
practitioner’s practice flexibility when they tend to respond to
different situations and the solution will differ from a case-to-
case basis. The practitioners must guide the ethical behavior of
an organizational development process (Lewis, 2010).
Throughout its business operations, the Southwest Airlines have
been practicing the ethical standards and has received many
exemplary awards to follow a corporate code of ethics related to
employees, stockholders, customers, etc. The company has been
able to demonstrate the business ethics skills and act as a role
model for the other airline organizations. The company has
received many awards, which demonstrates the fact that the
company follows high standards of ethics and if fulfilling its
promise to provide customer service of high standards and
fulfill social responsibility that is beneficial for its reputation.
This is the reason why the company is highly successful for
many years (Halal, 2014).
Organizational Culture
An organization’s culture is a system of shared beliefs, values,
and standards governing how people behave and react within an
organization. The organizational culture has a strong impact on
the employees and it determines how they react, they talk,
behave and dress up (Hartnell, et al, 2011). The Southwest

9. airline is admired for its organizational culture within the
airline industry. The founder of Southwest airline gives
importance to culture and the experience of customers with the
airline service (Nisen, 2013).
There is no single formula that the company follows to maintain
its organization culture. The company gives significance and
importance to the employees that are working within the
company and the focus is really on each and every individual
working within the company and not just how they are able to
accomplish the task assigned. The organization tends to know
each employee personally which requires good information
network (Nisen, 2013).
Every organization has a network that helps measuring business
intelligence as well as the key metrics within an organization
culture, but there are very few companies, that actually
implement these metrics or give importance, funds, time and
attention towards these core business assets – their employees.
It is the belief that the organizational culture at Southwest
Airline is simple – respect every employee and maintain a
culture that bridges the gap between family and work. In the
company, there are a simple set of values that are installed and
they efficiently implemented without much exaggeration (Nisen,
2013).
Conclusion
The organization development aims at strategizing the
company’s overall business operations. There is cut-throat
competition in the industry and there are moments when
innovative strategies are implemented in the service
organizations. The company focuses on providing the customer
services and dedicated to providing high quality to the
customers so that the experience they have is hospitable, warm
and spirited. The organizational culture is keen on focusing on
employees and providing them with the facilities that make
them feel comfortable at the workplace. The employees at front
line within an organization are given importance because they
play an important role in the business planning and budget

10. making. The front line employees are given the key managerial
roles as well as the opportunity to work with every employee
and take care of their requirements. The structure or hierarchy
does not give importance, as the employees are encouraged to
think creatively and come with innovative services and
concepts.
References
Advanced Business Counsutling. (2009). The Rise of Southwest
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http://www.advancebusinessconsulting.com/advance!/strategic-
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Cummings, T.G., & Worley, C.G. (2014). Organization
development and change. NY: Cengage Learning.
El-Erian, M. A. (2014). The Secret to Southwest's Success.
Retrieved from Bloomerg:
https://www.bloomberg.com/view/articles/2014-06-13/the-
secret-to-southwest-s-success
Fox, H. L. (2013). The promise of organizational development

11. in nonprofit human services
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Gittell, J. H. (2005). The Southwest Airlines Way: Using the
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Hallal-Negishi, S. (2014). Strategy and Implementation of
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4fae3b161366#.if98dwmwo
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Psychology, 96(4), 677.
Keller, G. a. (2004). Southwest Airline. Retrieved from
Bookeditor Hauck:
http://bookeditorhauck.com/pdfs/1southwest.pdf
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http://www.ralphlewis.co.uk/Change_files/Strategy%20and%20
Organisational%20Development%20Article.pdf
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opportunity-centric
Approaches to organization success. Organization Development
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Nisen, M. (2013). Southwest's Founder Explains Why There's
No Secret Behind Its Great Culture. Retrieved from Business
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discusses-its-culture-2013-1
Rothwell, W. J., & Sullivan, R. L. (Eds.). (2005). Practicing
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J. (2007). The future of
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12. performance through people. Organization Development
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Running head: Southwest
A
irlines:
Organizational Development
Southwest
A
irlines:
Organizational Development
Name
University

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Running head: Southwest Airlines: Organizational Development
Southwest Airlines: Organizational Development
Name
University
Course
Date