Southwest Airlines

In today’s world airline is a most vital communication issue to travel one country to another
country or one place to another places within an hour’s. Now a day’s many people travel by
airplane all around the world. At each airport there are hundreds of arrivals and departures exist
in worldwide. An airline flying is saved and safety. An airline is a company that provides air
transport services for traveling passengers and freight. Airlines utilize aircraft to supply these
services and may form partnerships or alliances with other airlines for code share agreements.
There are many types of airline in the world Southwest airlines is one them. Its first
flights launched on June 18, 1971. Dallas-based Southwest Airlines Co. (NYSE: LUV) continues
to differentiate itself from other air carriers with exemplary customer service delivered by more
than 58,000 employees to a customer base topping 120 million passengers annually.

Southwest Airlines Co.’s mission statement

Like other company Southwest Airline’s Co.’s also has a specific mission. The mission
statement of an organization outlines the company’s business, goals and its strategy for reaching
those goals. It focuses more on where the company is at the present time and the tactical steps it
wants to use to achieve its objectives. For its commercial aviation and related services Southwest
Airlines mission states “The mission of Southwest Airlines is dedication to the highest quality of
Customer Service delivered with a sense of warmth, friendliness, individual pride, and Company
Spirit.”

From this mission statement we can say that it is a reflection of the company’s approach to
customer relations as well as its branding relative to other airline companies. The following are
the main points of Southwest’s mission statement we can assume that: Highest quality of
aviation customer service and employees’ warmth, friendliness, individual pride and company
spirit.

Southwest Airline’s mission statement emphasizes best customer service linked to employee
behavior and corporate image. The first point involving high quality customer service indicates
the company’s strategic objectives for high standards of operations that relate to customer
service such as customer support and marketing communications for the commercial aviation
market. Thus the corporate mission statement focuses on customer experience as a variable in
evaluating business performance operational effectiveness and strategies such as the strategies
used in Southwest’s marketing mix or 4Ps. The mission statement of a company can be used to
shape the culture of the organization. This mission statement also highlights the importance of
desirable behaviors factors such as norm, ideal, friendly with customers that attract more
passengers. There are three vital elements of culture of Southwest Airlines this are appreciation,
recognition and celebration. Considering these factors’s link to human resource management
Southwest Airlines Co.’s organizational culture is a major determinant in fulfilling the
company’s mission statement.

Southwest Airline’s Co.’s vision statement

Vision statements are future-based and meant to inspire and give direction to employees of
the company rather than customers. While the mission statement focuses on more tactical aspects
of the business, the vision statement looks to the future of the company and how to accomplish
this mission statement. The vision statement provides the direction in which the company wants
to go. Together with the mission statement, it helps to create the organizational strategy for the
business.

Southwest Airline’s corporate vision is “To become the world’s most loved, most flown, and
most profitable airline”.

This vision statement reflects the company’s long-term strategic plans for global operations and
guides strategic decisions in growing the enterprise especially beyond its current main market in
the United States. From this statement we can summarize this point: Global scale of airline
operations, best commercial aviation brand image, highest popularity among passengers and
highest profitability in the airline industry.

Southwest Airline’s corporate vision indicates the company’s leadership position in the global
industry. The term world’s indicates the corporation’s plans to expand its airline operations
internationally and in future they want to expand their airlines business worldwide. To achieve a
dominant global competitive position indicated in the vision statement Southwest Airlines Co.’s
organizational structure must provide the necessary flexibility for expansion. In addition, the
company’s corporate vision statement includes a strategic target to become the most loved
presenting enterprise plans to achieve the strongest civil aviation brand in the world and most of
the people of the world loved their airlines to travels. The vision statement indicates that this
industry leadership comes with Southwest’s top popularity and top profitability targets. Such
strategic objectives require multinational expansion which is a business growth opportunity
considering the company’s dependence largely on the U.S. commercial aviation market. Based
on these points in the corporate vision statement Southwest’s generic strategy for competitive
advantage and intensive growth strategies determine how such global growth is achieved,
involving strategies for new operations and for competing against other major firms in local and
regional markets.
The tone of Southwest is set forth by their ability to verbalize long- term strategies and creating a
path to achieve them. The leaders have created a clear picture in which their employees can
follow. The organization defines the direction of the organization by clearly verbalizing the long
terms objectives, and crafting some the most effective strategies to attain them. Ethical concepts
and Manner of Guidance Southwest Airlines ethic statement entails the company's core values.
They value safety and with few incidents involving their planes compared to their rivals.
Connect People to what’s important in their lives through friendly, reliable, and low-cost air
travel.

