Week 11 posting by Will

What it Means to Work Here

Work environments run the gamut, from the unstructured Google-type workplace to highly regimented, hierarchical settings. “What it Means to Work Here” encourages managers to take a hard look at their workplace and create a “signature experience” that will lure in the employees who have the right fit with their corporate culture.

Nohria et al. (2008) make note of the four key emotional drives of human behavior (the need to acquire, bond, comprehend and defend) and how these connect with employee motivation.  Erickson and Gratton (2007) remind us that on a more basic level, employee need a work setting where they feel like they belong.  Employers often overlook the fact that in the war for talent, the goal is to find “employees who are excited by what they’re doing and the environment they’re operating in” (p. 3).

And so the authors suggest that while we’ve come to think of the interview process as a one-way paradigm where the potential employee is made to prove his or her worthiness, employers should give thought to how they’re encouraging employees to choose them.  This goes beyond the choice in office furniture and the size of individual offices or incentive plans.  Employers should recognize that their organization has a personality with quirks, benefits and defects. And rather than trying to homogenize their corporate culture to appeal to a wide range of workers, they should focus on trying to appeal to those whose values align with theirs.

Not everyone would want to work at Whole Foods.  Their team-based hiring process might appear to some like anarchy, with management staying largely out of the picture.  Bonuses are linked to group rather than individual performance.  But this is a prime example of a signature work experience, one that puts Whole Foods on Fortune’s list of the best companies to work for.

On the other hand, Trilogy Software puts its new hires through a trial-by-fire process, an exhausting three-month immersion process meant to encourage teamwork and weed out the new hires who need strict supervision.  Similarly, The Container Store puts its new hires through around 230 hours of training in their first year of employment (compared to an industry average of around seven). Some candidates will enjoy the rigid supervision and rigorous indoctrination, others won’t.

Consistency is key. Organizations make a mistake in trying to be “cool” when they’re not.  A change in décor or the introduction of a gym isn’t going to mask an organization’s basic rhythms. An organization should be more of what it really is, not try to dilute its core traits to appeal to the herd. And they need to consider the generational needs of their potential recruits, recognizing (as Erickson (2010) noted) that certain age groups are more strongly oriented toward work-life balance.

At the end of the day, good organizational function depends on an engaged team, hence the need to find engaged workers who bloom where they’re planted.  Not all plants thrive in the same climate, and not all employees have the personalities for all workplace environments. Organizations shouldn’t simply try to scoop up every qualified candidate in sight. They should have the courage of their convictions, accept their workplace assets and deficits and find employees who can flourish under those conditions.

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Erickson, T. (2010). “The leaders we need now.” Harvard Business Review, pp. 11-15

Erickson, T. and Gratton, L. (2007, March). “What it means to work here.” Harvard Business Review, 2-12.

Nohria, N., Groysberg, B., and Lee, L. (2008). “Employee motivation: A powerful new model. Harvard Business Review, 1-7.

Week 11 post by Leslie

Please consider this to be my "freebie" week. It's been a pleasure!

Cynthia: Week 10

Sorry I'm a day late in posting this.

This week, I interviewed Sherry Morris, Human Resources Manager at CRC Evans.  She is in a unique position as an HR leader for a small company that was acquired by a much larger, global company.  I wanted to understand how culture impacts her company. 

Q.           Sherry, tell me what your role is.

A.         I’m the HRM for CRC Evans, a pipeline company that was acquired by Stanley Black & Decker.  The CRC Evans division has about 800 employees around the globe in several what we consider big sites—150+ people, multiple smaller sites and then a lot of field services employees working at customer sites.

Q.         So Sherry, this week in class we’ve been reading about culture in organizations and how cultures are developed.  Tell me a little about the culture at our business.

A.          There’s really two cultures:  A CRC Evans culture of the legacy company and a Stanley Black & Decker culture.

Q.          Are they different?

A.         Oh yes, definitely.   CRC Evans was very much a hierarchical management culture.  Direction came from the top.

