HR Design Decisions

Southwest Airlines is a well-known company featured in our textbook. Over the next 4 weeks, you will take on the fictional role of intern at Southwest Airlines Human Resources. You will utilize the textbook and other professional resources to complete your assessments.

Your first week on the job is filled with learning the ins and outs of Human Resources and the industry. Your manager told you that one of your projects is to assist with a new HR strategy for the company. This strategy is broken down into 3 parts that you will work on throughout the course. They are:

Examining current practices
Talent recruitment and selection
Strategy recommendation
Your first task is to examine Southwest’s current HR practices, as reported in public sources. Complete the HR Design Decisions chart with your review and rationale of the elements listed below to decide where Southwest Airlines’ HR practices fall. Support the analysis with evidence from sources on the web.

Employees as expenses vs. employees as assets
Compensation below market, above market, or competitive
Spontaneous training and development or planned training and development
Specific job descriptions or general job descriptions
External or internal recruitment, or both
Limited socialization of new employees or extensive socialization
Collective bargaining or individual bargaining
Possible sources for information include but are not limited to: