Living the Southwest Way - Case Study Example

The carrier attributes the effectiveness of its operations to socially fine relationships with its workforces. The purpose of this paper is to examine the human resource (HR) implications of Southwest Airlines merger with Air Tran Holdings in 2011. Southwest focuses principally on point-to-point passenger delivery, as opposed to the more popular hub-and-spoke strategy provided by most American airlines (Wu, 2012). The point-to-point strategy limits delays and total flight time which would otherwise be more tiresome to the crew.

This service also enables the employees to enjoy more convenient shifts and better remuneration generated by majority of passengers who prefer low fares (Lorenzetti, 2014). By supplementing high-frequency short-haul fights with newer long-haul services between Los Angeles and Nashville, Las Vegas and Orlando, and San Diego and Baltimore by virtue of more planes and crew, the integrated crews now have the opportunity to enjoy more challenging and shifts. In addition, the airline’s delivery of passengers to downtown airports such as Dallas Love Field, Houston Hobby and Chicago Midway among others enables the crew to unwind in the less congested destinations and thus, improve their productivity (Bachman, Schlangenstein, & Hughes, 2010).

As the result, Southwest employees today have better capacity to champion effective asset utilization and predictable time-maintained performance. Owing to the operational similarity of Southwest Airlines to Air Tran, the new organization encourages its workforces to use simple strategies to achieve maximum customer satisfaction and growth. Wu (2012) suggested that these include control of oneself in the best and worst of times; using irreverence where it is necessary; being oneself; having fun on the job; being objective and serious when dealing with competition; tolerating diverse attitudes, provided the crew use their