Q.         Was this culture codified – was it articulated in written materials and visually in the offices?

A.         No it was a style of the top management and the lower level employees emulated it to succeed.

Q.        So how does the culture differ today?

A.            It is very much a performance culture and we articulate the values of the company in many ways.  There are leadership values, performance guidelines to drive behavior.  Managers and employees are measured on the values in their performance reviews… evaluated on the work you do as well as how you do that work.  We also have an employee opinion survey to gain employee feedback on how we are doing, are we as a company living our values.  

Q.           Since you’ve noted that the cultures of the two companies differ, how do you go about changing the culture?

A.            We work at it every day.  We don’t expect it to change on its own.  Wherever we have examples of someone who is (or isn’t) living the values, we highlight it as an example, showing people this is how we expect you to perform. 

Q.           You’re a global business, with a lot of dispersed employees… do the values translate to those employees?

A:            Our values are global.  We evaluate employees no matter where they are on whether they’re meeting their performance and leadership values expectations.  Our values are structured for a global company.

Q.           Does culture impact the business itself?

A.            HR is a partner to the business leader.  A performance culture that values employees is good for helping the business perform…when people want to work for your company and perform well in their jobs and are valued for that performance, it’s good for business.

Sherry and her leadership are building a culture with a unifying mission and articulated culture will drive a performance culture described by Denison & Mishra (1995).  While we weren’t able to talk about the financial performance of her unit within the larger company, the drive for a cultural transformation is part of the overall focus on building a successful operating unit.

References

Denison, D. R., & Mishra, A. K. (1995). Toward a theory of organizational culture and effectiveness. Organization Science, 6. 204-223.

Week 10 post by Leslie

Whenever I think of strong company culture, I think of The Coca-Cola Company, headquartered here in my hometown of Atlanta. 

I imagine everyone has experienced at least one major embarrassment in his or her career. Mine involves Coca-Cola. The first time I arranged a lunch meeting between consultants from our firm and an executive from The Coca-Cola Company, I booked a private table at a hip, new restaurant. I just knew the well known chef and locally sourced menu would be a hit. But lunch didn't go as planned. The restaurant served (gasp!) Pepsi products instead of Coca-Cola ones, prompting the Coke executive to turn on his heel and request a change of venue. 

Of course, I was mortified, but my colleagues were understanding and gave me a much-needed crash course on Coca-Cola etiquette (I was new to the firm then). I now know that Coca-Cola employees won't dine at a restaurant that doesn't serve Coke products. You can't go through security at Coca-Cola HQ with an Aquafina-brand water bottle in your purse. And you must never, ever wear blue to a meeting with Coke. 

These quirks make for great anecdotes, but they are indicative of something much larger. Whether or not you think a client should be able to tell you what brand of water you can drink -- and whether or not you're bothered by the fact that Coca-Cola makes billions of dollars a year selling acid-laced sugar water -- The Coca-Cola Company makes a compelling case for the power of culture to enable organizational effectiveness.

According to The Coca-Cola Company website, "From day one, you’ll notice a culture where our people are truly dedicated to living our values." This is so true. It's not that everyone at Coca-Cola is happy with their work all the time (though some are), but it is amazing to behold the way these employees conduct themselves with passion and unity of direction day in and day out.

Sorensen (2009) reveals that companies with strong cultures not only perform well, they do it consistently -- so it makes sense that Coca-Cola is described by economists as "the perennial safety play" (David, 2010). Yet Sorensen (2009) also warns that companies like Coca-Cola will have difficulty adjusting to change -- and Coca-Cola has been going through some major changes. Since 2010, the company has been working its way through the largest vertical integration in U.S. history (Ali, 2010) as it absorbs Coca-Cola Enterprises and a number of other, smaller bottling companies. If ever there was an appropriate time for Coke to adjust its positioning on some dimensions of the Hofstede (2009) model, this is it.

I read with interest an interview with Muhtar Kent, Coca-Cola's CEO, conducted by Adi Ignatius of the Harvard Business Review (2011). I thought it would be interesting to  hear Kent's perspective on implementing change in the face of such an ingrained culture.

