Introduction
Facebook Inc. is a tech company created in 2004 and headed by its founder and CEO, Mark Zuckerberg. Apart from the eponymous social network, which represents its most important asset, the company also owns Instagram, WhatsApp, and a number of other applications (Iqbal, 2021). Additionally, Facebook, along with Google, forms a duopoly that utterly dominates the world’s online advertising. In 2020, Facebook declared revenue of $85.9 billion and profits of 32.6 billion (Iqbal, 2021). Despite the recent controversy concerning the company’s lackluster security measures and potentially irresponsible business practices, Facebook remains one of the largest and most influential tech companies both in the United States and the world.
Facebook Organizational Culture and Values
The organizational culture that Facebook claims to possess stresses adherence to innovative approaches and open communication for efficient problem-solving. The key tenets that the company looks for in its employees include boldness, creativity, openness, speed, and dedication to continuous and consistent improvement (Lombardo, 2018). Openness is meant to improve the efficiency of internal communication, while speed, creativity, and boldness are intended to foster quick and efficient approaches to identifying and solving problems. Emphasis on continuous development serves to improve the efficiency of the workforce and the flexibility with which it addresses any issues arising. Due to its striving toward fewer formalities and embracement of unorthodox practices, the organizational culture that Facebook aims to foster came to be known as “hacker culture” (Lombardo, 2018). The importance assigned to consistent improvement and the ability to think outside the box may benefit the company but may put additional pressure on the workforce, potentially increasing world-related stress.
Facebook’s values listed on the company’s website stress similar notions of openness and communication. As a company founded on a social media network, Facebook puts an emphasis on universal freedom of expression. Core principles that the company proclaims to value and uphold include serving everyone, giving people a voice, and building connections and community (Facebook, 2021). One employee review quoted in the company’s self-description page also stresses that “from day one, your voice matters” (Facebook, 2021, para. 3). Overall, the funding values declared by Facebook focus heavily on efficient and empowering communication, which is likely intended to go hand-in-hand with the importance the company’s organizational culture puts on openness.
Organizational Behavior Issues
One organizational behavior problem that catches the eye upon reviewing the situation within Facebook is the divide between the professed values and reality. As mentioned above, Facebook proclaims its commitment to giving people a voice and fostering open and sincere communication within the company (Lombardo, 2018). However, the employee reviews indicate that the realization of these principles in practice leaves much to be desired. Those working at Facebook mention that the organizational culture actually impedes open and clear communication by imposing the norms hampering it. According to the former employees, the prevailing organizational culture demanded them to “force cordiality with their colleagues” (Rodriguez, 2019, para. 5). In a similar vein, the company expects the employees to behave as if Facebook is the best place to work regardless of their thoughts and feelings on the matter (Rodriguez, 2019). Some former employees go as far as likening this emphasis on positivity, cordiality, and organizational devotion to a cult (Rodriguez, 2019). As a result, the expectations the company puts on the behavior of its workforce eschew open and effective communication in favor of forced cordiality.
In terms of organizational behavior, this gap between the proclaimed values and the reality of working at Facebook creates cognitive dissonance. On the one hand, the company professes to value the opinion of its employees – and, as noted on its site, the slogan “This is your company now” is even displayed on the walls (Facebook, 2021, para. 3). On the other hand, the actual behaviors encouraged and fostered by the company’s organizational culture stress compliance and forced joviality over accurate and sincere expression. Consequently, the employees experience a conflict between their attitude toward the based on how it represents itself and the behaviors Facebook expects its employees to exercise in the workplace, which is the definition of cognitive dissonance (Griffin, Plillips, & Gully, 2019). Changing the attitude to adopt the behaviors required results in a jaded and cynical perception of the company, and foregoing behaviors to preserve the attitude are detrimental to a career (Rodriguez, 2019). Thus, the difference between Facebook’s values and the actual rather than proclaimed norms of organizational behavior creates cognitive dissonance coping, which is detrimental to the person regardless of the specific strategy chosen.
Conclusion
To summarize, the main issue of Facebook from the organizational behavior perspective seems to be dissonance created by the difference between the proclaimed values and the expected behaviors. The company professes to value openness and free expression and emphasizes the importance of honest and efficient communication as a core tenet of its “hacker culture.” However, the employee reviews suggest that the actual emphasis is on the imitation of cordiality, no matter how disingenuous, and the promotion of cult-like devotion to the company. This gap between the attitudes formed by Facebook’s self-representation and the behavioral expectations it imposes upon the employees is stressful for the personnel and potentially detrimental to the company.
References
Facebook (2021). Company info. Web.
Griffin, R.W., Plillips, J. M., & Gully, S. M. (2019). Organizational behavior: Managing people and organizations (13th ed.). Cengage.
Iqbal, M. Facebook revenue and usage statistics (2021). Business of apps. Web.
Lombardo, J. (2018). Facebook Inc.’s organizational culture (an analysis). Panmore Institute. Web.
Rodriguez, S. (2018). Inside Facebook’s ‘cult-like’ workplace, where dissent is discouraged and employees pretend to be happy all the time. CNBC. Web.