Preview

What Does It Mean to Be a Westjetter

Powerful Essays
Open Document
Open Document
4583 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
What Does It Mean to Be a Westjetter
What does it mean to be a WestJetter?

The airline industry rides a train that is propelled by many different factors, such as the state of the economy, jet fuel prices, people’s view of the industry itself and the image of the individual airline entity. Founded by Clive Beddoe, Don Bell, Mark Hill and Tim Morgan, WestJet has been riding a different train from the get-go since its inauguration in 1996,. Nobody would have thought that a bottom-up management structure in an airline business would work so well. The culture that they have built is now part of their brand and they are proud of it.

As their culture being part of their brand, the low-cost, no hassle airliner should have some contingency plans in place to secure their business and culture. The culture, at the moment, is “a very relaxed, fun, youthful environment in which creativity and innovation are rewarded” (WestJet airlines). The company looks for younger recruits and actually prefer people with less experience (ref). This will be addressed later on in our document. Unfortunately, experience is somewhat of a necessity in a business that can suffer tremendous repercussions for human mistakes.

As experience plays a key role in maintaining job confidence and comfortability, it also plays a major role in top management. People, generally, either look up to management or despise top management. WestJet has tried to mitigate this problem by hiring people they think that will match their culture. If they do not fit into the culture, simply put, they are let-go. This can put a lot of pressure on new managers as they may have some pre-flight jitters.

Being nervous is one thing but feeling threatened is by no means a light topic. This is why WestJet has adopted Pro-Active Communication Team (PACT). It is a sort of union analogy, acting as an output for employees to communicate to upper level management and across work groups. Unions often create the image of a “you versus us” mentality and this is

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Satisfactory Essays

    Mkt/571 Week1

    • 646 Words
    • 3 Pages

    In this scenario Classic Airline offers customers service of delivering them from one destination to another. The great way of attracting customers in service providing companies is to create the extraordinary experience. In this case the company can retrain the employees to provide its customers the exceptionally friendly customer service.…

    • 646 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Better Essays

    There are several elements can be regarded as WestJet’s key strengths, one of which is the custom service based corporate culture. By adopting the employee share purchase plan, most employees are motivated to be dedicated into their works ‘Because Owners Cares’ (Munro & Khan 2013). In addition, better efficiency of funds brings down the cost of the company, leading to the relatively low airfare costs, which is another advantage.…

    • 1240 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    WestJet started its services in 1996 with just 3 aircrafts and landing rights to five destinations in Canada. By the end of 2011, WestJet had become one of the leading airlines in Canada, by providing services to a total of 76 destinations within continent North America. The airline currently offers scheduled services, international charter services and Trans-border services to the United States, the Caribbean, Mexico and Canada. As per the annual report of 2011, WestJet currently operates four directly owned subsides – WestJet Investments, WestJet Operations, WestJet Aircraft Acquisitions and WestJet Vacations. With these strategic developments they tend to offer distinguished services to all their guests and stakeholders.…

    • 2353 Words
    • 10 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    6,800 of Air Canada’s flight attendants were set to go on strike in 2011. However, the dispute between the union and the management escalated and got sent to the Canadian Industrial Relations Board (CIRB), and resulted in prohibition of work stoppage. Unwantingly, the employees had to resume daily operations at Air Canada. The main issues the employees brought to the table during the negotiations were: job protection, wages, working conditions and pension changes. Air Canada was planning to launch a low-cost carrier using lower paid new hires. This alarmed the current workers and resulted in job insecurity. The employees felt that this “discounted carrier” could potentially convert into a mainline carrier over time, which will jeopardize their…

    • 431 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Westjet Case Analysis

    • 1269 Words
    • 6 Pages

    According to the WestJet case that I have read, the main problem is WestJet’s expansion plans. They want to expand more airline route networks in Canada but they do not want to change their culture. They will need to hire more people for their expansion plans. The more people are hired, the more difficult for the company maintain their culture. Because of diversity may change WestJet’s culture in the future if more new employees are hired. New employees maybe not familiar with WestJet’s culture because they are new, and they come from different background and experiences. For example, Steve Smith was hired as a CEO in early 1999 but it became apparent almost immediately that Smith did not fit with WestJet’s culture. He would override decisions and had a top-down management style which is not supposed in WestJet’s culture. In September 2000, he suddenly resigned and Beddoe had to take his seat back.…

    • 1269 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Jet Blue Case Study

    • 1912 Words
    • 8 Pages

    This essay will examine in detail the human resource strategies, policies, and practices that were developed by Ann Rhoades who was the Executive Vice President of People at JetBlue Airways. Ms. Rhoades was very innovative with the development of the new HR policies, which up to that time had never been implemented by any other startup airline organization. Along with the strategies, policies, and practices, there were five core values that were also established. These values provided an overarching vision for JetBlue Airways in order to direct all organization activities whether internal or external. The five core values were safety, caring, integrity, fun, and passion, which from JetBlue Airway’s management viewpoint was that if employees were happy then that would lead to greater successful recruitment and greater employee retention rates, which would potentially reduce or eliminate the likelihood of a union organization attempting to unionize the company.…

    • 1912 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Aviation Professionalism