In the interview, Kent claims to be an instinctive leader who doesn't spent much time reading management theory or best practices (Ignatius, 2011). Yet in describing the challenges inherent in a strong culture organization, he echoes themes from this week's readings. Kent criticizes Coca-Cola's culture as having become insular and "arrogant," (Ignatius, 2011, p. 1), even going so far as to say the company has "lost its soul" by losing sight of its "core business"(p. 1).  He emphasizes the importance of looking externally at the changes going on in the world outside of Coca-Cola. 

Like Sorensen (2009), Denison and Mishra (1995) acknowledge that "highly resistant cultures are often the most resistent to change and adaptation" (p. 215). Their studied advice is that companies like Coca-Cola must make adaptability itself a valued cultural trait in order to support effective performance even through times of change (Denison & Mishra, 1995). If Coca-Cola is to maintain its legacy as a financial "sure thing," Kent might do well to bone up on his theory.

References

Ali, T. (2010, February 26). The Coca-Cola Company to buy Coca-Cola Enterprises: Vertical integration continues. Street Capitalist. Retrieved from www.streetcapitalist.com

Davis, P. (2010, October 21). Pop culture: My interview with Coca-Cola CEO Muhtar Kent. Seeking Alpha. Retrieved from www.seekingalpha.com

Denison, D. R., & Mishra, A. K. (1995). Organizational culture and effectiveness. Organization Science, 6(2), 204-223.

Hofstede, G. (2009). Dimensionalizing cultures: The Hofstedemodel in context. Online readings in psychology and culture, Unit 2. Retrieved from http://scholarworks.gvsu.edu/orpc/vol2/iss1/8

Ignatius, A. (2011). Shaking things up at Coca-Cola: An interview with Muhtar Kent. Harvard Business Review. Retrieved from hbr.org

Organizational Culture in a Public Entity

Interview with Mike Temple, Workforce Program Manager

 The Houston-Galveston Area Council is a region-wide voluntary association of local governments in the 13-county Gulf Coast Planning region of Texas.

H-GAC provides many tools: information, region-wide plans, and services to support the region’s local governments.  Key H-GAC governmental services include transportation planning, cooperative purchasing, homeland security, air and water quality planning, forecasting, and mapping.  H-GAC also serves the region through workforce development, criminal justice, 9-1-1, small business finance, and other programs contributing to the region’s quality of life and economic competitiveness.

Mike Temple is the Workforce Program Manager for the Houston-Galveston Area Council and afforded me an expeditious interview where he speaks briefly about the organizational culture at H-GAC. Although the interview wasn’t very long I feel Mike made some key points relative to our readings this past week.

Audrey: Mike, tell me a little about the organizational culture at H-GAC….is it good, not so good, effective, what is your perception?

Mike:  H-GAC’s culture is effective for the organization’s work.  I would say that it is “good” and has both positive and negative aspects.

Audrey:  How would you think someone from the outside would describe the culture at H‑GAC?

Mike:  I think it depends on how someone from the outside touches or knows the organization and that H-GAC can be described as bureaucratic and slow and also responsive and flexible.

*Because H-GAC provide services in so many capacities it was difficult for Mike to identify how outsiders viewed them. I will speak to this as one of their vendors. On one hand they provide services and financial aid to consumers for unemployment and childcare, which may make them seem more bureaucratic like the government and on the other hand other departments, provide transportation planning services whereas engineering firms may find them an instrumental source of funding for road work. From the outside I see two cultural traits, involvement and adaptability as discussed by (Denison and Mishra, 1995). H-GAC has to manage many funding streams for the region increasing their need to be flexible and responsive to the political constituents they serve as well as to the broad range of consumers from white-collar executives to welfare recipients. Their governmental nature requires them to be transparent. Internally they have adapted the same cultural traits of adaptability and involvement. Because of their customer satisfaction nature their staff is flexible to the needs of the markets they serve. The following answer by Mike speaks to these cultural traits.

