Southwest Airlines

Southwest’s culture is about the growth, enhancement, and modification of a given people. The culture of southwest is what has set it apart from other airlines since their start back in 1967. The company name at that time was Air Southwest Co (Southwest Media, 2011). The company believes in living “the Southwest way” which is a big part of the culture. The Southwest way of living contain a lot of components some are, to have a warrior spirit, to have a servant’s heart, to have a fun-loving attitude, to work hard, to desire to be the best, to be courageous, to display a sense of urgency, to persevere, to innovate, to adhere to the basic principles, to treat others with respect and to put others first. There is more to the Southwest way of living, but when it comes down to it, it is just treating people with respect and not having an unbearable attitude when doing your job.

Southwest’s concept was to be a low cost commuter airline in Texas from the beginning. Cost accounting had and has a lot of impact on the culture of Southwest and how it operates. The accountants have to take into account the overall costs of operating the business. The expenses had to be kept low to keep the profit up so the company would stay in the black. If the expenses were greater than the earnings, then Southwest would not have been able to have the low cost of the flights that they had. They started with $20 one way flights, though they only offered flights between Dallas and Houston and between Dallas and San Antonio. When dealing with an airline accountant have to remember that, Cost accounting" for complex networking activities is not a "science;" it is an "art," founded on assumptions which are readily subject to anti-competitive manipulation. Moreover, the FAA has no so-called "cost accounting" system. But even if it did, more than half its costs are fixed and not directly allocable (National Civil Aviation Review Commission).

The impact on the future of the culture does largely...