Servant Leadership Case Study of Southwest Airlines

Servant Leadership
Case Study of Southwest Airlines

1. What type of servant leader behavior did Herb Kelleher exhibit in starting the airline?
What about Colleen Barrett?
Servant leadership is defined as a style of leadership where the concept of servant as a leader is
given shape. In this kind of leadership the leaders act as servant first and analyse the issues and
problems of the people attached with the leader for instance looking at the employees and their
problems and managing them to ensure they are satisfied enough to work for the organisation.
The servant leadership is an effective strategy and has been useful for a long time after its
emergence in 1970. As the servant leaders one has to focus on the welfare of others which
largely help to have a satisfied workforce and this in return helps the workforce to achieve the
organisational objectives in the best possible manner (Spears & Lawrence, 2016). Servant
leadership has been researched a number of times and have been practically used by number of
organisations which has helped them to get the best possible result out of it in terms of growth
and development of an organisation. The Southwestern Airlines is one of the key examples of
using the servant leadership. The founder of the organisation Herb Kelleher believed in the
principles of servant leadership which mainly focused on the welfare and wellbeing of the
workforce. The main focus of Herb was to ensure employee satisfaction as he felt that satisfied
employees are willing employees (Liden et al., 2014).
There are various models of servant leadership and in this case the behavior of Herb was related
to the servant leadership model put forward by Wong and Davey in the year 2007. According to
this model the leaders are focused on constantly serving and developing others. Herb Kelleher
has always followed this principle. He has always worked with the employees in a friendly
manner and communicated with them to understand their problems and issues which were
addressed in short times. Apart from that he never developed any traditional hierarchies which
helped him to promote demographic environment within the organisation in the earlier period of
operations of the organisation (Van Dierendonck et al., 2014). Kelleher was egalitarian in nature
which means he believed that everybody is equal and hence traditional hierarchy was ignored
which provided the employees immense self confidence and higher willingness to work for the
organisation. Kelleher always looked for persons with character which helped him to establish an
organisation that believed in commitment and delivering value to the consumers. Kelleher’s
behavior showed that he put the followers first and grow and succeed together (Beck, 2014).

According to the model developed by Wong and Davey, Kelleher was able to create authenticity
in the workforce because of his demographic behavior which helped him to invite insights and
ideas from the employees which not only helped to improve the operations but it also helped to
create a sense of respect for the employees. Herb Kelleher made sure each and every employee is
motivated and influenced all the time which helps to get the best possible result from them. It is
extremely important to note that Herb Kelleher understood the changing pattern of operations in
the competitive environment which is why having servant leadership helped the organisation
Southwestern Airlines (Sipe & Frick, 2015). Bringing the opportunity for the employees to
provide insights and consulting with them largely helped to improve the possibility of operating
successfully in the market.
Colleen Barrett was the most suitable successor of the founder Herb Kelleher and the
organisation Southwestern Airlines couldn’t have got a better leader. She was directly inspired
by Herb and learned a lot from him. Colleen Barrett was directly moving with the principles of
Herb Kelleher to improve the work experience of the employees and provide satisfaction that
helped the organisation to constantly strive to achieve customer satisfaction. It is extremely
important to note that the generous and work oriented behavior of Herb reflected excellently
through his selection of Colleen was hailed from a poor household and started as a secretary for
the Herb Kelleher who effectively developed liking for her just like the others (Hoch et al.,
2018). Inspired by the principles of Herb Kelleher, Colleen Barrett was the person who designed
the golden rule for the organisation which is still followed by the organisation to reach the
organisational objectives which is to “treat people the way you want to be treated”. This golden
rule was developed by Colleen that has helped the organisation to effectively move towards the
long term objective of becoming the largest low cost carrier in America. Colleen Barrett has
followed the same servant leadership being egalitarian and providing equal opportunities and
rights to the employees ensuring satisfaction for the employees who in return provides effective
services to the consumers (Yoshida et al., 2014). As the cofounder Herb always wanted to have
friendly environment in the organisation which would help the company to keep the employees
content and Colleen emphasised on that. It is stated that satisfied employee is a happy employee
and the organisation clearly focused on doing that which has helped the organisation to achieve
success in the market as it has been able to satisfy consumers. The initial story of the case study
clearly showed that the employees are ready to go to any extent to satisfy the consumers and this

philosophy was brought in and instilled by Colleen Barrett who was largely inspired by her
mentor Herb Kelleher (Liden et al., 2014).
2. How do leaders of Southwest Airlines serve others? What others they are serving?
The leaders of Southwest Airlines have been focused on one thing that is to serve others. Serving
others is the main objective of the organisation and there are various ways through which the
organisation has done that so far. Southwestern Airlines has been effective in implementing
innovative leadership within the organisation which has helped to bring together all the key
stakeholders of the organisation and serve others properly. The organisation has constantly
emphasised on managing non human and human resources along with other resources to serve
others in the best possible manner (Chen, Zhu & Zhou, 2015). The implementation of servant
leadership has been effective for the organisation and this has been clearly admitted by the
former President of the organisation Colleen Barrett who has been an inspiration for the
organisation for a long time now. The organisation serves all the stakeholders effectively but the
first priority of the organisation is the employees of the company and then the consumers. It was
the belief of the cofounder of the organisation Herb Kelleher that satisfied employees are
extremely important for the smooth running of an organisation. Hence, Southwest Airlines focus
on serving the employees in the best possible manner. Even during crunch period the
organisation made sure that it stands beside the employees (Winston & Fields, 2015).
During the financial year of 2001 when the aviation industry was hit badly after the terror attacks
on the twin towers in New York, Southwest replaced its humorous advertisements and send a
strong patriotic message stating the organisation was beside the 32,000 employees through which
it wanted to convey that the jobs of the employees is the first priority of the organisation. In the
middle of crisis situations Southwest has performed all the possible actions to ensure the
employees are satisfied. When the other airlines were engaged in layoffs then the organisation
was managing other aspects of the company like renegotiating aircraft contracts to help the
employees sustain in a high pressure situation. Southwest was the only organisation to have
made substantial profit in that financial year which indicates serving others like employees could
do world of good for organisations (De Clercq et al., 2014). Hence, it is clear that Southwest
Airlines has been out and out successful in serving its employees in the best possible manner.