South-West Airlines: Job Redesign and Workplace Reward

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Table of Contents

Company background
Assessment of Current Customer Care Jobs of the Airlines
South-west Airlines Goal Setting
South-west Airlines Performance Evaluation
South-west Airlines Employees Rewarding system
Conclusion
References

Company background

One of the key mission statements of South-west Airlines is provision of a mutual understanding and rewarding system among employees, as a strategy of enhancing clientele growth. The firm also guarantees workers’ safety measures through proper installation of operations and this is equally a vital aspect of ensuring employees motivation.

The other mission of South-west Airlines entails conducting all the corporate activities to the highest professional and ethical standards, by making sure that all customer-based services are of the best quality, which calls for open employees’ participation. This means that the other motivational technique entails member of staffs’ involvement in decision-making procedures (South-west Airlines, 2010).

The decentralized form of decision-making is a strategy that ensures employees even participation and contribution, based on their departments or working environment. Employees are thus motivated or have the courage to meet standards and goals they set for themselves. This means that the employees are empowered to share a sense of urgency during customer services.

Assessment of Current Customer Care Jobs of the Airlines

South-west Airlines is able to combine various motivational techniques such as assuring innovations and embracing technological dynamics as important elements and long-term strategies for providing customers with updated products as well as advice. According to the company’s prospectors (2010), they have a unique style of collaborating with others to ensure increased value of growth for customers.

Each employee is a chief information officer in his or her own level, who has the power to set new technological applications, advance client’s services using data networks or centres to ensure regular real-time transmissions and support for transmission of intensive information across the globe.

The executives are equally involved in overseeing the company’s global activities and compliance with the set local and international standards or regulations especially in countries where it operates.
South-west Airlines Motivational Strategies

South-West Airlines Company has various motivational strategies at the customer service level, which is the main point of attraction of new employees such as empowering them through involvement in creativity, structuring the business deals or attracting potential clients. As a motivational strategy, a prospective company involves its employees in various recognition courses (Lycette and Herniman, 2008).

Selection and training of employees entails creation of building blocks, assigning the guidance and promoting diversification. The employees must enjoy some benefits such as easy and free access to health care facilities and allowances, learning beside the paid time-offs.

After redesigning, the employees’ motivation must include engagement of various managerial roles through quality structured training programs. According to Maio and Haddock (2010), Mezirow’s theory about “Reflectivity and Confucian” indicates that employees are motivated more when they draw in to critical analysis and work-related leaning.

From these examples of employees’ motivation strategies of the company, the redesigning of the customer care department for the better depends on employees’ empowerment. A positive culture comes about when people interact to exchange ideas and create rapport through incentive programs to improve the company culture and ensure company success.

The improved culture and behaviours of employees promotes a cultural role of putting clients first. The redesigned customer care department will therefore have an aspect of nurturing employees’ satisfaction for better customer satisfaction as a unique and outrageous performance strategy.

South-west Airlines Goal Setting

South-West Airlines Company sets goals and objectives that aim at meeting employees’ expectations through fostering a positive culture among them, to ensure respect for objectives and prompt individuals’ satisfaction. The airlines job designs provide a sense of value to employees by giving challenges and offers recognition for achievements.

Steady motivation emerges from the daily engagements that are dynamic and occur in stress free environments. The employees have the liberation to change behaviours, and find a balance between their work and lifestyles to ensure maximum deliverance of services. Upon redesigning, the company will additionally provide unique style of leadership that motivates employees due to freedom in formation of relationships, communication and involvement especially boosted by the top-level managers.

All employees must be in a position of negotiating for better work strategies to ensure commitment to serving customers efficiently and effectively. In line with Maio and Haddock (2010), Locke’s Theory of setting goals indicates that employees are comfortable when they work in companies where they enjoy and feel right.

South-west Airlines Performance Evaluation

South-West Airlines frequently utilizes decision-making and policy implementation procedures especially on matters concerning employees’ performance to encourage a performance culture. The company promotes methodologies that encourage employees questioning and ability to seek guidance through departmental groups, human resource representatives or by addressing the management directly. Employees’ participation helps to avoid conflicts during performance.

Leadership styles and discipline are the key defining elements of performance evaluation. Systematic evaluation procedures checks on performance of duties and guides the employees’ thoughts, actions and feelings.

Lack of proper management on these aspects of performance culture among employees’ means they become perplexed or stymie by some bureaucratic processes and eventually conflict. Reactance theory indicates that people perform a negative behaviour to protest against threats or compromises such as freedom of choice or freewill (Maio and Haddock, 2010).

