Servant Leadership and the Success of Southwest Airlines: A Case Study

This case study examines the servant leadership approach of Southwest Airlines, focusing on the leadership styles of Herb Kelleher and Colleen Barrett. It explores how these leaders prioritized employee satisfaction and engagement, fostering a culture where employees felt valued and motivated. The study analyzes how Southwest Airlines implements servant leadership by serving employees, customers, and other stakeholders. It also discusses the importance of the golden rule in the company's operations, highlighting its role in promoting equality and respect. The case study emphasizes how Southwest Airlines' commitment to servant leadership has contributed to its success in the competitive airline industry, illustrating the positive impact of prioritizing the well-being of all stakeholders.

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.

The organisation has an excellent employee engagement strategy which has contributed largely
to the overall development of the workforce. In an era where aviation companies have been
closed due to the minimum wage problem with the employees Southwest has paid $620 million
in the financial year of 2016. This constantly increased with time and in the last financial year
the organisation has paid over $700 million. The organisation has the best system to analyse the
grievance and issues of the employees which helps to address the issues faster and smoother. In
the year 2017 the organisation shared its profit of $586 million with 54000 employees which
show the amount of respect and care put showed by the company towards its employees. The
organisational focus has always been when the employees grow the company grows which has
helped the organisation in a major way (Hoch et al., 2018). The long standing legacy of the
organisation in the context of employee management has been effective for the organisation. It
has never cut pay or lay off people and serves them through effective training and development
and are also open for career development of the employees even if that means employees leaving
the company. Turnover is really less as the organisation merges the intrinsic and extrinsic
motivational strategy in such a way that each and every employee is satisfied financially as well
as mentally (CH Chan & Mak, 2014).
Southwest’s employee engagement strategy has been the subject of research for many scholars
and most of them stated that the success of the organisation lies on the highly motivated and
willing employees. Southwest Airlines has understood the importance of employees and hence
always wanted them to be happy and satisfied which makes them feel important for the
company. The company even in small issues refers to the employees which helps the
organisation to get effective insights. For instance, in the recent past the organisation took help
from its employees to provide and develop the idea for a new logo and also for uniform design
which acts as a huge motivation for the employees. Considering employee as the most important
stakeholder has helped the organisation to develop a strong identification for itself in the market
(Rao, 2017).
The employees show greater interest in the service of the consumers and show greater
responsibility even in smaller things. The pilots take responsibility for reducing fuel
consumption and the flight attendants support boarders in the best way possible. The consumers
are really happy because they get best possible service in low cost service. They get free luggage

boarding up to certain extent and state of the art services. The suppliers have long standing
relationship with the organisation and hence never face complications and payments are made in
advance for supplies. The corporate governance of the organisation involves excellent reporting
and return on investments for the shareholders and works with government for effective practice
of CSR serving the internal and external stakeholders in the best possible manner (Kumar &
Pansari, 2015).
3. Southwest Airlines emphasises the golden rule. What role does the golden rule play in
servant leadership? Is it always a part of servant leadership? Discuss.
The golden rule has been the mainstay of Southwest Airlines operation. The organisation has
operated in the market with the golden rule of serving others as one wants to be treated and this
has helped the organisation to operate effectively. This approach first came into existence due to
the egalitarian behavior of the cofounder of the organisation Herb Kelleher who found everyone
working in the organisation equal and hence wanted to have same rules, rights and opportunities
for everyone. This was later collated together by the former president of the organisation Colleen
Barrett who created the golden rule based on her experience of working with Herb. The golden
rule plays an important role in the servant leadership implemented by the organisation (Mayfield,
Mayfield & Sharbrough, 2015). As stated earlier the golden rule was based on the primary
objective of treating everyone equally or in a way a person would like to be treated hence, the
organisation does everything in a pretty humane way that helps the company to understand the
needs and wants of the employees, their grievances and issues. The organisation considers each
and every employee as the owner of the organisation and hence wants to treat each and every
employee in a way that would help them to be satisfied inside which in return helps the
organisation to get the best possible effort from the employees (Garton & Mankins, 2015). The
servant leadership emphasises on serving others and putting the needs of others ahead of
personal needs and the golden rule of the organisation is largely related to the main principle of
servant leadership. The golden rule acts as a perfect foil for the effective execution of the servant
leadership because the golden rule acts as the objective for the organisation to treat everyone
equally and similarly as one would like to get whereas servant leadership acts as a strategy or
tool to achieve the same (Keating & Heslin, 2015).

The golden rule was developed in the recent past by the organisation which means it was not
always a part of the servant leadership for the organisation. However, it is important to mention
that even without the absence of the golden rule the organisation did the same in its earlier years
with a separate organisational goal. The servant leadership of the organisation always involved
aspects like listening, empathy, awareness and stewardship which helped the organisation to
prepare and strong leadership framework involving every internal stakeholder for better results.
Hence, it could be said that Southwest Airlines had this specific person centered approach for a
long time which has helped the organisation to cross all the barriers and emerge victorious
(Goswami et al., 2016).
4. Based on figure 10.1 describe outcomes of servant leadership at Southwest Airlines and
how follower receptivity may have influenced those outcomes.
Fig 1 (10.1): Key Characteristics of Servant Leadership
It is conspicuous that servant leadership has been extremely effective for the organisation
Southwest Airlines. The organisation has been able to serve the stakeholders effectively through
its well knit leadership strategy. Right from the beginning the organisational leaders of
Southwest showed the characteristics like serving and developing others, involving others in
decision making, sharing leadership, creating the understanding of organisational stewardship
which is also known as ownership capital. Through servant leadership the organisation has been
able to generate effective interest among the employees to serve the consumers. The leaders of
the organisation have always emphasised on letting the employees grow with the organisation

and take their insights to make decisions which not only helped the employees to get interested
in organisational operations but it also helped to create sense of importance among the
employees (BRAND, 2014). The sense of importance among the employees helped to create
organisational stewardship among the employees along with the leaders which led to the success
of the organisation. There are number of positives which came out of the implementation of the
Servant leadership within Southwest.
Empowerment has been one of the key features of servant leadership in the organisation and this
indeed helped the organisation to empower employees creating vision among them. The
employees started taking responsibilities and decisions by themselves that largely reduced
problems for the organisation and also helped the organisation to compete in a highly
competitive market environment. This kind of leadership helped the employees to reply with
positives which largely influenced the organisation to move ahead with the strategy (Whorton,
2014). The behavior of the servant leaders of the organisation played a crucial role in improving
follower receptivity. Follower receptivity means the response and receptiveness of the people
following the leader or a particular strategy. In the present case the employees of the organisation
had been positively receptive towards the servant leadership. The more receptive the employees
of the organisation were the better the outcomes got for the organisation. It is important to note
that the organisation has received positive outcome from the leadership implementation because
the employees were largely motivated by being involved in decision making and receiving
respect that creates sense of satisfaction in them (Rao, 2017).

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