The topic chosen was Southwest Airlines due to its long and widespread history of successful entrepreneurship and presence in the airline industry. He has been successful in his ability to achieve success in many aspects of the economy. From implementing an innovative marketing structure to effectively managing its workforce, Southwest has pioneered many forms of creativity and innovation in the industry. Furthermore, it is an excellent topic for the assignment topic: evaluating company culture. Southwest has implemented, applied, and practiced all 11 discussion points of this assignment. Mission Statement A company hoping to instill a goal or direction should start with a solid and comprehensive company vision statement. The mission statement helps reinforce the company's goals, desires, and foresight, and Southwest is no exception. Since its inception 32 years ago, its goal has been to provide quick flights at the lowest possible fares, while ensuring a wonderful customer experience. Since that time, Southwest has remained on that path and has included its own formalized mission statement that is "dedicated to the highest quality customer service with a sense of warmth, friendliness, individual pride and corporate spirit" (http://www. southwestairlines. com).The organization has a clear focus on its market when it comes to knowledge management. It has implemented its statement in order to secure and maintain its market share. Work Environment At Southwest, the employee is the company's most important asset. The employee is superior to the customer. A common tune in business is “customers come later… and still receive great service” (Czaplewski, Ferguson & Millime, 2001, p. 2). This statement speaks for itself, in fact Southwest encourages openness of personality among its workforce in the form of communication, ideas and opinions. To achieve this, it invests heavily in training as a continuous process throughout the employee's working period. Employees are cross-trained on numerous positions to enhance the work experience and for flexibility purposes when needed. Training also includes ongoing preparation to improve work skills to enforce work ethics. The company rewards its staff through financial, promotion and non-financial rewards (Czaplewski, et al., 2001, p. 3). Southwest's successful work environment is hands-on, carefully selects its candidates, and hires only those who promote the most extroverted and friendly personalities and flexibility.
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