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Southwest Airlines Crisis Leadership Analysis

Southwest Airlines faced two major leadership crises. In 2011 after 9/11, when flights were grounded, the CEO kept all employees on payroll and issued profit-sharing payments to motivate staff through the difficult time. In 2018, an engine failure on a flight caused a passenger's death, the first for Southwest. The CEO quickly expressed empathy to the family and compensated all passengers on the flight. By treating people with respect and dignity during the crisis, Southwest was able to manage the situation and motivate employees through leading with ethics.

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Andrea Sahily Espinosa
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100 views2 pages

Southwest Airlines Crisis Leadership Analysis

Southwest Airlines faced two major leadership crises. In 2011 after 9/11, when flights were grounded, the CEO kept all employees on payroll and issued profit-sharing payments to motivate staff through the difficult time. In 2018, an engine failure on a flight caused a passenger's death, the first for Southwest. The CEO quickly expressed empathy to the family and compensated all passengers on the flight. By treating people with respect and dignity during the crisis, Southwest was able to manage the situation and motivate employees through leading with ethics.

Uploaded by

Andrea Sahily Espinosa
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd

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Southwest Airlines leadership crisis

Leadership crisis has existed long time before anything and it has been present in every
situation not only in organizations. Nevertheless, I choose a very interesting company that
have had several leadership crisis through time, Southwest Airlines is an American airline
based on Dallas, Texas. Here I will present to crisis the airline went through back in 2011
and in 2018.

The first crisis was the one after 9/11 when the U.S government order all airlines to
ground their entire fleet and shut down for some days and all their employees were
stranded across the country and even when the airline could have avoid any extra
expenses for the time that order lasts, a different type of leadership were shown as they
encouraged employees to leverage their trademark fun approach to business and to help
the stranded customers to enjoy themselves at the movies or places nearby, this
shutdown brought some other complications and many airlines were forced to cut staff,
nevertheless the then-CEO, James Parker, announced three days after 9/11 that the
company will keep all of its employees as well as issuing a profit-sharing payment.

All this actions held by the CEO and the company itself lead to encourage and motivate
employees to keep working there but even better to become loyal to the company
through this compensation method and to apply a class concept, here were used the
sense of fairness which relies into the equity theory, here the perception of fairness was
raised from my point of view, because the Southwest Airline did the opposite to the other
airlines to keep their employees motivated through this hard times for the country.

Another crisis the airline had to manage was back in 2018, this was considered the biggest
crisis of all the times because in the flight Southwest 1380, an engine ruptured on a New
York-to-Dallas trip and shrapnel broke a window, blowing a women partly out of the
airplane and she eventually lost her life and this was registered as the first dead on this
airline in its 51 year history and the first death of passenger on a U.S flight since 2009, plus
the crisis was even bigger because passengers in the flight used every social media to
communicate what was going on and how they felt and thus became viral content, not
good one for the airline.

Although it was a highly stressful situation for the airline, the managing director of
communication got a good strategy to manage this crisis and use fully the ¨evidence¨ and
content the passengers were streaming to find faster solutions and respond better to the
situation, the first step was the CEO sending an empathy message to the family affected
and marked the importance they gave in the moment to do everything they can to help
them, all of their social media turned to a gray broken heart and all the flight passengers
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were compensated with $5,000, a credit of $1,000 toward Southwest airfare and
transportation to their destination out of Philadelphia.

Finally as seen in the class a concept that can be applied here can be the interactional type
of justice, because the situation was so harsh that the airline did the correct thing on treat
all their passengers and even more the family of the deceased one with respect, dignity
and kindness, if the airline would have not do this then the problem would have escalated
to a much bigger scale and this also motivates employees to know the place they work in
is valuable and acts based on ethics.

Resources:

Fladung, T. (2018, November 29). 2018’s Best Crisis Management Response: The Crisis

Was Live, Southwest Airlines Was Ready. Hennes Communications.

[Link]

the-crisis-was-live-southwest-airlines-was-ready/

How Leaders Emerge During Challenging Times – 3 Case Studies. (2020, October 9).

University of Notredame.

[Link]

leaders-emerge-during-challenging-times/

Common questions

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Ethical business practices during a crisis positively impact customer perception by showcasing the company’s commitment to values and humanity. In the 2018 crisis with Southwest Airlines, the company’s actions, such as providing financial compensation, expressing empathy, and conducting respectful communications, demonstrated ethical behavior. This approach prevented the problem from escalating and likely maintained or even improved customer trust by showing that the company values its passengers' welfare above mere profit .

Southwest Airlines managed interactional justice during the 2018 crisis by treating affected individuals with respect, dignity, and kindness. This included the CEO communicating empathy directly to the family of the deceased, quick issue of compensation for all passengers involved, and corporate social media changes to reflect sympathy. This approach ensured that the severity of the situation was acknowledged appropriately, helping mitigate the crisis’s potential for wider negative repercussions .

The crisis management lessons that can be drawn from Southwest Airlines' response to the 2018 in-flight incident include the importance of immediate and empathetic communication, utilization of social media to address the situation, and offering compensation to those affected. The airline turned its social media profiles to a gray broken heart and provided $5,000 and further recompense to passengers, showcasing respect, dignity, and ethical action under the principles of interactional justice, which helped to mitigate the situation's impact and maintain the company’s reputation .

The concept of interactional justice applied by Southwest Airlines during a crisis influences employee motivation and morale by ensuring that management demonstrates respect, dignity, and fairness. By handling the 2018 crisis with empathy and proper compensation, the airline showed its employees that it prioritizes ethical practices, which in turn positively affects how employees perceive their workplace and enhances their commitment to the company's values .

Southwest Airlines' crisis management strategies enhance its organizational resilience by using transparency and ethical actions to build trust and loyalty, which are crucial for recovery and sustainability. After crises like 9/11 and the 2018 incident, retaining employees and ensuring passenger safety and well-being reinforced a culture of resilience, allowing the company to bounce back and maintain a loyal customer base .

Southwest Airlines used social media effectively during the 2018 in-flight crisis by promptly adopting a unified empathetic symbol (the gray broken heart) across platforms and managing real-time content shared by passengers. This not only kept the public informed but also demonstrated transparency and commitment to resolving the situation, which helped in controlling public perception and maintaining the company's reputation despite the crisis .

The approach to crisis communication in 2018 differed from traditional methods by leveraging real-time social media engagement and more personal, empathetic messaging. Southwest used viral content from passengers to address the situation quickly and transparently and ensured all communication was infused with empathy, such as turning their social media to gray with a broken heart symbol. This approach helped control the narrative and de-escalate potential backlash, demonstrating the effectiveness of modern, transparent communication channels .

Southwest Airlines' leadership during past crises built employee loyalty and morale by retaining employees during difficult times, like the post-9/11 period, and issuing profit-sharing payments while other airlines cut staff. These actions demonstrated the company's commitment to their employees, promoting a culture of loyalty and motivation .

Southwest Airlines demonstrated the equity theory during the leadership crisis following 9/11 by making a conscious decision to retain all of its employees and issue a profit-sharing payment, in stark contrast to other airlines which were forced to cut staff. This approach fostered a sense of fairness and loyalty among its employees as the company aimed to motivate them through difficult times .

During the 9/11 crisis, Southwest Airlines' executives exhibited leadership qualities of foresight and empathy by deciding to retain staff and issue profit-sharing, promoting fairness and motivation. In the 2018 crisis, they demonstrated quick thinking, transparency, and empathy by effectively managing communication and compensation. Both instances show a consistent strategy of valuing people over profits, which is critical for nurturing trust and resilience in leadership .

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