'Many' Presentation: Organizational Culture

A few classes ago, Jessica, Carly, and I gave a presentation about organizational culture. It was really interesting to read about the incredible impact that culture can have on work productivity. A lot of places that we looked into were a bit on the extreme end, such as the Zappos example where they are allowed to decorate their space in any way they want and where everyone is seen as equals. There is not one boss in their organization, which tends to lead to fewer conflicts and higher productivity rates.

While reading about organizations like Zappos I was honestly surprised to find that productivity didn't go down. I thought that since everyone is kind of friends in their work environment that it would create distraction from doing work because they just want to hang out with their friends. But it was interesting to find that the opposite was true. It is shown that when people are generally happy to be at work and happy with the work they are doing, they tend to get more done and use time more efficiently, even if they are friends with their coworkers. This is because everyone actually wants to do their work! I think it's awesome that there are places like this, where the people are able to perform well and have a really good time with their team.

Building an environment through trust and respect from one another is just one way to create a positive organizational culture. Transparency is another very important factor in a positive culture. When people are not secretive about their work, they become more collaborative and function better as a team. They are able to support one another and help to better each others work. I think that organizational culture can either help or harm the productivity of its workers, and that is an important thing to keep in mind in the future when developing a culture myself.