Swot Analysis Of Southwest Airlines

Introduction When two or more companies come together during a merge, cultural norms, beliefs, and values must also come together and become one. If this does not happen than the merger may not succeed and in-turn fall apart. Southwest Airlines is a major discount airline within the United States, which does have a few international flights. In order to expand their reach globally, they plan to merge with other airlines such as AirTran Airways. This will add thousands of employees quickly in a variety of global locations. The purpose of this paper is to propose the strategic and administrative tasks, roles, and functions of the human resources team to achieve a successful merger of the two companies and to expand to additional global locations.
SWOT Analysis from the HR Perspective The following figure is a SWOT analysis of the merger. It is a tool for businesses to identify what the company executes well and what it needs to improve on (Harmon, 2015). “It is used to organize information, identify issues, determine solutions, and suggest opportunities” (Harmon, 2015). SWOT analysis show presents the company’s strengths and weaknesses, which are internal factors, as well as threats and opportunities, which are external factors (Harmon, 2015). Figure 1 SWOT analysis (Mandersheild, 2010; Shumsky, 2006; LinkedIn Corporation, n.d.).
Recommendations to Address Issues According to Pearson Education, Inc. (2009), Merger success rates are increased when HR is involved (Pearson