Strategic and Administrative function of the Human Resources: The Swot Analysis For The Southwest Airline Company (Coursework Sample)

Strategic and Administrative function of the Human Resources
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Introduction
The Southwest Airline Company started in March 1967 aimed at offering scheduled air transport to passengers in the US and the neighboring global markets(South West Airlines Company, 2016). It serves about 100 destinations in more than 40 countries. For the last for decades, the Southwest Airlines has been the leading airline in the USA. Southwest identifies as the most productive airline and gives its clients a satisfying traveling experience. The Southwest Airline has recently merged with the AirTran Airways and has the possibility of buying other Airlines in future leading to its expansion. The merging of the airline requires the Human Resources of the Southwest Airlines to come up with ways that will combine the employees from both airlines and ensure proper working as a single company at large. This paper aims at helping on the understanding of the strategic and administrative roles of the human resources.
The CEO of this company Gary Kelly came up with a company motto, “Living the Southwest way.” This means working hard, having fun and treating everyone with respect. This has been the driving force in the company, which has helped them achieve their goals in the customer service business. Southwest acquired AirTran for the expansion of its network and destination to which it gets. This has resulted to high-profit making by the company due to entry into the international market.
SWOT analysis from the HR perspective.
The SWOT analysis is a tactical planning technique that aids an industry to know itself well and make policies on the way forward (Southwest Airlines SWOT Analysis - Business Assessments, 2016). It dwells on the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats of a company. The Southwest and AirTran merging has resulted to;
Strengths
* The number of departures has increased than before, and this means that additional employees are required into the airline to ensure service delivery to the customers is effective and efficient.
* The increase in some employees in the company is a great advantage since different knowledge and skill combine through teamwork resulting in quality service delivery and other companies cannot copy this.
* The building of teamwork helps combine different employee talents which result to different and better service delivery methods.
* Human resources in a company fill the gap between the current situations and focus on the future goals.
* The company upholds a good liaison with the unions. Most of the Southwest employees belong to the unions and therefore the rapport creates a good working environment since the employees have the assurance of an insured work.
* Employees are stimulated to express their sense of humor. This creates a free working environment for the employees, which makes their delivery fun creating a good customer relation.
Weaknesses
* Most employees are union members. This makes it hard for the company to come up with new employee policies since they have to seek approval from the union.
* The company offers only domestic flights, and no flight directs away from U.S meaning they only offer employment opportunities to the around them and not in the far countries.
* The company does not offer morning fights, this reduces the working hours and hence cuts down on employment opportunities to other citizens who may be willing to work in the morning hours.
* The airline is not classified, does not offer video and audio programming and airport lounges like other competitors. This would offer employment opportunities to programmers and air hostesses.
Opportunities
* Acquiring of AirTran has given the airline the opportunity to venture into new and international markets. This increases labor opportunities hence the requirement for a larger number of staffs for efficient service delivery.
* The airline will have to invest in new technologies that will help in fast service delivery to the clients. Training of the employees would be required to ensure they have the knowledge as the technology expands.
* The company should enhance the online booking services. This would create easy access to the air tickets on the other hand developing the job market to the web designers.
* Venturing off the airline into international markets means there will be a change in their products, which will make them more preferable to the customers and therefore increasing their sales.
Threats
* The airline faces challenges on the cost of fuel, which will reflect the increase in the ticket prices. This will lead to fewer customers traveling as they avoid much traveling when the prices go up. Less income may result in retrenching of some staffs since the company may not be in a position to pay their wages.
* The airline is facing competition from rival companies since they are working on web booking to their best. This makes the competitors more favorable to the customers, and this leads to Southwest gaining less income.
* There are continued labor negotiations that are ongoing, and this is likely to result in an increase in wages. This will pose some cost pressure on the company as the new contract gets introduced to the market.
* Increase in terrorist attacks is major threat to the airline companies. This may result in decreased air travel as passengers are in fear of attacks during their travel. Decreased travel will cause losses to the airline companies and in the end, will depress the economy.
* Upcoming government regulations may result in decreased air travel as an increase in taxes will lead to an increase in air ticket costs, and this will discourage passengers from much traveling.
Recommendations
The company should concentrate on its strengths; this would help in making it more competitive and in the end gaining more incomes (Alvarado, 2016). The company should also revise its strategies as the years go by to help it remain competitive in the market, have a good employee relationship and gain international growth.
The merging results
The companies merging bring along many for recruiting and hiring, which include; use of different methods to select staffs. The company is supposed to look for cultural and attitude fit employee rather than the skills they can gain through training.
The company should offer extensive training to its staffs to ensure their service delivery is uniform. This will make the airline competitive, as the customer may prefer it to its competitors due to their satisfying services. Thirdly, the company should reduce status differences and barriers; this mainly addresses the issue of uniformity among the employees. It will easily show the difference between the employees from different airline also bear the companies name in the customer’s eyes. Lastly, the company should encourage on teamwork. This will make it easy in addressing the staffs and ensure efficient and effective delivery of customer services....