Southwest Airlines: An Example of Effective Change Management

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Change management is a response to inherent threats and opportunities emanating from a competitive market. Due to high rate of change within the business environment, organizations are compelled to change their operating strategies accordingly.

In cases whereby departments in an organization are not positively responding to demands from the business environment, top managements usually opt to overhaul their operations. As a result, contemporary business organizations have found it quite challenging to manage change effectively.

It is against this backdrop that the government of Malaysia thought of restructuring Malaysian Airline to reflect modern management. Because of high flow of demand in airline business, companies should change tact in operational management. Most importantly, the company has to change its culture to reflect international management styles.

Change management in any Airline company is crucial in meeting demand from consumers mainly due to the widening international market. The government of Malaysia has restructured its top management on the basis that a number of programs had failed to cope with modern forms of international standards of management (Rashid, Sambasivan & Rahman, 2004).

Change management is an effective way of transforming a non performing entity to a performing organization. In particular, the company should review organizational culture and attitudes held by employees on a regular basis.

According to the authors of this article, the ability to manage change effectively can indeed improve the performance of a company (Rashid, Sambasivan & Rahman, 2004). Besides, the article offers a critical analysis of how change management leads to labor mobility, market transparency, instantaneous communication, and global capital flows.

Southwest Airlines and change management

Southwest airlines is an example of companies with effective change management. For instance, nurturing a good corporate culture has been instrumental in uplifting the status of this airline to become one of the largest airlines in the United States of America.

Even though its regular review of culture has raised questions on sustainability, the performance of the company in the airline Industry is still impressive. Southwest airline has maintained a positive and unique culture. In 2008 for instance, the company was noted as one of the organizations in the United States of America as performance management fun.

Regularly, the company re-evaluates its management styles to ensure that it complies with the concept of “total quality management.” Over the years, the company has changed operational management styles. The philosophy of the company in changing styles of management is to be unique from other market competitors. The focus is on making employees proud while working with the company. A survey carried out among employees of the airline firm revealed that most of them loved working for the company.

The basic operating principle in the company is that effective customer service is everything in making a reputable company. Whenever there is changed management style, the focus has been on improving customer satisfaction, employee involvement, and management commitment. The company is still a local carrier but, it is slowly emerging as one of the most trusted companies in the United States of America.

In some cases, the airline has obliged to respond to some issues in retrogressive manners. For example, at one time, the company had to review its working hours for employees from 12 to 13 hours. Despite this undertaking, its reputation among employees and customers did not decline. So far, the Southwest airline has managed to dominate the local market by creating a firm competitive edge and stable financial standing. Its financial performance over the last few years has been continually progressive in comparison to its competitors.

Some employees do express doubt whenever they hear that Southwest Airline is embarking on performance management change. The fear is that the company may resort to retrench some employees to cut down costs of operations. However, the company continually has in its employees whenever embarking on any form of organizational change. In addition, there is established culture of trust between junior employees and top management of the company.

It is crucial to mention that there are many factors that have contributed toward the success of this airline company. For example, frequent collaboration between the company and other stakeholders alongside improved flow of communication has been key toward growth. Some of the stakeholders include employees, consumers of its products as well as development partners.

The most valued attribute in management of this company is changed initiative. There are several benefits that have been accrued through leadership initiative. These include self sufficiency, strong financial standing, significant competitive niche in American Airline Industry, low overhead costs, dramatic improvements in the company and committed internal stakeholders.

The company has also improved its information delivery after changing some of information channels. The company is an example of organizations with a good model in change management. Because the company has managed to survive some problems emanating from the business environment, its change management styles is therefore effective in retaining customers, attracting new ones, satisfying employees as well as meeting targets in terms of financial growth.

Reference

Rashid, Z. A., Sambasivan, M. & Rahman, A. A. (2004). The influence of organizational culture on attitudes towards organizational change. Journal of Leadership & Organizational Development, 25 (2), 161- 179.

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Southwest Airlines: An Example of Effective Change Management

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