By:

Amita Sinha
Ankur Kr Agarwal
Ayushi Sharma
Garima Rathore
Neeraj Garg
 Southwest Airlines that has built business and
corporate culture around the tenets of total
quality management and customer service.

 This case deals with corporate philosophy,

culture and HRM practices.

 “Focus on Customer”.

 Treat their employee as their customer.

 Case also talks about the manager Herb

Kelleher’s innovative way of dealing with the
employees.

 Believe in Fun at work philosophy with safety.

 From 1992 through 1996, they won DOT’s
triple crown for best on-time performance,
best baggage handling & fewest customer
complaints.

 From1996 to 1998, they won Airline Quality

Rating for three consecutive years.

 Managedto make profit even in industry

downturns.
To show the level of satisfaction &
pride felt by customers of
SouthWest Airlines . . .
 Challenges faced by the U.S. aviation
industry: “Industry faced two major economic
downturns since 1973(which had led to heavy
losses and conflict with the labor union)”.
 SWA resorted to low cost carriers and wide
range of aircraft.
 Offered affordable prices to consumers
 Followed a work culture that helped them in
retaining talent.
 Continuously improved their service for
customers.
 Involving Customer in various activities
 Best Employee – Management relation in the
industry
 Fun at Work Philosophy
 Focus on the employee involvement and
empowerment.
 Acknowledging employees Births, deaths,
marriages and promotions.
 They hire people with attitude and then build
upon that foundation.
 Employees are asked to use their own judgment
and to go beyond job description.
 SWA’s belief in continuous improvement of
strategic focus.
 InvolvingEmployees in decision making
 Healthy relationship between employees and
management as there is no labor strike.
 Fun at work culture.
 Highly motivating employees and feeling of
belongingness in employees. They get attention
from CEO.
 Even passengers were given due weightage from
company perspective.
 Most enjoyable work life:
 Work with fun

 Least enjoyable work life:

 Servicing peanuts as meals.
 Yes,we think that Kelleher’s “fun at work”
philosophy could work equally well in any
other company:
 will help to reduce employee absenteeism
 will increase employee’s satisfaction.
 will lead to lower stress and higher productivity.
 Will give the feeling of belongingness among the
employees.
 SouthWest’s success is due to balance between
good business practices and good HR practices.
 No, good business strategy can’t survive in long
term without an equally good HR strategy.
 Both essential for a company’s success.