Southwest Airlines implementation of a specific "Culture Committee" is an interesting way for a company to manifest the implementation of its corporate culture and looking out for the morale and welfare of their employees. I suppose one might consider it, in some ways, a scaled up version of an organizational Booster Club or Sunshine Fund. It's difficult to quantify exactly where and how the Culture Committee comes into play in the establishment of cultural norms, but it certainly seems to make an effective impression. While it was attested that employees don't always know about things like Hokey Day, the Culture Committee does make a positive impression upon the surprised flight attendants and reinforces the company's well known culture of fun. It also seems to help establish the idea of the company as one unified team where each member is there for the other.
The purpose of the Culture Committee seems to be to act as something of a sub-organization within the company responsible for the morale and welfare of the employees. It also exists to reinforce Southwest's organizational values by acting upon them and setting the example through taking care of their teammates with a very pleasant and easy demeanor. With the fact that the committee is formed from a group of peers, I would think this serves to enhance the unifying aspect, and imparts a sense of "these are my friends and co-workers, and they've got my back." To draw more directly from the video he Hokey Day, as noted by one member, is about "employees taking care of employees", and fits well with the committee's stated mission of "...making Southwest Airlines a fun, exciting, and wonderful way to work. I took interest as well in that the Culture Committee wore their values as they worked, donning t-shirts that emphasized "Warrior Spirit," "Servant's Heart," and "Fun-Loving Attitude," right under the prominent wording of "Whatever It Takes."
In my own place of work, this type of committee would be there to look out for the morale and welfare needs of our unit and also act as part of a full spectrum solution towards monitoring the overall health of our unit, ensuring a relatively good level of happiness and productivity. Our own Booster Club accomplishes some of these functions and use similar methods by providing opportunities for fun and camaraderie, with the aim of promoting teamwork and our core values. This typically gets accomplished via the planning and execution of events such as burger burns, holiday themed parties, the annual picnic, and more recently a "Wingman Day" that held sports competitions in conjunction with talks on personal resiliency and safety. In short, the mission of our own Culture Committee would be much the same as Southwest's: take care of our personnel and make sure that within the midst of the controlled chaos of military life there is still some fun, excitement, and care from superiors and peers.
From considering Southwest's efforts, I might take some time to re-examine the ways in which we take care of our people, and give some greater consideration to the ways in which it ties into our organizational culture. It seems to be one of the most oft spoken adages is "mission first, people always," and only having been in service for a few years I'm conscious of the issue but haven't yet had opportunity to really see this idea be put to the test. As one of my friends at the office is current heading up our Booster Club and I'm sitting on a base council that represents the interests and development of junior officers, I might have to find opportunities for ad hoc "case studies" to see where and how these organizations touch the lives of the people they serve. In addition, I might give pause to consider the ways in which these small groups support and establish the Air Force's core values and cultural norms.
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