Question

What is the organizational culture of Southwest Airlines like? How does it affect the way the employees behave?
What are some potential sources of intrinsic motivation for Southwest employees? please add a reference form a book or a website

Answer 1

1. What is the organizational culture of Southwest Airlines like?

Southwest Airlines organizational culture, as stated in Jones and George (2016), “is the shared set of beliefs, expectations, values, and norms that influence how members of an organization relate to one another and cooperate to achieve the organization’s goals”, (p. 300). The airline industry is often mocked for grumpy employees and poor customer service, but Southwest Airlines bucks those trends. Customers loyal to Southwest often point to happy and friendly employees who try hard to help. Southwest isn’t new to the game. It’s been in operation for 43 years. Yet somehow, during all that time, the company has managed to communicate its goals and vision to employees in a way that makes them a part of a unified team. Southwest also gives employees “permission” to go that extra mile to make customers happy, empowering them to do what they need to do to meet that vision.

2. How does it affect the way the employees behave?

Southwest employees always have fun at work and it is compelling. Values are people’s deep “sacred” convictions about how they must behave themselves – values are behavior guidelines. The Southwest Airlines set of values are not wishful thinking – on the contrary, this company’s values determine the behavior of all employees at all levels in the organization – not only front line workers must behave according to these values, but especially top management as well, who maintains credibility by walking its talk and keeping 100% its integrity – the values’ discipline is strictly enforced across the company.

3. What are some potential sources of intrinsic motivation for Southwest employees?

           The Southwest Airlines employee motivation phenomenon is no accident – this company is a well-oiled, high performance organization. Southwest Airlines is one of the world's most profitable airlines, posting a profit for the 36th consecutive year in January 2009.SWA is the largest airline in the United States by number of passengers carried domestically per year (as of December 31, 2007) SWA has carried more customers than any other U.S. airline since August 2006 for combined domestic and international passengers according to the U.S. Department of Transportation's Bureau of Transportation Statistics. Southwest Airlines employee motivation is a magnificent-living example of what most companies are striving for.