In 1971, Herb Kelleher and Rollin King developed a strategy for a different kind of airline. They built an airline that brings passengers to their destinations when they want to get there, on time, and at the lowest possible fares. In addition, they wanted to make sure that customers were having fun at Southwest. Today, the once-small Texas airline has grown to become one of the largest airlines in America. In 2004, Southwest Airlines was flying more than 65 million passengers to 59 cities, with more than 2,800 flights per day. Following the terrorist attacks of 2001, Southwest has been the only national airline earning a profit each year.
Explore the site in detail to prepare a two-page report indicating your responses to the following questions. Based on its mission and vision, describe the culture at Southwest Airlines. How does this culture differ from that of other companies in the industry? After looking over a list of Southwest directors and officers, what type of organizational structure do you think Southwest uses (functional, divisional, matrix, etc.)?
Internet Exercise
Understanding an organization's culture has become more and more important to managing. As books such as Built to Last by Collins & Porras show, culture, especially cult-like cultures, strongly shape behavior. Organizational culture shapes thinking, behavior and issues such as social responsibility. Strong cultures are particularly powerful and mold thinking and behavior. The following cultural assessment tool from Hcg onLine, directs you to answer a series of questions on culture. The purpose of this exercise is for you to gain insight into the power of cultures and help you understand what you think is important about culture. In many ways the successes and failures that most of us have experienced at work places is the fit or ill fit between us and the culture. If we are not able to adapt or accept the culture, we need to move on and if we like it, we need to assess why and what about that culture speaks to us. As you look for work and assess jobs and organizations, you might want to go back to this site so you may want to bookmark it. It is always good to take a refresher and redo a survey to see if you have changed or are stable in your cultural values and desires. For your future, please read this information and take the survey. Culture is very powerful. As Herb Koehler who built a must admired culture with a few others, the culture is a precious thing and must be worked on harder than anything else.
Please go to http://www.hcgnet.com and navigate to find culture assessment. Take the survey and submit the results. Then using the articles on culture and the survey results, be prepared to answer the following questions in class:
How would you describe and explain the organizational culture of your university/college? Explain.
Is your university's culture consistent with its mission, vision, and goals? Discuss.
Based on your survey results, how might the university's organizational culture be improved? Provide rationale.
How might you go about changing the college culture if you and other students are dissatisfied?
