Southwest Airlines: Development of a Positive Culture

Southwest Airlines: Development of a positive culture One key component that gives a company an elusive, sustainable competitive advantage is culture. What is culture? In essence, it’s vital element that deals with people, trust, leadership and passion (dictionary.com). Why is culture important? Because our competitor can duplicate everything we do, for example, our prices, but they can't duplicate our culture. Proof of the importance of a positive culture is Southwest Airlines. Southwest flies the same routes as other airlines, uses similar equipment and the same airports, but the airline's culture of fun and personal responsibility sets the tone for everything the company does (Smith 2004). Hence, culture is the system of shared actions, values, and beliefs that develops within an organization and guides the behavior of its members. The following paragraph will discuss how my organization can achieve a comparable organizational culture of fun and personal responsibility. There are four key conditions on how my organization can achieve a high-performing culture of fun and personal responsibility. First, the company should have a relevant focus when implementing change initiatives. Such initiatives should concentrate on definite outcomes and be instituted based on real-life, real-time issues. Second, management should include themselves in such change efforts. They should also subject themselves to the change and incorporate the change into their very own responsibilities and accountabilities. Third, managers should ensure that the cultural change must have a systematic, company-wide approach. Since cultural change is a complex, serious process, all managers and employees should commit a substantial part of their time and effort to ensure the implementation of the process. Fourth, cultural change requires that employees at all levels take part in the process, have themselves involved in it, and apply the process to themselves. Applying a