1.> Rewards & status symbols used to motivate employees at Southwest Airlines {SWA}
It would be relevant, before addressing any of the organizational features of Southwest Airline {SWA}, to acknowledge that the firm has a monumentally outstanding reputation within the airline industry contemporarily. One of the more noteworthy things that becomes evident when contemplating the employee-employer relationships that are encouraged within the organizational parameters at Southwest Airlines is the marked lack of organizational formalities. This, moreover, is something that tends to be accentuated quite emphatically when considering it in light of the fact that SWA has been idealized as an organization that ‘dares to unleash the imagination and energy of its people ... they make work fun--employees have the freedom to act like nuts ... [they've] made flying an event’ (Waterman, Peters, Peters & Waterman, 1988). It is quite apparent that this disinclination towards typical organizational rigidity that tends to be exceptionally prevalent within highly commercial segments such as the airline segment acts as a significant motivational factor for employees.

This tendency towards encouraging maximal humor and frivolity within the collective employee pool, moreover, also brings forth a rather controversial side of the ideology within SWA’s key to success is grounded. Consider the bearings of the fact that Herb Kelleher, CEO for SWA, is of the notion that the customer is not always right, as has been historically and globally ascribed within the business segment. On the contrary, Kelleher states that ‘the customer is sometimes wrong. We don't carry those sorts of customers. We write them and say, “Fly someone else. Don't abuse our people”’ (Rawley, 1997). The key, it appears, is to ‘treat employees like they are volunteers’ (Rinke, 2004), treating their contributions to the organizational mission as individualistic favors. It is quite apparent thus, when considering the soaring profits, exceptional employee satisfaction and significant customer satisfaction, that the staff at SWF appears to be motivated highly enough to be considering themselves as authentic and crucial parts of the firm. While this sense of induced belongingness has currently become a part of the SWA organizational culture, the relevance of it is reflected within Keller’s statement that ‘if we ever lose our culture we will have lost our most valuable competitive asset’ (Rinke, 2004).

2.> The workflow & organizational structure at Southwest Airline
Thus speaking and taking into consideration all that has been said and discussed in concern to the motivational strategies adhered to at SWA; we will now turn to the features and characteristics of the workflow and the organizational structure. The workflow, as has already been indicated within the prior paragraphs, is exceptionally heavy, a result of the monumental customer base that SWA caters to. In spite of this, however, the workflow continues to exhibit a significant degree of fluidity and stability. The prime reason for this, which becomes evident upon a not too intricate inspection of the workflow, is that employees are so adaptive to their respective organizational role (s). Considering that this is strongly reflected in as much as the uncharacteristically envious position that SWA currently occupies within its industry, it would also be relevant to contemplate that SWA represents an organizational entity whose ‘profitability edge was built on process advantages, not on better aircraft’ (Keen, 1997). This in itself is a feat that speaks volumes when considering it in light of the strategic, industrial effectuality achieved by SWA within a relatively short period of time following its inception.

Take into consideration that SWA is the only U. S. airline to earn a profit every year since 1973; profit margins have been the highest in the industry; in the past five years, traffic growth has ranged from 20 [percent] to 30 percent annually; they maintain a conservative amount of debt; Standard & Poor's gives Southwest a credit rating of A, the highest in the U.S. airline industry (Freiberg & Freiberg, 1998). The organizational structure, moreover, which has already been fleetingly discussed, is one that encourages employees to be collective buoyant in terms of moods and spirit; ‘Pilots say whatever they want over the intercom, and flight attendants sometimes hide in overhead luggage bins, "popping out" to surprise customers as they board’ (Rawley, 1997). It would be conclusively apt to consider that the reason for SWA’s exceptional success rates fundamentally resides within the firm’s unconventional stance in concern to the employee satisfaction. This, as is quite apparent by this point of the paper, is the most instrumental factor as far as ensuring maximal quality in customer services is concerned.