Organizational Building of Southwest Airlines

Southwest Airlines in the United States is a mature low-cost airline. Southwest Airlines began operations as a small local airline in 1971. By 1990, the company's annual revenue reached US$1 billion, becoming a large backbone airline in the US market. Southwest Airlines is a leading low-cost airline in the international aviation industry. It has many concepts and practices in management that are worth learning from all Chinese airlines.

The so-called organizational culture refers to the sum of a series of values, assumptions, beliefs, and behavioral norms shared by members in an organization. There can be many different definitions of management, but all definitions emphasize that management is a process closely related to human factors. In the process of implementing management, whether organizational members accept and identify with organizational goals, whether they can devote themselves to the pursuit of organizational goals, and a series of other related human factors will directly affect the management performance of the enterprise. Every member of the organization is an individual, and the simple combination of individual individuals cannot bring about scale effects. They also need to be organically integrated to jointly pursue organizational goals. Some organizations emphasize the integration of human resources with the help of rules, regulations, organizational structure and other designs. However, rules, regulations and organizational structure design can be called rigid design in human resource management, which is a way to seek to improve the efficiency of human resource use with the help of external forces. way. Equally important is the flexible design in human resource management, a kind of investment and dedication of organizational members based on consciousness and voluntariness (rather than chain of command). "Walking on two legs", relying on the synergy of rigid rules and regulations and flexible spontaneous investment and dedication, can fully mobilize people's enthusiasm and maximize management performance.

In the process of improving its competitiveness by reducing costs, Southwest Airlines has made full use of the impact of organizational culture on members to improve its management performance, effectively maintaining its position among low-cost airlines. Leading position.

Establish the company's unique organizational culture

Compared with rigid rules and regulations, organizational culture construction is to promote the formation of values, assumptions, beliefs and policies within the organization that are consistent with the organization's development goals. Code of conduct to improve the work performance of organizational members. Although there are no clear provisions and reward and punishment systems, it has a more profound effect on affecting the work performance of organizational members. Southwest Airlines attaches great importance to the role of organizational culture construction in improving employee work performance. It hopes to encourage employees to establish values, assumptions, beliefs and behavioral norms that are consistent with the company's development goals, so that employees can consciously exert their work potential and invest in promoting the company. development goals. Specifically, the organizational culture of Southwest Airlines has the following characteristics.

Emphasis on the company's "employees first" values. In the organizational culture of Southwest Airlines, its "employees first" belief inspires employees Plays a vital role in work motivation. Company Chairman Herb Kelleher believes that putting customers first is one of the biggest betrayals a boss can make to his employees. The company strives to emphasize individual recognition of employees, such as engraving employees' names on specially designed Boeing 737s to commend employees for their outstanding contributions to Southwest Airlines' success; publishing employees' outstanding achievements in the company's magazine; visit. Through these specific practices, employees can feel that the company is proud to have them. It not only emphasizes the importance of employees as a whole, but also pays attention to each individual employee. Southwest Airlines believes that the greatest wealth the company has is its employees and the culture they create. People are the first factor in management.

Let employees enjoy happiness and become "real" employees who love and care about their work

"In Southwest America, we would rather make the company full of love than awe." "Not just It’s a job, it’s a career.” From this series of slogans, we can see the characteristics of Southwest Airlines’ organizational culture.

In its employee training, it emphasizes that employees should "take accountability and ownership" and "celebrate and let you hair down" to truly guide employees to form a sense of ownership in the organizational culture and make them think The development of the company is also the development of individuals, which encourages employees to happily devote themselves to work.

Encouraging innovation In line with the value of "employees first", the company attaches great importance to employees' judgments on specific problems, and in management practice it also emphasizes employees' proactive and active efforts to seek solutions to problems. When Midway Airlines (Midway Airlines, which filed for bankruptcy protection on March 25, 1991 and was liquidated on November 7 of the same year) withdrew from Chicago, Southwest Airlines immediately sent a team of 20 people to Chicago to form the company's relevant institutions. The Southwest Airlines flight departed from the remodeled gate the next day, less than 24 hours after Midway Airlines withdrew. The company moved so quickly that the news media had no time to film them hanging signs at the new gates. Previously, the company did not have a master plan to consider revamping Midway Airlines' boarding gates, nor did it go through a special committee to conduct feasibility design before taking action. Companies want employees not to be bound by a bunch of rules but to use their own best judgment. In addition, the company pursues an unorthodox realm in the work and management process, as well as the humor of the flight attendants, which all reflect the side of the company culture that encourages employees to take initiative and innovate.

The company's cooperative spirit Southwest Airlines emphasizes the establishment of a positive relationship of trust within the organization and among employees, suppliers and customers. 85% of the company's employees are affiliated with different unions, but there is not the huge conflict between unions and management that is seen at other airlines. At a Southwest Airlines culture seminar, Southwest Airlines Chief Operating Officer (COO) Colleen Barrett pointed out that the union is a partner of the enterprise-we are one family. Both the management and employees in the company pay attention to internal customers while emphasizing external customers (internal customers include all employees and key stakeholders). In the process of working with colleagues, the spirit of cooperation permeates every corner of the enterprise, and people actively seek ways to improve working relationships, thereby improving business results. Everyone believes that instead of competing with each other, it is better to be the best.

In addition, the company has also put forward a series of slogans, such as "Understanding other people's work" (Walk a Mile in My Shoes), to encourage employees to understand the work of other departments and employees, and to establish mutual cooperation and cooperation. consciousness. Collaboration has led to continuous improvements in the company's productivity and improved coordination between departments.

The company’s unique “fighting spirit”

At the beginning of its establishment, Southwest Airlines faced rejection and squeeze from large companies in the industry. In the face of external adverse factors, a "fighting spirit" is inspired among the company's employees to deal with external threats and challenges. After overcoming the initial difficulties, this "fighter spirit" continued to flourish and develop, guiding the company to successfully face a series of crises and challenges such as war, rising oil prices, and 9-11. In the face of crises and challenges, the company's employees relied on the strong fighting spirit inspired by the "fighting spirit" to enable the company to remain profitable even after the "9-11" incident, in which the entire industry suffered widespread losses and even went bankrupt.

After the 9-11 incident, almost all US airlines were in trouble and laid off employees, but Southwest Airlines was an exception. The "fighting spirit" once again inspired loyalty and determination to keep flying and not lay off employees. Many volunteered to work overtime, many left withholding tax returns to the company, and others volunteered to tend the lawn in front of corporate headquarters. They are once again united in the face of difficulties.

A complete set of mechanisms to promote

Establishing ideal organizational culture development goals is an important part of organizational culture construction, but the more important task is to promote, maintain and develop within the organization ideal organizational culture.

Whether employees accept the organizational culture that the company expects to achieve, whether their acceptance can withstand the test of time, and whether this organizational culture can continue to develop based on actual conditions will directly determine the success or failure of organizational culture construction. In this regard, Southwest Airlines has established a complete set of mechanisms to ensure the promotion, maintenance and development of the company's organizational culture, including the following measures:

First, establish a "Cultural Committee" to establish, develop, Maintain the company's organizational culture.

The construction of organizational culture cannot be accomplished overnight, nor can it be a one-time task. One of Southwest's most important standing committees is the Culture Committee, which is established at every stop. The establishment of specialized agencies reflects the importance that the company's management attaches to the construction of organizational culture. Through the supervision of specialized management departments, it helps to continuously ensure the company's organizational culture construction; and the organization's penetration into front-line departments promotes the deep rooted and comprehensive promotion of organizational culture.

Second, with the help of a series of signs, slogans, and specific examples, the organizational culture can be deeply rooted in the hearts of the people.

The construction of organizational culture is different from the construction of rules and regulations. Since organizational culture is the sum of values, assumptions, beliefs and behavioral norms in the minds of members, it cannot be rigidly promoted by the company to employees. It can only prompt members to form an organizational culture that is conducive to achieving organizational goals under conscious guidance. The names of every employee on the plane, and the photos of employees, families and even pets that can be seen everywhere in the company, tell employees at any time that the company emphasizes employees first and the sense of personal identity that employees gain. "Not just a job, but a career" reminds employees that they are not working passively for income, but are engaged in a career of organizational and personal development. The specific examples promoted by the company on various occasions and in relevant magazines also make every employee more intuitively aware of the values, beliefs and behavioral norms emphasized by the company. It can be seen that the excellence of Southwest Airlines' organizational culture construction is that the company does not stop at establishing a set of ideal organizational culture construction goals, nor does it simply establish a "culture committee", but through a A complete set of effective measures makes the organizational culture advocated deeply rooted in the hearts of the people and truly accepted by employees. This approach ensures that organizational culture construction promotes the achievement of corporate goals and truly realizes the original intention of organizational culture construction.

Third, they often hold celebrations to recognize employees.

In order to let employees truly feel the management's serious investment in the organizational culture, companies often use celebrations when commending employees. This sends a clear message to organizational members: Management is not just establishing a set of organizational culture, but is also serious about achieving their organizational culture development goals such as "employees first." In addition, frequent celebrations reflect the company's continuous promotion of organizational culture construction, which further drives employees' recognition and investment in organizational culture construction.

The role of Southwest Airlines’ organizational culture construction in promoting the company’s development

Any organization will set up a series of organizations with the company’s mission as its core during its development process goals, and the values, assumptions, beliefs, and behavioral norms held by organizational members can facilitate or hinder the efforts of members and the organization to pursue organizational goals. The role of organizational culture in achieving organizational goals can be measured from three aspects.

① The degree of guidance in achieving organizational goals

Organizational culture can guide members to strive to achieve organizational goals, and may also influence members to pursue goals that are different or even opposite to organizational goals (such as personal gain at the expense of organizational development). From this perspective, the success of Southwest Airlines' organizational culture construction lies in the unification of personal development and organizational development goals, so that employees can fully love their jobs and be proud of working for Southwest Airlines and promoting the development of Southwest Airlines. Let employees think that the company's career is their own career, thus fully mobilizing employees' work enthusiasm.

② Whether the organizational culture is generally understood by the majority of members in the organization

The impact of an organizational culture on organizational members must first consider the degree to which this organizational culture is understood by members.

If the construction of organizational culture is just a formality, then the majority of members do not truly understand this organizational culture, and it is impossible to achieve organizational goals with the help of this organizational culture. From the perspective of Southwest Airlines' organizational culture construction, with the help of employee training, slogans everywhere, celebrations to reward employees, publicity of specific cases, and cultural committees that go deep into each node, Southwest Airlines' organizational culture is truly comprehensive , deeply passed on to the majority of members of the organization, and the members of the organization have an intuitive understanding of this organizational culture.

③ The degree of acceptance of organizational culture by organizational members

Even if the organizational culture will directly prompt employees to pursue organizational goals, and this organizational culture is generally understood by members, the organization Members may not accept this organizational culture, or only some members accept this organizational culture, and this organizational culture will be difficult to promote members to achieve organizational goals. If members do not accept the organizational culture, it is impossible to expect to achieve organizational goals through organizational culture; and if an organizational culture is only accepted by some people within the organization, it can be expected that other values, assumptions, and Conflicts will arise between beliefs and behavioral norms and this organizational culture. This kind of conflict will affect the mutual cooperation between organizational members and the common pursuit of organizational goals, and the severity of the conflict will also have a direct impact on the development of the organization. Judging from the practice of Southwest Airlines, the company not only uses relevant institutions and various means to promote the company's organizational culture, but also uses the management's active promotion and demonstration to make employees realize the company's seriousness and investment in the construction of organizational culture, and understand Going to the company not only promotes slogans such as "employees first", but also fulfills these goals in the management process. This encourages employees to accept this organizational culture and be united by it to pursue organizational goals together.

The inspiration of Southwest Airlines’ organizational culture construction to my country’s airline operations

It can be seen from the 32-year development history of Southwest Airlines that in addition to sound rules and regulations and efficient management In addition to the team, organizational culture construction plays an extremely important role in the company's continuous improvement of its competitiveness. Southwest Airlines has been able to maintain high morale and a leading competitive position in the fierce competition in the aviation market (it can still maintain profitability even under the adverse background of 9-11), which is largely due to the company's organization Employee cohesion brought about by cultural construction. For my country's airlines, the biggest challenge at this stage is how to improve their competitiveness by reducing operating costs and meet the public's growing demand for air transportation services. In this process, improving management performance, reducing operating costs, and improving its own competitiveness are the main development directions of my country's airlines at this stage. In the process of improving management performance, rules and regulations and management team building play a "hard constraint" role on employees, and what is also needed is the "soft constraint" effect formed by the construction of organizational culture. Walking on two legs, with the help of the cohesion and affinity formed by the organizational culture, we guide employees to achieve the organization's development goals along the path determined by the enterprise's development plan and in accordance with the needs of the rules and regulations