Importance of setting Tone, Mission and Vision in an organization

When any one can running a small one person operation or a large corporation he/she can must
setup a company tone mission and vision which one help to provide employees with a purpose.
The mission and vision of an organization are integral to the company’s strategy because they
are used to define future goals and operational tactics. While mission and vision are terms that
are often interchanged they actually refer to two separate aspects of the company.

The mission and vision statements of a company help direct the organizational strategy. Both
provide purpose and goals which are necessary elements of a strategy. They outline the audience
for the business and what that audience finds important. By identifying these elements the
business executives can develop a more step-by-step strategy that helps the company achieve its
mission in the short term and its vision in the long term.

Mission and vision statements help businesses to outline performance standards and metrics
based on the goals they want to achieve. They also provide employees with a specific goal to
attain promoting efficiency and productivity.

Mission and vision statements aren’t only necessary for employees and business owners when it
comes to the organizational strategy. They also apply to external stakeholders like customer’s
partners and suppliers. The mission and vision statements can be used as a public relations tool
to attract media attention engage specific audience segments and develop business partnerships
with like-minded companies.
Finally we can say that Southwest Airlines Co. prioritizes customer service in its mission
statement along with employee behavioral factors related to the company’s organizational
culture. This mission aims for the best customer service. The company’s strategies impact this
long-term goal in the global aviation industry. Southwest Airline’s operations management
strategies determine customer satisfaction. Southwest’s mission statement fails to include other
details such as the activities or approaches that the company uses or plans to use to achieve the
top industry position for quality of customer service. Additional information that can enhance the
mission statement includes what kinds of customers that the company targets such as passengers
in certain categories. Considering these issues, it is recommended that Southwest Airlines
improve its corporate mission statement by including such additional information to make the
statement more specific to civil aviation operations and related global strategic targets.

In other hand Southwest specifies strategic objectives to become a global industry leader. For
example the company’s vision statement points to highest profitability compared to major
airlines like United and Delta. Such global industry leadership must address opportunities and
threats of Southwest Airlines Co. Considering its corporate vision statement the company needs
competitive advantages to prevent other airlines from exploiting the same opportunities in the
global air transportation market. Furthermore to achieve the most loved objective in the
corporate vision statement this Airlines corporate social responsibility strategies must secure a
positive brand image. Based on conventions on writing business vision statements the company’s
corporate vision is satisfactory because it contains specific long-term targets and criteria such as
most loved, most flown and most profitable in the global airline industry. Southwest’s corporate
vision statement is detailed enough to guide strategies and to inspire employees to make the
enterprise the best in the industry. However considering possible improvements in the vision
statement it is recommended that the company add details about how it plans to achieve such
leadership.

For Example: There are many more companies in the world and their mission and vision is
different from each other. Like as Amazon’s mission statement is “We strive to offer our
customers the lowest possible prices, the best available selection, and the utmost convenience.”
Amazon’s vision statement is “to be Earth’s most customer-centric company, where customers
can find and discover anything they might want to buy online.” It provides a clear direction for
employees.

For the small business that makes handcrafted baby clothes a vision statement might be “to be
the first choice for new parents looking to outfit their babies in artisanal handmade clothing that
is designed and crafted with the utmost attention to detail.” It shows exactly where the company
wants to go in the future and how it intends to attain that status.
 References:

 D’Urso, S. C. (2018). Towards the final frontier: Using strategic communication

activities to engage the latent public as a key stakeholder in a corporate mission. International
Journal of Strategic Communication, 12(3), 288-307.
 Price, W. H. (2012). Vision Statement Impact on Organization Strategic Roles. Business
Journal for Entrepreneurs, 2012(1), 27-42.
 Southwest Airlines Co. – Purpose, Vision, Values, and Mission.
 Price, W. H. (2012). Vision Statement Impact on Organization Strategic Roles. Business
Journal for Entrepreneurs, 2012(1), 27-42.