Read & Lead

The first example that shows SW’s cult-like culture is its tightness of fit. Good start. SW is extraordinarily selective in recruiting. It recruits primarily for attitude. To ensure fit, there is an emphasis on peer recruiting and teamwork is critical. Applicants must also pass an application, a phone screening interview, a group interview, and three additional interviews. Why the entire hiring process focuses on positive attitude and teamwork is that SW believes most skills can be learned and doesn’t screen heavily for these except for certain specialist jobs. This means SW vigorously screen out those who don’t fit with the ideology and create an almost cult-like environment around the core ideology. (Its core value is work should be fun, work is important, people are important. Its core purpose is the dedication to the highest quality of customer service delivered with a sense of warmth, friendliness, individual pride, and company spirit.)

Yes. SWA is adopting many selective hiring processes to secure a tight cultural fit that plays a pivotal role in developing and keeping a cult-like culture. You pointed and explained this point very well with right example.

The second example is that SW pays particular attention to train its employees. At SW’s university for people, 25,000 people are trained each year. The emphasis of the training is on doing things better and understanding other people’s job, delivering outstanding customer service. This training program reinforces the frame of mind SW and rigorously molds SW employees into SW ways of thought and behavior.

Great. You’ve successfully illustrated indoctrination process of SWA training programs. Indoctrination is important criteria for a cult-like culture.

And the third example is that SW creates a sense of belonging to something special through practical, concrete items. It emphasizes having fun at work. Fun is a core value and part of SW style and spirit. This fun atmosphere builds a strong sense of community and pervades the entire company. Serious attention is paid to parties and celebration that occurs continually. At that time, the Love Field corporate headquarters in Dallas is filled with banners and with pictures of SW employees at parties, awards, trips, and celebrations. This can actually enhance the company’s ability to preserve the core and stimulate the progress, precisely because it creates that sense of being part of an elite organization that can accomplish just about anything.

Again, you got it! Elitism is another important characteristic of a visionary company with a cult-like culture. As you put it SWA is emphasizing “fun at work” and trying to make everyone in SWA feel fun through parties, awards, and celebrations. And making its employees fun and happy, SWA has been created a strong sense of belonging to an elite company among them.

[2] ‘내부승진관리’(Home-grown Management) 메커니즘의 세 가지 예를 들고, 이 것들이 왜 ‘내부승진관리’ 메커니즘에 해당하는지 설명하십시오.

SW has long-range succession planning in place to ensure a smooth

transition from one generation to the next. The first example is the chief executive succession planning. SW’s CEO, Herb Kelleher publicly commented that he chose James F. Parker as a new CEO, and Colleen C. Barrett as president and COO. Both Mr. Parker and Ms. Barrett are typical SW persons who have played important roles as top managements in the company for a long time. Mr. Kelleher has been carefully preparing Mr. Parker to assume the role of chief executive through making him participate in the important decision-making. Also, Ms. Barrett has played leading roles of embodying the company’s core ideology by weaving the culture across regional differences and indoctrinating new workers into SW’s ways. Mr. Parker and Ms. Barrett are surely expected to preserve the core ideology without leadership discontinuity. And SW is preparing for the next leadership in advance from appointing three executive vice presidents who are candidates to succeed Mr. Parker down the road. This is a good example of home-grown management mechanisms.

Yes, as you said the CEO succession and preparing a CEO candidate pool are stark examples of a home-grown management mechanism.

The second example is the manager’s training program. Managers take the three-and-a-half day course on the leadership, pricing, revenue management, and how the business works. And frontline leadership gets the experimental training about particular needs through two-day course each year. This means SW has the high possibility of having talent stacked like cordwood from developing managers through internal education program and therefore preserving manager-level leadership continuity. 

Also this can be a good example of a home-grown management in that through training program for manager-level employees SWA is preparing candidates for future CEOs. But I want to point one thing here. You did not clearly show that SWA is linking those training programs to selecting future CEO pool.

The third example is that SW is providing information so that people can be involved. SW’s employees act like owners of the airline because they are encouraged to take responsibility and make decisions. This enables employees at low level to have individual initiatives and grow to be a good manager in the future. In brief, SW has good mechanism to grow caliber managers, caliber directors, caliber CEOs.
In this case, you offered a great explanation rather than a good example. Many other learners offered this example, but they have failed to interpret it into this meaning.

[3] ‘이윤추구를 넘어서’(More than Profits) 메커니즘을 암시하는 예를 확인하고, 이를 간략하게 설명하십시오.