Southwest Airline essays

Southwest Airline essays Employees are managed in a variety of ways and these differences are largely due to the differences in the environments of the organization. For instance, some companies seem to hire just about anybody while others are highly selective. Some companies provide extensive training for their employees while others simply see if they will survive. Organizations must often change quickly due to pressures put on them by the global environment. There are some similarities in the way that the people of Lincoln Electric and Southwest Airlines have developed their organizations. For example, both organizations place great value on their employees. At Lincoln job security is important. There have been no layoffs since World War II. Even during the recession from 19881-1983 nobody at Lincoln lost his job. Southwest also realizes that its employees provide them with their competitive advantage and employees are rewarded for a job well done through profit sharing. Overall, both companies realize that the employees are the direct link to the customers and without happy employees there are no happy customers. Lincoln and Southwest have both developed an organization that has the reputation of a good place o work. On the other hand, there are many ways in which Lincoln Electric and Southwest Airlines differ in the way they have developed their organizations. First of all, Southwest seems to place a lot more emphasis on selection. As a result, Southwests selection process is much more developed than Lincolns. Lincoln uses no aptitude or psychological testing, while Southwest uses extensive personality testing. Next, Lincoln has a more developed system for performance evaluation. Subordinates are formally evaluated by their supervisors twice a year. Southwest, on the other hand does not have much of a performance appraisal system. Also, Southwest has a more developed system of training. At Southwest all employees must a...