Southwest Airlines Organizational Communication

Organizational Behavior and Communication 2 – Southwest Airlines

Brian Anderson

February 10,, 2011

Communication for Accountants

Gordon Jensen

Leadership Styles

The legend is Herb Kelleher and Texas businessman Rollin King, created the concept that later became Southwest Airlines on a cocktail napkin in a San Antonio, Texas restaurant. Ever since its inception Southwest has succeeded by daring to be different offering low fares to its passengers by eliminating unnecessary services and scheduling flight to secondary airports as Albany, Chicago-Midway (instead of Chicago-O'Hare) and Orange County. As CEO of Southwest, Kelleher's colorful personality created a corporate culture which made Southwest employees well-known for taking themselves lightly but their jobs seriously. Under Herb Kelleher Southwest was consistently named among the top five Most Admired Corporations in America in Fortune magazine's annual poll. Fortune has also called him perhaps the best CEO in America.

There are few companies that have reached the iconic status of company culture as Southwest airlines. Herb Kelleher was a charismatic transformational leader. It is difficult to imagine Southwest Airlines would have reached its status without such a leader. To grow from virtually nothing to the top of the U.S. airline industry against established dominant companies takes vision and drive. Herb Kelleher embodied the attributes of a charismatic leader. He had the vision to seize upon an opportunity to create an airline industry the market was wanting. He took huge personal risks by tying his own success and identity to the airline he was creating. He understood his employees and their needs and what could motivate them. He offered something different than money. He offered his employees a chance to have fun at work by allowing breaking the traditional barrier of flight crews and passengers. Finally Herb Kelleher was unconventional in...