Case Study
Assignment: Case study - Management at Southwest Airlines
Judging on the basis of information in the case, describe the managerial skills that Southwest managers such as Colleen Barrett and Jim Parker use in their jobs at Southwest. Include examples of situations in which they use these skills. Southwest Airlines made use of three managerial skills in the process of overhauling the company: decision making skills, communication skills, diagnostic skills. Firstly Jim Parker, CEO and Colleen Barrett, COO, made use of their decision making skills by recognizing certain inherent flaws in the way their predecessors handled certain aspects of the business and three examples of said decision skills would be their decision to implement a short-haul, point to point schedule in lieu of the hub - and - spoke system schedule, (which proved to be considerably more cost effect), as well as a smaller less expensive airport. The one that proved to be most efficient was their decision to limit their operation to just one type of Jet which went a long way to cutting costs in three major areas: purchasing, maintenance, and training (Ricky W. Griffin, p. 25).
Secondly, as top level executives of South West Airlines, both Jim Parker and Colleen Barrett made considerable strides in the area of HR relations with the first-line managers who are in charge of supervising and overseeing the employee’s responsible for the day to day business activities, which went a long way to establishing a better rapport between the employee representatives and the executives of South West Airlines when it came to critical collective bargaining regarding contracts, improved wages/ benefits, extensive training, no lay-off policy and a generous profit sharing and stock ownership ( Ricky W. Griffin, p. 25). Thirdly, Jim Parker and Colleen Barrett, and the rest of the team of Southwest Airlines made use of their exemplary diagnostic skills by isolating the chinks in the chain of Southwest Airlines
Judging on the basis of information in the case, describe the managerial skills that Southwest managers such as Colleen Barrett and Jim Parker use in their jobs at Southwest. Include examples of situations in which they use these skills. Southwest Airlines made use of three managerial skills in the process of overhauling the company: decision making skills, communication skills, diagnostic skills. Firstly Jim Parker, CEO and Colleen Barrett, COO, made use of their decision making skills by recognizing certain inherent flaws in the way their predecessors handled certain aspects of the business and three examples of said decision skills would be their decision to implement a short-haul, point to point schedule in lieu of the hub - and - spoke system schedule, (which proved to be considerably more cost effect), as well as a smaller less expensive airport. The one that proved to be most efficient was their decision to limit their operation to just one type of Jet which went a long way to cutting costs in three major areas: purchasing, maintenance, and training (Ricky W. Griffin, p. 25).
Secondly, as top level executives of South West Airlines, both Jim Parker and Colleen Barrett made considerable strides in the area of HR relations with the first-line managers who are in charge of supervising and overseeing the employee’s responsible for the day to day business activities, which went a long way to establishing a better rapport between the employee representatives and the executives of South West Airlines when it came to critical collective bargaining regarding contracts, improved wages/ benefits, extensive training, no lay-off policy and a generous profit sharing and stock ownership ( Ricky W. Griffin, p. 25). Thirdly, Jim Parker and Colleen Barrett, and the rest of the team of Southwest Airlines made use of their exemplary diagnostic skills by isolating the chinks in the chain of Southwest Airlines