Southwest executives have issued public apologies and its front-line workers have taken the brunt of customer fury, but the board of directors is missing in action, writes hiltzikm.
The Southwest Airlines flight schedule is returning to normal, its top executives have issued their ritual apologies and promises to do better, and those front-line workers who bore the brunt of customers’ fury during the last week are recovering their mental and emotional equilibrium.
If there’s a silver lining in all this, it may be that the role of its board receives long-overdue scrutiny. Boards of directors are generally the least-heavily covered components of corporate governance, in part because boards tend to be insular, secretive bodies whose members seldom expose themselves to media scrutiny.
The Southwest board doesn’t seem on the surface to be much different from the standard issue — no worse, but no better. The board has a modicum of diversity in the areas that get most public attention: Its 11 members — not counting insiders Jordan and his predecessor, Gary Kelly, who reigns as executive chairman — include three who tick the boxes for gender and racial diversity.
The proxy explains in corporate boilerplate why each director should be reelected, generally because their experience and expertise allow them to “contribute significantly” to the board, etc., etc. Lead outside director William H. Cunningham, has been a board member for 22 years. Seven have served for more than a decade. In other words, they’ve remained in place, gripping their seats with what George Orwell referred to as “prehensile bottoms,” throughout the company’s period of declining customer service and during its scheduling disaster.s
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