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Southwest Airlines Culture

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Southwest Airlines Culture
Southwest Airlines has been known for is inexpensive flights and upbeat, jokester employees since 1971. In 1980, Southwest adopted its mission statement as, “A dedication of customer service delivered with ‘a sense of warmth, friendliness, individual price and company spirit”. (Anonymous, 2005, p. 16). In 1997, Southwest Airlines celebrated its 25th anniversary. “The celebration centered around ten philosophical principles, such as ‘under promise but over deliver’ and ‘take competition seriously but not ourselves’ to support the brand’s positioning as a fun, slightly offbeat airline…To drive the wackiness point further, the tagline ‘Still nuts after all these years’ was adopted’”. (Ebenkamp, 1997, p. 1). Behind the laughter, there is a culture …show more content…
The Senior Vice President of Corporate Communications, Ginger Hardage, spoke about communication within the company stating, “Remaining a ‘high-touch’ organization that is true to its values and connected to both employees and customers are all top priorities at Southwest Airlines”. She goes on to describe the culture as “living the Southwest way” where the company looks to hire people with “a servant’s heart because we’re in the service business” and “a warrior’s spirit because we have the desire to be the best and work really hard. And we have a fun loving attitude and don’t believe in taking ourselves too seriously”. (Hardage, 2006, p. …show more content…
Throughout the multiple challenges and mergers the airline industry has endured over the past decade, Southwest has been successful in maintaining a culture with dedicated employees. Communication has been a strong basis for the continued strength of this company, which proves that virtually all positive outcomes can be accomplished with the right attitude, humor, and a smile.

References

Anonymous. (2005). How corporate culture helped Southwest Airlines become the best. Strategic Direction , 16-18.
Beebe, S. &. (2009). Communicating in small groups: Principles and practices 9th Edition. Boston, MA.: Pearson.
Ebenkamp, B. (1997). Southwest Airlines . Brandweek, 1.
Hardage, G. (2006). Profile: Communicating the Southwest Way . Strategic Communication Management , 4.
Malloy, A. (1996). The 100 Best Places to Work . Computerworld , 1.
Payne, M. (1998). Fun workplace usually productive . Edmonton Journal , 1.
Stancavage, J. (2013, June 2). Culture of fun boosts bottom line. Tulsa World, p. 1.
Yamanouchi, K. (2011). Southwest - Airtran Merger: A challenge of cultural exhange: Combining companies will test Southwest 's fun loving nature. . The Atlanta Journal - Constitution ,
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