Audrey:  Do you believe your organizational culture has an effect on the performance of H-GAC? If yes, how? If no, why?

Mike:  Yes.  H-GAC’s culture is one that promotes internal flexibility and individual effort.  This contributes to the organization’s ability to respond quickly to new policy issues or different opportunities for service to its members. This same flexibility and emphasis on individuals also sometimes results in less attention to on-going activities and a lack of regular teamwork.  All of this affects performance.

Audrey:  What affect do you believe turnover has on an organization’s culture?

Mike: Generally high turnover makes for a less stable or defined culture in an organization.  However some businesses with consistently high turnover (because of the nature of the business) manage to maintain defined cultures and transmit those cultures to employees.  (Think retail.)

*One lesson, (Sorensen, 2009) learned from Zucker’s experiment, was that organizations can “define the situation” for their members through transmitting beliefs from employees to new hires but he also learned that you can’t depend on transmission of those beliefs alone. Mike makes a point about those organizations that consistently have turnover as a part of the business maintaining their cultures. Perhaps H-GAC’s culture is strong and transmitted consistently through management to new hires. In this interview Mike agreed that the organization’s core values play a part in shaping the H-GAC culture.

Audrey: Lastly, what approach should an organization take to build a good organizational culture?

Mike: Usually if the organization has been in existence for some time, it already has a culture.  To strengthen it or make it better, I think the organization should be clear about what its values, mission and vision are; be able to communicate those to its employees; and support its mission in all its activities.  Listening to employees’ comments and concerns about the organization and investing their employees’ skills also helps build a solid and respected culture.

While wrapping up, Mike said he believes an organization’s culture can motivate employees and enhance performance as also noted by (Sorensen, 1995). A point he brought up in his previous answer regarding communication and skills investment may be a big factor in employee motivation and performance.

References

Sorenson, J. (2009) Note on Organizational Culture, Harvard Business School,

pp. 1-6

Denison, D.R. & Mishra, A.K. (1995) Toward a theory of organizational culture and effectiveness, Organization Science, 6, 204-223.

Interview with Ellen Politi, VP Affiliate Relation Telemundo Network

Interview with Ellen Politi, Vice President of Affiliate Relations, Telemundo Network

Can you explain your role with Telemundo?

In my role I oversee all Telemundo affiliate stations in the United States and make sure that they maximize their branding and promotional efforts in accordance with their station's affiliate agreements with Telemundo. I make sure that these promotional efforts are in line with network on-air priorities and that stations are spending their network cash allotments effectively.

We have been talking and reading about organizational networks in class. Can you provide an overview of how network priorities are communicated to stations?

I discuss network promotional priorities every week via a conference call attended by the head of  Marketing, Consumer Marketing and the president of Telemundo O&O (owned and operated) stations. We discuss timelines, launch plans for new shows, network on-air priorities and marketing opportunities. I then disseminate this information down to affiliate marketing personnel at the station level and direct them to the Telemundo Marketing Portal. Once logged into the portal, marketing directors can download materials such as radio spots in both English and Spanish, they can request off-air materials such as graphic design, posters, outdoor materials, as well as on-air promotional materials for their respective markets.

Information on programming and feed information can be found at a separate portal, the Affiliate Partnership Tool (APT). From sports calendars and programming grids to sales informational kits, important tools for station personnel can be found at this portal.

In one of our readings this week, we have discussed 4 traits of organizational culture: Involvement, Consistency, Adaptability and Mission. According to the article, one of the hypotheses states: "Adaptability, or the capacity for internal change in response to external conditions, is a cultural trait that will be positively related to effectiveness" (Dension & Mishra, 1995). Can you relate Adaptability as a trait belonging to Telemundo?

I can, actually, and right now more than ever, I think the network is taking major steps to adapt to external conditions. As you know, Telemundo Network's origins stem from Puerto Rico, and as an organization we have been viewed as a television network with a Caribbean flavor. But as demographic data can show, 1 out of every 10 people in the United States is of Mexican descent. Right now, this demographic represents about 80% of our core viewing audience. This means that our programming has to reflect this data, too. More Mexican-related themes, actors and storylines have been a priority for Telemundo. Production in Mexico has been increased.

