The Southwest Airlines Way

Author: JODYHOFFERGITTELL
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2006-09-01
Features:
'If you look at Southwest Airlines, and I admire what they do, they've been the most successful airline in the industry.' -- Gerard Arpey, CEO, American Airlines
'Through extensive research, Jody Hoffer Gittell gets to the bottom of what has sustained Southwest Airlines' positive employee relations and high performance through good and bad times.' -- Thomas A. Kochan, professor, MIT Sloan School of Management, MIT Global Airline Industry Program
In an industry with losses in the billions, Southwest Airlines has an unbroken string of 31 consecutive years of profitability. The Southwest Airlines Way examines how the company uses high-performance relationships to create enormous competitive advantages in motivation, teamwork, and coordination among employees. It then goes further to show how any company can foster these powerful cooperative relationships and explain how to:
Lead with credibility and caring
Invest in frontline leaders
Hire and train for relational competence
Use conflicts to build relationships
Make unions its partners, not its adversaries
Build relationships with its suppliers