Example: Southwest Airlines

Since its founding more than four decades ago, Southwest Airlines has sought to create a business model quite distinct from the older hub-and-spoke airlines. Southwest sought to tap into a market of shorter, point-to-point destinations. And as part of its attempts to attract these short haul customers, the airline promoted the idea that it would deliver its services with “a sense of warmth, friendliness…”. Achieving these outcomes would, the company believed, result in high levels of customer service, large profits for shareholders, an exceptionally loyal workforce.

The following link provides information with respect to the company’s purpose, vision, values and mission, all of which reflect that strategy.

One of the values the material on this landing page illustrates is the desire to become a low-cost alternative to other carriers. To help accomplish this objective the airline determined that it should use identical aircraft to carry passengers. The decision to purchase only varieties of Boeing 737 planes reduces the maintenance overhead. It also reduces the number of canceled or delayed flights when a plane is taken out of service for emergency repairs since it will most likely be replaced by an identical aircraft to which the same crew can be assigned. (Crews are certified to certain types of planes. Therefore, even a crew certified with respect to a Boeing 757 would not necessarily be qualified to fly a Boeing 737.) And the use of 737s only reduces costs with respect to crew training.

Based on the information you’ve studied in Lessons 1 and 2, think about how HR might fulfill its functional responsibilities in a manner that would also contribute to accomplishment of this particular objective.

How HR can support organizational strategy is a theme that will continue to emerge throughout this course.