And right at this moment, we are working to rebrand Telemundo with a new logo and tagline that will hopefully connect with this core audience while not eliminating Hispanics that belong to another background. At the end of the day, I surely do hope that our ability to adapt means we are effective!

In another reading for this week, we discuss organizational culture and how it "is always a collective phenomenon, but it can be connected to different collectives" (Hofstede, 2006). What is Telemundo's culture?

That's a good question, especially when talking about culture being connected to different collectives. Since I am located in New York under the NBC Universal flag (NOTE: Telemundo is owned by NBC Universal), our culture here is a little different than how things work in Hialeah, Florida. Our collective in New York is very business and results oriented. We have deadlines, especially when it comes to promotional schedules and events surrounding key launches. In Hialeah, all the creative stuff happens in the studios; sometimes they do not seem too concerned with deadlines. It's a creative culture and maybe that always doesn't translate to our schedules in New York. I hope that makes some sense.

It does, Ellen, and I know you're very busy. Thanks for taking the time to answer my questions!

References

Denison, D.R. & Mishra, A.K. (1995) Toward a theory of organizational culture and effectiveness.Organization Science, 6, 204-223

Hofstede, G. (2006). Dimensionalizing Cultures: The Hofstede Model in Context. Online Readings in Psychology and Culture.

Week 10 - Paul Merrill

Google and Organizational Culture

Google has a legendary corporate culture in today's new tech circles. Maggie Johnson and Max Senges (2010) studied the onboarding process for new incoming engineers ("Nooglers") at Google's corporate headquarters in Mountain View, California. Johnson and Senges also interviewed employees at the Google offices in Hyderabad, India and in Zurich, Switzerland. I was fascinated to see how Hofstede's principles (2009) applied directly to the context of Google's corporate culture.

Hofstede identified open systems versus closed systems as a dimension to describe corporate culture. "Things change quickly" is part of Google's indoctrination in an introductory course for Nooglers is reflective of a very open system. Google's openness to new ideas and willingness to change with them is a picture of how easily they admit newcomers into their corporate culture.

Another dimension Hofstede identified is tight versus loose control. Google falls very close to the loose-control end of the spectrum. Many opportunities for sharing knowledge are voluntary. "Intergrouplets" are voluntary communities within departments. They maintain style guides for programming languages and do peer reviews of their work. Several people look at a Noogler's coding project - each one looking at a different aspect to ensure quality.

Google's loose control is evidenced by their expectation that their engineers will manage themselves. "Google trusts you to make the decision that is best for you and best for Google" (Johnson and Senges quoted Shillingsburg's 2004 document). Google's assumption after the training period is over is that engineers will take personal responsibility for their professional success.

That focus on personal responsibility is also indicative of falling into the job-oriented end of the spectrum on Hofstede's job-oriented versus employee-oriented dimension. "You need to take care of your career development” (Shillingsburg, 2004). This undoubtedly produces an environment where some people thrive and others fail miserably.

A related dimension from Hofstede is process-oriented versus results-oriented. Google definitely falls toward the end of the results-oriented side of the spectrum. They are not defined by "technical and bureaucratic routines" (Hofstede, 2009). Continual peer review of coding projects is a clear picture of looking at results above all else. Google allows enough autonomy for an engineer to get the job done the best way they see fit.

References

Hofstede, Geert (2009). Dimensionalizing cultures: The Hofstede model in context. Online Readings in Psychology and Culture, Unit 2. Retrieved from http://scholarworks.gvsu.edu/orpc/vol2/iss1/8

Johnson, M., & Senges, M. (2010). Learning to be a programmer in a complex organization. Journal of Workplace Learning, 22(3), 180-194. doi: 10.1108/13665621011028620

Shillingsburg, R. (2004), “Life of an engineer”, internal document, Google Inc., Mountain View, CA.