    • 924 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Once someone joins the Airlines industry as a professional, be it a pilot, a technician, or an air traffic controller, they are committing to a certain level of responsibility and expectation. In my experience I have come across professionals who I have felt suited their role to near perfection while others in the same position at times fall short of basic expectations.…

    • 924 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    “The mission of Southwest airlines is dedication to the highest quality of customer service delivered with a sense of warmth, friendliness, individual pride and company spirit.” (http://www.southwestonereport.com/2011/#!/thirty-thousand-foot-view/mission-and-vision). Southwest airlines have multiple mission statements that state customer service is their number one priority and delivering a quality product is one of their top goals. In order to be able to deliver a top quality product and deliver quality customer service, Southwest airlines is committed to their workforce and customers by encouraging personal growth for all employees as well as equal opportunity for all employees. Southwest airlines states it in their mission statement for employees; “We are committed to provide our Employees a stable work environment with equal opportunity for learning and personal growth. Creativity and innovation are encouraged for improving the effectiveness of Southwest Airlines. Above all, Employees will be provided the same concern, respect, and caring attitude with the organization that they are expected to share externally with every Southwest Customer” (http://www.southwestonereport.com/2011/#!/thirty-thousand-foot-view/mission-and-vision). In 2011 Southwest airlines created a new training department that leveraged their best practices while also maximizing resources to create the best learning environment for employees. To help accomplish this, the new department used coordination, consistency, continuous improvement, and community while keeping their legendary customer service in the core of the program. The new department has begun to consolidate many of the training programs that Southwest airlines have to be able to review, track, monitor and report the training. Upper-level, mid-level and employees allow for such training. Upper-level and mid-level managers…

    • 335 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Best Essays

    Csr Ryanair

    • 3593 Words
    • 15 Pages

    Appelbaum, H.S and Fewster, M. B. (2004). "Safety and Customer Service: Contemporary Practices in Diversity, Organizational Development and Training and Development in the Global Civil Aviation Industry". Management Research News. 27, 10, p. 1-26.…

    • 3593 Words
    • 15 Pages
    Best Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Ann Rhoades, Executive Vice President for People, had been extremely busy – growing the JetBlue team from the original 10 people to almost 1000. She would continue to add approximately 100 new “crew members” with the arrival of every new airplane and, if they hit their plan, JetBlue would employ nearly 5000 people within the next 4 years. She was charged with achieving this rapid growth while building a values-based, high commitment organizational culture. Her experience as head of human resources for Southwest Airlines from 1988 to 1994 provided her with both appreciation for the challenge and expertise to meet it. She was committed to attracting, developing and retaining outstanding people who could make the JetBlue concept a reality. Still, she recognized that JetBlue’s expansion goals were more aggressive than any she had met before.…

    • 3712 Words
    • 15 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    British Airways Case Study

    • 2196 Words
    • 9 Pages

    {3} Culture and Commitment: British Airways, Gowler, D., Legge, K., & Clegg, C. (1993). Organizational Behavior and Human Resource Management, London: Paul Chapman Publishing…

    • 2196 Words
    • 9 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    In this report, the structure and organisational behaviour of the DSS consulting will be analysed in order to know what the main reason was for CEO “Meg Cooke” to take the decision, at a very late stage, of not going forward with the product that Southwest Region team has developed for scheduling and budgeting. The decision came when the beta version of the product was going to be launched to one of the district for testing after Southwest Region team exerted extensive efforts until product was finalised and became ready for testing. Also, the report will analyse the behaviour of Meg of not elaborating on why such decision was taken, based on inputs from other teams that the areas of districts those teams have worked in didn’t show interest in this product , given the fact that the other teams have no idea about the product of Southwest Region team. Management style followed by Meg was not the optimum one as she was supposed to discuss the progress of the report more…

    • 5058 Words
    • 21 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    “Our concerted efforts to introduce permanent structural change across the airline has led to a reduction in non-fuel costs and a return to profitability. Revenue has increased, driven primarily by yield improvements and, while fuel costs have risen, they are in line with our expectations. Our focus on permanent structural change will continue. This summer we agreed a new productivity deal with our Heathrow terminal-based staff that will provide a more flexible, cost-efficient and customer focused ground operation. In addition, the first of the cabin crew recruited on new terms and conditions have completed training and start flying on Monday.…

    • 4800 Words
    • 20 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Henkle & Lindsey, 2002 A review of the operational and cultural aspects of Southwest Airlines, Emerald Insight)…

    • 5714 Words
    • 23 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    SWA’s human resource management system is focus on “people”. People are the competitive advantage of SWA, the human resources department deliver the resources and services to prepare their people to be winners, to support the growth and profitability of the company, while preserving the values and special culture so SWA. The company’s employees are seen as the department’s customers. One of the founder, Kelleher, he has a hands-on approach that helps make employees feel at home and comfortable. For SWA’s employee, southwest airline is their home and they are all the “family’s” memeber. Making employee feel they are part of a big faimly helps SWA better achieve its low cost, low fare, frequent flight strategy. SWA’s pilots, for instance, spend more time in the air than pilots at other airlines, also, their salary are much lower than other airline companies. Employees also routinely volunteer to hepl customers in need. Just like Harold Sirkin said,…

    • 748 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays