Submitted by: Submitted by cristina
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Date Submitted: 10/07/2010 06:45 PM
Organizational Commitment and Communication – Southwest Airlines
COM/530
September 20, 2010
Southwest Airlines is one of the most profitable companies in the airline industry. The secret of its success is its people driven by their values and dedicated to grow in customer satisfaction, revenue, and profit. The company’s values determine the behavior of all employees at all levels in the organization. Values are mandatory behavior guidelines.
Just underneath of the Southwest mission statement on their official website it says:” to our employees: We are committed to provide our employees a stable work environment which equal opportunity for learning and personal growth. Creativity and innovation are encouraged for improving the effectiveness of Southwest Airlines. Above all employees will be provided the same concern, respect and caring attitude within the organization that they are expected to share externally with every southwest Customer.” (Southwest Airlines.com, Official Site) The employees’ personal well being is the most important matter for Southwest leadership. At Southwest employees are treated as family by their leaders, and as a consequence, they treat the customers as family as well. In 2005 Grubbs-West related that Herb Kelleher was being honored as person of the year and when he went up to accept his award he asked if anyone who worked for Southwest Airlines was in the audience, would they please stand. When they did he asked the audience to direct their applause to them, starting, “They are the people who earned this award, I am here just to pick it up” (Lessons in Loyalty, 2008, p.389). This is an example of authentic leadership.
When a group of employee voted itself out of the union, and some of them felt insecure about their future, he gave them a personal contract signed by him. It provided for a grievance procedure and arbitration procedure. It wasn’t legally enforceable and it didn’t need to be, it was a matter of...