Southwest Airlines: Servant Leadership

Mission Statement A mission statement gives the public, employees, and managers insight into the company’s top priorities. A vision statement describes the goals and direction that the company wants to achieve in the future. Putting the two together a person can start building a snapshot of the type of leadership style that the company utilizes. According to Laub (as cited in Dierendonck & Patterson, 2010), “The Servant Organization is an organization in which the characteristics of servant leadership are displayed through the organizational culture and are valued and practiced by the leadership and workforce” (p 108). Although Southwest Airline’s and Ford’s mission statement are similar these companies are different in leadership styles,

The words they use like warmth, pride, and company spirit standout differently than Ford’s mission statement. Collen Barrett, the former President of Southwest Airline, focused on serving her employees first and the customer second. Employees of Southwest Airlines that have worked with other airlines in the past, said that they prefer Southwest over their competitors (Dierendonck & Patterson, 2010). A true testament of her accomplishments is that servant leadership model is still practiced in Southwest Airlines today long after her retirement (Dierendonck & Patterson, 2010). Ford’s mission statement reads: “At Ford, we go further to make our cars better, our employees happier and our planet a better place to be” (Company, n.d.). Ford previous Executive Chairman Alan Mulally, practiced servant leadership and was award the CEO of the year for 2011, by Chief Executive Magazine (Baldoni, 2011). Ford’s mission statement has servant leadership essence of caring about the employee’s but it is unclear if this is

Southwest Airline’s vision statement is: “To become the world’s most loved, most flown, and most profitable airline” (Purpose, Vision, Values, and Mission, n.d.). The mention of the word love is drastically different than Ford’s vision statement. Southwest uses customer satisfaction and word of mouth as part of their marketing technique. Ford’s vision statement is: “People working together as a lean, global enterprise to make people’s lives better through automotive and mobility leadership” (Company, n.d.). Ford’s marketing is mostly used to sell their products around the globe. There again the company has some servant leadership principles by bettering people’s lives but that is about it. The writer ‘s vision statement comes from a servant leadership mindset, “Serving people honorable and improving the environment globally through responsible leadership for future generations.” This vision statement has values that a servant leader should possess. The writer’s vision statement would improve the public perception of the company because it shows that the company cares about developing strong bonds with the customers and improving the environment. The writer’s vision statement shows that the company is dependable and plans on carry on these values into the