Evaluation promotes the decision-making and direct accountability over performance. With such discipline, there are clear expectations and commitments. Common managerial proactive measures to block abstractions of performance include meriting and rewarding employees. The firm’s strategy ensures that employees truly engage in their duties.

The redesigned performance evaluation process will cater for enhancement and recognition of clear working boundaries over the lines of duty and flexibility over performance. This will thus foster the required partnership among employees for better customer care. Evaluation of employee dues ought to be equivalent to the product of labour productivity, intensity and customer satisfaction.

South-west Airlines Employees Rewarding system

The Company has policies in place to change the differences of opinions but some of the disputes lack clear indicators such as bonuses and benefits. This area requires ample redesigning. First, the company should invest heavily on human capital since customer care department is a sensitive area and the armature for the rest of the business services.

In this setting, the management ought to analyze the total turnover and determine a percentage to use for extra remuneration, divided equally among performing employees. The aim of extra remuneration through profit sharing is to motivate employees to meet their goals.

Secondly, other rewarding mechanism involves recognition of good performers by naming them during the occasional meeting and awarding through issuance of certificates and performance trophies. This assists the management to know the labour intensity since performance outcome often equates to the product of hours worked by every employee and the share of the employment within a group setting. This ensures that employees are responsible of their individual performance and that of their groups.

Having flexible working schedules is a very important form of nonmonetary reward that offers high gains with little managerial efforts. Employees in customer service department require constant time offs for better performance and building of trust. This also helps in establishing stronger relationships with clients.

Handwritten appreciation notes are also very vital for employee recognition. A fun filled customer care workstation is a motivation among most employees. Workers should have the freedom to design or furnish their workplaces with things that boosts their working morale for instance flowers or pictures.

It is important to reward both the efforts and achievements. The ideas may fail to deliver the best in terms of productivity but minds that produce the good ideas eventually give out best and winning thoughts, if motivated for permanence. Annual award dinners are great stimulants of innovative ideas and positive behaviours for executive consumer services. Other than offering annual leaves as indicated in the firm’s policy, employees deserve some time offs as rewards.

Loyalty and sharing of ideas is very crucial. Employees remain loyal and trustworthy when they are accorder the required recognition. Existence of short-term changes of attitudes as a self-induced paradigm causes negative reaction against provocation according to the dissonance theory (Maio and Haddock, 2010). Some of the simple and small rewards are essential for the recognition for instance occasional food service by the top executives.

This is particularly more contented during the busy seasons when the customer care services are quite tiring. Holding parties associable to employees’ lives, for instance monthly birthday parties for employees cerebrating in the particular month. Such parties are ample for informal discussions among employees especially between the top executives and those who are not in the managerial positions such as the customer care attendants.

They are able to sell and share experiences and ideas for business improvements. Involving the employees in decision-making procedures also calls for availing independence over choice of projects and ability to share ideas over the tasks. This is an empowering as well as a motivational or rewarding procedure. Applauding without giving equally goes a long way in enhancing motivation. It is a unique reward, which only requires a simple ovation such as standing or clapping in honour of an achiever.

Lastly is the ability to update each other on the tasks and share or solicit for ideas. Great employees have passion for what they do and therefore the employer has a task of fostering their feeling of being valued and inspiring their passion. This is achievable if the system provides chances for individual decision-making and ability to control as well as implement the ideas.

Conclusion

According to Carpenter and Sanders (2009), a good system capitalizes on the employees strengths while minimizing on their weaknesses. The different management technique strengthens understanding and enhances stronger bonds through teamwork as a measure to capture global clientele. Properly set goals, a rewarding system through performance evaluation and employees motivation are company’s moral obligation as well as business opportunities.

Evidently, South-West Airlines need to implements simple business ethics of rewarding employees that are motivational due to benefits such as improved job satisfaction, a higher degree of commitment and good remuneration.

The benefit in practicing such business ethics especially for a customer care department causes employee satisfaction; flexible work schedules and perfection of responsibilities thus better profits due to customer satisfaction and ability to retain them. Improved job satisfaction is one benefit to boost employees’ morale, for accurate service delivery.

References

Carpenter, M. A., & Sanders, W. G. (2009). Strategic Management. Upper Saddle River. New Jersey, NJ: Pearson/Prentice-Hall.

Lycette, B., & Herniman, J. (Sep 2008). New Goal – Setting Theory. Journal of Industrial Management, 50(5), 25-30.

Maio, G. & Haddock, G. (2010). The Psychology of Attitudes and Attitude Change. London, SAGE Publishers.

South-west Airlines (2010). Company Prospectus. Retrieved from https://www.southwest.com/

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