Module 1
Who are Southwest Airlines’ Managers
And
What Do They Do?
Southwest airlines organizes its employees
according to their function, or the role they play
within the organization. Each job is carefully
analyzed and categorized to insure that the
airline operates efficiently and consistently.
As organizations, airlines tend to be rigorous in
the organization and planning of their activities.
The nature of the airline industry demands
effectiveness: schedules must be adhered to
exactly, and procedures insuring maintenance of
airplanes and training of staff need to be
carefully followed.
But this does not mean that things at Southwest
are inflexible. The airline also needs to operate
efficiently in order to be successful. The
company’s efficiency is demonstrated by the
small amount of time required for employees to
“turn around” an aircraft at the gate. The
industry standard turnaround time is 55 minutes;
Southwest crews routinely have planes ready for
departure in 20 minutes or less.
Southwest Airline’s management structure is
designed to carefully direct the activities of
employees while still maintaining the spirit of
“fun” that is the cornerstone of the airlines
customer service success.
The fundamental concept of management at
Southwest is the notion of a “loose-tight” design.
Within the context of tight rules of conduct,
employees are encouraged to take a wide
degree of leeway. For example, the company
encourages employees to make their own
customer service decisions. Employees are
encouraged to try new things, knowing that they
Effectiveness click: Effectiveness is concerned with
getting activities successfully completed and meeting
goals. .
Efficiency click: Efficiency
means doing things right; it
refers to the relationship
between inputs and outputs, or
doing the most possible while
minimizing resource costs.
SIDEBAR: Its route structure
has helped Southwest
experience the most rapid
aircraft turnaround time in the
industry. Rapid turnaround time
is essential for short-haul flights
because airplanes are in the air
for a smaller percentage of time
than on longer routes. Faster
turnaround time allows
Southwest to fly more daily
segments with each plane,
which increases its profitability.
Turn around click: The history of
Southwest’s turnaround time
can be traced to the carrier’s
first days of operation in Texas
when financial pressures forced
it to sell one of its four planes.
With only three planes to fly
three routes, ground crew
members were forced to have
each plane ready for service in
a very short period of time.
Management click:
Management is the process of
getting things done, effectively
and efficiently, through and with
other people.
will not be punished for innovation as long as
they do not violate safety standards, endanger
crew or passengers, or keep a plane from taking
off or landing on time.
Southwest Airline’s unique approach to
management starts at the top of the
organization chart. There is no doubt about
who is in charge at Southwest. Herb Kelleher’s
management style has been described as a
combination of thriftiness and Robin Williamsstyle humor and wackiness.1 He is a highly
visible leader whose 16-hour workdays and
unflagging energy set an example for other
employees. Southwest workers who perform
outstanding feats for customers have been
known to justify their behavior by saying it was
“what Herb would have done.”
Southwest is organized in a typical hierarchical
structure, with employees reporting through a
line of supervisors to Kelleher himself. While
most people will not interact with the CEO on a
daily basis, technology enhancements allow all
employees to keep abreast of Kelleher’s
activities.
As shown in the organization chart, only the
Executive Vice Presidents, or top managers,
actually report directly to the CEO. These
individuals are responsible for making strategic
decisions about the future of the organization.
They make higher-level, general decisions about
the directions Southwest will take in the future
and the kinds of policies and procedures that
should govern employees’ conduct.
Looking at the span of control of one of these
Executive Vice Presidents can help us
understand more about what various levels of
managers do at Southwest Airlines.
Allen R. Myerson, “Air Herb,” New York Times
Magazine, November 9, 1997, p. 36.
1
SIDEBAR: Click here to see
Southwest’s Organization Chart
Organization Chart click: An
organization chart is the visual
representation of the
assignment and grouping of
tasks and authority in a
company.
Link on this “Kelleher” should be
to a video clip of him at a
corporate meeting doing
something typically goofy.
SIDEBAR: Some of the
technological enhancements
used at Southwest to make
managers and non-managers
more efficient include
centralized computing networks,
distance communication
devices, and internet-based
communication.
Top managers click: Top
Managers are responsible for
making decisions about the
direction of the organization and
establishing policies that affect
all organizational members. .
Span of control click: A
manager’s span of control is the
number of people he or she
supervises, either directly or
indirectly through other
supervisors.
Colleen Barrett is Executive Vice President in
charge of the Customer Department. Like most
top managers, Colleen Barrett’s role is to direct
and manage the “big picture” of life at Southwest
Airlines. For example, in the early 1990s Barrett
set up a Company Culture Committee
comprised of people from all over the
organization. The committee meets four times a
year, and is charged with preserving and
enhancing Southwest’s company culture. Under
Barrett’s leadership, these individuals come up
with programs designed to foster teamwork and
cross-functional cooperation.
Rather than focusing only on a specific area of
the organization, Barrett’s role is to make sure
that all of Southwest’s people talk to one another
on a regular basis. The policies she implements
contribute to the airline’s success because she
looks beyond a particular functional area to see
how each component of the organization can
and should work together for the overall good of
the company. Like most top managers, Barrett
has a primarily decision-making role. This
means that she is likely to initiate and oversee
new projects, take action to guide the company
through times of crisis, and make decisions
about allocating resources to various parts of the
organization.2
Reporting to Colleen Barrett are middle
managers, the Vice Presidents in charge of
Advertising/Promotions, Governmental Affairs,
Marketing and Sales, Human Resources
(People), and Special Marketing. These
individuals translate Ms. Barrett’s goals and
strategies into actual programs to be
implemented within their functional area. For
example, Libby Sartain is the Vice President in
charge of “People” for Southwest. To insure
that all Southwest employees are motivated to
see one another as “teammates,” Ms. Sartain
oversees Southwest’s profit sharing program.
