A630.3.2_Manglona, Matthew-Napu_ A Day in the Life of the Culture Committee
The Culture Committee at Southwest is effective in
establishing culture norms. The culture committee follows Southwest’s definition
of culture within its organization. Mcgee-Cooper, Trammell, & Looper (2008)
discuss that South West Airlines’ culture consists having a warrior spirit, leading
with a servant’s heart, and having a Fun Loving attitude. (p. 49) The cultural
norms from South West Airlines provides not only the customers with great
service but amongst their employees as well. Brown (2011) stated that “culture
is the glue that holds an organization together.” (p.64) from the video “A Day
in the Life of the Culture Committee” a committee within the organization
provides a service known as “hokey” days where they feed the flight crews and
pilots and clean their planes giving them a break from their long days on a
flight, this gesture shows the cultural norm of team spirit and ensuring that
all employees at every level within the organization are taken care of.
The purpose of the cultural committee is to ensure that the
morale and work production from South West Airlines are kept at a high
standard. Not to many companies practice this type of ordeal because of their
goals and vision are not quite the same. Jain (2015) stated that “Strong
culture is said to exist where staff respond to stimulus because of their
alignment to organizational values.” (p. 116) which in the video and as stated
earlier the organizational values surround not only the customer/consumer but
the employees as well.
In my organization we do have something similar in a sense
of the cultural committee like South West Airlines. Our committee is known as
the Family Readiness Group (FRG). This committee is set up to provide soldiers
and their families the necessary outreach programs, soldier/spouse bonding,
summer camps for their kids, and the other activities to ensure the soldier and
their families are taken care of. Brown (2011) stated “the question is not
whether corporate cultures will continue to exist but what type of corporate
culture will be most effective in enabling a company to survive and excel.” (p.
66) My organization tries to instill other outlets for soldier readiness to be
at its highest performance but at the end of the day it is the family programs
and readiness group is what makes Soldiers excel in every performance factor
within our organization. Ensuring a happy home front will not only enhance
performance but another important factor of retention as well.
What I can take away from this assignment is to actually
look for other outlets that can provide the output as South West Airlines.
Where we take care of each other as employees at the internal level. Yes, I understand
I discussed the Family Readiness Group, but I think if our leadership (management)
took the time to take care of their employees (soldiers) with what Brown (2011)
discussed as having a team emphasis, being people focused, having autonomy,
having control, and having risk tolerance. (p. 65) These five categories here
can provide any organization a guide into having a great workforce and most of
all a great work place.
A question I like to bring up is, to establish a great
organizational culture what is necessary for management to move forward with
ideas to establish themselves as an organization that stands for their
employees and customers?
I believe that any company that provides a group within an organization
that supports the ground pounding or hard labor of the company sets up success
for all who work for that organization. It is a great way to show that others
within the company are appreciated.
References:
Brown, D. R. (2011). An Experiential Approach to
Organization Development (8th ed.). Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.
Jain, A. K. (2015). Volunteerism and organisational culture.
Cross Cultural Management, 22(1), 116. Retrieved from
http://search.proquest.com.ezproxy.libproxy.db.erau.edu/docview/1647575507?accountid=27203
McGee-Cooper, A., Trammell, D., & Looper, G. (2008). The
power of LUV: An inside peek at the innovative culture committee of southwest
airlines. Reflections: The SoL Journal, 9(1), 49-55.
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