Southwest Airlines

Herb Kelleher, the father of Southwest Airlines, was an extremely colorful person. He believed in making Southwest a fun place to work and that flying should be an exciting, positive experience. He "clowned around" the office, dressing in costume and making jokes. This fun-loving mentality developed into the existing, strong culture of Southwest Airlines. The main elements of the company the make up the culture are your attitude towards customer service and employee relations. The two values you hold highly for these categories of people are "LUV" and fun.

Southwest believes in offering the customers great services at the cheapest price. Your entire customer facing staff goes through customer care training. This ensures that the customers are greeted with pleasant, knowledgeable faces to make their flying experience convenient and fun. Staff is also encouraged to do spontaneous things such as sing songs, engage and joke with the passengers, and stage pranks. You also make it very easy to change and book flights. This takes the hassle element away from air travel, contributing to the pleasantry of traveling.

You also encompass employment in your culture very well. One of your mottos is "employees first, customers second". It is extremely important to your company culture as a whole to make sure each employee fits. Employees are hired based on attitudes rather than skills. They go through various tests such as a jealousy test to insure their values align to those of Southwest. That is more important than the skills they have since they have to go through extensive training once hired. You also do things to make the employees feel valued. For example, employees receive congratulatory letters when you received name specific complimentary letters from customers. The employees truly uphold the culture Herb Kelleher created for the company.

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