7th Week--The notion of Corporate Apology

When speaking of the notion of Corporate Apology, a good example comes to mind: Southwest Airlines. They have had a couple of times where employees have asked customers of the airline to get off the plane due to what could be "lewd and offenseive" clothing to passengers and employees.
Southwest Airlines has a policy where the company will stand behind what their employees say. They believe in full confidence within their employees and will support them in any decision that they make. This policy has been called into question in a couple scenarios:
http://money.cnn.com/2005/10/06/news/fortune500/southwest_shirt/index.htm?cnn=yes
(a man was asked to get off the plan due to his 'politically incorrect' t-shirt)

The President, Colleen Barnett, addressed these situations on their blog as well as to the media.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21151557/

As much as Southwest did not address these situations sooner, having the President apologize publicly and sending personal apologies to the customers themselves with tickets might not sound like a lot. At the same time, Southwest is also working on similar situations like these not happening again by sending out letters to their employees so that judgement calls made by each employee in the future will be more of a cohesive decision representing the company rather than a person by person basis.