Tài liệu Corporate Reputations, Branding and People Management 31 ppt

284 Corporate Reputations, Branding and People Management

employees are made aware of on a daily basis. It is also sufficiently

detailed in expressing what happens when things go wrong, so that cus￾tomers and employees know what to expect and how to behave.

Employees, for example, are asked to deliver ‘positively outrageous

service’ in fulfilling the mission and brand promise.

Communication is at the heart of Southwest Airlines’ strategy. Their

‘people department’ (not HR department) use the recruitment and selec￾tion process to recruit ‘team players’ whose values and attitudes fit the

brand; they also use the human resource development process to clarify

and reinforce the values, culture and ‘Southwest Spirit’, using a range

of media such as ‘Keeping the Spirit Alive’ videos and other collateral.

The performance management and rewards systems are also used to

communicate the brand through incentive pay, including stock options

and profit sharing. Interestingly, by linking pay directly to flights, they

ensure pilots understand the need for cost efficiency. Pfeffer (2005)

reported that Southwest Airlines have by far the lowest costs per mile of

any comparable airline in the world because pilots have a clear line of

sight between how they fly the plane, where they park it, customer service

and profitability.

Finally, the company is prominent in using the public relations media

to communicate to employees the importance of the mission, and by

entering nearly every competition available that reinforces the message

of people driving customer service (e.g. Top Performing companies

awards, Fortune’s most admired companies, most socially responsible

company awards etc.). It is also noted for its advertising to potential

employees (and customers) through its ‘Southwest is a symbol of Free￾dom’ campaign, which is translated into eight individual freedoms for

employees, including learning and growth, to be themselves, etc.

In addition to formal communications, Southwest recognize the

importance of informal communications between employees, managers,

colleagues and customers. How employees act and talk about the

company helps create its culture, which is made more formal through its

Culture Committee structure. These committees operate in each

Southwest location to examine the problems of culture management and

develop solutions. Like many US companies, Southwest has an ‘open￾door policy’ to enable rapid communications between managers and the

workforce, which sits alongside the more formal union–management

bargaining structures. Employees are also invited and expected to

share letters from customers about good and bad service, and to provide