Southwest Airline polices that will yield positive

relationship to achieve high performance.

Southwest's polices will makes it so distinctive ability to build and sustained high
performance relationships among managers, employees, unions, and suppliers.  These
relationships are characterized by shared goals, shared knowledge, and mutual respect.
It will developed 10 policies to facilitate coordination among 12 distinct functions: pilots,
flights attendants, gate agents, ticketing agents, operations agents, ramp agents,
baggage transfer agents, cargo agents, mechanics, fuelers, aircraft cleaners, and caters
by building relationships of shared goals, shared knowledge, and mutual respect. 

Ten Southwest polices to yield positive relationship to achieve high performance

 
1. Lead with Credibility and Caring
SW top management team will build trust over time by being up front and consistent
in their message.  They have also made themselves available to frontline
  employees, demonstrating a level of caring that is beyond the norm in large
companies

2. Invest in Frontline Leadership

Southwest shall supervisors more per frontline employee than any other airline in
the country.  They are "player coaches" having managerial authority but also
performing the work of frontline workers.  The supervisors spend more time than
 
their counterparts engaged in coaching in the form of problem solving and advising
the frontline employees.

3. Hire and Train for Relational Competence

Southwest places a great deal of importance on hiring people with the right
attitude--people with relational competence--you can't be an elitist.  Through
training and "job exchange or "Walk a Mile" employees become familiar with other
 
aspects of the work process or jobs they aspire to move into.
4. Use Conflict to Build Relationships
At Southwest, managers are expected to take an active role in resolving cross-
functional conflicts.  When conflicts arise and are not resolved by the parties
themselves, a conflict resolutions process is used: informational-gathering, or
 
"Come to Jesus" meetings, suggesting that conflicting parties were expected to
bare their souls to achieve reconciliation.

5. Bridge the Work/Family Divide

Employees are encouraged to be themselves at work and to openly recognize
major events in the lives of employees and their families.  Each individual station
has a Culture Committee to maintain and strengthen Southwest's culture and to
  plan social and charitable events.  The Ronald McDonald House, a residence
provided to families while their children are undergoing treatment for cancer, is
supported by each of the local Culture Committees.

6. Create Boundary Spanners

Operations Agents are the boundary spanners, moving in the opposite direction of
the rest of the industry Southwest has increased the staffing levels nor relied on
 
computer interfaces to gather the information required to dispatch a flight.

7. Avoid Finger Pointing--Measure Performance Broadly

Southwest uses cross-functional, not functional, performance measures to
encourages participants to focus on learning rather than blaming when things go
  wrong. e.g., "Team delay" which allowed less precise reporting of the cause of
delays, with the goal of diffusing blame and encouraging learning.

8. Keep Jobs Flexible at the Boundaries

Southwest has successfully negotiated flexible job descriptions in all of its union
contracts.  Every job description ends with this statement:  Whatever it takes to get
 
the plane out.

9. Make Unions Your Partners, Not Adversaries

  Southwest is the most highly unionized airline the the U.S. airline industry and in
contrast to other airlines has emphasized the importance of labor/management
partnerships. Respectful relationships between company management and the
 unions chosen by frontline employees appear to set the tone for respectful
relationships throughout the company.

10. Build Relationships with Your Suppliers

External parties are treated to the same kind of relationship building efforts that
exist throughout Southwest Airlines.  Southwest stands apart from the rest of the
airline industry in the emphasis it places on building partnerships with the airports it
 
serves, air traffic controllers, and aircraft manufacturers.  Southwest effectively
extends its sphere of influence beyond its employees to encompass its entire value
chain.

Southwest's success is not due to one particular organization practice or another, but
rather to the overwhelming consistency among them, a configuration of mutually
consistent practices rather than a single key practice, while imitating organizations tend
to adopt only some of these practices.

Perhaps the most impressive characteristic of Southwest is the sheer sustainability of its
success, year after year.  The response to the 9-11 is illustrative crisis, the other major
airlines cut their flights by 20 percent and laid off 16 percent of their workforces. 
Southwest had its own unique approach for responding to this crisis.  Southwest
demonstrated caring by avoiding layoffs altogether, and by couching its decision in
terms of "taking care of our people."  Southwest saw these difficult times as an
opportunity to increase its presence and expand the availability of its product to the
flying public. This was based on Southwest's long standing policy of maintaining low
debt levels and relatively high levels of cash on hand.