In 1999, Southwest transferred 13.7% of its
2
Mintzberg, H. (1973). The nature of managerial work.
New York: Harper & Row.
Need a video clip of Colleen
Middle Managers click:
Middle managers are individuals
at levels of management
between the first-line manager
and top management.
VP/People click: In most
companies, Ms. Sartain would
be called the Vice President in
charge of “Personnel” or
“Human Resources.”
Profit sharing click: Companies
use profit sharing programs to
reward employees for
contributing to the profitability of
the organization. Typically,
profit earned by the company is
given back to employees in the
form of bonuses. The bonus is
usually a percentage of the
employee’s salary. In a
traditional profit sharing plan, all
employees earn the same
percentage of their salary as a
bonus.
annual budget for salaries to the profit sharing
account.3 Southwest introduced the first profit
sharing program in the airline industry, and the
1999 contribution was the largest it has ever
made. Libby Sartain’s role at Southwest is to
insure that human resource policies and
procedures, including fringe benefit programs
such as profit sharing, help support the
teamwork orientation goals of the airline. Like
most middle managers, Sartain translates the
goals of top management into specific programs
and policies within her functional area.
As the organizational chart indicates, Ms.
Sartain has other middle managers reporting to
her. These individuals have more specialized
areas of expertise. While Ms. Sartain views the
entirety of human resource policies at Southwest
as her domain, other middle managers are
responsible more specifically for
Benefits/Compensation, Learning &
Development, and Employment.
Each of these individuals has a large number of
line supervisors reporting to them. These
individuals direct the activities of nonmanagerial
personnel. A People Department “Team
Leader” is responsible for the delegation and
scheduling of work among nonmanagerial
personnel. As one job description indicates,
these individuals must “maximize utilization of
individual talents and abilities in order to
accomplish department objectives.” Line
supervisors focus on interpersonal
relationships. They know the job that needs to
be done, and their emphasis is on assigning and
directing the talents and capabilities of their
personnel to best utilize their abilities and get
work done effectively and efficiently.
“Southwest Airlines Announces 1998 Profitsharing
Contribution,” Press Release from Southwest Airlines,
March 10, 1999. See
http://www.iflyswa.com/press/profit99.html
3
Line supervisors click: Line
Supervisors are responsible for
the day-to-day activities of
nonmanagerial employees
Interpersonal relationships click:
Line managers are more likely
to know their subordinates
personally. Research
demonstrates that workers’
satisfaction with their job is
dramatically impacted by the
quality of their relationship with
their immediate supervisor.
Nonmanagerial personnel click:
Nonmanagerial personnel, or
operatives, work directly on a
job or task and have no
responsibility for the work of
others. See Page 4 of your
textbook.
SIDEBAR: Photo or video of
baggage handlers
Nonmanagerial personnel in the human
resources area perform largely clerical duties. A
job description for Administrative Support
personnel in the Southwest Airlines People
Department indicates that typical duties include
alpha and numeric filing, phone operations, and
use of a personal computer and other standard
office equipment. These individuals have limited
range in the tasks they perform, and are usually
assigned to perform only one portion of a
project.
Southwest Airline’s commitment to provide
socially responsible service is an excellent
way to review how managerial and
nonmanagerial duties function together in an
organization. In an effort to be socially
responsive, Southwest has actively tried to be a
minority-friendly service provider and employer.
Initially, CEO Herb Kelleher and other top
managers made the strategic decision to insure
that Southwest Airlines was perceived as
friendly to minority populations. Because
Southwest is headquartered in Texas, which has
a particularly large Hispanic-American
population, Kelleher was primarily concerned
with Southwest’s image with Hispanics.
In the People Management Department,
recruiting managers made an effort to enhance
work force diversity by actively targeting
talented Hispanic individuals to work at
Southwest. Supervisors monitored the number
of Hispanic recruits that each recruiter
interviewed, and encouraged them to carefully
review their qualifications for potential “fit” with
jobs at Southwest.
Similarly, in the Marketing Department
managers directed the development of
campaigns aimed at Hispanic travelers. In the
Customer Service department, managers sought
out bilingual employees and strategically
scheduled those who could speak Spanish to
insure that non-English
speaking customers would
always have someone
they could
Social responsibility is “a firm’s
obligation, beyond that required
by law and economics, to
pursue long-term goals that are
good for society.”4
Social responsiveness is “the
ability of a firm to adapt to
changing societal conditions.”5
Work force diversity refers to the
heterogeneous nature of today’s
work force, which includes
people of both genders, of
different races and ethnicities,
with physical disabilities, and of
all ages and sexual orientations.
4
Robbins, S. P., & DeCenzo, D.
A. (1998). Fundamentals of
management (2nd ed., p. 42).
Upper Saddle River, NJ:
Prentice Hall.
5 Ibid.
communicate with when they arrived to check in
for a flight.