Case study: 1.What are the key components of the relationship between leaders and followers in South West Airlines 2.Cr - Essay Example

Download file to see previous pages In fact, the improvement of communication within organizations has been found to contribute in the increase of employee performance, a fact that positively affects the performance of the organization. Such case exists in South West Airlines. The success of the firm in its market has been impressive. This success has been related to a particular aspect of organizational culture: the use of fun by employees when developing daily tasks. Humour, as a tool of communication, has not been quite popular in modern businesses, probably under the fear of its potential acceptance in the workplace, both by employees and by customers. The CEO of SWA proved that such approach can be quite successful at the level that it is incorporated in the culture of the organization and it is not used just for achieving temporary benefits. Fun, as a communication approach in SWA, has reflected the potentials of emotional intelligence (EI) for enhancing organizational performance. The review of the literature published in this field has proved that not all leaders are able of managing effectively emotional intelligence; rather, specific leadership styles, such as authentic leadership style and servant leadership style indicate the ability of leaders to use EI for inspiring and motivating their followers. 1. What are the key components of the relationship between leaders and followers in South West Airlines? In order to understand the relationship between leaders and followers in SW Airlines it would be necessary to refer primarily to the common elements of such relationship, as described in the existing literature. Particular reference should be made to emotional intelligence, a strategy that is often used so that leadership practices become more effective. At a first level, emotions have been found to be closely related to leadership (Stough, Saklofske & Parker 2009). Indeed, it has been proved that ‘the emotional skills of a leader can highly affect his leadership’ (Stough, Saklofske & Parker 2009, p.177). It has been also found that emotional intelligence can ‘contribute in effective leadership and transformational leadership’ (George 2000, Megerian & Sosik 1996, cited in Stough, Saklofske & Parker 2009, p.177). It should be noted that emotional intelligence has been related to specific characteristics of human behaviour, such as ‘enthusiasm, motivation and effective commitment’ (Stough, Saklofske & Parker 2009, p.171). According to Emmerling, Shanwal & Mandal (2008) the development of emotional intelligence, as a framework, has become necessary since there has been no similar framework for explaining the different ways that employees use when managing emotions (Emmerling, Shanwal & Mandal 2008, p.72). The definition of emotional intelligence, as developed by Mayer and Salovey in 1997 reflects the role of emotional intelligence in the workplace. According to Mayer and Salovey (1997) emotional intelligence can be described as ‘a group of mental abilities’ (Mayer and Salovey 1997, cited in Emmerling, Shanwal & Mandal 2008, p.72). In general, emotional intelligence is related to the management of emotions in such way that particular benefits are achieved. The effectiveness of emotional intelligence in the workplace has been verified through a series of empirical studies (Stough, Saklofske & Parker 2009, p.177). Stevens (2011) notes that ‘employees tend to stay with leaders who can manage emotions’ ...Download file to see next pagesRead More