After watching the Southwest Airlines culture committee video, I
am not entirely convinced that they have established a norm. According to Brown
(2011), norms are, “ organized and shared ideas regarding what members should
do and feel, and how this behavior should be regulated” (p. 10). In the video,
the surprise cleanings did seem to be organized; however, the piece that left
me doubtful that this was a norm was the fact that one of the flight attendants
and member of the committee that they interviewed said that most of the flight
attendants didn’t even know that Southwest did something like this. If it is in
fact a norm, then shouldn’t the employees at least know about it? They may not
have ever been the recipient of the committee’s kindness but they should at
least know that there are groups of people in the organization trying to make
someone else’s day better. Rather than establishing norms, the culture
committee seems more to me like they are the deliverers of random rewards
(which can be nice, too).
When I finished watching the video, other Southwest videos
appeared in the margins of the You Tube page and I decided to watch another, A
Day in the Life of a New Hire at Southwest. I thought that this was a better
depiction of the way Southwest goes about establishing norms. The new hires are
led through several processes, as they would be at many companies. The
difference was that the new hires are grouped together and led through what
Travis Peterson, Senior Manager of People, describes the enculturation process.
He attributes this enculturation (or socialization according to Brown, 2011) to
Southwest’s low turnover rate of about 5%. New employees listen to members of
Southwest’s upper management talk about the airline and its culture. They are
also treated to a fun day of karaoke and games. I think that this sets the
stage for a fun culture in the organization. Please watch this video as an example of the fun atmosphere
at Southwest.
The culture committee is an attempt to let the employees know that
they are appreciated. In order to do this, other employees do something nice
for their counterparts. Although I believe that the recipients appreciate these
random acts of kindness, I would also be interested to know what the
organization does for its employees to let them know they are appreciated. An
organization’s culture is a combination of many factors including the attitudes
and sentiments of management, the technology used by the organization, job
descriptions, and the hierarchy of an organization all make up the culture
(Brown, 2011). I did not get the sense that members of management were included
in what we saw on the video nor did I hear any evidence to indicate that any of
the other factors that establish a culture were included. I certainly think
that what the culture committee is doing should be continued. People like to be
appreciated whether it is by their customers, peers, or supervisors.
In my organization, the human resources department has organized
the WEQC, a committee that organizes events for employees throughout the year
in order to show appreciation for employees’ hard work. Events such as a health
and wellness fair, Bring Your Child to Work day, and the school supply drive
for employees’ children are examples of affairs hat the committee plans. The
events are organized for large groups of employees and many only apply to
certain groups; for instance, the “meet Santa” event is for those employees who
have smaller children. Coming from a public school system where there is almost
no recognition of employees, this has been a refreshing change and has turned
into a peripheral norm for the organization. It would be nice if the committee
could do more. Recognizing employees of the quarter might be nice and it would
also be nice if a member of each department could be on the committee to
provide a variety of ideas to recognize and appreciate employees in each area
of the organization.
According to Williams (2013), in organizations with cultures that
promote mentorship of new employees the new hires, “produce higher quality work
than corporate cultures that encourage competition and duplicity among
employees”. What this tells me is that corporations that have employees who
feel a sense of belonging and being included in the culture from the very
beginning of their employment will get the most out of their people. I do not
currently have responsibility for this process; however, in November, a new
person was hired for the training team and it was my responsibility to show her
the ropes, so to speak. It was important to me to introduce her to as many
people as I could and explain to her the reasoning behind many of our
processes. She felt included in the organization and was impressed by how
friendly and helpful everyone had been. Conversely, when I started several
years ago, the trainer at the time was a teleworker. Although HR has a process
for supervisors to follow with respect to new hires, my former supervisor left
the majority of my acclimation into the environment and culture up to the other
trainer. However, since she was not physically present, there were many gaps in
this process including the fact that she had little to do with the team culture
because she was not there and therefore, could not help me understand what that
culture was like. She was not helpful to me and I felt ignored and isolated,
not how I wanted to feel after leaving my previous job of 18 years. My goal for
the future is to make people feel important, informed, and a part of what we do
at our organization. The processes that we use to make that happen can vary but
I think that having a team like Southwest does that is in charge of determining
what that process looks like is important. Once they establish the process, the
entire organization should be trained on what to do so that people have similar
experiences and start their careers with us on a positive note.
References:
Brown, D. R. (2011). An experiential approach to
organization development. (8th ed. ed.). Boston: Prentice Hall.
Williams, R. B. (2013, May 14). How "giving" can create
a positive organizational culture. Psychology today, Retrieved from
http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/wired-success/201305/how-giving-can-create-positive-organizational-culture
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