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Southwest Airlines Human Resources

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Southwest Airlines Human Resources
ALINEANDO LA ORGANIZACIÓN

Case in Point
Southwest Airlines: consistencia y coherencia a lo largo del tiempo

Logo: www.southwest.com

Southwest Airlines (SWA) es la primera aerolínea norteamericana: transporta millones de pasajeros anuales (102 millones, en 2008), llega a 67 ciudades en 34 estados y opera más de 3.300 vuelos diarios.4 Tiene 35.000 empleados, 36 años consecutivos de beneficios y un récord de reconocimientos, que van desde estar entre las empresas más admiradas del mundo hasta haber ganado varias veces la triple corona, premio de la industria aeronáutica que evalúa tres indicadores para ser otorgado: el cumplimiento de horarios, la pérdida de equipaje y las quejas de los usuarios.5 Fundada en 1971 por Herb Kelleher, la empresa no ha dejado de crecer y, al mismo tiempo, de transmitir a los nuevos empleados los valores en los que se fundamenta su éxito. Tal vez una de las claves del éxito de la empresa sea la claridad de su estrategia empresarial. Desde sus comienzos fue definida como líder en vuelos nacionales de corta duración. Para lograrlo, la compañía apostó a tres pilares: costos bajos, alta frecuencia de vuelos en un solo tipo de aeronave y bajas tarifas. El mercado respondió positivamente a esta estrategia y, a pesar de que algunos com4. http:/ /www.southwest.com/about_swa/airborne.html 5. http:/ /www.southwest.com/investor_relations/annual_reports.html

48

ALINEAR LAS PRÁCTICAS DE RECURSOS HUMANOS

petidores han intentado imitarla, SWA sigue siendo líder en la industria de su país.6 Esta estrategia requirió definir ciertas capacidades distintivas de la organización y un perfil particular de aquellos que quisieran trabajar en SWA. La informalidad, el sentido común y la polivalencia fueron capacidades fundamentales para aportar a la estrategia del negocio. Las personas que quisieran trabajar allí también debían ser especiales: amigables, orientadas al cliente, comprometidas y dispuestas a compartir los valores de la empresa de

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